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SEO for Web Developers
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Agenda

• What is SEO?
• What Effects SEO?
• Live Examples
• What Can You Do?
• Tracking Results
• Resources Tools
• Q A

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What is SEO?

• Search Engine Optimization
• A definition The modification of a web sites
  build and content to better position the site in
  the natural/organic results of the major search
  engines.
• Pull vs. push marketing
• Why Search is So Hot
• The SEO Process
• White Hat vs. Black Hat
• Which Engines to Target?

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Why so hot?

• Consumer skepticism towards advertising
• Consumer trust in advertising has plunged 41 in
  the past 3 years only 10 of consumers say that
  they trust ads today
• With todays media choices, the consumer is
  increasingly in control
• 70 of consumers are actively trying to block
  out, opt-out or eliminate advertising
• iProspect study shows that 61 of internet
  searchers think natural listing are more relevant
• B2B users have a 63 preference for organic
  listings
• Organic listings get higher conversion rates than
  paid

Source Searchonomics Search Statistics Made
Fun, by Christine Churchill
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SEO Process

• 5 step process
• Reporting
• Research
• Optimization
• Submission
• Follow Up Reporting

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White Hat vs. Black Hat

• White Hat
• Quality content creation
• Light keyword optimization
• Sound website building tactics
• Everything out in the open
• Nothing designed to trick the search engine or
  the user

• Black Hat
• Cloaking
• Hidden text or tiny text
• Keyword stacking or stuffing
• Use non-related keywords
• Duplicate pages/ duplicate content
• Domain spam / cybersquatting
• Re-directs
• Page swapping

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Which Engines?

• Google and Yahoo
• 69.3 of total searches for top 2 engines
• Rankings in other SEs will follow

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What effects SEO?

• Where does the optimization happen?
• On-Page Factors
• Content is King
• Evaluate existing content
• Make recommendations for additional content with
  targeted keyword phrases in mind
• Prominence of keywords in content
• Regular updates will bring spiders more often gtgt
  higher rankings
• Build
• Spiderability or Indexability
• Site Navigation Site Map
• Stop Characters
• Title, ltH1gt, meta and alt tags
• Trim down code
• Off-Page Factors
• Link Popularity
• Quality of Incoming Links (backlinks) e.g. PR4
• Age of backlinks
• Links in prominent directories (ODP, Yahoo
  Directory)
• Anchor text of inbound links

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Site Build

• Spiderability
• A measure of if or how well a site can be indexed
  (or crawled) by a search engine spider
• Site Navigation
• Site Map
• Splash Pages
• Frames
• A view from a spiders eyes
• SE Spider Simulator
• http//www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simul
  ator.php
• Live Examples
• Seek out victim(s)

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Title, lth1gt, Meta and ALT tags

• Use keywords only once in each tag
• Use unique tags for each page dont copy and
  paste throughout
• Title
• Lead with most important keyword phrase
• 8-10 words, or shorter
• Max of 75 characters, including spaces
• Will be used as the search results listing link
• Write titles that serve as an ad campaign
• Heading
• Lead with single most important phrase for that
  page
• See my site as example
• Meta Description
• Maximum of 150 characters, including spaces
• Will be used to describe site in some SEs search
  results
• Use to your advantage treat as an ad
• Alt
• Keep it related to a description of the image
• Live Examples

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Put Code on a Diet

• Move JavaScript and CSS to external files
• Moves site content (read keywords) up in the
  code, giving them more importance
• Decreases download time for the user
• Decreases download time for the SE spiders
• Makes universal changes easy with edits to only
  one document

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What Can You Do?

• Encourage your clients to spend time on quality
  content development
• Build sites that have the following
• Text-based navigation
• Site map with a text link to it on every page
• No splash pages
• Contact info on every page
• Design layout that allows for plenty of content
• Use the page titles and other tags to your
  advantage
• Move css and javascript code to external files
• Dont build with frames
• Limit the use of flash
• In a re-build, keep pages names the same if
  possible

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Tracking Results

• Site Traffic
• Log Analysis
• Web Trends
• Tracking Script
• Net Applications
• Information Tracked
• Level of traffic
• Source of traffic
• Changes over time

• Site Rankings
• Web Position
• Specify engines and phrases
• Shows rankings and changes over time
• Sample Report

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Resources Tools

• Search Engine Watch (and SearchDay newsletter)
• www.searchenginewatch.com
• Link Popularity Checker
• http//www.linkpopularity.com/
• Yahoo Search Marketing Keyword Tool
• http//searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/
• Search Engine Spider Simulator
• http//www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simul
  ator.php
• SEMPO
• www.sempo.com
• Google Local (now called Google Maps)
• http//local.google.com/
• Yahoo! Local
• http//listings.local.yahoo.com/
• Online Web Training (certification programs)
• http//www.onlinewebtraining.com/
• Search Engine Visibility (by Shari Thurow)
• http//www.searchenginesbook.com/

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Questions Answers