This document provides an overview of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques for content creators. It discusses understanding SEO and key ranking factors, doing keyword research and analytics, optimizing content through keywords, titles, images and internal linking, and off-site promotion through author profiles, link building, and social media. The goal is to make content easy for search engines to find, understand and for users to discover by aligning it with how searchers express their queries.

1. INTRODUCTION TO SEO
an editors approach
Toby Evers
127 West 26th St., 7th Floor
MORPHEUS MEDIA New York, NY 10001
212.253.1588
A CREATETHE GROUP COMPANY 212.353.8793 APRIL 2012

2. Contents
Understand SEO
Importance, Ranking Factors, Goals, Traffic, The
SERP
Doing The Research
Keywords, Analytics, Keyword Suggestions, Insights, Social Research
Content Promotion
Goals, Page Structure, Title Tags, Meta Tags,
Image Optimization, Interlinking
Off-site Promotion
Author Rank, Link Building, Link Bait, Digital PR, Social
Importance, Google +, PRWeb

3. understand SEO
a simplified approach

4. Google Algorithm
Search Ranking Factors Survey 2011
Source: http://seomoz.org

5. Three Main Goals
✓ make it easy for search engines to find our content
✓ make it easy for search engines to understand our content
✓ make it easy for users to find our content

6. The Importance of SEO
Websites ranked number one received an average click-through rate (CTR) of
36.4 percent; number two had a CTR of 12.5 percent; and number three had
a CTR of 9.5 percent.
Source: http://bit.ly/k7fO3C

7. The SERP - Search Engine Results Page
Title Tag of Page (Clickable Link)
Meta description & URL
Bread Crumbs (Rich Snippets)
• universal Search allows
News Results for multiple opportunities
within the SERP to garner
Social Media (Twitter)
natural traffic
• by optimizing each of
these areas, we can
control more SERP real
Image Results estate, increasing the
likelihood of receiving a
click
Video Results

8. do the research
find your audience

9. Keywords
What are keywords?
• keywords are common terms used
in your content that identify what
your content is about
• keywords represent the specific
language and terminology that users
use when they search
• more commonly searched keywords
appear in Google “suggest” as you
type

10. What keywords are currently being used?
Analytics (Google, Omniture, etc)
• determine your current
audience through keywords
driving to your site
• find keywords that result in a
more engaging audience
(more page-views, more time
on site)
• look for ‘non-branded’
keywords to find opportunity
• find areas you’re missing out
on

11. Finding the traffic & opportunity
Google Adwords Keyword Tool - adwords.google.com
• find monthly search volume
for keywords
• discover competition levels
• get recommendations for
similar keywords to target
• best to research before
writing a post

12. Finding the traffic & opportunity
Google Insights - google.com/insights/search
Google Insights allows you to identify
comparative relative search volume for
keywords
Use Google Insights to help you:
• determine how people are searching
• what are people typing?
• gain insight into seasonality
• when do people start searching?
• connect to trending topics
• who else has written about this?
• find rising searches
• what keywords are trending?
• understand Geographical info
• where are people searching?

13. Finding the buzz
- rs.peoplebrowsr.com
• discover sentiment and
demographics
• find trending topics on
twitter
• discover articles and hash
tags being shared
• find reputable targets &
influencers

14. content optimization
put that research to work

15. The Goal
The goal is to optimize content by aligning your
language with the language that our readers use

16. Where are keywords the most effective?
Article / Post Optimization
• beginning of your headline
• use of a sub-headline or deck
• beginning of title tag & meta description
• if you have control
• within first 200 characters of article body
• image alt tag & caption
• utilized a few times more in body
• try to use synonyms and different
keywords of similar semantics (don’t
be repetitive!)

