Title: Search Engine Optimization Beyond META Tags
1Search Engine OptimizationBeyond META Tags
- Brian Smith
- Web Developer
- bsmith2_at_uamail.albany.edu
Flunky
2Objectives
- Move beyond META tags
- SEO in Higher Education
- Define terms
- Establish The Factors
- Keyword Research Techniques
- Discuss Google
- Keepin it real - practical
- Resources
3The 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
4The Rise of Search
5SEO Search Engine Optimization
Definition
- Using targeted keywords and phrases so a
websites pages will rank high on SERPs.
SERP Search Engine Results Page
Note that SEO also stands for Search Engine
Optimizer
6SEM Search Engine Marketing
- Definition
- All 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.
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8- SPAM
- "Dear google.com,I visited your website and
noticed that you are not listed in most of the
major search engines and directories..."
9Its not a quick fixSEO is a best practice
- Web developers
- Writers
- Editors in various departments
- Application developers
- Administration
- Vendors
10ConversionsWhat 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
11Fountain Day
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13UGH!
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15Organic vs. Pay Per Click PPC
16Pay Per Click
Definition
Advertisers submit bids to search-engine
companies for words. They pay each time the
sponsored link is clicked.
17PPC Related Terms
Definitions
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.
18Pay Per Click
Competition
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
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20PPC
WeekendMBA
BiologyMajor
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22PPC
Growing 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.
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24Negative Key WordOnline
25PPC
Growing in Competition
"It's both more expensive and less effective
because more people are doing it." Margee
Ensign Dean of the School of International
Studies University of the Pacific
26PPC
Bidding Techniques
Start a campaign at the end of the day or the
end of the month Its often possible to find
popular keywords available for lower prices at
those times because other groups have already
spent their budgets. Greg Jarboe Co-founder SEO-
PR Inc
27PPC
Bidding Techniques
Bid on less popular words/phrases Youll get
less clicks, so it will cost you less. Those who
actually click will more likely lead to a
conversion Quality Traffic
28SERPs - Organic Listings
29The Golden TriangleEye Tools Research
Pay Per Click Organic Free
30Focus on Organic Listings
Metrics
- Conversion Rates
- Organic Listings 4.2
- Paid Listings 3.6
- Organic clicked 5x more than PPC
- From Marketing Sherpa - Search Marketing
Benchmark Survey 2005
31Search Result Page
- Average Participant
- 6.5 seconds to clickRead 4 to 5 listings.
- Title Tags
- Compelling and Attractive TITLES increase
click-through!
32Golden Triangle Statistics
85 click on organic 72 click the first link of
interest 25 read all listings first, then click
33Golden Triangle Statistics
Organic Search Results Viewed
34Web Search Market ShareAugust 2008
MSN
Google 71 Yahoo 18 MSN 5 Ask 3 Other 3
Yahoo
Google
35PageRank
- One of the methods Google uses to determine a
pages relevance or importance. - Each web page - not site - has a PageRank score
- Developed by the founders of Google, Sergey Brin
and Larry Page - Its an algorithm which helps rank web pages
based on the probability that a random person
surfing the Internet will find a given page.
36PageRank
- 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."
37PageRank
- View a pages PageRank with Google Toolbar
38PageRank
- Most Higher Ed Rank 5-8
- MIT, Harvard, Stanford 9
- Maria College 5
39PageRank
40Google PageRank
Page Rank Today
- 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.
41Authority 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
42Links - 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.
43Link Best Practices
- Search engines treat
- http//measuring-up.com/
- and
- http//www.measuring-up.com/
- as two different sites.
44Link Text
4.4 Anchor Text of Inbound Link
3.1 Text Surrounding the Link
Avoid click here
SEO Link nouns not verbs
View the course catalog.
View the course catalog.
45How can I create a Google-friendly site?
- Google Webmaster Help Center
- http//www.google.com/support/webmasters/
- http//www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answe
r.py?answer40349 - Google on SEO
- http//www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answe
r.py?answer35291
46Department of Biology
47Off-The-Page SEOAKA Link Building
Off page optimizations consist entirely of link
building strategies.
- Reciprocal linking
- RSS news feeds
- Linkbait good topical content
- Digg, YouTube, Facebook
- Forums
48The Factors
49SEOmoz.org
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51Search Engine Ranking Factors V2
4.9 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
52Factor 1 Page TitleThe 1 important on-the-page
ranking factor!
The title is your search results link. It should
be clear, sensible, and encourage a click.
- Length 70 characters or lessGoogle description
uses 70 characters. - Use Keyphrases or KeywordsAlso use it in
beginning of page text.
53Page Title Strategy
- Page titles are for more than just SEO
- Bookmark text
- Answers question Where am I
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55Search Engine Ranking Factors V2
4.9 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
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57Search Engine Ranking Factors V2
4.9 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
58Search 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
59META Description
Keyword Use in Meta Description Tag
- 70 words
- Sometimes shows up in Google SERP
- Page specific
- Includes main page keyphrases
60Search 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
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62Search Engine Ranking Factors V2
2.8 Keyword Use in H2, H3 etcSemantic
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
63META Keywords
1.2 Keyword Use in Meta Keywords Tag
- Abused and discredited
- Stuff you dont want in page text
- Misspellings
- Keyword forks SUNY Albany
- 5 to 10 phrases
- Do not repeat too much
64Search Engine Indexing Limits
- Page File SizeNo more than 150 kilobytes
Before Images, CSS and other Attachments - Links Per PageNo more than 100 unique links per
page - Title TagNo more than 70 characters
- Meta DescriptionNo more than 155 characters
65Search Engine Indexing Limits
- Parameters in URL No more than 2
- Depth of URL No more than 4
- Bad Example
- http//www.mysite.com/people/places/things/noun/da
nny/car - Best Practice
- http//www.mysite.com/people/danny/
66Avoid
- Image Text
- Iframes for displaying content
- Flash, Silverlight or video for content without
text equivalents - AJAX Avoid navigation thatrelies on
javascriptonClick"navigate('ajax.html)
67Keywords
Keywords are the foundation of SEO Your
institution, departments, offices etc should
determine critical keywords Research their
potential value and effectiveness
68 Keyphrase Research
- Brainstorm
- Bust out the tools
- Finalize list
- Implement
- Rinse and repeat
69Brain 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
70Number 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
71Keyphrase Combos
Word Game Create a 3 or 4-Term Combo
- Create as complete a sentence as possible
- Specifically describe page content
- Using strongest keywords and phrases
- Avoid highly competitive phrases
72Are visitors looking forProspective Students?
