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Objectives• Move beyond META tags• SEO in Higher Education• Define terms• Establish “The Factors”• Keyword Research Techniques• Discuss Google• Keepin’ it real - practical• Resources
The Rise of Search
• Search is the 2nd most popular online activity, after email.
• Percentage of net users who search on a typical day grew 70% from 2002 to 2008
Pew Internet and Americal Life Project
The Rise of Search
SEO = Search Engine Optimization
Using targeted keywords and phrases so a website’s pages will rank high on SERPs.
Note that SEO also stands for Search Engine Optimizer
SERP = Search Engine Results Page
Definition
SEM = Search Engine Marketing
DefinitionAll endeavors that utilize search engines to promote a web site, increase its traffic and/or stickiness, and ultimately augment return on investment.
SEM methods include SEO, paid placement, pay-per-click and paid inclusion campaigns.
SPAM
"Dear google.com,I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."
It’s not a quick fixSEO is a best practice
• Web developers
• Writers
• Editors in various departments
• Application developers
• Administration
• Vendors
ConversionsWhat is a higher ed conversion?
• Getting a sale = convert a prospective into a confirmed
• Get students involved in activities• Building school pride• Provide audience for experts• Allow faculty and research to publicize their
findings, discoveries which could lead to more students, grants, funding, collaboration, tenure
• Job postings
Fountain Day
UGH!
Organic vs.
Pay Per Click “PPC”
Pay Per ClickDefinition
Advertisers submit bids to search-engine companies for words.
They pay each time the “sponsored link” is clicked.
PPC Related TermsDefinitions
CPC – Cost-per-clickThe cost to advertisers per click by a user.
CTR – Click through rateThe number of users who clicked on an ad divided by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions). Usually seen as a percentage.
Pay Per ClickCompetition
Universities and CollegesEspecially the online Universities with a national/international presence such as Phoenix, Capella, Walden etc…
Advertising Agencies & Online Directory CompaniesUse PPC to draw Web searches to sites they use to find prospective students, or "leads."
ExamplesPetersons, OffToCollege.com, CollegeBoard.com, etc…
PPCWeekend
MBABiologyMajor
PPCGrowing in Cost
Prices for popular keywords…
• "associate's degree" • "master's degree”• "business program"
…on Yahoo have each about doubled in the past two years.
Negative Key Word“Online”
PPCGrowing in Competition
"It's both more expensive and less effective because more people are doing it."
Margee EnsignDean of the School of International StudiesUniversity of the Pacific
PPCBidding Techniques
Start a campaign at the end of the day or the end of the month
“It’s often possible to find popular keywords available for lower prices at those times because other groups have already spent their budgets.”
Greg JarboeCo-founderSEO-PR Inc
PPCBidding Techniques
Bid on less popular words/phrases
You’ll get less clicks, so it will cost you less.
Those who actually click will more likely lead to a conversion = Quality Traffic
SERPs - Organic Listings
The Golden TriangleEye Tools Research
Pay Per Click $$$
Organic = Free
Focus on Organic Listings
Conversion RatesOrganic Listings 4.2%Paid Listings 3.6%
Organic clicked 5x more than PPC
From “Marketing Sherpa” - Search Marketing Benchmark Survey 2005
Metrics
Search Result Page
Average Participant
6.5 seconds to clickRead 4 to 5 listings.
Title Tags
Compelling and Attractive TITLES increase click-through!
Golden Triangle Statistics
85% click on organic
72% click the first link of interest
25% read all listings first, then click
Organic Search Results Viewed
0102030405060708090
100
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Golden Triangle Statistics
Web Search Market ShareAugust 2008
Google 71%Yahoo 18%MSN 5%Ask 3%
Other 3%
Yahoo
MSN
PageRank• One of the methods Google uses to determine a
page’s relevance or importance.• Each web page - not site - has a PageRank
score• Developed by the founders of Google, Sergey
Brin and Larry Page• It’s an algorithm which helps rank web pages
based on the probability that a random person surfing the Internet will find a given page.
• PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value.
• Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.
• Votes cast by "important" pages weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
PageRank
PageRank
View a page’s PageRank with Google Toolbar
PageRank
Most Higher Ed Rank 5-8
MIT, Harvard, Stanford = 9
Maria College = 5
PageRank
Google PageRank
• No longer the primary ranking factor
• PageRank is no longer recalculated on a 30 day cycle
• Used to determine crawl frequency, crawl depth, and database selection.
Page Rank Today
Authority & ReputationLinks are Key
Link Popularity / Authority•Links = “Votes”•Links from many pages signify an important page•Links from important pages carry more ‘weight’•Important pages rank higher
Link Reputation•Links from related pages enforce the theme•Links from related words pass on that theme•Strongly themed pages rank well for related queries
Links - Best Practices
Bad• http://mysite.com• http://www.mysite.com/index.html• http://mysite.com/index.html
Good• http://www.mysite.com/• Use redirects and make all internal links point to
your domain using the “http://www.mysite.com/”• Always include trailing “/” on folders.
