The document provides information about search engine optimization (SEO). It discusses which search engines and directories matter, how to research keywords, alter a website to include keywords, use site maps, build links, and avoid poor SEO practices that could get a site into trouble with search engines. The document contains tips for optimizing domains, titles, descriptions, headings, links, and content with keywords to improve search engine rankings.

1. Search Engine Optimization Wednesday, April 25, 2007 Presented by Lauren Sorensen of Page One Rankings & WSI www.pageonerankings.com www.localwsinet.com [email_address] [email_address] (269) 207-7632

2. Search Engines and Directories Which ones Matter? Search Engines collect their data using computer programs (called robots) which visit (or crawl) your website, read through it and use algorithmic formulas to determine where to place your website in their results. Directories , have human editors who visit websites and manually analyze them to determine where on their results pages they want to place you.

3. Search Engines and Directories Which ones Matter? Search Engines Google Yahoo! Ask (formerly Ask Jeeves) Directories DMOZ (aka Open Directory) MSN (aka Live Search) Yahoo ($299 per year) Industry SpecificDirectories (Some are free, some are costly)

4. Search Engines and Directories Which ones Matter? Meta Search Engines A search engine that returns the combined results from a group of other search engines MetaCrawler Dogpile Mamma

5. Search Engines and Directories Which ones Matter? Yahoo Yahoo Yahoo Yahoo Google Google Teoma Teoma DMOZ (Open Directory) Google Google Netscape Overature (Yahoo) Yahoo MSN MSN DMOZ (Open Directory) Google Google Google (none) (none) Gigablast Gigablast Google Google Teoma Ask (Jeeves) DMOZ (Open Directory) Google Google AOL Search DMOZ (Open Directory) Yahoo Yahoo AltaVista (none) Yahoo Yahoo All the Web Directory Results Paid Results Main Results Search Engine Who Feeds Whom?

6. Search Engines and Directories Which ones Matter? Yahoo Yahoo Yahoo Yahoo Google Google Teoma Teoma DMOZ (Open Directory) Google Google Netscape Yahoo Yahoo MSN MSN DMOZ (Open Directory) Google Google Google (none) (none) Gigablast Gigablast Google Google Teoma Ask (Jeeves) DMOZ (Open Directory) Google Google AOL Search DMOZ (Open Directory) Yahoo Yahoo AltaVista (none) Yahoo Yahoo All the Web Directory Results Paid Results Main Results Search Engine So, Who Matters???

7. Search Engines and Directories Which ones Matter? How does one “Submit” a website? Google: http://www.google.com/addurl/ Yahoo: http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html MSN: http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx DMOZ: http://www.dmoz.com/

8. Search Engines and Directories Which ones Matter? The Sandbox Effect The Sandbox Effect is the theory that new websites are placed in a sandbox (holding area) in the indexes of Google for a period of time before a ranking can commence. At such a time, their website will not place as well as it should in the search engine results page. (This does not apply to new pages, only new websites.) “ Submit it and Forget it!”

9. Keyword Research What are they and what do they do? Keywords and Key phrases Think of these things as the terms that describe your industry, your products, your geographic business range, even (in some cases) your competitors names. It goes far beyond which “category” you would be listed under in the phone book.

10. Keyword Research What are they and what do they do? Researching Keywords - Sources Look at the competition: Listings on Search Engines Website – Emphasized text Check their website’s code for keywords

11. Keyword Research What are they and what do they do? Researching Keywords - Sources Free Online Tools: Overture Keyword Tool http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ Google https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal Free Trials of Keyword Software http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/register.html http://www.wordtracker.com/free-trial.html

