This document discusses strategies for website development, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media marketing. It covers building a website using content management systems like WordPress, optimizing the site for SEO through on-page elements and links, and using social media tools to generate awareness. The document provides recommendations for site sections, navigation, content, templates, and gives an overview of the development and launch process.

1. Web 2.0: Your Site, SEO and Social Media Marketing MATI | Kelli Brown | December 2010

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

4. Website Development in WordPress and Joomla!

5. Custom Facebook Tabs and Pages

6. Consulting

7. Strategy

8. Implementation

10. Do you need a website? Need: Profits come from advertising Good to have: You will benefit if: You sell a product/service online You marketing your product/service online Your clients aren’t bound by geography Your USP serves a niche market Optional: Your business is concrete and local

11. Building a website Three options: DIY: Build your own site – Weebly, Google Sites… Small budget: Template-based CMS site WordPress, Drupal, Joomla! Large budget: Custom look/feel, bespoke CMS Consider: Who will maintain the site? What is my expected ROI?

12. Site development process Sitemap Content Template Development Search Engine Optimization Launch Analytics and ongoing updates

13. Your business site needs Your own domain name Professional branding: logo, tagline, color scheme, typography - consistency Marketing content: services/products provided, target clients, company bio Shareable content: Tips and tricks, blog posts, videos, presentations, galleries

14. Business site sections Home page: Draw viewers in – 8 second rule Services/Products pages: Highlights the full range of products/services offered Clients/Partners pages: Offers testimonials and adds to credibility of company About page: Describes the company Contact page: Physical and web contact info Add a contact form to your site Blog: Regularly updated sharable content

15. Site navigation Error on the side of too simple Avoid flash like the plague Cater to mobile users Know your target market’s tech savvy Create a sitemap before you write content Learn from others – in market and out

16. Site content Write for humans, not search engines Be aware of synonyms – use them wisely More than 250 words, fewer than 1000 (600) Learn from your competition More short pages are better than few long ones

17. Site template Conforms to W3C standards Encourages viewers to interact/subscribe RSS feeds, newsletters, social bookmarking Error on too professional Uniform look and feel with logo, branding

18. Site development Use an open source CMS Makes updates easier Support all browsers (including IE6) Pick the least complicated CMS that meets your needs Pay for training to maintain your own site

19. Before you launch Have all content loaded Test and troubleshoot all bugs Test the shopping cart/contact form Practice updating/changing content Test it with your “target market”

20. Track your traffic Install Google Analytics Free at googleanalytics.com Tracks visitors, keywords, content and more Makes it easier to sell advertising Helps track goals and determine ROI

21. Welcome to beta Which keywords create most traffic? Which pages are most popular? Which content gets shared? Which pages are tough to navigate? What do clients complain about? What are clients searching for?

22. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Based on many factors: Number of high-quality incoming links How old the domain name is Number of pages Amount of unique content Ease with which Google can index the site Speed of site loading

23. SEO: Things to remember If it’s human friendly, it’s SEO friendly Whitehat vs. Blackhat Never, ever try to fake it - ever You’re a webmaster – even if you don’t want to be – partner with the folks at Google Google.com/webmasters

24. SEO – a two-part approach Rank higher in search results Using keywords within content and tags correctly Having an SEO-friendly site Improve clickthrough rate Add a meta description with a call to action Keep titles clear and concise

25. Improving SEO Use a CMS – plugins enable SEO-friendly features Give good data to search engines: Clear, concise meta titles and descriptions XML sitemap and robots.txt files Keep your site SEO friendly: Text-based navigation and breadcrumbs Descriptive URLs and alt tags for graphic content

26. SEO changes in 2010 Personalized search from Google Importance of user experience Growing investment in real-time search Value of incoming links from social sites Emphasis on speed of site loading Catering to mobile Flash and iPhones/iPads don’t mix

27. What hurts SEO Duplicate content Very small sites – less than five pages Untagged graphic content: pictures, video, flash, audio (always use an alt tag) Blackhat SEO: shadow domains Getting kicked out of Google

28. Web advertising & PPC Banner and button ads - desensitization PPC: Pay-per-click campaigns Show up in search results - sometimes Placed on content-specific websites Relevant keywords are expensive Rarely generates a net profit Excellent experiment for SEO keywords

29. Social Media Marketing Using free, web-based tools to generate interest and awareness in a company and its products and services Tools include: Blogging and RSS subscriptions Social networks: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter Media networks: YouTube, Flickr, SlideShare.net

30. Using social media Create sharable content regularly Post it to your site, allow users to subscribe Syndicate it using networks Increase traffic to it using bookmarking Track it using analytics Tailor the message to convert

31. Social media flow Video Audio Pictures Content Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Digg Deli.ciou.s StumbleUpon

32. Benefits of social media Improves search engine optimization Content is shared virally Inexpensive (but time consuming) Targets a specific market Appeals to broad demographic through search

33. Questions? Contact us at kelli@pixelpointpress.com Upcoming classes: Social Media Marketing Search Engine Optimization Hands-On WordPress: Build and Maintain Your Own WordPress Website Google Analytics Email Newsletter Marketing LinkedIn and Blogging for Lead Generation