Search Engine Optimization Beyond META Tags Brian Smith Web Developer [email protected] Flunky

Search Engine OptimizationBeyond META Tags

Brian Smith

Web Developer

[email protected]

Flunky

Objectives• Move beyond META tags• SEO in Higher Education• Define terms• Establish “The Factors”• Keyword Research Techniques• Discuss Google• Keepin’ it real - practical• Resources

The Rise of Search

• Search is the 2nd most popular online activity, after email.

• Percentage of net users who search on a typical day grew 70% from 2002 to 2008

Pew Internet and Americal Life Project

The Rise of Search

SEO = Search Engine Optimization

Using targeted keywords and phrases so a website’s pages will rank high on SERPs.

Note that SEO also stands for Search Engine Optimizer

SERP = Search Engine Results Page

Definition

SEM = Search Engine Marketing

DefinitionAll endeavors that utilize search engines to promote a web site, increase its traffic and/or stickiness, and ultimately augment return on investment.

SEM methods include SEO, paid placement, pay-per-click and paid inclusion campaigns.

SPAM

"Dear google.com,I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."

It’s not a quick fixSEO is a best practice

• Web developers

• Writers

• Editors in various departments

• Application developers

• Administration

• Vendors

ConversionsWhat is a higher ed conversion?

• Getting a sale = convert a prospective into a confirmed

• Get students involved in activities• Building school pride• Provide audience for experts• Allow faculty and research to publicize their

findings, discoveries which could lead to more students, grants, funding, collaboration, tenure

• Job postings

Fountain Day

UGH!

Organic vs.

Pay Per Click “PPC”

Pay Per ClickDefinition

Advertisers submit bids to search-engine companies for words.

They pay each time the “sponsored link” is clicked.

PPC Related TermsDefinitions

CPC – Cost-per-clickThe cost to advertisers per click by a user.

CTR – Click through rateThe number of users who clicked on an ad divided by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions). Usually seen as a percentage.

Pay Per ClickCompetition

Universities and CollegesEspecially the online Universities with a national/international presence such as Phoenix, Capella, Walden etc…

Advertising Agencies & Online Directory CompaniesUse PPC to draw Web searches to sites they use to find prospective students, or "leads."

ExamplesPetersons, OffToCollege.com, CollegeBoard.com, etc…

PPCWeekend

MBABiologyMajor

PPCGrowing in Cost

Prices for popular keywords…

• "associate's degree" • "master's degree”• "business program"

…on Yahoo have each about doubled in the past two years.

Negative Key Word“Online”

PPCGrowing in Competition

"It's both more expensive and less effective because more people are doing it."

Margee EnsignDean of the School of International StudiesUniversity of the Pacific

PPCBidding Techniques

Start a campaign at the end of the day or the end of the month

“It’s often possible to find popular keywords available for lower prices at those times because other groups have already spent their budgets.”

Greg JarboeCo-founderSEO-PR Inc

PPCBidding Techniques

Bid on less popular words/phrases

You’ll get less clicks, so it will cost you less.

Those who actually click will more likely lead to a conversion = Quality Traffic

SERPs - Organic Listings

The Golden TriangleEye Tools Research

Pay Per Click $$$

Organic = Free

Focus on Organic Listings

Conversion RatesOrganic Listings 4.2%Paid Listings 3.6%

Organic clicked 5x more than PPC

From “Marketing Sherpa” - Search Marketing Benchmark Survey 2005

Metrics

Search Result Page

Average Participant

6.5 seconds to clickRead 4 to 5 listings.

Title Tags

Compelling and Attractive TITLES increase click-through!

Golden Triangle Statistics

85% click on organic

72% click the first link of interest

25% read all listings first, then click

Organic Search Results Viewed

0102030405060708090

100

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Golden Triangle Statistics

Web Search Market ShareAugust 2008

Google 71%Yahoo 18%MSN 5%Ask 3%

Other 3%

Google

Yahoo

MSN

PageRank• One of the methods Google uses to determine a

page’s relevance or importance.• Each web page - not site - has a PageRank

score• Developed by the founders of Google, Sergey

Brin and Larry Page• It’s an algorithm which helps rank web pages

based on the probability that a random person surfing the Internet will find a given page.

• PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value.

• Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.

• Votes cast by "important" pages weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

PageRank

PageRank

View a page’s PageRank with Google Toolbar

PageRank

Most Higher Ed Rank 5-8

MIT, Harvard, Stanford = 9

Maria College = 5

PageRank

Google PageRank

• No longer the primary ranking factor

• PageRank is no longer recalculated on a 30 day cycle

• Used to determine crawl frequency, crawl depth, and database selection.