12. Keyword Research What are they and what do they do? What do I look for? KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Indicator) KEI = (The higher the better !) Number of searches done on a term Number of competitors 0.0000271 2,070,000 56 massage therapy info 0.0000437 1,260,000 55 acupuncture massage therapy 0.0000539 1,280,000 69 clinical massage therapy 0.0000542 1,440,000 78 deep tissue massage therapy 0.0000598 1,270,000 76 certified massage therapy 0.0000606 1,040,000 63 massage therapy center 0.0000608 1,530,000 93 history of massage therapy 0.0000762 1,010,000 77 clinic massage sale therapy 0.0000786 852,000 67 massage therapy gift certificate 0.0000859 733,000 63 massage therapy technique 0.0000915 1,410,000 129 sports therapy massage 0.0000930 2,000,000 186 massage spa therapy 0.0000953 1,270,000 121 massage and relaxation therapy 0.0001028 564,000 58 massage therapy and nude 0.0001891 677,000 128 swedish massage therapy 0.0001997 641,000 128 shiatsu massage therapy 0.0002156 320,000 69 massage remedial sports therapy 0.0002302 1,060,000 244 massage therapy information 0.0002343 1,050,000 246 basic clinical massage therapy 0.0002815 55,800,000 15,708 massage therapy 0.0003109 1,380,000 429 benefit of massage therapy 0.0003455 793,000 274 physical therapy massage 0.0006009 1,110,000 667 massage therapy and bodywork 0.0009737 152,000 148 equine group massage muscle therapy 0.0010928 345,000 377 equine massage therapy KEI Number Competitors Number of March Searches Keyword / Key Phrase

13. Keyword Research What are they and what do they do? “ High and Low Hanging Fruit” Optimize for both generic and specific terms to grab folks at either end of the buying cycle HDTV vs. Samsung 46” HL-S4676 S DLP HDTV

14. Keyword Research What are they and what do they do? “ Geo-Targeting” Optimize for local markets to cut down on the competition real estate (340,000,000 results) vs. Kalamazoo Real Estate (1,220,000 results)

15. Keyword Research What are they and what do they do? Other Tricks Plurals – usually the plural form of a noun is searched on more – birthday balloons rather than birthday balloon Misspellings – you don’t necessarily have to include them in your visible text, but put them in your code somewhere, like your Alt Tags (more on these later)

16. Altering Your Website Where do I USE these keywords?

17. Altering Your Website Where do I USE these keywords? Domain Name Include your keywords here – this is more important than including your business name! (i.e. – an electronics dealer named Amherst Electronics who specialized in refurbished units would do better with a domain name of www.Refurbished-Electronics.com than it would with www.Amherst-Electronics.com ) Pay particular attention to your internal pages (those beyond your home page) as well since these are the meat and potatoes of your website – the stuff browsers will really be interested in.

18. Altering Your Website Where do I USE these keywords? Domain Name Title Tag This is what appears in as the link on search engine results pages and what appears in the title bar of your website. Basically, it’s part of the text that will compel your target audience to go to your website. Again, it’s more important to use your keywords than your business name. At the very least, let it read more than “Home Page” Most website’s titles are too short. 15-20 words can be used – get as many keywords in there in a logical, non-repetitive way which focuses on enticing your potential customer to not only visit your website, but buy from you! Try including a call to action.

19. Altering Your Website Where do I USE these keywords? Domain Name Title Tag Alt Tags Alt Tags include the text that appears when you hover over a picture, as well as the text that is verbalized to the visually impaired as they use special software to “read” a website. It’s not necessary to know how to change these, but if you work with a website designer, you definitely want to work with him or her to make sure ALL your images have optimized Alt Tags. They look something like this… <img src=&quot;images/Paw_Paw_Epicopal_Church1.jpg&quot; alt=“Praising the Lord in Song at Paw Paw Episcopal Church&quot;>

20. Altering Your Website Where do I USE these keywords? Domain Name Title Tag Alt Tags Heading Tags Heading Tags surround segments of text like <h1>THIS</h1> and they give the text more emphasis. It’s important to have your website designer surround important keywords in your website with heading tags. Here’s an example of how they are used properly. http://www.diecastpress.com/New_Die_Cast_Machines.htm If you can’t use Heading Tags around your important keywords, at least make them bolder than the rest of your text.

