Optimising SEO for WordPress - Lisa Davis - WordCamp Sydney 2012

Optimizing SEO for Wordpress How to include SEO in Wordpress Builds Lisa Davis ~ Wordcamp Sydney University ~ July 2012#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

A bit about Me…Many roads have led me to here, Including my obsession as a Geeky Chick & the love of Wordpress, I’m a Passionate Cook, Digital iPhone Photographer, Love Listening to Air Traffic Control & Police Radio on my Phone, I have worked as a Developer for over 20 years Worked at Opentec – as a Developer, & at ISP’s SEO Project Manager for Websalad Involved in SEO & Social Media since 2005 Run my own Biz Developing Websites, & integrating e-Commerce & Social Media & I LOVE my job Privileged to work for Danny Sullivans SMX Sydney Australia, NZ & Singapore (Search Marketing Conference & Expo) Search Engine Bootcamp & Twitter Bootcamp Sydney/Melbourne With some bloody awesome SEO/SEM’s #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

How to include SEO in Wordpress Builds#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Optimizing SEO for WordpressWordpress is a super cool tool fordeveloping WebsitesMatt Cutts who heads up SPAM at Googlesuggests using WPWordpress has great Usability as a CMS toclients, friendly URL’S with updatesoccurring in the backend for most Plug-ins. #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

What is SEO?SEO refers to techniques that help your website rank higher in theOrganic/natural search results.Design Sites for PeopleNot Googles’ Algorithm#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Its Like Baking a Cake• SEO is like baking a Cake – Youhave ingredients, mixing & baking• You need all the right ingredientsto gain a final result• Wordpress builds have no excusesFor poor SEO, as you have so manyattributes, Tags, Categories, Posts &Pages to contribute to the SearchEngines #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Shocking Sites Simply Frustra.ng Poor Naviga*on Links out to other Sites #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Great Sites CTA – Call to Ac*on Eﬀec*ve clean Naviga*on Purchase/Sign Up/Language Content & H1, H2’s Referrals Footer contains Internal Links & Social Media Links #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Ranking Factors•  KEYWORDS IN TAGS H1, H2, H3, H4•  Keywords in the Title Tag•  KEYWORDS IN DOMAIN NAME•  INTERNAL LINK POPULARITY•  KEYWORDS IN IMAGE TITLES/ALT TEXT•  QUALITY OF YOUR WEBSITE CONTENT•  FREQUENCY OF CHANGE TO YOUR CONTENT#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

404 Pages•  Create 404 Pages with a Navigation back to the Home Page, Contact Details•  Don’t make it boring – Have content on there•  + Site Map#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

301 Redirects•  301 redirect is the most efficient and Search Engine Friendly method for webpage redirection.•  If you move a Page or Post or Delete make sure you inform the Search Engines, Otherwise you will get 404 Pages.•  These Pages can site in the Search results for some time•  If you do Site Migrations – Look at your sites performance.•  Use a Plugin or Remove the page in Google Webmaster Tools #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Content•  Content & good SEO is how the SERPs interpret your site (SERP)= search engine results page•  SEO copywriting is the art of writing search engine friendly content and adding the right keywords, Title, tags & code.•  Keywords should appear in the first 2 paragraphs & should not go below the fold#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Contextual Copy•  Content is KING …..•  Add your essential Keywords & include the Longtail Keywords•  Keep your copy realistic & relevant•  Leverage your Header, Footer & Sidebars•  Google’s Algorithm will penalize you for not using natural language, so keep it real #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Keywords•  Keywords are essential in making your website be found by the Search Engines•  Keywords should be added into your Contextual Copy, Title Tags, Categories/Tags & Author on each page.~ without being Spamy•  Great WP Plugin – “Wordpress Meta Keywords” (this adds a really nice attribute on each Page/Post#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

LongtailThe principle of the Long Tail Hiking = Bushwalking is the opposite of focusing on Singlet = Vest the top 10-‐20 keywords for Thongs = Flip Flops Keyword Marke*ng Tea = Dinner Mobile = Cell Fanny = Bum (Bum Bag Be sure to think of all cultural in OZ/Fanny Bag in US & geographical local terms. Also Include Typos ie. “Quantas” & “Qantas” #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Essentials of SEO•  Keywords & Longtail•  Image Alt Attributes•  Contextual Copy•  URL Structure•  H1’s, H2’s•  Crawling & Indexing•  Title Tags & Anchor Text•  Linking•  XML Sitemaps & Robot.txt Files•  Webmaster Tools & Goolge Analytics•  Meta Descriptions #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Images & Alt Text Include a Keyword when you save Images & upload an image into Posts/Pages/Widgets This one on the right I have saved as “sheldon-big-bag-theroy.jpg” as opposed to 33558790.jpg<img src="sheldon-big-bag-theroy.jpg" alt=”Sheldon" width="304" height="228" /> Images can be searched for by a term as much as contextual data #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Lets get to the basics…..#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

My top 2 SEO Plugins for WPAll-In-One SEO Pack – This allows you to doMultiple titles & meta of Pages/Posts & Meta Data#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Ok, so now how they function#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

