What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

1. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

2. Search Engine Optimization is the Process of: • Making Web sites More Relevant for • Search Engines • Creating Great Content • Enhancing the User Experience • Knowing What People Search for is • Vital

3. SEO is the method used to make yourWeb site relevant to certain keywords • The goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to increase a Web site’s visibility, in terms of organic listings, on major search engines and directories across a broad range of relevant keywords • SEO results in: • An increase in search engine traffic • An increase in brand awareness Note: Organic listings/results are also called “natural”, “unpaid”, or “algorithmic” listings/results

4. Why Is Search Engine Optimization Important? “If you build it, he will come.” – Field of Dreams, 1989 • Unfortunately, this axiom does not apply in the online world. You can build a spectacular Web site, but without proper marketing/PR it will remain a “ghost town.” • Traffic on individual sites is critically dependent on how quickly and easily sites are found and listed by portals and search engines.(Harris Interactive)

5. SEO Components • Keyword Phrases are CRITICAL. Proper selectionwill ensure valid, quality visitors • Page Titles Tell the Story. Use 2 – 3 keyword phrases that describe the page content. • META Tags, HTML, and Source Code behind the page. • URL File Names establish overall relevancy. • Body or Page Text reinforces the Title, Meta and Keywords targeted. • Links are Considered “Votes Of Confidence” by search engines.

6. SEO Process 2. Focus Outward: Submit pages to major search engines and directories to index site’s pages • Focus Inward: Optimize the site itself for maximum search engine “friendliness” Reporting/Analysis/Optimization: Benchmark and progress reporting; ongoing re-submissions as required to maintain rankings Additional SEO Services: e.g., Competitive Analysis, Domain Research 5. Paid Placement: Supplement organic listings with Pay Per Click

7. SEO Activities Needed • Setup • Keyword Research • Domain Research • SE Readiness Site Evaluation • Meta Tag Development • Benchmark SE Rankings Report • Benchmark SE Traffic Ranking Report • Competitive SE Rankings Report • Standard SE and Directory Submissions • Express Submissions / Paid Inclusions • Ongoing • Monthly SE Rankings Report • Monthly SE Traffic Ranking Report • Ongoing SE and Directory Submissions • Ongoing Paid Inclusion Management • Ongoing Meta Tag Development • Monthly Search Activity Report • Advanced Linking Strategy • Keyword Relevancy Report (by Page) • Competitive Landscape Analysis

8. How Does a Search Engine Work?

9. How Google Crawls, Indexes and Serves the results

10. Crawling is the process by which Googlebot discovers • new and updated pages to be added to the Google index. • The program that does the fetching is called Googlebot (also known as a robot, bot, or spider). Googlebot uses an algorithmic process. Crawling • Google's crawl process begins with a list of web page URLs, generated from previous crawl processes, and augmented with Sitemap data provided by webmasters. As Googlebot visits of each these websites it detects links on each page and adds them to its list of pages to crawl.

11. Indexing • Googlebot processes each of the pages it crawls in order to compile a massive index of all the words it sees and their location on each page • It processes information included in key content tags and attributes, such as Title tags and ALT attributes. • Most Flash files and dynamic pages cannot be indexed.

12. Page Rank PageRank is the measure of the importance of a page based on the incoming links from other pages. Each link to a page on your site from another site adds to your site's PageRank. Not all links are equal

13. SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGCRITERIA • Off Page Factors • (Primarily Controlled by Others • Factors like: • Incoming Links • Anchor Text Links • Page Rank of Sites • Linking to Yours • Authority Sites • On Page Factors • (You Control) • Factors like: • Title Tag • Words on your page • Domain Name • HTML Design • URLs

14. Google’s search Engine is designed to understand exactly what you mean and give you back exactly what you want

15. Keyword Research

16. Our Challenge 50% of the 200 million searches performed a day on Google are unique. -Amit Singhal, Google Engineer

17. The Importance of Keywords • Keywords are the core of SEO & SEM • The wrong keywords = 0 Leads or sales • Keyword research is critical to getting the whole campaign to succeed.

18. Know your Audience • Industry keywords vs. consumer keywords • e.g.. Low Fares is an industry term (102 searches per day) • Cheap flights is a consumer term (12448 searches per day) • Make sure you are targeting the right marketplace.

19. Researchers vs. Buyers • Researchers will search general keywords – example digital cameras, canon digital cameras. These make good category page keywords as well as content rich buying guides • Buyers will shop specifics – canon eos 30d. Use these for subcategories and product pages. • To build traffic and brand awareness you want to recommend broader terms to client. For conversions, the more narrow terms are keyword. Use a strong combination of each.

20. Types of Keywords • Top Searched Terms “Holy Grail” Keywords • Category Specific Terms • “Long Tail” Keywords

21. “Holy Grail” Keywords • These are the top search terms that pertain to the clients business. This is often why company executives will call seeking our services. Very difficult terms to achieve.