21. Altering Your Website Where do I USE these keywords? Domain Name Title Tag Alt Tags Heading Tags Navigation Links It’s important to use your keywords in your navigation pane as well as in the text on your pages. Don’t have the user click on “More Information” or “Click Here” when you can have them click on “Home Health Care Services”. The search engines pay close attention to what text is clickable. (Also worth noting is that you should keep your important pages no more than (2) clicks away from your home page. It takes search engines longer to crawl these pages and some of them won’t bother to dig that deep into your website to see what you’re all about.)

22. Altering Your Website Where do I USE these keywords? Domain Name Title Tag Alt Tags Heading Tags Navigation Links Keyword Tag This tag used to be a whole lot more important than it currently is, but because so many website designers were abusing this tag, search engines started to care less about what was in this tag. Most search engines, in fact, no longer pay ANY attention to this tag. If you left it out all together, it wouldn’t make too much difference. However, if you’re going to include it, do the following: Separate keywords with commas and keep this tag under 250 characters. Each webpage has a keyword tag, so customize the tag according to the text on the page. Don’t include keywords that aren’t in the text of that page, though. Don’t repeat your keywords too many times in this tag. It’s considered to be “keyword stuffing” otherwise and it’s frowned upon Place the most desired keywords in the beginning of the keywords list.

23. Altering Your Website Where do I USE these keywords? Domain Name Title Tag Alt Tags Heading Tags Navigation Links Keyword Tag Description Tag This is the text that the search engines oftentimes use for the description of your webpage in their results. Keep an eye on your keywords, but make sure to speak directly to the potential buyer. Try to limit it to 250 characters. Many search engines won’t display in their results more than 250 characters. Include your keywords for sure, but also try to include a call to action. “Home Health Care for Seniors in southwest Michigan – enroll today and receive 25% your first month’s services”

24. Copywriting (a.k.a “Content is King” ) What do I include in my text? What’s most important is that you write your text within your website FOR YOUR AUDIENCE . If you truly answer their questions and give them what they need, you will be writing for the search engines as well. Following are some ideas to keep in mind while writing your text… Get to know your audience. Do they want quick answers or full details? What problem of theirs can you solve?

25. Copywriting (a.k.a “Content is King” ) What do I include in my text? Get to know your audience. Do they want quick answers or full details? What problem of theirs can you solve? Vital pages to optimize include your homepage and your products or services pages. Try to use bulleted lists whenever sensible. Not only do they get read more often by browsers, but search engines love them, too. Use your keywords here! Link to other pages of your website from within your text. (Remember to use your keywords in the link.)

26. Copywriting (a.k.a “Content is King” ) What do I include in my text? Let the reader “feel” the merchandise or experience through intense imagery, more product descriptions, details… If you serve only a local market, be sure to include those markets on each page. Generally speaking, each page should be around 250 words. (Better more than less) If you decide to hire a professional copywriter, be sure they know about search engine optimization. Not just any copywriter will do!

27. Sitemaps What are they? How do I use them? Sitemaps list all the pages of your website and can possible give a brief description of each page. They can be in two formats and you should include both in your website. <?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;UTF-8&quot;?> <urlset xmlns=&quot;http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9&quot; xmlns:xsi=&quot;http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance&quot; xsi:schemaLocation=&quot; http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/09/sitemap.xsd&quot;> <url> <loc>http://www.mallardpondphotography.com/</loc> <priority>0.5</priority> <changefreq>yearly</changefreq> </url> <url> <loc>http://www.mallardpondphotography.com/index.htm</loc> <priority>0.5</priority> <changefreq>yearly</changefreq> </url> .XML FORMAT Can be generated online using a variety of free tools. Should be saved in the “root directory” of your website (your webmaster will understand this.) Is then submitted to Google and Yahoo at www. google .com /webmasters/ sitemap s and http:// submit.search.yahoo.com /free/request

28. Sitemaps What are they? How do I use them? Sitemaps list all the pages of your website and can possible give a brief description of each page. They can be in two formats and you should include both in your website. .HTML FORMAT An actual webpage that lists each page within your website, provides a link to it and, if optimized well, includes a description of the page.