Link Best Practices
Search engines treat…
http://measuring-up.com/
and
http://www.measuring-up.com/
…as two different sites.
Link Text
SEO: Link nouns not verbs
Avoid “click here”
View the course catalog.
View the course catalog.
4.4 Anchor Text of Inbound Link
3.1 Text Surrounding the Link
Google Webmaster Help Center• http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/• http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=
40349
Google on SEO• http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/
answer.py?answer=35291
How can I create a Google-friendly site?
“Department of Biology”
Off-The-Page SEOAKA Link Building
• Reciprocal linking • RSS news feeds• Linkbait = good topical content • Digg, YouTube, Facebook• Forums
Off page optimizations consist entirely of link building strategies.
The Factors
SEOmoz.org
Search Engine Ranking Factors V24.9 Keyword Use in Title Tag
4.4 Global Link Popularity of Site – “Weight” or “Authority”
4.4 Anchor Text of Inbound Link
4.1 Age of Site
4.0 Link Popularity within Internal Site Structure
3.7 Keyword Use in Body Text
3.5 Links to Quality/Relevant External Sites
3.4 Age of Document
3.3 Keyword Use in H1
3.2 Age of Link
3.1 Text Surrounding the Link
Factor 1: Page TitleThe #1 important on-the-page ranking factor!
Length: 70 characters or lessGoogle description uses 70 characters.
Use Keyphrases or KeywordsAlso use it in beginning of page text.
The title is your search results link. It should be clear, sensible, and encourage a click.
Page Title Strategy
Page titles are for more than just SEO
•Bookmark text
•Answers question “Where am I”
Search Engine Ranking Factors V24.9 Keyword Use in Title Tag
4.4 Global Link Popularity of Site – “Weight” or “Authority”
4.4 Anchor Text of Inbound Link
4.1 Age of Site
4.0 Link Popularity within Internal Site Structure
3.7 Keyword Use in Body Text
3.5 Links to Quality/Relevant External Sites
3.4 Age of Document
3.3 Keyword Use in H1
3.2 Age of Link
3.1 Text Surrounding the Link
Search Engine Ranking Factors V24.9 Keyword Use in Title Tag
4.4 Global Link Popularity of Site – “Weight” or “Authority”
4.4 Anchor Text of Inbound Link
4.1 Age of Site
4.0 Link Popularity within Internal Site Structure
3.7 Keyword Use in Body Text
3.5 Links to Quality/Relevant External Sites
3.4 Age of Document
3.3 Keyword Use in H1
3.2 Age of Link
3.1 Text Surrounding the Link
Search Engine Ranking Factors V2
2.8 Keyword Use in H2, H3 etc…
2.8 Keyword Use in Page URL
2.6 Keyword Use in ALT Tags
2.4 Frequency of Page Updates
2.0 Keyword Use in Meta Description Tag
1.4 HTML Validation
1.2 Keyword Use in Meta Keywords Tag
META Description
• 70 words
• Sometimes shows up in Google SERP
• Page specific
• Includes main page keyphrases
Keyword Use in Meta Description Tag
Search Engine Ranking Factors V2
2.8 Keyword Use in H2, H3 etc…
2.8 Keyword Use in Page URL
2.6 Keyword Use in ALT Tags
2.4 Frequency of Page Updates
2.0 Keyword Use in Meta Description Tag
1.4 HTML Validation
1.2 Keyword Use in Meta Keywords Tag
Search Engine Ranking Factors V2
2.8 Keyword Use in H2, H3 etc…Semantic markup
2.8 Keyword Use in Page URL
2.6 Keyword Use in ALT Tags
2.4 Frequency of Page Updates
2.0 Keyword Use in Meta Description Tag
1.4 HTML Validation
1.2 Keyword Use in Meta Keywords Tag
META Keywords
• Abused and discredited
• Stuff you don’t want in page text
• Misspellings
• Keyword “forks” – SUNY Albany
• 5 to 10 phrases
• Do not repeat too much
1.2 Keyword Use in Meta Keywords Tag
Search Engine Indexing LimitsPage File Size
No more than 150 kilobytes Before Images, CSS and other Attachments
Links Per Page
No more than 100 unique links per page
Title Tag
No more than 70 characters
Meta Description
No more than 155 characters
Search Engine Indexing Limits
Parameters in URL: No more than 2
Depth of URL: No more than 4
Bad Examplehttp://www.mysite.com/people/places/things/noun/danny/car
Best Practicehttp://www.mysite.com/people/danny/
AvoidImage Text
Iframes for displaying content
Flash, Silverlight or video for content without text equivalents
AJAX – Avoid navigation thatrelies on javascriptonClick="navigate('ajax.html#)
Keywords
Keywords are the foundation of SEO
Your institution, departments, offices etc… should determine critical keywords
Research their potential value and effectiveness
Keyphrase Research
1. Brainstorm
2. Bust out the tools
3. Finalize list
4. Implement
5. Rinse and repeat
Brain Storm• What words would prospective students use?
