Website Optimization -SEO - Step By Step
Post on 22-Nov-2014
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BEGINNING SEOSTEP BY STEP
Website Optimization and Search Engine
Optimization
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.
Title tag
Title tag
Keywords
Use tools to generate keywords and find out how they relate to searches performedhttps://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="chapter2.html" title="Go to chapter two">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="/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/favicon.html
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.
URL Structure
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: GooglebotDisallow: /private/privatefile.htmUser-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.google.com/local/add www.maps.google.com
www.local.yahoo.comwww.maps.yahoo.com
Creating a Mapquest Search On Your Sitehttp://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-accessibility-task-force/
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 Leehttp://www.mialynnlee.com/web/about/
@webbiegirl on Twitterhttp://twitter.com/webbiegirl
Teaching eMarketing workshops at Wichita Area Technical College http://www.watc.edu/business-emarketing.php
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