TRAINING GOOGLE TO LOVE YOUR WEBSITE

An Brief Introduction to SEO4/9/2010

About Me

SEOInformation Architectur

e

Wordpress & Omeka

Website & Software

Development

Jeanne Kramer-SmythMLS, University of Maryland

What is SEO?

SEO = Search Engine Optimization

Fancy way to say “making your web content findable

by search engines”

AnalyticsAnalytics

Page ConstructionPage Construction

Building Blocks of SEO

Site OrganizationSite Organization

Topic & Keyword ResearchTopic & Keyword Research

What are people looking for?

AnalyticsAnalytics

Page ConstructionPage Construction

Site OrganizationSite Organization

Topic & Keyword ResearchTopic & Keyword Research

World War II or World War 2?Keyword research can show you how people actually search – official vs popular version.Google Insight into Search:

world war 2

world war ii

Tools for Keyword Research

Google Insight for Search Google Trends Google AdWords Keyword Tool Google Search-based Keyword Tool SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool KeywordDiscovery ($) WordTracker ($) and Free Version SEO Book’s Keyword Tools Page

This site was built for crawling!

AnalyticsAnalytics

Page ConstructionPage Construction

Site OrganizationSite Organization

Topic & Keyword ResearchTopic & Keyword Research

Tree Gives Content Clear Home

Plants

Flowering Plants

Shade Loving Flowers

Gain Authority Via Internal Links

Red Flower

Hub

Begonias

Roses

Tulips

XML Sitemaps

A list of pages available to be indexed by search engines – an index for robots that crawl your site.

Types of Sitemaps:General SitemapNews SitemapVideo Sitemap

SEO Checklist: Site Level

All content can be found via crawling Current XML sitemaps submitted to

search engines Leaf pages point to hubs Child pages point to their parents Good anchor text, usually matches

target page title

Target each page!

AnalyticsAnalytics

Page ConstructionPage Construction

Site OrganizationSite Organization

Topic & Keyword ResearchTopic & Keyword Research

Before you start building a page

Physical home & URL Primary keyword target

Title & Description

<title>Macmillan: Robot Dreams: Sara Varon: Books</title>

<meta name="description" content="Macmillan: Robot Dreams: Sara Varon: Bonus Publisher Materials: Praise, Author Biography, Awards" />

TiITLE

META DESCRIPTION

SERP

Example: Many Pages – One Title

SEO Checklist: Page Level

Clear primary keyword target phrase One URL per page Unique page title, less than 65

characters <H1> tag containing keyword target Unique meta description, less than 164

characters Content rich text Images have alt text

After the launch

AnalyticsAnalytics

Page ConstructionPage Construction

Site OrganizationSite Organization

Topic & Keyword ResearchTopic & Keyword Research

Questions to ask after launch

Traffic Sources Bounce Rates SERP position for target keywords

Free Tools

Google Webmaster Tools: Register your sitemap

Google Analytics: Traffic sources & statistics

Google Feedburner: Tracking RSS subscriptions

Google Website Optimizer: A/B testing

Next Steps for YOU!

Look at sites you like – could you improve their SEO?

Bake SEO into your web site design and development process

Follow some SEO blogs (RSS is your friend!) SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog SEO Book Search Engine Land Google Webmaster Central Blog

Questions?

Looking for me? Google Jeanne Kramer-Smyth!

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jkramersmyth

Blog: SpellboundBlog.comPortfolio: SpellboundProjects.comAudio Book Reviews: BooksForEars.com