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Review of how to create academic program pages for increased visibility in organic search. The principles used here to find online MBA programs apply to other academic programs. Includes the "Panda" impact and specific examples of URLs, title tags, internal links and other elements.
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ACADEMIC PROGRAMS & SEARCH OPTIMIZATION: KEY STEPS TO HELP PEOPLE FIND YOUBob Johnson, Ph.D.ACT Enrollment Planners ConferenceJuly 11-13, 2012 Chicago, IL
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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Most important: content that people want“Organic search”… fix your website firstContent stewards: high impact possible
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4 steps to success…
• “Eternal” SEO success points:• Good title tags on your pages• Good body copy• Great content• No barriers on your website to block the search
• No broken links• Links lead to the expected content
• Danny Sullivan, editor, SearchEngineLand.com
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4 top elements you can impact…Internet Business Promoter: http://www.ibusinesspromoter.com/• “Essential” SEO elements…
• Keyword in page title tag • External link popularity of your website • Link text of in-bound links… press releases • Keyword use in body text
• “Very important” SEO elements• Age of your website• Keyword use in primary (H1) headline
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You can impact these 8 elements…
• Keywords in H2 – H6 headline text (important)• Keywords in ALT text for images (important) • Keywords in bold body text (important)• Keyword use in links within your site (moderate)• Keywords use in outbound link text (moderate)• Keywords in the meta description (moderate)• Readability level of the web page (slight)• Keyword in first sentence of body text (slight)
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Can you impact these elements?
• Keyword use in the page URL (important)• Links from social networks (important)
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THRIVING IN THE “ONLINE MBA” JUNGLE… Penn State Drexel University Northeastern University Marylhurst University
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Start with Google Adwords…online MBA, online MBA degree, online MBA programs
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Search for “online MBA”
• Organic search results…• Northeastern #3• Penn State #6• Marylhurst #10
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Search for “online MBA degree”
• Organic search results…• Penn State #2• Drexel #4• Marylhurst #5
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Search for “online MBA programs”
• Organic search results• Northeastern #3• Penn State #5• Drexel #10
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Top performing organic page…
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Checking the pieces… URL
•http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/degrees-and-certificates/penn-state-online-mba-degree-program/overview
•Other URLs…• http://onlinemba.neu.edu/• http://www.drexel.com/online-degrees/business-degrees/online-mba/index.aspx
• http://onlinedegrees.marylhurst.edu/
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Checking the pieces… title tag
• Penn State – Online MBA Degree Program – Overview
• Other title tags…• Online MBA Degree Programs – Northeastern University
• AACSB Accredited Online MBA Programs at Drexel University Online
• Online MBA, Online Business Degrees – Online Business Degree Programs / Marylhurst University
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Checking the pieces… subheads
• 1st two subheads:• “Put a Renowned MBA on Your Resume”
• “What Makes the Penn State Online MBA Program Different?”
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Checking the pieces: Link deeper into your site…
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Visual style is not a factor…
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THE SOCIAL MEDIA ELEMENT…Social media impact is growing…Goal: network of links that include the primary website
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Social media impact for links…
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YouTube is 2nd in Social Media…
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THE IMPACT OF “PANDA”… New importance for the quality of
website pages
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Important Google change in 2011…
• “Panda” raised the value of web content editors everywhere…
• For example…• “Removing low quality pages, merging or improving the content of individual shallow pages into more useful pages, or moving low quality pages to a different domain could eventually help the rankings of your higher-quality content.” (http://bit.ly/k2uUZX)
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23 “high quality” questions to ask…
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Especially for content stewards…
• “Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?”
• “Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?”
• “Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?”
• “Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?”
• “Would users complain when they see pages from this site?”
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Key metrics for “quality” content…
• SEO specialists are watching two measures of “quality” content…• Time spent on website pages by individual visitors
• Number of pages visited on a site
• Recommendation for high education sites:• Check & compare “bounce rate” from entry page to academic program content
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Find the “Top Landing Pages”…
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Compare results for academic program pages…
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Find the least visited web pages you control…
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WRITE FOR THE HUMANS VISITING THE SITE…
Use keyword words that real people use…Add content “Carewords” that people want to
read
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Don’t “stuff” keywords…
The page title and description, primary headline, one subhead, twice in the text…
More and the page won’t seem well written
Advice…Read it to yourself… is it “natural”?
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Tips for success… page headingshttp://bit.ly/ayzqPH
• Title tag:• 8 to 10 words – 50 to 80 characters• Main key word at or close to the start
• Different title tag on every page• If not, Google may think content is the same
• Meta tag:• Write for the person visiting the page, not for search
• Primary heading (H1)… one per page• Write a “Carewords” headline for the visitor first• Then try to work in a primary keyword
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Tips for success… page content
• Keyword word or phrase• In the first sentence if you can
• Links• In the first paragraph if possible• Write a link using key words rather than “click here”• But “click here” might be best for highest response
• In ideal world, link words will be words in primary heading on the following page
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Final notes…
• SEO isn’t a mystery… be careful of gurus, ninjas, and evangelists
• Content is the most critical element in SEO performance• Web editors should leverage this point
• Keywords, content presentation, links are still important
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Buy this book…
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Read “Search Engine Land”…http://searchengineland.com/
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Learn the Periodic Table…http://searchengineland.com/seotable
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Read Matt Cutts’ blog…http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
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THANKS FOR BEING HERE THIS MORNING!Bob Johnson, [email protected]
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