SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
BASIC 101
Why Bother with SEO
• > 85% of all web visitors arrive through search
• 60% of all queries today are 3 words or more
• 87% of click-through are organic (not paid ads)
Increasing awareness of organization Increasing traffic to the site
In 2014
mobile search will
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
SEO
– Then and Now
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SEO Then
Key Words, key words,
key words
Link Building at all costs
First page was good
enough •
SEO Now
• Content, content, content • Location – Places • Engagement – reviews, blogs, likes, G+• High value link building
• Ranking 1-3 a MUST
Search Engines Mission
SEO Optimization 101
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Headers - titles
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Title Tags
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Description Tags
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Alt tags
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High value links
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Anchor text (link text)
• Content
And remember the url lesson:
Do not use index.aspx in URLs
• www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/index.aspx
• www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/
Headers (titles that show on the page)
• ALWAYS use header tags
• H1 is critical to SEO
• 120 characters long with the key search words IN FRONT; first 70 will show
Title Tags
• Ever page MUST have one and every one MUST be unique (yes all 50,000+ pages)
• Is the “title” on the SERP page and only about 60
characters show
• Needs to be what the page is about, using key words in the first 60 characters
• The actual title showing on the page should be related and use the key search words in the front of the title
Description Tags
• Every page SHOULD have one and every one SHOULD be unique.
• Mention organization/unit here and very specifically the main purpose of the page. What’s there?
• Is usually the description that will show on the SERP if one is available, not always (Bing and Yahoo)
Alt Tags
• Now play a much bigger part in SEO
• First priority is 508 compliance – BUT
• Using key words if it makes sense is ideal
• This SHOULD drive us to make sure the photos we use are REALLY related to the page we are building
High Value Links
• Our EDU url is the second most “powerful” URL possible
for others to link to. Don’t give it away without a lot in
return. Always request a link FROM those who link to your pages.
• The importance of links is not numbers, but quality (for our type of information site). Does the link to us make us appear more of an “expert” or not. How powerful is the site linking to us in our fields of interest?
Anchor Text (link text)
• Anchor text – or the words used to link to another page
are a critical part of the SEO equation.
• Anchor text should reinforce the key search words, the content
• Anchor text TO a page should be exactly the same no matter who links to the page. Example…einsight article
• Anchor text should be ALWAYS be unique. So for each page we link to the text needs to be different between them, but the same anytime we link to the same page
• Our immediate opportunity to improve is to stop using “read more”, “learn more”, etc.
Content
– what is good?
• Include key words that are in the header, the title tags, the description and the alt tags in the first several lines of
content. Do not keyword load.
• Make sure EVERYTHING on the page is actually directly related to what the page is about
• Eliminate “extra” words, phrases, elements that are not
directly related to the purpose of the page
• Photos/videos need to relate to the topic and purpose of the page. Then alt-tags will fall into place easily.
• ALWAYS use the same anchor text to link to a specific page.
Know Who’s Looking for What
Areas of
Interest
Needs to be MetTarget
Audience
Students Colleagues Donors Education Research Information/ Success Information Find People Energy/ Community Actions to Take Apply Collaborate DonateBuilding an excellent web page (for users)
So what about our page?
Who is it for and what will they search for?
Potential students and financial aid, or
veterinary degree financial aid
Good titles, good title tags, no description First and second
paragraphs are useless for the topic of financial aid…never mention financial aid.
Alt tag is really
misleading about topic. Is photo relevant to financial aid?
Bottom line
Good content means that everything on the
page (especially in the top third) clearly
relates to the main topic and uses the main
topics language – both visible on the page
and in the code
Including: Headers, title tags, meta descriptions,
captions, alt tags, anchor text and the first 200-400
content words.
What can we all do TODAY
• Follow good url usage
• Use keyword linking rather than “learn more” or “read more” • Consider stronger H1s
• Make sure photos (and therefore alt tags) are really pertinent to the page. If not, then don’t use photos
• Become more conscious about each of these items in every page you build or modify.
• Discuss and ask questions. Let’s work on this together.
Next SEO Presentation
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Link juice - Linking 201
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