SEO Blog Review Presentation WordCamp NYC 2009 by Corey Eulas. This presentation critiques 2 volunteer submitted websites for search engine friendliness. Corey points out common mistakes, gives solutions, and recommends plugins and resources for SEO that every web designer, developer, and blogger must have. Note: I added text in the notes summarizing most of Corey's points about each slide. To get all the information he presented, you absolutely must go to http://www.infosource.net/2009/11/16/if-you-build-it-will-they-come/
Read the blog post which gives a great review of the presentation, and play the audio file along with the slides.
5. First Site: http://kidoinfo.com/ri/ KIDOINFO connects families to creative ideas, things to do, resources, and local events in Rhode Island and beyond. We are always trying to increase our readers.
Google has the largest share of Search Engines, is really the only one to focus on. Sign up for Bing to make Microsoft ‘aware’ of your site. Bing loves your social media networks, make sure Bing ‘knows’ every thing you have connected to your site or blog.
Conversions, acquisitions, retention = 3 necessities for a good website.
Menu is all graphics = BAD. Search engines do not read graphics. Make your navigation TEXT. Guide Graphic – needs more description. Newsletter link should be MUCH bigger and positioned better. Site does not really say what it is about – difficult to decipher. Should have H1 Title tag at top. Recommend: Google SEO101.
Need more specific description. “Online guide…” should say for *what* products, services, etc Keyword(s) must be in Title H1 tag. Google pulls the title and that is what shows up as the link in search results. Description tag becomes description text beneath Title in search results. Firefox with Firebug = necessary tools. Excellent Wordpress Plugin: AllInOneSEO.
Long Tail SEO Mix up Keyword rich phrases: don’t just repeat the title in the description, don’t just repeat the keywords in the description.
Use Google’s Search Based Keyword Tool – see what is most clicked, most relevant to your site, see what your competitors use.
Fix example: All seasonal/ subject graphics should be used as a sidebar menu. Users LOVE images. Images can help SEO if *used properly* and kept “above the fold” If people have to scroll (“below the fold”) they will not likely bother. Keep most important information above the fold.
Example of using graphics/widget to draw attention: large “advertise here” and donation link – above the fold – grabs user’s attention.
Another layout fix example: Graphic menu across the top, above the fold. Keyword –rich Category links along left. Large Subscribe to newsletter link, social network feeds, ads on right – all above float.
Simple but absolutely necessary tools and techniques for proper SEO.
Site Review 2: NearshoreAmericas.com
Bad: Graphic in header and no H1 tag; Site does not clearly state mission. Put blue “Nearshore Americas: Sourcing in Real Time” block above News & Analysis – this block sums up what the site is about and needs to stand out much more.
Way wrong. Site is set for search engines not to follow (‘crawl’) the site and list pages
Way wrong. This is currently set up to block search engines.
Navigation – video layout issue – You must check your site in mutliple browsers – IE 6,7,8, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera… Check your theme and stylesheet conflicts. (I know how to ensure that dropdown navigation always shows above flash/video – this is a common problem :)
Bold, tag, or link Keywords whenever they appear in your site/blog postings. Have plenty of external links that are relevant to your site content. Have plenty of internal links to your other pages and posts within your site.
Must-have tools for SEO optimization. Also use classic.linkdiagnosis.com