The Plugin – SEO Yoast#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Meta Keywords ie•  Webdesign, Web Design, Web Design Manly, SEO, Search Engine Optimisation,website design sydney, website design sydney, web design manly, web design brookvale, Wordpress Developers, web design northern beaches,•  Have fun with your Meta Description & Keywords & look at your competitors page source#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Wordpress SEO Yoast Organic Snippet Preview of what your result will look like. Add Keywords, Local info like Suburbs & Include some Telephone Numbers so your Biz can be called from Smart-‐phones Yoast Report Card Title & Friendly URL Meta Descrip.on #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

SEO Check List Check on your site afterits being launched to run a check of how the Search Engines are viewing your code Here I have used SEOmoz Tool bar for Google Chrome as a quick snap shot #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Title Tags• Title Tags are definitely one of the "big three" as far as thealgorithmic weight given to them by search engines; they areequally as important as your visible Text copy and the Linkspointing to your pages.• Use strong Keywords• Location & Company Name• Create these uniquely by using SEO Yoast for each Page/Post #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Meta Tags•  Meta Tags can be hard Coded or added by adding to the Master of various Plug-ins•  Yoast WordPress SEO, has a very effective Titles and Meta Tags•  Once set up it remains the master but can be uniquely overridden on a Page#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Permalinks & Search Friendly URL’sSet your Permalinks in the backend toCustom Structure tocreate SEO Friendly Titles /%category%/postname%/ ie. www.frenhchomewares/frenchlinen/ #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Sitemaps1.  Add your Sitemap through Google Webmaster Tools by adding the URL.2.  You must fist have the Site Verified By Google by adding a Verification html page in the root directory #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Directories & Other Tools#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Local Search You can see here the term “computer repairs manly” brings up Paid & the Organic natural results #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Add your Business to Google Places Google Maps & Google Business is gr8 for Link Juice • Add Business Info • Photos • Reviews • Google + • Will appear in results Organically • Be sure to monitor results for Nega*ve Reputa*on Management?? #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Google Sitemaps Create an XML sitemap that can be submitted to Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines to help them crawl your website better. Include a Sitemap via SEO Plugins or Thru specific WP Plug-in “Google XML Sitemaps” Or Directly through Google Analytics#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Link Building Its all about links• Inbound, Outbound and internal Links create LinkJuice to the Search Engines• In Wordpress there is a Links Tab – Include highranking links that a relevant to your site, & create linksin your contextual copy• These might not be visible and displayed on your site,Google will pick up the Link Juice• Ask for reciprocal links to relevant Websites #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Importance of a Robot.txt file•  When a search engine crawler comes to your site, it will look for a specific file on your site.•  The robots.txt tells the search engine spider, which Web pages of your site should be indexed and which Web pages should be ignored.•  Google Webmaster Tools allows you to generate & download the file. (Some Plugin’s have generators) User-‐Agent: * Allow: / •  In Google Webmaster Tools-Under Site User-‐agent: * configuration, click Crawler access. Disallow: /cgi-‐bin/ #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

White Hat vs Black HatWhite Hat SEO and Black Hat SEOtechniques can determine where you Ethical, Honest and Compliant website ranks in the search results foryour targeted keyword phrases.•  Cloaking = White Text on a white background•  Google can penalize you for this offence Manipula*ve, Shallow & somewhat devious •  Keep your code clean #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Google Panda – Around April 36According to Google’s oﬃcial blog post when Panda launched This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-‐quality sites—sites which are low-‐value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same @me, it will provide beAer rankings for high-‐quality sites—sites with original content and informa@on such as research, in-‐depth reports, thoughBul analysis and so on. • Blog Spamming • Content Farming • SPAM factors • Keywords Stuﬃng • Over Op.misa.on • Low Quality Content #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Social Media• Social media influence increaseslink sharing, which ultimatelyresults in better search ranking.• Search Engines love to seechanges and regular updates onyour Website. Update Posts/News• Google’s crawling, indexing andrankings are directly influencedby Tweeted links and Facebookshares #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

List your Local Biz with True Local & other Directories List your Website and Business In Free Directories, Add as much information including Photos & Logos. Ask friends and for referrals on True Local as Directories with the most Reviews List the highest. Use Special Offers, such as “20% Off With any Booking”#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Importance of Geo-Caching•  Make sure you include a an Address in your footer•  Google’s Algorithm will help your result list organically by suggesting Local Search Results•  This often occurs by the location of your IP Address•  When your logged into a GMAIL Account your search results will differ #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Tools to Check your SEO•  Screaming Frog – www.screamingfrog.co.uk•  Xenu’s - Xenus Link Sleuth/Integrity – Download•  SEOmoz Tool Bar•  Adwords Planner - Google Traffic Estimator•  Google Chrome Web Develpoer Tools & Plugin to use through the Browser:- SEO for Chrome, MOZBar#wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Keep up to date www.seomoz.org Danny Sullivan www.searchengineland.com/ Man Cuns – Google www.mancuns.com/blog/ #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Thank you Lisa Davis Web Developer and SEO & Social Media Strategist Email: lisa@wisemonkeys.com.au Mobile: 0405-‐236-‐021 Skype: nounou1964 Website: www.wisemonkeys.com.au TwiNer: SEOnounou Facebook: hnp://www.facebook.com/SEOnounou Pinterest: seonounou/ Instagram: seonounou #wordcampsyd Follow me on Twitter @seonounou

Optimising SEO for WordPress - Lisa Davis - WordCamp Sydney 2012

by WordCamp Sydney on Jul 24, 2012

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