• Avoid overly generic terms are difficult to rank for and won't provide qualified traffic
• Check out competition and their Keywords META tags if they use them
• Add location!
• Misspellings
• Break out sessions by category – department, school, organization etc…
Number of keywords used
1 Word Query – 15% Admissions
2 Word Query – 32% UAlbany Admissions
3 Word Query – 27% SUNY Albany Admissions
4 Word Query – 15% UAlbany Admissions Campus Tour
5 Word Query – 11% University at Albany Admissions
Tour
85% of searches online are with 2 or more keywords
Source: Search Engine Watch 2007 Search Engine Watch 2007
Keyphrase Combos
1. Create as complete a sentence as possible
2. Specifically describe page content
3. Using strongest keywords and phrases
4. Avoid highly competitive phrases
Word Game: Create a 3 or 4-Term Combo
Are visitors looking for“Prospective Students”?
Use keywords in the navigation that visitors use to find your site.
– Easier for visitors to navigate the site– Improved rankings, search engines better understand how
your site is related to searches.
Search Volumes“Prospective Students”= 6,500/month“University Admissions”= 135,000/month
Keyword “Stemming”
Swim = Swimming = Swims
It’s all the same to the major search engines
Keyphrase BrainstormFountain DaySchool SpiritCelebrationCommunityCampus TraditionUniversity TraditionAlumni MemoriesCollege FountainUniversity FountainFountain CelebrationWorld RecordSUNY Albany FountainSpring CelebrationGuinness World RecordPillow FightBeach Balls
Fountain CountdownCampus PartyCampus UnityFountain PartyCollege Rite of SpringFood fun and fountainJump in Fountain
Non-alcoholic eventStudent PartyCollege Student PartyFountain Day DrunkFountain Day DrinkingFountain Day Mayhem Party SchoolSUNY Albany Party School
Keyphrase Research
Determine the value of keywords/phrases to increase traffic to a page or site.
Keyphrase Tools
Utilize Internal Search ResultsWhat are visitors using
Find out what words your visitors use to get to your site.
Consult web analytics or Google Webmaster Tools – Top Search Queries
What’s the difference?
Keyword Research“Head” vs. “Tail” Terms
Step 2 – Keyphrase Research
BrandKey Phrases
65%of our queries
Head Terms– Dominated by Brand key phrases – Drive most of your traffic– Most expensive for PPC– Most competitive– Less relevant– Shorter
Keyword Research“Head” vs. “Tail” Terms
Long Tail– Dominated by generic category key phrases – Drives least amount of traffic per search– Least expensive for PPC– Less competitive and easier to win– Drives less but more qualified traffic to website
Keyword Research“Head” vs. “Tail” Terms
Long Tail
Keyword Research“Head” vs. “Tail” Terms
The combined effect of optimizing for many longer search terms will be to bring in a great deal of highly qualified traffic
Optimization for the general terms will occur naturally by their inclusion in these more specific phrases
Keyphrase Research Tools
• Assists with keyword/phrase brainstorming
• Show how often search terms are used
• Quantifies the effectiveness of keywords/phrases
“Competition”
Less competition for a keyword/phrase mean that it will be easier to reach the top of SERPs.
Keyword/phrase Tools
1. Google AdWords is the best free keyphrase toolhttps://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
2. WordTrackerThe industry standard, a subscription is required – also has a free tool
3. Overture Database Search No longer consistently available
4. Microsoft AdCenterNot for Mac/Safari
Other Keyword Search Tools
• Trellian – Keyword Discovery
• Spyfu
• Nichebot
• Hitwise
• Trends
• Yahoo suggestion on search
Wordtracker
Metacrawler Search Engines Queries several of the main search engines to compile its own results - Google, Yahoo and MSN
175 million searches each month
Wordtracker keeps the last two months of search results in its database
Uses Metacrawler Search EnginesMetacrawler and Dogpile
KEIKeyword Effectiveness Index
1. PopularityNumber of times a term is searched
2. CompetitionNumber of pages returned by search for a term
Ratio of Two crucial variables
Higher the KEI, better the keyword
Wordtracker
ExampleFind a baseball card that is searched many times, but has few page results.
