Search Engine Optimization: How To Get Targeted Traffic Via Search

Engines

By Adam Pieniazek – Cofounder – The 42nd Estate

Presentation Outline:

1. What is SEO?2. Create a Website in 5 Minutes3. Content Is King4. Optimizing Code for Speed & Structure5. Digital Networking for Link Building 6. Empowering Your Fans/Customers

What is SEO?

SEO Is NOT

Keyword Spamming Buying Ads (Adsense) Black hat Magic Guaranteed #1

ranking!!! Tricking Search

Engines A Digital Ponzi

Scheme

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jepoirrier/2046188221/

SEO IS Producing quality

content Quality Link Building Optimizing code for

speed and structure Internal Navigation Digital Networking Empowering your fans Usability

http://www.flickr.com/photos/palomagomezg/3431433137/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattsearles/2703757588/

Business Objectives

Is your website the destination or a guide?

Sell products/services? Educate readers? Promote a physical event/store? Generate Ad Revenue?

Create a Website in 5 Minutes

Use Wordpress.org 5 Minute Installation Easy to use Free! SEO Friendly Huge Community Lots of Plugins & Themes Matt Cutts Approved http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-for-bloggers/

Picking a Domain Name

Use .com, DO NOT use .net, .org, .me etc. Use relevant keywords

Good: wintercoats.com Bad: stuffforlowdegreetime.net Worst: things-123.us

Use Google Keywords Tool: http://bit.ly/kwdtool

Google Analytics

Great for tracking trends Can make unique tracking codes per link Utilize Traffic Sources Link to other pages from high traffic pages Expand

Content is King

Content is the #1 factor for SEO

Your content needs to be:

Useful Easy to Read Relevant

Blog!

Blogging produces fresh content

Google loves blogs (because they love fresh content)

Threadless T-shirt from http://bit.ly/TweetALot

Producing Quality Content 79% of web readers scan a page. 16% read word for word. Users stay on your site for 4.4 seconds for

each additional 100 words.

Make your content easy to scan!

Stats from:

How Users Read on the Web http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

How Little Do Users Read? http://www.useit.com/alertbox/percent-text-read.html

Structure Content for Scanning

PhotosHeadings and sub-headingsBold & ItalicsWhite SpaceLists4-600 WordsKeywords at start of sentences / paragraphs / pages.

Optimizing Photos

Compress file size. Save with descriptive filename (use

hyphens to separate keywords). Use “alt tags” to describe photo.

<img src=”/big-dog.jpg” alt=”A big dog runs in the park” />

Surround with text.

Headings

HTML headings take the form of: <h1>This is a heading</h1>

H1 should be used only once per page. H1 should be highly relevant to on page

content and meta title. Use H2 and H3 for content sub-headings Use H4, H5, H6 for secondary content

(sidebars, footer, etc.)

Bold & Italics

When writing content that spans multiple paragraphs, heading and sub-headings help give structure to the document. Bold and italicized words call attention to the reader. They are also used by search engines as a guide. Use bold [ <strong></strong> ] for most important keywords.

White Space

Good use of white space (empty space) brings readers attention to your content.

Lists

Great form of link bait. Search engines & humans love lists Easy to scan. Gives editorial review. Humans naturally search for lists.

Less is Better

Be succinct. Less words = more keyword density. Past 500 words, exponentially less chance

of readers reading. Content higher/earlier is valued more

than content lower/later. Eliminate filler to improve scanning.

Location, Location, Location

Humans and search engine robots place higher value on earlier/top content.

Make your most important points at the start of sentences/paragraphs/pages.

U.S. Visitors read left to right, place content on left, sidebar/extra info on right/bottom.

List your location in meta title, about page, homepage.

Quality Link Building

Produce link bait (lists, tutorials, reviews) Connect with bloggers/webmasters in your

niche Analyze quality site with PageRank, Traffic,

and Your Eye PageRank Toolbar Compete.com, Quantcast.com,

WebsiteGrader.com Content, Design, Community

How To Get Quality Links

CNN.com

Guest Blogging Produce lists Tutorials Contests Google Reader Shares Comments

Optimizing Code for Speed & Structure

Use CSS for styling/layoutAvoid FlashUse CachingMeta TagsSemantic HTMLAnchor TextTest, iterate, test, iterate, test, iterate.

Meta Tags Meta Title

Appears at top of browser window <title>Your Meta Title</title> Should be similar/exact to H1

Meta Description May appear in search results. 160 characters or less. High relevancy to H1/title and content.

Meta Keywords – Don't Bother

Digital Networking

Email lists (newsletter) RSS Feeds Social Media Instant Messaging Blogs Message Boards

Find your audience and push your message to them.

Internal Navigation

Your homepage is (likely) your most powerful page.

Link to important pages from homepage. Make sure all pages are linked to At most 2-3 directories deep Use keywords in anchor text

Empowering your Fans

Share on Social Media Buttons Promote Your Fans Connect with your Fans on Twitter,

Facebook, etc. Find out where they are and join them there.

Comments (respond to them!) Ask them how to improve (polls, emails)

Usability

Have text for non-text elements (CSS Image Replacement)

Describe videos/images with text (publish transcripts).

Degrades gracefully when CSS/Javascript/Images turned off

Check in a text browser (Lynx)

Search Engines are...

Blind

Additional Resources The 42nd Estate's SEO Posts

http://www.the42ndestate.com/tag/seo/ Google's SEO Webmaster Page

http://bit.ly/GooWebSEO Google's SEO Starter Guide (.pdf file)

http://bit.ly/GooSEO Yoast's Wordpress SEO Guide

http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/ Wordpress's SEO Guide

http://bit.ly/SEOwp

Even More Resources!

http://www.seomoz.org/tools http://www.seomoz.org/articles http://tools.seobook.com/ http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ http://websitegrader.com/ http://www.google.com/webmasters/ http://www.wordtracker.com/

Contact Me

E-mail: adam@the42ndestate.com

Office: (617) 326 7402 Cell: (617) 418 1055

Skype: the42ndestatellc

Twitter: @The42ndEstate / @AdamPieniazek

LinkedIn: linkadam.com

Facebook: bit.ly/42fbook / fbadam.com