29. Link Building What’s a link and what do I need to know about them? Inbound Links: These are links from other sites that point toward your link. These are very valuable and, currently, search engines place a lot of emphasis on inbound links. Outgoing Links: While not as important as inbound links, search engines also keep an eye on which other websites you link with.

30. Link Building What’s a link and what do I need to know about them? Checking number of Inbound Links: My preferred tool for checking the number of inbound links that search engines are finding is Yahoo’s link checker. Type into Yahoo’s search bar the following: linkdomain:www. yourwebsite .com

31. Link Building What’s a link and what do I need to know about them? How many is enough: As a general rule of thumb, try to get 10 times the number of pages in your website. (i.e. if you have a 10 page site, set a goal of obtaining 100 inbound links) How to find them: Make sure you have an online listing that includes a link to your website from every professional organization to which you belong Do a search on your keywords. Try to get a link from those websites that appear in the top 10 slots. Many of them will be directories.

32. Link Building What’s a link and what do I need to know about them? How do I actually GET an inbound link: Depending on the source, sometimes it will require completing a form and waiting until someone surveys your website for relevancy. Other times it will require you to include a reciprocal link to their website from somewhere in your website. This is usually best done on a “Links” page. Oftentimes, they will require payment. Spend wisely – paid inbound links are not necessary and may not justify the price of the inbound link. Finally, sometimes you will need to send an email to that site’s webmaster and kindly request an inbound link.

33. Website No-No’s How can I avoid getting into trouble with Search Engines? Never use background text Never overstuff your keywords Never participate in link farms Never repeatedly resubmit to DMOZ Never have two pages with the same text Never plagiarize from other sites

34. Hidden Ways to get into Google (Things you might never think of) Google Images Image File Names Alt Text Text surrounding them images Page title and other factors Videos Google Base (http://base.google.com/base/about.html) Google Local / Maps (http://maps.google.com/maps)

35. Measuring Success How do I know if I’m succeeding? Check things out yourself: Set up a spreadsheet and check out your own analytics

36. Measuring Success How do I know if I’m succeeding? Free Tools: Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/ Provides in-depth statistics for your website. Works together with Google PPC advertising campaign if you have one. Tracks goals and conversions Filters out certain URL’s to give more accurate results

37. Measuring Success How do I know if I’m succeeding? Important Things to Track: How many visitors are coming to your website From where (especially which search engine and search keywords they used to find you) Returning (loyal) visitors versus unique visitors One page visits: total visits (a.k.a. bounce rate) One minute visits: total visits

38. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising Do I have to spend a bundle to make a buck? Defined: PPC is a type of online advertising whereby a vendor “bids” on how much they want to pay to have their ad appear in a particular location on a search engine results page. Then, the vendor is charged any time their ad is clicked on.

39. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising Do I have to spend a bundle to make a buck? What do I need to know? PPC advertising is an immediate , but short term solution. It is requires a constant investment, and those costs are constantly rising . So, balance your PPC advertising with optimization efforts for long term results.

40. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising Do I have to spend a bundle to make a buck? How do I set it up? Establish a monthly budget for PPC Split it between Google and Yahoo Open an account with each search engine Write descriptions and titles to appear Give them your keywords and phrases Tell them how much you want to bid

41. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising Do I have to spend a bundle to make a buck? What maintenance is required? Each week or so, check your bids to see that you’re still placing where you want to be for your keywords and increase bids as necessary. Track your traffic for each keyword to determine how important it is to keep paying for top placements.

42. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising Do I have to spend a bundle to make a buck? Sounds like a lot of work – is there an easier way? SEO consultants are available to handle all of this for you. You give them a monthly budget, they work with you to establish your keywords and phrases, then write your titles and descriptions before launching your campaign. They then monitor it to keep it active, but profitable.

43. Questions?