Search Volumes Prospective Students
6,500/month University Admissions 135,000/month
- 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.
73Keyword Stemming
Swim Swimming Swims
Its all the same to the major search engines
74Keyphrase Brainstorm
Fountain Day School Spirit Celebration Community C
ampus Tradition University Tradition Alumni
Memories College Fountain University
Fountain Fountain Celebration World Record SUNY
Albany Fountain Spring Celebration Guinness World
Record Pillow Fight Beach Balls
Fountain Countdown Campus Party Campus
Unity Fountain Party College Rite of Spring Food
fun and fountain Jump in Fountain Non-alcoholic
event Student Party College Student
Party Fountain Day Drunk Fountain Day
Drinking Fountain Day Mayhem Party School SUNY
Albany Party School
75Keyphrase Research
Determine the value of keywords/phrases to
increase traffic to a page or site.
76Keyphrase Tools
77Utilize 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
78Keyword ResearchHead vs. Tail Terms
Whats the difference?
79Step 2 Keyphrase Research
BrandKey Phrases 65 of our queries
80Keyword ResearchHead vs. Tail Terms
- Head Terms
- Dominated by Brand key phrases
- Drive most of your traffic
- Most expensive for PPC
- Most competitive
- Less relevant
- Shorter
81Keyword ResearchHead 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
82Keyword ResearchHead vs. Tail Terms
Long Tail
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
83Keyphrase Research Tools
- Assists with keyword/phrase brainstorming
- Show how often search terms are used
- Quantifies the effectiveness of keywords/phrases
84 Competition
Less competition for a keyword/phrase mean that
it will be easier to reach the top of SERPs.
85Keyword/phrase Tools
- Google AdWords is the best free keyphrase
toolhttps//adwords.google.com/select/KeywordTool
External - WordTrackerThe industry standard, a subscription
is required also has a free tool - Overture Database Search No longer consistently
available - Microsoft AdCenterNot for Mac/Safari
86Other Keyword Search Tools
- Trellian Keyword Discovery
- Spyfu
- Nichebot
- Hitwise
- Trends
- Yahoo suggestion on search
87Wordtracker
Uses Metacrawler Search EnginesMetacrawler and
Dogpile
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
88KEIKeyword Effectiveness Index
- Higher the KEI, better the keyword
Ratio of Two crucial variables
- PopularityNumber of times a term is searched
- CompetitionNumber of pages returned by search
for a term
89Wordtracker
KEI - Find a Niche - Opportunities
Example Find a baseball card that is searched
many times, but has few page results.
Pete Rose baseball card Searched 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
90We are looking for opportunity.
91Google AdWords Keyword Tool
https//adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExter
nal
Best free keyphrase tool Helps with
brainstorming Displays keyword/phrase
effectiveness Finds opportunities
92AdWords 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.
93Using AdWords for Keyphrase ResearchThe Process
- 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
94Keyword 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 - Dont worry about adding duplicates at this point
- Keep looking for new terms that have been missed
and expand those
95Keyword StrategyBuilding Lists
- Repeat the process using the website content
tool on Google. - Select the option Include other pages on my site
linked from this URL
96Keyword StrategyOrganizing and grouping lists
- Create a full list of your keywords
Break out the list into categories
97Web Writing
- Write for the inverted pyramid.
- Make the visible text on a page "search-friendly"
- Embed links in body copy
- Add ltstronggttagslt/stronggt
- Add captions with strong keywords/phrases
frequently
98Optimizing Body Copy
YUCK! Large blocks of text without headlines and
subheadings Bad for SEO Bad for Visitors
99Web 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
100Eye Tracking Studies Nov 2007
Poynter Institute
600 subjects in 4 cities We have not lost our
ability to read in depth
101Eye Tracking Studies
Poynter Institute
F Pattern
Inverted Pyramid
102Eye Tracking Studies Nov 2007
Poynter Institute
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
103Eye Tracking Studies Nov 2007
Poynter Institute
Most surprising, they read further into stories
online than in print. That was true for stories
of all lengths.
104MetricsMeasuring Success
- Track ranking in SERPs screenshots, or excel
files - Follow traffic through web analytics
105Black Hat SEO
106Black Hat SEO
- Evil trickery
- Breaks search engine rules
- Poor user experience
- Google hacks
107Black 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!
108Social Media Optimization
Potential for organic traffic and quality
backlinks
Linkbait
109Google 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
110Resources Books
- Search Engine Optimization Your visual blueprint
for effective Internet marketing
111Resources Books
- Search Engine Optimization
- How to Optimize Your Website for Internet Search
Engines
112Resources On the Web
- SEOmoz.orgEspecially see SEOmoz Beginners Guide
- SearchEngineWatch.comhttp//blog.searchenginewatc
h.com/blog/ - Google Webmaster Tools
- http//www.google.com/support/webmasters/
- http//www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answe
r.py?answer40349 - SEOBook.comhttp//tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools
/seobook/
113Dont 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