Tools and Techniques to Increase a Blog's SEO

Growing Your ReachUsing Technology for SEO
BlogHer Handmade
September 15, 2011
Connie Bensen
@cbensen
September 15, 2011

Connie Bensen
Community Management and Strategy
http:CommunityStrategist.com

Know Your Audience
Who are your crafts for? (audience)
What are they looking for? (keywords)
What supplies do you need (content)
Putting it together (crafting)
Tools to use (free technology)

SEO Basics
What do search engines prefer?
Search engines rank websites on two factors:
Content and keywords (on-page)
Inbound links to your site (off-page)
Two types of search:
Paid Search: Most common is Pay Per Click (PPC). The price increases with the popularity of the term. (Google Adwords & Facebook Ads)
Organic (or natural) Search: The phenomenon of ranking in search results due to keyword match and number of links to website. This is free!
Research shows that people are 75% more inclined to click on organic results vs paid. (Hubspot)

A Pattern for Blinging Out Your Blog
Gather list of Keywords - Tools
Optimized Blog – On Page SEO & Off Page SEO
Content & Editorial Calendar
Engage, share & network
Refine keywords & measure

Keywords andTools

Keyword Research => Market Research
Know Your Audience via Keyword research
What people are interested in
Relevance and reach
Insight into actual language
Competition and authority
Free Tools
KeywordDiscovery.com
Wordstream.com
SEMRush.com
Google Adwords, Insights & Trends
Facebook Ads

KeywordDiscovery.com
Create a Free Account
Offers ability to drill in to terms on left (results show in right column)

WordStream.com
These free tools are located in the middle of the bottom of the page.
Free Keyword Tool
Free Niche Tool

SEMRush.com
Volume indicates challenge to rank for SEO
Provides niche ideas

Adwords.Google.com
Search by word, phrase or URL
Uncheck ‘Broad” and check ‘Exact’
Star items and they are collected on the right

Common Mistake: A Keyword List of the most common terms
How to Avoid that:
Consider many avenues (build a broad list)
Use thesaurus.com to find synonyms for your main terms
Find high-traffic phrases that are less competitive
Spy on your competition and look at their titles, meta tags, and content
Use add-ons for Firefox or Chrome
Use BackLinkWatch.com and the URL to see pages linking to the site & anchor text
Knitting
types of yarn
specific types of items (socks, baby items, sweaters, etc)
techniques
gift giving
demographics: men, children
Go Broad Rather than Narrow

Reverse Engineer Facebook Ads
Facebook.com/Advertising
Click on ‘Create Ad’
Type any word in “Body’; Click on ‘Continue’ at bottom
Type the topic in the ‘Precise Interests’ field
Watch the dropdown as additional words appear and the respective audiences
Click on the right to add additional terms

Google Insights for Search

Google Trends

Behind the Scenes

On-Page SEO
Try Website Grader (www.websitegrader.com) to see how your site appears to search engines
Use keywords for:
Content
Page title
URL
Tags
Headings
Put keywords in the invisible places on your site
Meta-tags
Alt-text on images

Off Page SEO
Build more links within context
Anchor text: the text that is hyperlinked to another page on your site
Encourage inbound links from other sites into yours
Link building tips
Submit your website to directories like Yahoo! and Business.com
Build relationships with others in your industry (blogs)
Create compelling tools and content (that people will share & link back to)
freebies

Content andEditorial Calendar

Content is King
Interesting content is not enough
Need to focus on people that are interested in your topic
Use keyword research for ideas
Find related words
Create compelling headlines

Engage, Share andNetwork

Join the Community
Read industry blogs
Set up Google reader & subscribe to RSS feeds
Comment
Add a point, a useful link, ask a question or disagree
Write
Use your own domain (not blogger.com or typepad.com)
Find blogging software (MS LiveWriter)
Frequency of once a week
Topic Ideas
Lists
Recent experiences
Answer questions received
Comment on other blog posts
Convert a press release
Promote on Social Sites
.

Share
Help Others
Answer questions
Be helpful
Publish everywhere
Monitor what others publish and promote it
Use Tweetdeck
Use shareable sites
Flickr
YouTube
Podcasts
Slideshare

Refine Keywords and Measure

Web & Social Analytics
Blog metrics
Number of blog visitors
Number of subscribers
SEO • rankings
Technorati blog rank.
Number of leads and customers from blog
Social Media metrics
Del.icio.us bookmarks
Inbound links
Facebook fans, Twitter followers, connections on LinkedIn
SEO metrics
Number of inbound links
Keyword rank over time and compared to competition

Make Keywords Are Your BLING!
SEOMoz.com

Thank you!
Connie Bensen
Connie_Bensen@Dell.com
@cbensen
http://slideshare.net/conniebensen
http://CommunityStrategist.com

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Tools and Techniques to Increase a Blog's SEO

by Connie Bensen

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