Optimizing Your Blog for Google, Facebook, and Pinterest

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

OPTIMIZING YOUR BLOGFor Google, Facebook, and Pinterest

image: (cc) yasa_ via flickr

KATHERINE COWLEY@kathycowley

facebook.com/kathycowley

Cowley.k.e@gmail.com

Katherinecowley.com

Giftso.me

image: (cc) derrick.beaudiere via flickr @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

www.katherinecowley.com

February 2013

127 visitors

250 page views

October 2014

1575 visitors

2290 page views

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

MY COMPANION LLAMA

image: (cc) Mary and her camera via compfight @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

original image: (cc) Dimitris Papazimouris via flickr @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

image: (cc) Chad Cooper via flickr @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

image: (cc) Berit Watkin via flickr @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

image: (cc) Francisco Martins @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

Content:• Stimulating

• Searchable

• Sharable

• Savable

image: (cc) Ritesh Nayak via flickr @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

Subject

STIMULATING CONTENT

Audience Speaker

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

Content:• Stimulating

• Searchable

• Sharable

• Savable

image: (cc) Ritesh Nayak via flickr @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

GOOGLE RANKINGS

1. CONTENT: relevancy for a particular word

or phrase

2. CREDIBILITY: how popular your blog post is

compared to others (links)

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TYPES OF CONTENT

1. HEDONIC: less adapted for search engine

optimization

2. UTILITARIAN: more adapted for search

engine optimization

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 1: WRITE AN AWESOME BLOG POST

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 2: FIND OUT WHAT PEOPLE ARE SEARCHING FOR

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 3: INCLUDE YOUR KEYWORDS IN YOUR TITLE, URL, AND POST

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 4: TO BE PERFECTLY OPTIMIZED, WORDS MUST BE IN EXACT ORDER AS THE SEARCH

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

image: (cc) Dimitris Papazimouris via flickr @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 5: INCLUDE RELATED KEYWORDS IN YOUR POST

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

RELATED KEYWORDS

Main Keywords

• Gifts

• Film

• Media Arts

• Screenwriting

• Graduate students

• Professors

Related Keywords

• Present

• Ideas

• Products

• Grad students

• Masters student

• Graduation

• PhD

• Movie

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 6: USE ANALYTICS

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 7: CREATE AN OPTIMIZED PAGE THAT LINKS TO YOUR HEDONIC POSTS

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 8: POST CONSISTENTLY

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 9: PARTICIPATE IN BASIC LINKBUILDING

• Guest blogging

• Turn mentions into links

• Relevant, non-spammy comments

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 10 (ADVANCED): USE GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER FOR MORE SEARCH DETAILS

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

source: Shareaholic @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 1: USE AN IMAGE

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 2: CREATE A BUZZWORTHY TITLE

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

Bad Titles• What I’ve Been Thinking About

• November Updates

• Cool Infomercials

Better Titles• Why I No Longer Yell at My Children

• My New Novel is Coming Next Month!

(And Other November News)

• 26 of the Finest Acting Moments in

Infomercial History

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 3: TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE FIRST FEW SENTENCES

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 4: MAKE YOUR POSTS KAIROTIC(TIMELY)

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

Origin

Maturity

(kairos)

Deterioration

Disintegration

LIFE CYCLE OF A RHETORICAL SITUATION

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 5: ADD BUTTONS

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 6 (ADVANCED): USE OPEN GRAPH PROTOCOL

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley source: Pew Research Center

source: Shareaholic @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

PINTEREST RETAIL STATS

• Pinterest accounts for 25% of all retail traffic.

• Shoppers referred from Pinterest spend more than those referred by other networks.

• Amount spent per check out:

• Referred by Pinterest: $140-180 per order

• Referred by Facebook: $80 per order

• Referred by Twitter: $60 per order

• 43% of Pinterest users interact with brands or retailers on Pinterest; only 24% of

Facebook users interact with brands or retailers on Facebook

sources: digiday.com; entrepreneur.com @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

image: (cc) frerieke via flickr; source: Ahalogy @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 1: SPEND A WEEK ON PINTEREST

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

image: (cc) Mike Licht via flickr @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

PINTEREST CATEGORIES IN ORDER OF BROWSING FREQUENCY

• Food & Drink

• DIY & Crafts

• Home Décor

• Holidays & Events

• Design

• Gardening

• Hair & Beauty

• Women’s Fashion

• Health & Fitness

• Humor

• Gifts

• Quotes

• Products

• Photography

• Film, Music, &

Books

• Travel

• Outdoors

• Animals

• Art

• Illustration &

Posters

• Place Boards

• Weddings

• Kids

• Science & Nature

• Education

• Technology

• Tattoos

• Videos

• Geek

• Celebrities

• Architecture

• History

• Sports

• Men’s Fashion

• Cars & Motorcycles

source: Ahalogy 2014 Pinterest Media Consumption Study @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 2: ALWAYS USE AN IMAGE

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

• Flickr

• Compfight

• Bing

• Google

• Wikimedia Commons

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 3: OPTIMIZE YOUR IMAGE FOR PINTEREST

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

• No human

faces

• Little

background

• Multiple

colors

• Lots of red

• Moderate

light and

color

• Portrait style

source: wired.com @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 4: USE GOOD IMAGE FILE NAMES OR ALTERNATIVE TEXT

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 5: MOVE PEOPLE FROM PINTEREST TO YOUR WEBSITE

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 6: LEARN PHOTOSHOP(OR AT LEAST POWERPOINT)

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 7: USE PIN IT PLUG-INS AND PINTEREST FOR BUSINESSES

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

TIP 8 (ADVANCED): USE RICH PINS

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

Types of rich pins:

Movie, recipe, article, product, and place

@kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

image: (cc) H is for Home via flickr @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley

KATHERINE COWLEY@kathycowley

facebook.com/kathycowley

cowley.k.e@gmail.com

Katherinecowley.com

Giftso.me

image: (cc) derrick.beaudiere via flickr @kathycowleyKatherine Cowley