This document provides an overview of on-site SEO strategies for building websites. It discusses search engine optimization (SEO) and how search engines work. Key recommendations include focusing on user experience, implementing best practices for titles, URLs, headings, images and more, using analytics to understand traffic, and maintaining SEO efforts over time. The document presents SEO as a career path that requires skills in HTML, social media and working with various clients.
1. Building Your Site for SEO
On-site traffic-driving strategies.
Megan Ura (@Megan_Ura)
St. Edward’s University Instructional Technology
2. What is SEO?
“the practice of improving and promoting a web site in
order to increase the number of visitors the site receives
from search engines” – SEOmoz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO
4. How Crawler-based Search Engines Work
1.Crawling
2.Indexing
3.Calculating Relevancy &
Rankings
4.Serving Results
Your mission:
Make your site easily consumable
for humans and search engines.
5. Search Engine Robot Limitations
1. Crawling and Indexing: HTML text rules
• Forget forms, login fields
• Poor link structures
• Uneven support for plug-in content/media
1. Content to Query Matching: Language, slang
• “fridges” vs. “refrigerators”
1. Is your tree falling in a forest?
• Content must be marketed for visibility
• Generating popularity
6. Planning it Out
On-site
• what you can control
• “content is king”
• site design, structure
Off-site
• What you try to affect
• “link building”
image via SEOmoz
7. Search Plus Your World
January 2012 Algorithm Update
• Google+ Bias
• Related Google+
pages from
people and
brands
• A must-have for
businesses,
writers, any
content makers
image via www.google.com/insidesearch/plus.html
8. Keyword Research 101
What motivates your customers?
1.List most essential aspects of your site
• Review your own copy
• Niche vocabulary and jargon or not?
1. What do you customers want to see, learn about?
2. Learn what your competitors use
3. Use a mix of “popular” and “long tail” keywords
9. Site structure and navigation
• Simple directory structure
• Help visitors find desired content
• Naturally flowing hierarchy
• Create a sitemap
• Why it matters
• Usability and crawl-ability
• Ease of use
• Watch for orphan pages!
image via Google SEO Starter Guide
10. Semantic URL Structure
“friendly” URLs
• short, descriptive file names
• avoid symbols, numbers, capitalizations
• have only one URL per page of content!
Better: brandonsbaseballcards.com/cards/majorleague
image via Google SEO Starter Guide
11. Rules for Choosing your Domain Name
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-domain-name
• Get inspired by keywords.
• Make the domain unique.
• Just Say NO to hyphens and numbers.
• Only choose .com available names.
• Make it easy to type and remember. Keep it short!
• Create and fulfill expectations.
• Set yourself apart with a brand. Don’t follow the latest
naming trends. (flickr.com)
12. <title>The Title Element</title>
Unique, Accurate, Brief
• Site Name/Company Name/Your Name
• Page-specific keyword(s)
• Less than 65 characters, including spaces
• Seen at top of browser, browser tabs and search results
• Users rely on good titles!
Keyword(s) | (Location) | Company Name
14. Quality Content
Unique and fresh – people first, SE’s second
• Easy-to-read, concise, appropriate
• HTML text equivalent for media
• “keyword density” – frequency of use
• “keyword stuffing” – overdoing it!
Why it matters:
• Keeps visitors coming back!
• Visitors will want to share
Image via pchackz.in
15. rel=“canonical”
distinguishing copies from an original
To the <head> element, add:
<link rel=“canonical” href=“http://www.site.com” />
• the page is treated as a
copy of the canon URL
• all of the SE link &
content metrics flows
back to the canon URL
Image via SEOmoz
16. Organize content with headings
• Headings present structure on the page to users.
• 6 sizes: <h1>to <h6>, largest to smallest.
• Use sparingly; only one <h1> per page.
• Serves as an outline for content
image via Google SEO Starter Guide
17. Meaningful Anchor Text
Anchor Text: clickable, hyperlinked text
<a href="...">Anchor Text</a>.
• convey the content linked
• Descriptive, not generic “click here” or URL itself
• Stands out visually
• Use for external and internal linking
image via Google SEO Starter Guide
18. Use “nofollow” when needed
• rel=“nofollow” is a link attribute
• tells search engines certain links on your site shouldn't
pass your page's reputation to the page linked
• sites you can’t vouch for, “bad sites”
• business competitors
A link on the web = a vote, vouch of quality
image via Google SEO Starter Guide
19. Image filenames & alternate text
• Accessibility and search engine relevance
• Used in image search results
• Short, literally descriptive
• Place the image near relevant text content
<img src=“image001.jpg” />
<img src=“SEUlogo.jpg” alt=“St. Edward’s University Logo” />
21. Maintenance
An SEOer’s work is never done.
• Evaluate keyword rankings monthly.
• Watch out for broken links.
• Update your content frequently!
• Integrate social media/blogging.
The Unchanging Core:
1.User Experience
2.On-page SEO and Internal Linking
3.Backlinks: make citation-worthy material
22. SEO as a Career
• Agency, in-house, consulting
• Work with a variety clients and businesses
• HTML and social media literacy skills
23. Where to go from here?
• “Resources” handout
• Books & Blogs
• Consider SEM companies
carefully.
• Promote your site
appropriately.
• Humans first, search engines
second.
image via Google SEO Starter Guide