Website Optimization -SEO - Step By Step

Website Optimization
and Search Engine Optimization

BEGINNING SEO
STEP BY STEP

Why SEO?

 Most (approximately 80%) people searching online will click
the ‘natural’ results before a paid placement or
advertisement.
 You want to be listed on the first page when they “Google”
you.
 You want them to end up on your website, find what they
want quickly, leave happy and come back again.
 You want them to tell others about you.

 This slideshow is about the various components that can lead
to a better ranking for search engines and a better experience
for your website visitors.

Google’s Secret

 “Google conducts a series of simultaneous calculations
requiring only a fraction of a second, using more than
200 signals, including patented PageRank™ algorithm,
which is determined by considering more than 500
million variables and 2 billion terms.”
 The PageRank algorithm is patented. And it’s their
secret.
 There’s even more to it.

Why Isn’t This Easy?

 Can’t be done overnight – it’s time consuming.

 The process never ends.

 You don’t have the time.

 It’s not a simple fix.

 Multitude of components and variables to determining how
you rank.
 But this is something you have to do.

 All items in this presentation can be used to incrementally
help improve the optimization of your site for search engine
and your site users.

Establish a Baseline

 To help with the challenge of better optimizing your
website and track the success of this program, create an
initial report establishing your baseline.
 Google Analytics

 Self Evaluation/reporting

 Where are you compared to your competitors in the
SERPs?

Page Rank

 Do you know your PageRank? What about the PageRank
of your customers?
 There are many applications, widgets and third party
tools to determine Google PageRank. You can also install
a Google toolbar telling you the PageRank of any site.

View Source of ANY page
Descriptive Meta Data

Meta Tags
<title> Important, but not magic solution.</title>

Free metatag generators:

 http://www.trafficzap.com/metagenerator.php

 http://websitesubmit.hypermart.net/metatags.htm

 http://www.submitcorner.com/Tools/Meta/

Title tag
<title> Website Optimization Workshop</title>

 A page title for the page appears in the browser itself, at
the very top. The title tag is located in the <head> section
of each page. The format is:
 <title> Website Optimization Workshop</title>

 The page’s title tag tells users and search engines the
topic for the web page. The title will usually appear in the
first line of the search engine results.

Keywords

 Use tools to generate keywords and find out how they
relate to searches performed
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
 What keywords do your competitors use?
View their source code to find out.
 Include misspellings

 The Long Tail http://www.wordstream.com/long-tail

Heading Tags

 Heading tags are used to define content of page and for
proper document layout.
 <H1> <H2> <H3> <H4> <H5> <H6>

 <H1> is the most important, <H6> the least

 The default font style can be modified with CSS

 You should use <H1> at the top of your page for the main
headline

Image Tags

Image information should show up when moving the mouse over the image

Image Tags

 Use brief descriptions in the <alt> tag

 Use brief descriptions in the image <title> tag

 Use supported web formats

 GIF, JPG, PNG

 Test your images by right clicking and going to properties
or by mousing over an image

Link Tags

 Links can have titles?

<P>You'll find a lot more in
<A href=quot;chapter2.htmlquot; title=quot;Go to chapter
twoquot;>chapter two</A>.

Anchor Text

 Anchor text is the clickable text that users see on your
web page.

We hope you will find everything you are looking for and we invite you
into one of our several locations serving
<a href=quot;/contact.html“ title =“Wichita location”>Wichita</a>

FavIcon

A small, 16x16 image that is shown inside the browser's location bar and the
bookmark menu when your site is visited. It is a way to brand your site and
increase it's prominence in your visitor's bookmark menu.

FavIcon

 You can create your FavIcon with a graphics program
such as Photoshop.
 Free FavIcon generators:
http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/
http://htmlkit.com/services/favicon/
 Photoshop Tutorial to create a FavIcon:
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/jennifer/favico

Link Building

 Internal linking structure

 Link popularity – who links to you (the more relevant
links the better SEO)
Google using link:www.mywebsite.com
 Link to other sites

 Give back to the community

 Incorporate social media

Site Architecture

 Site Navigation – menu structure

 Organized File Structure

 Sitemap

 Search option

 Directory searching (some users truncate URL to search)

 Useful 404 page

HTML Sitemap

 Do you have an organized map to easily locate and
navigate content on your site?
 Manually create or use sitemap generator tools.

Content Strategy

 Compelling, useful and quality content could be one of
the most important aspects of SEO.
 Write easy-to-read and follow text.

 Stay organized and on topic.

 Use relevant language.

 Keep content fresh.

 Consider allowing user-generated content.

Using a CMS

 Some Content Management Systems are not easily
optimized for SEO.
 If you use a CMS, check for CMS specific SEO plugins.

 Configure the CMS to allow for friendly URLs.

 CMS are becoming more popular, so there are many
resources available.

Robots.txt

 File that tells search engines to access or not
 Search engine will first look for robots.txt file
 What parts of site wouldn’t you want found?
User-Agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /private/privatefile.htm
User-Agent: *
Disallow: /newsection/
 More information

 http://www.outfront.net/tutorials_02/adv_tech/robots.htm

Nofollow

 Placed inside of link tag:

<a href=http://www.blackhatseo.com rel=“nofollow”>Black Hat SEO</a>

 Use it if you don’t want to pass on your reputation

 You can also place this inside the <head> tag to
‘nofollow’ all links on a page.

404 Pages

 Create custom error pages, don’t lose a user

 Suggestions for creating clever and helpful “Page Not
Found” errors:
 http://dzineblog.com/2008/11/custom-error-404-pages.html

Business Directories and Maps

www.local.yahoo.com www.google.com/local/add
www.maps.yahoo.com www.maps.google.com

Creating a Mapquest Search On Your Site
http://www.mapquest.com/features/lf_findit

Google Webmaster Tools

 www.google.com/webmasters/start

 Creating an XML Sitemap

Accessibility

 Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) - home page

 Guidelines and resources from the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C).
 WaSP Assessibility Task Force

 http://www.webstandards.org/2005/06/23/wasp-accessibilit

Validation

 Do You Validate?

 The W3C Markup Validation Service

 http://validator.w3.org/

User Testing

 Please don’t overlook the need for user testing.

 You know what you think is best for you, but let your
customers show you what they think.
 Google Optimizer is a great way to test versions of your
web page.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJT9TCqzw4U

Next Steps

 Promoting Your Site

 Social Media Integration

 Testing, Measuring, Optimizing

 Start Over!

Thanks

 Presented by Mia Lee
http://www.mialynnlee.com/web/about/
 @webbiegirl on Twitter
http://twitter.com/webbiegirl
 Teaching eMarketing workshops at Wichita Area
Technical College
http://www.watc.edu/business-emarketing.php

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