seo for food bloggers
DESCRIPTION
Rand Fishkin's presentation at the International Food Blogger's Conference in Santa Monica, CA November 2011 on SEO.TRANSCRIPT
Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz | November 2011
Download at http://bit.ly/seo4foodblogs
SEO for Food BloggersA thorough look at search engine issues faced by some of my
favorite people (those who lead me to great meals).
SEO?
Bah, Humbug
The Use of Search Engines
Text Down Here!
Growth of Google Queries
Text Down Here!
Currently, there are more than 3 billion searches/day
on Google
Value of Search Engine Traffic
Text Down Here!
Text Down Here!
Yes, You Can Compete with the Big Guys
Good SEO is Easier
than It Looks
You Have to Get These Right
Before You Get These Right
Making Your Site SEO-Friendly
Using Wordpress? You’re 80% of the Way There
From a talk given by Google’s Matt Cutts at Wordcamp: http://www.howtomakemyblog.com/seo/googles-matt-cutts-wordpress-the-best-blogging-platform-for-seo/
“(Wordpress) is a fantastic piece of software, it makes your site easily crawlable by search engines, solves some 80-90% of mechanics of SEO and is the first big step anyone can take towards creating a popular online business.”
If You Use Wordpress, Read This
http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/ - I also recommend Joost’s plugin “Wordpress SEO”
Other SEO-Friendly Platforms Include:
http://drupal.org/, http://joomla.com and http://www.squarespace.com are all good choices if Wordpress isn’t a match.
These Are Less Ideal for SEO
I wouldn’t recommend these platforms as a first choice for SEO-friendly blogging, though some (like TypePad and Tumblr) can be customized with enough elbow grease.
Tools to Help with Accessibility
http://www.google.com/webmasters/
RSS: Essential for Every Blogger
Via Google’s Feedburner: http://feedburner.google.com/gfb/, an ideal tool for setting up, managing and tracking feeds
XML Sitemaps – Not Always a Must for Bloggers
I wouldn’t go so far as to say I recommend against it, just that for many, relatively basic blogs, you don’t need to worry about submitting these (unless you use video, in which case there’s some cool options; will chat about that later in the deck)
Keyword Research
A Simple Process for Choosing Good Keywords
More on this here: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research
High Volume(many searches/month)
Low Competition(weak sites/pages in the top 10)
High Value(large % of visitors convert)
Ideal Keywords!
AdWords: The Best Choice (Most of the Time)
The AdWords Keyword Tool Can Be Found Here: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Use Exact Match! Be Careful About Phrase + Broad
Note the much higher numbers!
Google Insights: Interesting Trend Data
http://www.google.com/insights/search/ shows that the food blogging movement likely gained widespread popularity and interest around 2007
Analyzing the Top 10 to Determine Difficulty
Strong, popular sites w/ targeted titles + content
Analyzing the Top 10 to Determine Difficulty
Weaker, lesser known sites and
non-targeted titles
Keyword Difficulty Tool
Another shameless plug as this is an SEOmoz tool: http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/keyword-difficulty/
Value of Visits? Use Analytics Data
Via Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics) which is free!
Good proxies for the value of traffic from these sources
A Simple Process for Choosing Good Keywords
High Volume(many searches/month)
Low Competition(weak sites/pages in the top 10)
High Value(large % of visitors convert)
Google AdWords
Gut Feel (or KW Difficulty Tool)
Gut Feel (or Analytics Data)
Picking keywords doesn’t have to be a chore, and the process can often help you find topics for blog posts (or tasty, tasty meals) you haven’t yet tried/thought of!
How Great Writing and Great
SEO Go Hand-in-Hand
High Volume Keywords = Content People Want
People really want to know this stuff!
Not Every Post Needs to Be Keyword-Targeted
http://www.everywhereist.com/budding-bromances-in-peru-10-photos/
The Better Your Content, The Better Your SEO
Good process for getting to great content: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/great-content-for-seo-simpler-than-you-ever-imagined
Great Content + SEO + Social Really Works.