Page Rank Today

Authority & ReputationLinks are Key

Link Popularity / Authority•Links = “Votes”•Links from many pages signify an important page•Links from important pages carry more ‘weight’•Important pages rank higher

Link Reputation•Links from related pages enforce the theme•Links from related words pass on that theme•Strongly themed pages rank well for related queries

Links - Best Practices

Bad• http://mysite.com• http://www.mysite.com/index.html• http://mysite.com/index.html

Good• http://www.mysite.com/• Use redirects and make all internal links point to

your domain using the “http://www.mysite.com/”• Always include trailing “/” on folders.

Link Best Practices

Search engines treat…

http://measuring-up.com/

and

http://www.measuring-up.com/

…as two different sites.

Link Text

SEO: Link nouns not verbs

Avoid “click here”

View the course catalog.

View the course catalog.

4.4 Anchor Text of Inbound Link

3.1 Text Surrounding the Link

Google Webmaster Help Center• http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/• http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=

40349

Google on SEO• http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/

answer.py?answer=35291

How can I create a Google-friendly site?

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349


“Department of Biology”

Off-The-Page SEOAKA Link Building

• Reciprocal linking • RSS news feeds• Linkbait = good topical content • Digg, YouTube, Facebook• Forums

Off page optimizations consist entirely of link building strategies.

The Factors

SEOmoz.org

Search Engine Ranking Factors V24.9 Keyword Use in Title Tag

4.4 Global Link Popularity of Site – “Weight” or “Authority”


4.1 Age of Site

4.0 Link Popularity within Internal Site Structure

3.7 Keyword Use in Body Text

3.5 Links to Quality/Relevant External Sites

3.4 Age of Document

3.3 Keyword Use in H1

3.2 Age of Link


Factor 1: Page TitleThe #1 important on-the-page ranking factor!

Length: 70 characters or lessGoogle description uses 70 characters.

Use Keyphrases or KeywordsAlso use it in beginning of page text.

The title is your search results link. It should be clear, sensible, and encourage a click.

Page Title Strategy

Page titles are for more than just SEO

•Bookmark text

•Answers question “Where am I”




4.1 Age of Site




3.4 Age of Document


3.2 Age of Link





4.1 Age of Site




3.4 Age of Document


3.2 Age of Link


Search Engine Ranking Factors V2

2.8 Keyword Use in H2, H3 etc…

2.8 Keyword Use in Page URL

2.6 Keyword Use in ALT Tags

2.4 Frequency of Page Updates

2.0 Keyword Use in Meta Description Tag

1.4 HTML Validation

1.2 Keyword Use in Meta Keywords Tag

META Description

• 70 words

• Sometimes shows up in Google SERP

• Page specific

• Includes main page keyphrases

Keyword Use in Meta Description Tag


2.8 Keyword Use in H2, H3 etc…





1.4 HTML Validation



2.8 Keyword Use in H2, H3 etc…Semantic markup





1.4 HTML Validation


META Keywords

• Abused and discredited

• Stuff you don’t want in page text

• Misspellings

• Keyword “forks” – SUNY Albany

• 5 to 10 phrases

• Do not repeat too much


Search Engine Indexing LimitsPage File Size

No more than 150 kilobytes Before Images, CSS and other Attachments

Links Per Page

No more than 100 unique links per page

Title Tag

No more than 70 characters

Meta Description

No more than 155 characters

Search Engine Indexing Limits

Parameters in URL: No more than 2

Depth of URL: No more than 4

Bad Examplehttp://www.mysite.com/people/places/things/noun/danny/car

Best Practicehttp://www.mysite.com/people/danny/

AvoidImage Text

Iframes for displaying content

Flash, Silverlight or video for content without text equivalents

AJAX – Avoid navigation thatrelies on javascriptonClick="navigate('ajax.html#)

Keywords

Keywords are the foundation of SEO

Your institution, departments, offices etc… should determine critical keywords

Research their potential value and effectiveness

Keyphrase Research

1. Brainstorm

2. Bust out the tools

3. Finalize list

4. Implement

5. Rinse and repeat

Brain Storm• What words would prospective students use?

• Avoid overly generic terms are difficult to rank for and won't provide qualified traffic

• Check out competition and their Keywords META tags if they use them

• Add location!

• Misspellings

• Break out sessions by category – department, school, organization etc…

Number of keywords used

1 Word Query – 15% Admissions

2 Word Query – 32% UAlbany Admissions

3 Word Query – 27% SUNY Albany Admissions

4 Word Query – 15% UAlbany Admissions Campus Tour

5 Word Query – 11% University at Albany Admissions

Tour

85% of searches online are with 2 or more keywords

Source: Search Engine Watch 2007 Search Engine Watch 2007

Keyphrase Combos

1. Create as complete a sentence as possible

2. Specifically describe page content

3. Using strongest keywords and phrases

4. Avoid highly competitive phrases

Word Game: Create a 3 or 4-Term Combo

Are visitors looking for“Prospective Students”?