KEI - Find a Niche - Opportunities
Pete Rose baseball cardSearched 100 times daily found on 1,000 pagesRatio is 1/10
Derek Jeter baseball cardSearched 1000 times daily found on 100,000Ratio is 1/100
We are looking for opportunity.
Google AdWords Keyword Tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Best free keyphrase tool
Helps with brainstorming
Displays keyword/phrase effectiveness
Finds opportunities
AdWords vs. Wordtracker
AdWords is a better free tool than the free Wordtracker tool.
Full Wordtracker has more sophisticated tool set and is the industry standard.
Wordtracker service keeps track of multiple projects.
Wordtracker provides more precise measurements for word/phrase effectiveness.
AdWords integrates well with Google Analytics.
• Begin with one general keyword• Be sure to check the “Use synonyms” box• Let the tool build a large list of keywords
Source: Google External Keyword Tool
Using AdWords for Keyphrase ResearchThe Process
Keyword ResearchBuilding Lists
• Scroll through the results list and add all terms appropriate to the School of Business site.
• When complete, download list into Excel or other tool.
• Repeat the process as other terms become apparent and expand those as well with the “Get more related keywords” button.
• Continue building the list using all free tools available
– Don’t worry about adding duplicates at this point
– Keep looking for new terms that have been missed and expand those
Repeat the process using the “website content” tool on Google.– Select the option “Include other pages on my site linked from
this URL”
Keyword StrategyBuilding Lists
Keyword StrategyOrganizing and grouping lists
Create a full list of your keywords
management school business school businee college mbamanagement school best business school business college mba degreemanagement schools best business schools business college course mba program
business management schools business college degree mba programsbusiness school business college degrees executive mbabusiness school rankings business college universitybusiness schools business collegesbusiness schools mba top business collegebusiness schools rankgraduate business schoolgraduate business schoolsinternational business schoolsrankings business schoolstop business schooltop business schoolsundergraduate business schoolsuniversity business schools
Keywordsbest business schoolbest business schoolsbusiness collegebusiness educationbusiness management schoolsbusiness schoolbusiness school rankingsbusiness schoolsbusiness schools mbabusiness schools rankexecutive mbagraduate business schoolgraduate business schoolsinternational business schoolsmanagement schoolmanagement schoolsmba degreemba programmba programsrankings business schoolstop business schooltop business schoolsundergraduate business schoolsuniversity business schools
Break out the list into categories
Web Writing
• Write for the “inverted pyramid”.• Make the visible text on a page "search-
friendly" • Embed links in body copy• Add <strong>tags</strong>• Add captions with strong keywords/phrases
frequently
Optimizing Body Copy
YUCK!
Large blocks of text without headlines and subheadings
Bad for SEOBad for Visitors
Web Writing
Use keywords – a few times per page
Create AZ indexes for Department, Organizations, College and Schools
Write more - at least 250 words per page
Add extra pages
Never sacrifice tone, feel or usability
Poynter Institute
Eye Tracking Studies Nov 2007
600 subjects in 4 cities
We have not lost our ability to read in depth
F Pattern
Eye Tracking StudiesPoynter Institute
Inverted Pyramid
Poynter Institute
Eye Tracking Studies Nov 2007
Attention spans have not shortened dramatically.
Readers are more selective about what they read.
We are more dependent on navigation, headings and bulleted text
It helps us find info or identify what not to read
Poynter Institute
Eye Tracking Studies Nov 2007
“Most surprising, they read further into stories online than in print. That was true for stories of all lengths.”
MetricsMeasuring Success
• Track ranking in SERPs – screenshots, or excel files
• Follow traffic through web analytics
BlackHatSEO
Black Hat SEO
• Evil trickery
• Breaks search engine rules
• Poor user experience
• Google hacks
Black Hat SEO Techniques To Avoid
Keyword stuffingPacking long lists of keywords.
Invisible textWhite text on white background.
Doorway PagesRedirects packed with keywords.
It can get you banished from search results!
Social Media OptimizationPotential for organic traffic and quality backlinks
“Linkbait”
Google News Sitemap
• News releases and other campus related stories are packed with keywords
• But they may be getting lost and not recognized by Google in a timely way
• Search for “Google News Sitemap”
Resources: Books
Search Engine Optimization: Your visual blueprint for effective Internet marketing
Resources: Books
Search Engine Optimization:
How to Optimize Your Website for Internet Search Engines
Resources: On the Web
SEOmoz.orgEspecially see SEOmoz Beginner’s Guide
SearchEngineWatch.comhttp://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/
Google Webmaster Toolshttp://www.google.com/support/webmasters/
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349
SEOBook.comhttp://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/
Don’t let the tail wag the dog.
• SEO is a best practice
• Write good content
• Get everyone involved
• Know the factors
• Try out key phase research tools