Great Content + SEO
Friendly + Social Sharing + Link
Building
=
HigherRankings
More Readers
More Followers
More Influence
=
Virtuous Cycle of Inbound Marketing!
Link Building
Why Links Matter to Search Engines
Good primer on link building basics here: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links
What You Say About Yourself.
What Others Say About You.<
What Matters in a Link?
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-illustrations-on-search-engines-valuation-of-links
Editorially given
From a trusted source
Uses descriptive anchor text
Points to the right page
What Matters in a Link?
All of these elements are good to understand when thinking about links
<p><a href=http://www.seomoz.org rel=“nofollow”> SEOmoz’s Website </a> is a good resource for those seeking to learn more about search engine optimization.</p>
Anchor text(tells the engine what
this link is about)
URL(the link target)
Surrounding Text(may provide context on
the link’s relevance)
Rel=“Nofollow”(a tag that indicates search
engines shouldn’t trust/count this link)
Manual Link Building
Tactics like discovering the links of competitors, getting listed in directories, resource lists, submitting content, building profiles, etc. are all in the “manual link building” category (above via http://opensiteexplorer.org)
Link Building through Outreach + Networking
Geraldine emailed the Salt Museum folks to let them know about her post (or maybe she just tweeted at them, I can’t remember), and they wrote this lovely blog!
“Natural” Link Building
The AdAge 150 is a brilliant example of link building through the creation and sharing of a resource.
Many of these blogs will use the badge and link to the list, because it makes
them look good!
Link Building & Social Sharing Resources
There are literally infinite numbers of ways to build links – creativity is your only limitation!
• Beginner’s Guide: Chapter 7 – Growing Links & Popularity
• Link Building Blog Posts on SEOmoz
• Webinar on Link Building Strategies
• 101 Ways to Build Links from SEOBook
• Link Building Presentations on Slideshare
• The Science of Retweets from Dan Zarrella
Social Media & SEO
How Social Media Helps SEO Directly
People you’re connected to in social networks can help content rank thanks to Google’s use of social annotations (Bing does this too with Facebook shares!) http://www.seomoz.org/blog/social-annotations-in-search-now-your-social-network-rankings
Indirect Impacts of Social on SEO
This handy tool can be found at http://sharedcount.com
All these shares lead to visits, which may lead to
links, comments and positive user/usage signals
Twitter & Google
Result #42
Google UK
Result #13
Google US
But correlation is not causation! http://www.seomoz.org/blog/does-google-use-facebook-shares-to-influence-search-rankings
Correlation of Social Media-Based Factors(data via Topsy API & Google Buzz API)
Amazing: Facebook Shares is our single highest
correlated metric with higher Google rankings.
Google+
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/using-google-plus-ripples-to-connect-with-influencers
Some good tips here: http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/linkedin-seo-campaign.html
Other Networks to Consider
There are many social networks potentially worthy of participation
10mm14mm Millions 14mm 6.5mm
2.5mm 500mm 1.5mm
A Few Specific SEO Questions
What Was Panda? Do I Need to Worry About It?
Check out http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-googles-panda-update-changed-seo-best-practices-forever-whiteboard-friday for more on how Panda imapcted SEO and http://www.seomoz.org/blog/beat-google-panda for tips on how to beat it.
Should I Worry About Spam Comments?
Oh man does this stuff suck But remember, it’s NOT SEO!!
Are Scraper Sites a Danger to My SEO?
Via Google’s Head of Webspam
Can Links from Low Quality Sites Hurt Me?
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-if-my-competitors-point-spammy-links-to-my-site
What About Image Search SEO?
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/image-seo-basics-whiteboard-friday
What About Local/Maps SEO?
http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml
Normal Algorithm
Maps Algorithm
What About Recipe Search?
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-recipe-search.html
Really?
Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz | November 2011
Download at http://bit.ly/seo4foodblogs
Q+AYou can also reach me on the Interwebs:
@randfish on Twitter or by email - [email protected]