This document outlines the essential components and best practices for effective search engine optimization (SEO), emphasizing the importance of on-page and off-page strategies, keyword usage, and link building to enhance online visibility and traffic. It explains how search engines work and highlights various tools and resources for keyword research, analytics, and social media marketing. Additionally, it describes how to leverage social platforms to improve brand recognition and connects with potential customers.

1. Website Marketing SEO, Social Media & More December 8, 2009 www.youneedseo.com michael@youneedseo.com @mfindling

2. Our Work & Play begin with Search

3. SEO Recipe On Page Factors Page Title Keywords in Content Heading Tags Keyword Research How do people search? Competition level 2-4 word phrases Link Building Internal External Anchor Text Improved Rankings Better Visibility Increased Traffic More Leads/Sales

4. Why It Matters SEO is important because it improves the odds of someone finding you, your goods, services and/or company online. Online visibility can help your credibility and brand awareness. Improved rankings don’t always translate to more traffic and sales – the balance between look n’ feel and usability are critical. Think like your customers, then verify how people search. SEO can put you in front of the people looking for your products & services. Your online marketing efforts should be focused on an end result. Make sure your website/landing page makes it easy for visitors to sign up, join, request information, buy, or whatever else you seek.

5. Search engine bots/spiders are continuously crawling the web, making note of new pages and content. They are not overly sophisticated, which is why html sites with properly built links/navigation often outrank more dynamic sites that use Flash and JavaScript links. Specialized search spiders later return to web pages to gather this new information and it is eventually added to the search engine’s index. Again, these bots are basic…they can read text and links, but not much else. When you conduct a search, the results are displayed almost magically, but a lot is happening behind the scenes. Results are pulled from the current Index, based on a complex algorithm. How Search Engines Work Great tool, Spider Simulator: http://bit.ly/8uRZM1

6. Meta Tags No Magic Bullet 1. 2. 1. 2. 1.

7. Pieces of the Puzzle 1. Title 2. Anchor Text & Keywords 3. Social Media 4. Navigation 5. Updated Events

8. Organic vs. Paid

9. Google Results => PPC Adwords Google Results => PPC/Adwords

10. Google Results => Local + Map Google Results => Local + Map

11. Google Results => Natural SEO Google Results => Natural SEO

12. Where Does Your Eye Go? Eye Tracking Study – Enquiro Over 50% of all clicks were on the first 3 organic results. - Location - Relevance - Page Title - Description - URL

13. Search Engine Ranking Factors 1. Keyword Use in Title Tag 2. Overall Popularity of Site – “Trust” & “Authority” 3. Anchor Text of Inbound Link 4. Age of Site 5. Internal Link & URL Structure 6. Keyword Use in Page Content 7. Outbound Links to Quality/Relevant Sites 8. Age of Page 9. Keyword Use in Heading Tags (H1, H2, H3) 10. Age of Link Search Engine Ranking Factors

14. Components of Your SEO Campaign On-page SEO (Titles, headings, content, and URLs) Off Page SEO (Things you do to promote your website) Content (and HTML) for Search Engines & Visitors Link Building Social Media Interactive Public Relations Analytics & Metrics Components of Your SEO Campaign

15. SEO is a Moving Target Lots of change, all the time … Personalization & customization Vertical search services (Images, Video, News, Maps, etc.) “ Universal Search” Fortunately, the tried-and-true tactics still work … Topically relevant links from important sites Anchor text Keyword-rich title tags Keyword-rich content Internal hierarchical linking structure The whole is greater than the sum of the parts

16. Keyword Research Tools for brainstorming a seed list Google & AdWords Suggest (integrated into Google search) Yahoo Assist Tools to check popularity of keyword searches Wordtracker Trellian’s Keyword Discovery Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool Google Trends & Insights Other sites: Nichebot.com URLTrends.com SpyFU.com

17. Google AdWords Keyword Tool Enter in lists of terms. Pull terms from a web page. Search volume Keep in mind these are estimates! Competition for that keyword should also be considered Free version: adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

18. Technical Aspects Unique Titles Unique META Information Crawling issues Sitemap.xml Robots.txt URL structure ALT tags Eliminate extraneous HTML code “ Technical Aspects are important”

19. Keywords & Content Keyword research Keywords in Title Keywords in content Keywords in H1, H2, HX META Description text “ Content is King!”

