Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization Michal Neuwirth Product Manager – Kentico Software s.r.o.

Search Engine Optimization • SEO Overview • SEO Recommendations • Kentico CMS & SEO

SEO the basics • IS NOT • … a magic tool that guarantees a #1 rank in the search engine • … an AI that works without your help and inputs • IS • … is a set of activities that you can perform to increase the number of visitors who come to your website via search engines • … requires a patience as it’s a long time running process • … includes Developers, IT Pros, Marketers, Designers, PRs, Content Editors and other stuff

How does it work? Search engine Search ranking algorithm (black box)

Don’t forget • … each search engine has it’s own specific search engine algorithm • They will not open their secrets, but they provide recommendations • … you never know when an existing search engine algorithm is going to morph into something different! • … search engines don’t like tricks and hacks • … the most important part of all SEO tactics is up-to-date content!

Content I. • Search engines are “text” based automats • They don’t understand graphics/multimedia/flash/etc. • Search engines repeatedly visit your web to check for a new content • and the engine remember how often you are adding a new content • Keywords • Identify the “right words” and use them properly in the content • Include keywords in links wherever possible

Content II. • Page title • The most visible text • Use unique names for each title • Invisible information: • meta keywords tag, meta description tag and ALT image tags • meta keyword tags are often IGNORED by the engines

Content III. • Search engines look for the header texts and index their content • Make sure your company name exists in text form once on every page • Don’t duplicate content • Canonical issue • Two or more different URLs lead to the same content (e.g. index.aspx, main.aspx & default.aspx) • Use 301 instead of 302 redirection

Linking … • Search engines look for links leading to your website • Engines read content of the linking page • Don’t use “links directories” as the engines hate them • Page rank is based on the quantity and quality of both incoming and outgoing links • Use internal links to “navigate” to any important content on your website

Other SEO features • Friendly names • http://mysite.com/getproduct.aspx?id=1238973 • http://mysite.com/products/computers/My-computer.aspx • Sitemap • Robots.txt • To exclude stub pages • Flash • Provide alternate content for Flash • AJAX • Prepare URLs for AJAX activity

Metadata • Document -> Properties -> Metadata

Document aliases • Document -> Properties -> URLs

SEO settings

Other supported features • How to handle Robots.txt file • http://devnet.kentico.com/Blogs/Martin-Hejtmanek/September-2010/DIY--How-to-handle-robots-txt-and-favicon-ico-in-t.aspx • Canonical links • http://devnet.kentico.com/Blogs/Martin-Hejtmanek/January-2010/SEO-tip--Canonical-link-elements-in-Kentico-CMS.aspx

Coming in Kentico CMS 6.0 • Language prefixes • Old: http://localhost/Products.aspx?lang=en-US • New: http://localhost/en-US/Products.aspx • External/internal search Keywords statistics • Preparing SEO testing tool which checks selected document against several SEO recommendations

SEO - summary • SEO is not a magic tool, it’s an on-going process • SEO is set of recommended activities • The most important part of SEO is up-to-date content • Kentico CMS supports SEO in several ways

Links … • Google Webmaster Guidelines • http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769 • Yahoo! Webmaster Guidelines • http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/basics-18.html • Bing Webmaster Guidelines • http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=wl_webmasters&querytype=&query=&tmt=&domain=help.live.com&format=b1 • Ask.com Webmaster Guidelines • http://about.ask.com/en/docs/about/webmasters.shtml • Michal Neuwirth: michalne@kentico.com

Q&A

Search Engine Optimization