Web Open Lab: Search Engine Optimization

1. Web Open Lab: Search Engine Optimization Today Definition How search engines work Looking at the code Rewriting your web page

2. Definitions Search Engine “Spiders” index sites Results based on complex formulas Example: Google, MSN Web Directory Maintained by human editors Infinitely smaller Example: Yahoo

3. Market Share Microsoft Baidu Google Yahoo

4. External Search Results

5. Internal Search Results

6. Tallying the score: <TITLE> <title>The College of St. Catherine: Private Women's Catholic College, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota</title> • MOST important keywords • Search result title • Top blue bar in browser • Bookmark/Favorite • May be truncated at 256 characters

7. Tallying the score: Meta Tag - Keywords <meta name=“keywords" content=“st. catherine,st. kate's,college,minneapolis,st. paul,minnesota,twin cities, catholic,private,women’s,liberal arts,healthcare, weekend”> • Most important first • Lowercase, no s’s • Phrases OK • Separated by comma’s, no space after comma • No spamming

8. Tallying the score: Meta Tag - Description <meta name=“description" content="The College of St. Catherine, the largest Catholic women’s liberal arts college in the nation, offers undergraduate, graduate and associate degrees in weekend and traditional day formats.”> • Short, descriptive • Reuse as many keywords as possible • Shows up in search results, may be truncated No description  results return the first text on the page

9. Tallying the score: Text Should Reinforce Keywords • Repeat keywords often • Use keywords in top paragraphs • Use keywords in headers <H1> <H2> <H3> • No hidden text (same color as background) • Text in graphics doesn’t count

10. Tallying the score: Layout Tips • Understand how tables are used to format pages • Ensure keywords are in topmost cells of the table • No frames - search engines cannot process them

11. Tallying the score: Dates • Update your pages often • Some spiders seek out the newest file dates