20. Visually Appealing to Humans Textual body copy Textual navigation & links. Doesn’t mean a site can’t be visually appealing.

21. Textually Appealing to Bots (& humans) Check for text vs. images: Select individual text Ctrl-A to select all View “text only” version in Google cache.

22. But Visual Appeal Carries a Cost With images turned off: No body copy Minimal anchor text links And not to main product pages

23. Meaningful Titles Keyword-rich, without being spammy. Lead with most important keywords. Looks good to humans & bots. Keep Characters to 70 or less – total.

24. Not So Meaningful Titles Not changing titles is a wasted opportunity. Check your own site for this costly mistake. site:www.domain.com intitle:“Untitled Document”

25. Duplicate Title Tags Check for duplication Use special queries with Google to find duplication. Over 9,000 duplicates of this title alone … what does it say to Google? Purely duplicate titles Canonicalization Parameters & URL bloat site:www.officedepot.com intitle:"Office Supplies: Office Products and Office Furniture: Office Depot"

26. Google Helps Find Duplication Google’s Webmaster Central Alerted to duplicate titles XML sitemaps Identify issues External links Crawl rate Search phrases

27. Flash – Doesn’t Do It Flash front doors, splash screens, & Flash-based sites. May stop bots & humans in their tracks. Unpredictable user-experience. Forget screen readers Unlikely mobile usage

28. Robots.txt Protocol for blocking bots Keep them out of specific sections Help avoid duplicate content Auto-discovery of XML sitemap Done wrong, can block bots from entire site Unfortunately, too often, implemented incorrectly Tip: This will block all bots from your entire site User-agent: * Disallow: / Are you sure that’s what you want?

29. XML Sitemaps Inform the search engines of your pages. Auto-discovery through robots.txt. Google Webmaster Central Yahoo Site Explorer MSN / Live Webmaster Center Google’s reporting of indexed URLs compared to total URLs submitted may be an indicator of URL or content quality.

30. Links – Gimme that Link Love! Internal linking Keywords in anchor text Domain/Page Authourity Develop great content Submit to authoritative, topical, & local directories Work with your business partners Tap into social media Blogging Press releases Syndicate through RSS “ Links are God!” You want link from this guy?

31. Google Directory Pulls from DMOZ Ordered by Google’s PageRank.

32. Ever Google Yourself? Universal Search: Google developed a feature that blended results of different types (web pages, images, videos, books, etc.) This has Grown into “Options” – very powerful

33. Pictures…and more – who is that guy?! Look out for Social Search

34. Focus on the right keywords Focus on site architecture Have great keyword-rich content Build links (particularly through social media) Measure the right things Continually monitor, benchmark, & test What about Page Rank? (Link Quality) There is more than Google => BING rising? In Summary => Best Practices

35. SEO Resources www.websitegrader.com www.auditmypc.com www.submitexpress.com http://bit.ly/8uRZM1 www.google.com/webmasters https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal www.seoimage.com/seo-tools/count-url-characters-and-words.html

36. Social Media Optimization Leveraging Social Media to Create Buzz and Links

37. How to use Blogs, Twitter and Facebook to grow your business

38. Social Media Is Everywhere Social Media is everywhere

39. Social Media Landscape

40. Ten Ways to use Facebook for business Ten ways to use Facebook for business Meet your industry peers Find and source industry contacts It opens doors previously closed Build and develop business relationships Raise your profile in your sector Develop your brand You can be niche and proud of it Create a business page Place very targeted adverts Cost effective marketing, branding and recruiting – FREE! (apart from adds)

41. Twitter Register twice Name & Company name Fill in the bio AND upload a photo of YOU Make sure you enter your website URL Use one of the platforms: Tweetdeck.com | Twhirl.org | Twitterific Remember 140 characters only!!

