What is SEO?
Per Wikipedia:
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting
the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s "natural" or un-paid (“organic") search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more
visitors it will receive from the search engine's users.
In Other Words:
It’s a way to get more users to your web site. Very useful for
small businesses and nonprofits who have smaller ad budgets, because organic web traffic is FREE.
Results of COA’s SEO work:
•
Google Page Rank raised from 3 to 4.
http://www.prchecker.info
•
Our site appears at top of the rankings (first page
of search results) for keyword searches like:
delaware ohio senior services (with or without “ohio”) ohio senior services
delaware ohio senior citizens (with or without “ohio”) delaware ohio meals on wheels (with or without “ohio”)
The BIG Secret to Improving Your
Site’s Page Rank:
Understand who’s looking at
your web site, and tailor your
site to their needs.
(So, who IS looking at your site?) (Who are your users?)
What is a spider?
What does it “see?”
What spiders see
Have you seen or worked with the code for your web site?
What spiders can
(and can’t) see…
CAN see:
• Text only, no images (but, they can see the image
names for your files)
• The quality of the writing, repetitive text, etc.
• Working links – and broken ones
• The presence of new media (like video)
• How much a site has changed over time and when
it was last updated
• The number of other sites online which are linking
to your site and the quality of those links (ideally,
from relevant sites that rank at least as high as
yours)
Be spider-friendly
• Consider your text – carefully
• What keywords are the USERS searching for
(not jargon, not professional terminology)
• Keyword density (ex. Shipbuilder)
• Put the most important stuff “above the fold”
• Provide meaningful content – articles with info
Be spider-friendly
• Use your meta tags (but don’t overdo it!) • Write good page titles
• URL addresses should be meaningful
www.bobspizza.org/pizza-toppings
www.bobspizza.org/menufile42revisedjanuary
• ALT tags on your pictures so spiders can “see” them
picture-of-meat-pizza.jpg
pictureofmeatpizza.jpg pepponionmushpizza.jpg
pizza42pic.jpg
Be spider-friendly
• Listen to the experts – the search engines
themselves!
Go to Google and search for:
google search engine optimization starter guide
• Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools
Use new media
• Use new platforms like WordPress to build your
web site
• Start a blog! Host it on your own server.
• Post video. Videos on your home page are the
most frequently clicked item, they increase the
amount of time a human user stays on your
page – and they tell the search engines that
your site is modern, current and interactive.
Use new media
• Social media with links to web site (FB, Twitter,
Pinterest, Instagram, You Tube – pick one or
two, do it well)
• Request links from other sites (only good ones,
and not too many)
• Be an authority – offer content for other higher
ranking web sites in return to links to yours
Digital advertising
• Paid ads – Google Ad Words, providers like Dispatch Digital
• Buy ads on important, relevant web sites with a higher page rank than yours
Pitfalls to Avoid
• Broken links • Stale content
• Infrequent changes & updates (small, frequent, timely updates; eventually, the spiders will come back to check on you more frequently)
• “Over-doing” your SEO efforts (too many keywords,
putting words in white type that human users can’t see – the search engines are one step ahead of you)
• Avoid services that want to direct your traffic to their
servers, assign a phone number to your ad or a new web domain to your site, etc.
Measure your results & keep at it
• Install Google analytics and check it every six months for progress
www.google.com/analytics
• Change site frequently in meaningful ways (life span of a web site now is no longer than 2 years)
• Google PageRank – know it and try to improve it (but be realistic)
• Test your search results; Google yourself! • Be patient – improvement takes time
Hire a Pro?
• SEO is an uncommon skill; most web designers and developers are not well versed
• The rules of SEO are constantly changing
• Many very good web workers do not do SEO – it’s a world of its own
• Get references, ask for proof of results, Google their customers’ web sites – hire carefully!