22. Category Specific Terms • These are the bulk of the terms in your keyword search. These terms will be used to optimize the category and subcategory pages.

23. The Long Tail of Search • The long tail is the hundreds to thousands of keywords and key phrases that a site is found for, yet rarely noticed or exploited. • In most cases, the top 10 terms provide a lot of traffic, but not nearly as much as the total terms after the top 10 or 20 most popular. • Add up the terms that refer 1-3 visits during the month, and chances are, they will add up to more total visitors than the top terms. Source: http://www.searchengineguide.com/bailey/005362.html

24. The Long Tail (Cont.) • On closer examination, most sites will have the majority of their business (sales and leads) generated from these terms that are rarely tracked. This is the heart of the long tail – that the length, or total number of low-number referred terms outnumbers the height, or the total of top 10 terms.

25. The Long Tail (Cont.) • As an example, Amazon.com makes 57% of sales from keywords outside of the “popular” terms. Source:http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html?pg=1&topic=tail&topic_set=

26. Sources for Keyword Data • The clients and the competitor’s website • Website Navigation and category structure • Keyword Tools (Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery, , Google) • Web Analytics Data/Log Files • Competitor Search • Internal Site Search Engine

27. Considered the first factor search engines view • Only 64 characters are displayed • They should include the keywords targeted for • that specificpage • Leave your company name out and use the title • to tell the visitor exactly what that page is about • It is what appears as the first line of your listing • on the search engine • It should encourage people to click by grabbing • attention, creating curiosity and clearly indicating • what the page is about Use Keyword Rich Title Tags

28. Search Engines place more importance on keywords found early in • the content of the page • Feature the keywords you want that page to be indexed under early • in your page (the first 25 characters) • Target no more than two (2) keywords per page • Create the highest keyword density possible • The Keyword Density is calculated as a) • One Instance of the keyword phrase “Support Hosiery” • divided by the total number of words in the Title • EXAMPLE: • Assume that the client’s current page title is as follows… • <title>Support Hosiery | Support Stockings</title> • 1 Instance ÷ 4 Words = 25% Density. Include Your Keywords Early and Often

29. Use Text Links to Your Internal Pages Ensure that your home page contains actual text links to key pages within your site And every page on your site has a text link pointing to it somewhere within your site Link within your site as resources, definitive guides which you link to from other pages on your site and link to specific blog posts Make sure the links are within the body of the page and not just in the side and bottom navigation bars

30. Use Text, Not Pictures as Your Main Communications Tool Search engines can’t see words that are contained in pictures, they can only see actual text You want to have any keywords you want to rank on in the search engines as text on your pages

31. Write Long Copy The average page ranked on the first page in Google contains more than 400 words Longer copy tends to generate more incoming links Repeat the main keywords between 6-12 times (based on common sense usage) Use semantic text (related terms such as from the Thesaurus) Add new content to your site daily Target one new keyword to build a high quality content page This can include articles, blog posts, new products, how to information, etc. Selectively use bolds, italics and larger sized type. Search engines give higher weight to content that is coded to stand out.

32. SEO Tools WordTracker Keyword Discovery Google Keyword Tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

33. HOW TO ANALYZE IF A WEBSITE IS SEO FRIENDLY

34. Keywords • If you haven't researched your keywords, now is the time to start. Learn what words and phrases people use to find products and services like yours. Skip this step at your peril - it's actually the foundation of your search marketing campaign.

35. Site Content • Check out your existing content. Does each page have a targeted keyword focus? Is the text written well and compelling? Does your copy explain what you offer your customers? Strong content will not only help you with search positioning - it will help your conversion rates, too.

36. Page Titles • Evaluate your page Titles. Titles tell the engines (and your customers) what your Web page is about - and a well-written Title helps with your search engine positioning. Your Title should highlight the page's main keyword, and be written like a headline. Remember, your Title competes with nine others on the search engine results page. The more "clickable" your Title, the more that prospects will be tempted to visit your site.

37. Description Tag • Maximize your meta description tags. Review your descriptions and see what you can do to make them more compelling, and ensure that they are written according to best practices. Your description tag provides you the opportunity to create a powerful marketing statement for each page.

38. External Links • Think about your links. Stay away from "free for all" link farms that promise thousands of links pointing to your site. • The search engines consider this spam, and it will only hurt (not help) your positions.

39. External Links • Review your internal linking. Check that your navigation bar points to your most important sections and pages. The pages with the highest internal link popularity tend to position more strongly, so focus your linking efforts on your most important pages.

40. Conversion Features • Finally, ask yourself if you would buy from your own site. Does the design look professional? Is your site easy to navigate? Does the content clearly explain what you offer? If you find your own site frustrating, your customers will too - and you'll lose sales.