Academic Programs & Search Optimization

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 1ACADEMIC PROGRAMS &SEARCH OPTIMIZATION:KEY STEPS TO HELP PEOPLEFIND YOUBob Johnson, Ph.D.ACT Enrollment Planners ConferenceJuly 11-13, 2012Chicago, IL

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 2SEARCH ENGINEOPTIMIZATIONMost important: content that people want“Organic search”… fix your website firstContent stewards: high impact possible

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 34 steps to success…• “Eternal” SEO success points: • Good title tags on your pages • Good body copy • Great content • No barriers on your website to block the search • No broken links • Links lead to the expected content • Danny Sullivan, editor, SearchEngineLand.com

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 44 top elements you can impact…Internet Business Promoter:http://www.ibusinesspromoter.com/• “Essential” SEO elements… • Keyword in page title tag • External link popularity of your website • Link text of in-bound links… press releases • Keyword use in body text• “Very important” SEO elements • Age of your website • Keyword use in primary (H1) headline

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 5You can impact these 8 elements…• Keywords in H2 – H6 headline text (important)• Keywords in ALT text for images (important)• Keywords in bold body text (important)• Keyword use in links within your site (moderate)• Keywords use in outbound link text (moderate)• Keywords in the meta description (moderate)• Readability level of the web page (slight)• Keyword in first sentence of body text (slight)

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 6Can you impact these elements?• Keyword use in the page URL (important)• Links from social networks (important)

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 7THRIVING IN THE“ONLINE MBA” JUNGLE… Penn State Drexel University Northeastern University Marylhurst University

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 8Start with Google Adwords…online MBA, online MBA degree, online MBA programs

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 9Search for “online MBA” • Organic search results… • Northeastern #3 • Penn State #6 • Marylhurst #10

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 10Search for “online MBA degree” • Organic search results… • Penn State #2 • Drexel #4 • Marylhurst #5

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 11Search for “online MBA programs” • Organic search results • Northeastern #3 • Penn State #5 • Drexel #10

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 12Top performing organic page…

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 13Checking the pieces… URL• http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/degr ees-and-certificates/penn-state-onlinemba-degree-program/overview• Other URLs… • http://onlinemba.neu.edu/ • http://www.drexel.com/onlinedegrees/business-degrees/onlinemba/index.aspx • http://onlinedegrees.marylhurst.edu/

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 14Checking the pieces… title tag• Penn State – Online MBA Degree Program – Overview• Other title tags… • Online MBA Degree Programs – Northeastern University • AACSB Accredited Online MBA Programs at Drexel University Online • Online MBA, Online Business Degrees – Online Business Degree Programs / Marylhurst University

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 15Checking the pieces… subheads • 1st two subheads: • “Put a Renowned MBA on Your Resume” • “What Makes the Penn State Online MBA Program Different?”

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 16Checking the pieces: Link deeperinto your site…

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 17Visual style is not a factor…

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 18THE SOCIAL MEDIAELEMENT…Social media impact is growing…Goal: network of links that include the primarywebsite

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 19Social media impact for links…

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 20YouTube is 2nd in Social Media…

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 21THE IMPACT OF“PANDA”… New importance for the quality of website pages

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 22Important Google change in 2011…• “Panda” raised the value of web content editors everywhere…• For example… • “Removing low quality pages, merging or improving the content of individual shallow pages into more useful pages, or moving low quality pages to a different domain could eventually help the rankings of your higher- quality content.” (http://bit.ly/k2uUZX)

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 2323 “high quality” questions to ask…

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 24Especially for content stewards…• “Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?”• “Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?”• “Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?”• “Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?”• “Would users complain when they see pages from this site?”

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 25Key metrics for “quality” content…• SEO specialists are watching two measures of “quality” content… • Time spent on website pages by individual visitors • Number of pages visited on a site• Recommendation for high education sites: • Check & compare “bounce rate” from entry page to academic program content

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 26Find the “Top Landing Pages”…

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 27Compare results for academicprogram pages…

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 28Find the least visited web pagesyou control…

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 29WRITE FOR THEHUMANS VISITING THESITE… Use keyword words that real people use… Add content “Carewords” that people want toread

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 30Don’t “stuff” keywords…The page title and description, primaryheadline, one subhead, twice in the text…More and the page won’t seem well writtenAdvice… Read it to yourself… is it “natural”?

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 31Tips for success… page headingshttp://bit.ly/ayzqPH• Title tag: • 8 to 10 words – 50 to 80 characters • Main key word at or close to the start• Different title tag on every page • If not, Google may think content is the same• Meta tag: • Write for the person visiting the page, not for search• Primary heading (H1)… one per page • Write a “Carewords” headline for the visitor first • Then try to work in a primary keyword

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 32Tips for success… page content• Keyword word or phrase • In the first sentence if you can• Links • In the first paragraph if possible • Write a link using key words rather than “click here” • But “click here” might be best for highest response • In ideal world, link words will be words in primary heading on the following page

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 33Final notes…• SEO isn’t a mystery… be careful of gurus, ninjas, and evangelists• Content is the most critical element in SEO performance • Web editors should leverage this point• Keywords, content presentation, links are still important

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 34Buy this book…

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 35Read “Search Engine Land”…http://searchengineland.com/

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 36Learn the Periodic Table…http://searchengineland.com/seotable

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 37Read Matt Cutts’ blog…http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 38THANKS FOR BEINGHERE THIS MORNING!Bob Johnson, Ph.D.bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.comwww.bobjohnsonconsulting.com

Academic Programs & Search Optimization

by Bob Johnson on Jul 12, 2012

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