42. Ten Reason To Use Twitter for business Ten reasons to use for business Branding Hiring people Traffic Networking Notify customers | job seekers Latest news Find prospects Get feedback Make friends with peers Track your competitors SEO – your @name – inbound links – Google Mobile – everywhere

43. YouTube YouTube gets the links! Use as many tags as possible while still being accurate For Syndication of videos check out TubeMogul & HeySpread.com YouTube is still a top search engine next to Google.

44. LinkedIn Add links to your website, blog, and one other Add your email address to your “professional headline” so folks 4+ degrees away don’t have to waste an InMail to contact you Post a “question” to LinkedIn Answers that serves your own purposes e.g. “We’re looking to hire an SEO analyst and are willing to pay whatever it takes to get a top-notch person. What job boards do you recommend?”

45. Flickr Always use tags – as many as possible while still being accurate. Put multiple word tags in surrounded by quotation marks “” Make descriptive titles for your photos If the photo is location specific, go into Flickr’s tools & geotag the picture Go into the Flickr set tools, and locate the location on the Yahoo! Map, then drag the picture onto the map to pinpoint its location

46. SlideShare.Net Use SlideShare.net to post an online version of your highly relevant valuable content. SlideShare.net is a Web 2.0 social media content site that allows you to upload, favorite, bookmark, tag, and comment on slide shows. SlideShare.net

47. FriendFeed.com FriendFeed.com FriendFeed is a service that makes it easy to share with friends online

48. Blogs – Why? Your Brand Blog Twitter Social Networks Social Bookmarks Comments YouTube Flickr

49. Ten things to write about on your blog Company news; awards, contract wins etc Stories about people in your business Offer industry expertise Views on the industry/your marketplace Video of your company environment & your people Information regarding your industry such as exhibitions, trade shows etc Product | service reviews Industry interviews How you work with your customers Case studies and testimonials from your customers

50. How Do you Blog? How?

51. SocialPoster.com & ShareThis.com Social Poster is a service that helps you quickly and easily submit content from a particular site to multiple socially driven sites without having to enter the title, body, and other information over and over again. ShareThis makes it easy to share ideas and get to the good stuff online.

52. Bit.ly => Short URLs bit.ly allows users to shorten, share, and track links (URLs). Reducing the URL length makes sharing easier. Bit.ly => Short URLs

53. Google Alerts Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Google Alerts

54. A few sites worth a mention…..

55. Social Media, Networking & PR Resources www.youtube.com www.tubemogul.com www.linkedin.com www.Flickr.com www.Picasa.com www.slideshare.net http://docs.google.com www.Friendfeed.com www.ovrdrv.com/maps www.wordpress.org www.prweb.com www.webwire.com www.ezine.com www.socialposter.com

56. Google Analytics Free! Connects with your AdWords campaigns. Wealth of data Keywords driving traffic Top landing pages Referring sites Slice & dice, drill down Start small. Pick a couple things to watch, then dig in & try to make sense of it. Understand … analytics is less about answers, & more about questions.

57. Free Firefox-Plugins Free Firefox Plug-ins Plugin Most useful feature How often I use it SEOQuake Any page instant SEO analysis A few times a day SearchStatus Google, Alexa, Compete Rank Toolbar Multiple times a day Google toolbar Google search and suggestions Multiple times a day Rank Checker button Instantly checks a site SE rankings Once a week User Agent Switcher Change the user agent Once a month SEO for FireFox Exhaustive SEO analysis within search results A few times a day Compete.com Site traffic information Once a week Web Developer Instant access to image and link information Once a day Page Age Get the page age Once a day

58. Useful SEO Resources http ://SEObook.com http://Sphinn.com http://BruceClay.com http ://battellemedia.com/ http://SearchEngineWatch.com http ://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ http://mashable.com/ http://www.techcrunch.com/ http://www.seomoz.org/blog http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/ http://searchengineland.com/ http://www.readwriteweb.com http://www.sphinn.com/ http://scobleizer.com/ http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/ => Creator of Google Analytics http://www.veen.com/jeff/ => Great data visualization examples My Daily Read list: http:// bit.ly/4BlSbf Useful SEO Resources

59. Human Interaction