tune up your site for search engines

Tune Up Your Sitefor Search Engines

June 24, 2010

Let’s Get Acquainted

• Ed Tankersley• Principal of Eight Trails• Smarter websites and online

marketing

Let’s Get Acquainted

• Ed Tankersley• Principal of Eight Trails• Smarter websites and online

marketing

• Former star of silver screen

Let’s Get Acquainted

• Ed Tankersley• Principal of Eight Trails

• Smarter websites and online marketing

• 20+ years advertising and marketing• Interactive director• Creative director• Writer

• Led the design and development of more than 50 websites

Tune Up Your Sitefor Search Engines

Today’s agenda

What Is SEOand Why Does It

Matter?

What is SEO?

• AKA Search Engine Optimization, Search Optimization

• Improvements to your website – and related to your website – that improve your site’s ranking in search engines

Why Does SEO Matter?

When someone does a search, they have communicated that they are interested, motivated,

and engaged

Why Does SEO Matter?

60%of consumers use the Internet as their first-line tool to search

for local businesses

Source: comScore 2007 Search Report

Why Does SEO Matter?

60%of those searchers

go on to make a purchase

Source: comScore 2007 Search Report

Find those potentialcustomers while they’re

actively searching foryour product or service!

SEO vs PPC

• SEO or Search Engine Optimization helps you with your organic or natural search rankings

• PPC, Pay Per Click, or Paid Search is not affected by what you do with SEO

Top 10 Rank is Critical

Source: http://www.seoresearcher.com/distribution-of-clicks-on-googles-serps-and-eye-tracking-analysis.htm

What is Google’s Purpose?

To deliver useful, relevant results to their searchers

What determines your rank?

• It’s all about relevant results for searchers

• On-site factors, such as• Page title• Text• Headings

• Off-site factors, especially• In-bound links

Optimizing Your Site

Optimizing is a 5-Step Process

1. Keyword research2. Site updates3. Submit to search engines and

directories4. Build links5. Measure and adjust

Step 1: Keyword Research

Keyword – A word or series of words that a search engine user types into the search box

Step 1: Keyword Research

• Generate a seed list• Ask your customers• Ask your front-line employees• Look at analytics or server logs

• Use tools to expand your list• Evaluate and rank your keywords by• High search volume• High relevance• Low competition

Sample Seed List

1. Bike2. Bicycle3. Mountain bike4. Hardtail5. Full suspension6. Cannondale7. Trek8. Yeti9. Gary Fisher10. Flagstaff11. Arizona12. Reviews13. Ratings

Evaluate Search Volume

• Get search volume estimates• Google Keyword Tool• adwords.google.com/select/

KeywordToolExternal

• Wordtracker• freekeywords.wordtracker.com

• Keyword Discovery• www.keyworddiscovery.com/

search.html

Evaluate Relevance

Are the people who search for that keyword likely to be

buyers?

Evaluate Relevance

• The more precise the search, the closer they are to buying:• Bicycles• Mountain bikes• Mountain bike reviews• Cannondale mountain bike• Cannondale hardtail• Cannondale F3 Caffeine• Cannondale F3 Caffeine Phoenix

Evaluate Competition

• You can’t be number 1 for everything

• Use long tail keywords

Select Your Keywords

• Start with a manageable number – 10-20 – these are your Target Keywords

• Match the Target Keywords to relevant pages of your site

• One keyword per page

Step 2: Optimize Your Site

• Focus on content• Fix the major problems• Get help with the tougher things

Content – Visible

• Domain name• Page title• URL• Headings – H1, H2, H3• Text• Internal links

Content – Hidden

• Keywords• Description• Image alt tags

Structure

• Separation of content and presentation

• Important stuff first• Text-based navigation

Don’t build your site in Flash!

Other On-Site Factors

• Currency of content• Site map• Custom error page• Robots.txt

Off-Site Factors

• Inbound links• Domain authority• Quality of anchor text

Bad

Better

Step 3: Submit Your Site

• Search Engines• Google• Bing

• Directories• Yahoo• Open Directory (dmoz.org)• JoeAnt• Business.com

Step 4: Link Building

• Blogs• Forums• Press Releases• Don’t buy links• Don’t bother with link

exchanges• Most social media sites use

“nofollow” tags so they don’t help your site get better ranking

Step 5: Measure

• Google Analytics• Referrers• Search terms

• Authority Labs• Position monitoring

Adjust

• Getting to the top takes time• SEO never stops• Give it a few months to see

results • Adjust and refine regularly

based on what you measure

Resources

• EightTrails.com• SEOmoz.com• SEObook.com• SearchEngineLand.com

Questions? Comments?

Ed Tankersley EightTrails.comed@eighttrails.com@EightTrails602-361-2001