17. Page Titles / Title Tags
Best Practices:
• most important element for SEO
• should describe the page like a table of
contents
• should be very similar to your main
headline (H1)
• place the most important keywords at the
beginning of the title
• homepage: brand name first, then
value proposition or keywords
• article pages: article title, category,
brand name
• first 3 words in title are most relevant
• search engines bold keywords included
in the user’s query
• try to keep shorter than 75 characters
(keywords beyond that are ignored, and
truncated on results)

18. Meta Descriptions
Best Practices:
• doesn’t impact SEO relevancy, but impacts click-through rate on SERPs
• don’t forget them - or Google will make something up
• make each one unique
• mix branded text with short description of page
• this is your chance to ‘sell’ this page to users
• try to keep shorter than 175 characters (long meta descriptions are
truncated, and are not optimal for the search engines)

19. Image Optimization
Best Practices:
• all images should contain an alt tag alt=”Three Blind Mice”
• adds to keyword value of page
• can bring additional traffic through
Google image search
• should describe image in 3 - 5 words
• helps to add an “image caption”
underneath the image
• title=”” tag only provides text to users
as they hover over image, do not
benefit SEO
Three blind mice, photo by Toby Evers
caption

20. Internal Linking
Best Practices:
• interlinking with other articles
within your site can connect
similar content together for
users and search engines
• don’t overlink: no more than 1
link per 100 words of content is
a best practice
• choosing the right anchor text
(text within the link) is essential
• use relevant keywords about
the next article
• avoid “click here”
outbound link to
referenced site
Image Credit: http://bit.ly/gMZnIa
internal link to
article about
“Kate Upton”

21. off-site optimization
PR done the ‘SEO’ way

22. Author Rank / Trust Rank
• trust rank is the search engine authority
value given to an author that can effect
search engine ranking for certain topics
• creating a ‘bio’ page on a blog can give
you an ability to connect authors to their
external profiles with rel=”me” - and create
a list of articles by that author
• a Google+ page should also be created by
each author - and social profiles connected
• Author/Trust Rank is determined by a
number of variables including:
• # of linked social profiles and their
relevancy
• PageRank of authored content
• # of followers & friends - social graph
• generalization of content written by
author
• postings to Google+ and +1’s

23. Independent PR to Support SEO
• PRWeb - cheap and simple
solution ($200 for optimized
release)
• SEO package provides distribution
from AP wire to Google news
• allows linking to your site (SEO
value)
• allows video and images to be
added
• can use to distribute to partners in
link-building process

24. Social Media’s Impact On Search
Source: http://mz.cm/o5UM8N
• SEOmoz social/search research data shows a high correlation between social
media based factors, like Facebook Shares and Likes, and ranking well in Google
• search engines will rely more on these signals to provide higher quality search
results as the web becomes more social in nature

25. Google+
• ‘Search Plus Your World’ is essentially
an update to Google’s search
algorithm which will increase the
likelihood of Google+ pages
appearing in search results
• with ‘Search Plus Your World’
personal results, the user will receive
relevant tips, photos, and Google+
posts alongside results from the web
• users now have the ability to toggle
back and forth between personal and
regular search results
Personal Regular

26. The Importance of Link Building
Authority x Relevancy = Value
www.opensitexplorer.org
Important Search Engine Factors:
• authority of the site linking to you
• content on the page that is linking
to you
• overall content of the site linking to
you
• anchor text contained in link
(keywords)
• whether the link is ‘followed’

27. Link Bait
• top 10 lists, infovideos &
infographics are currently the
most popular forms of link bait
• popularity and sharability allow
sites to acquire many links
from a variety of domains
• also a great source of referral
traffic through social platforms
like Facebook and Twitter
• example: RSA Animate - The
http://www.thersa.org/events/video/animate/rsa-animate-drive
Surprising Truth About What
Motivates Us
• over 1,400 linking domains
and 8 million views

28. Thank You!
Toby Evers
SVP, Media Operations
Morpheus Media
Twitter: @tobassist
Please don’t hesitate to DM me on twitter with any questions