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Future Proof your Website for Organic Search Visibility (using Microformats ). Bryan Kelly. Hello My name is Bryan Kelly. SEO & Usability Advocate since 1997 Previous Clients include: William Hill Plc The Racing Post FinSoft Microgaming Systems Sportsbook.com
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Future Proof your Website for Organic Search Visibility (using Microformats) Bryan Kelly
Hello My name is Bryan Kelly • SEO & Usability Advocate since 1997 • Previous Clients include: • William Hill Plc • The Racing Post • FinSoft • Microgaming Systems • Sportsbook.com • Usability labs in Texas, New York & London • Current role: e-Strategy Specialist, Cytrus Technology (www.cytrus.biz)
Today, you’ll learn • What is SEO & SEM? • What are Microformats? • 4 Practical Uses of Microformats • Why you should be using Microformats • Data Web Marketing - A New Channel
Search Optimisation & Search Marketing Getting higher rankings on major search engines, is about finding the right balance between Search Engine Optimisation(on-site), and Search Engine Marketing (off-site) factors.
Search Engine Optimisation Refers to the factors that you can control on your web site • The text on your web page • The number of web pages on your website • The number of keywords and related keywords on your web pages • The links on your web pages to other pages of your site • The links on your web pages to other websites • The structure of your website • The HTML code of your web pages
Search Engine Marketing Refers to the ranking factors that are usually out of your control • The most important off-site factor are the links to your web site: • The number of backlinks that point to your website • The quality of the backlinks that point to your website • How often your website is bookmarked on social bookmark sites • How often your website is mentioned on services such as Twitter
Today we’ll focus on factors we can control MicroFormats
What are Microformats? • For years search engine search results were limited to 3 basic pieces of information: • A Title, • A Summary, and • A URL Microformats markup (fancy HTML code) allows Google and other search engines (programs) to identify and make use of structured data present in a web page.
Microformats support is growing... Most widely supported are: reviews, events, businesses and organizations, people profiles, products, videos and recipes.
Future Proof? • Ranking on page 1 of Google isn’t all there is to SEO! • You have to entice the searcher to click. • Microformats may be just the thing to increase (clickthroughs) and conversions • Future proof your organic search visibility for increased SERPs real estate • Google Maps and Google Places will be using microformats to populate mapping apps • Microformats may not directly increase your search engine rankings, but they can still be • a vital part of your (local) search strategy. • OK – How? 4 Practical applications of microformats
rel=“me” - Use the attribute to create a “social hub on the web”. After Before <li id="facebook"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.facebook.com/ProteaHotels" rel="me">Facebook</a></li><li id="twitter"><a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/ProteaHotels" rel="me">Twitter</a></li>
hCard - Use the markup to GeoTag address information for local SEO Before After
hReview - Use the markup for dealing with individual user reviews Before After
hCalendar- Use the markup for structured information about events Before After
Why you should be using Microformats • Increase click-through rates (15-31% increase in organic traffic, Yahoo!, Google) • “Give users convenient summary information about their search results at a glance“ • Encourages engagement - add contact info to address book, add events to calendars, etc. • Increased search results (SERPs) real estate • More organic search traffic, higher conversion rates. Lower other marketing costs. • It is (relatively) easy to implement • Improve your rankings? More visibility, more user engagement, more authority.
Data Web Marketing – A New Channel? • Websites who tag their content with structured data are rewarded with better visibility in search results and social media streams. • The explosion of apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices has further increased interest in APIs. Publishers can extend their reach via Semantic Travel Vocabularies. • Microformats offer a similar strategic competitive advantage to early SEO, SMM, PPC adopters. • Whose data will be the authoritative source in each market out there? • Whose data will be embedded in the most exciting third-party applications? • Whose industry-specific vocabularies will become de facto standards?
Thank you! Bryan Kelly e: bryan.kelly@cytrus.biz w: www.cytrus.biz
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