Use keywords in the navigation that visitors use to find your site.

– Easier for visitors to navigate the site– Improved rankings, search engines better understand how

your site is related to searches.

Search Volumes“Prospective Students”= 6,500/month“University Admissions”= 135,000/month

Keyword “Stemming”

Swim = Swimming = Swims

It’s all the same to the major search engines

Keyphrase BrainstormFountain DaySchool SpiritCelebrationCommunityCampus TraditionUniversity TraditionAlumni MemoriesCollege FountainUniversity FountainFountain CelebrationWorld RecordSUNY Albany FountainSpring CelebrationGuinness World RecordPillow FightBeach Balls

Fountain CountdownCampus PartyCampus UnityFountain PartyCollege Rite of SpringFood fun and fountainJump in Fountain

Non-alcoholic eventStudent PartyCollege Student PartyFountain Day DrunkFountain Day DrinkingFountain Day Mayhem Party SchoolSUNY Albany Party School

Keyphrase Research

Determine the value of keywords/phrases to increase traffic to a page or site.

Keyphrase Tools

Utilize Internal Search ResultsWhat are visitors using

Find out what words your visitors use to get to your site.

Consult web analytics or Google Webmaster Tools – Top Search Queries

What’s the difference?

Keyword Research“Head” vs. “Tail” Terms

Step 2 – Keyphrase Research

BrandKey Phrases

65%of our queries

Head Terms– Dominated by Brand key phrases – Drive most of your traffic– Most expensive for PPC– Most competitive– Less relevant– Shorter


Long Tail– Dominated by generic category key phrases – Drives least amount of traffic per search– Least expensive for PPC– Less competitive and easier to win– Drives less but more qualified traffic to website


Long Tail


The combined effect of optimizing for many longer search terms will be to bring in a great deal of highly qualified traffic

Optimization for the general terms will occur naturally by their inclusion in these more specific phrases

Keyphrase Research Tools

• Assists with keyword/phrase brainstorming

• Show how often search terms are used

• Quantifies the effectiveness of keywords/phrases

“Competition”

Less competition for a keyword/phrase mean that it will be easier to reach the top of SERPs.

Keyword/phrase Tools

1. Google AdWords is the best free keyphrase toolhttps://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

2. WordTrackerThe industry standard, a subscription is required – also has a free tool

3. Overture Database Search No longer consistently available

4. Microsoft AdCenterNot for Mac/Safari

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal


Other Keyword Search Tools

• Trellian – Keyword Discovery

• Spyfu

• Nichebot

• Hitwise

• Trends

• Yahoo suggestion on search

Wordtracker

Metacrawler Search Engines Queries several of the main search engines to compile its own results - Google, Yahoo and MSN

175 million searches each month

Wordtracker keeps the last two months of search results in its database

Uses Metacrawler Search EnginesMetacrawler and Dogpile

KEIKeyword Effectiveness Index

1. PopularityNumber of times a term is searched

2. CompetitionNumber of pages returned by search for a term

Ratio of Two crucial variables

Higher the KEI, better the keyword

Wordtracker

ExampleFind a baseball card that is searched many times, but has few page results.

KEI - Find a Niche - Opportunities

Pete Rose baseball cardSearched 100 times daily found on 1,000 pagesRatio is 1/10

Derek Jeter baseball cardSearched 1000 times daily found on 100,000Ratio is 1/100

We are looking for opportunity.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool


Best free keyphrase tool

Helps with brainstorming

Displays keyword/phrase effectiveness

Finds opportunities


AdWords vs. Wordtracker

AdWords is a better free tool than the free Wordtracker tool.

Full Wordtracker has more sophisticated tool set and is the industry standard.

Wordtracker service keeps track of multiple projects.

Wordtracker provides more precise measurements for word/phrase effectiveness.

AdWords integrates well with Google Analytics.

• Begin with one general keyword• Be sure to check the “Use synonyms” box• Let the tool build a large list of keywords

Source: Google External Keyword Tool

Using AdWords for Keyphrase ResearchThe Process

Keyword ResearchBuilding Lists

• Scroll through the results list and add all terms appropriate to the School of Business site.

• When complete, download list into Excel or other tool.

• Repeat the process as other terms become apparent and expand those as well with the “Get more related keywords” button.

• Continue building the list using all free tools available

– Don’t worry about adding duplicates at this point

– Keep looking for new terms that have been missed and expand those

Repeat the process using the “website content” tool on Google.– Select the option “Include other pages on my site linked from

this URL”

Keyword StrategyBuilding Lists

Keyword StrategyOrganizing and grouping lists

Create a full list of your keywords

management school business school businee college mbamanagement school best business school business college mba degreemanagement schools best business schools business college course mba program

business management schools business college degree mba programsbusiness school business college degrees executive mbabusiness school rankings business college universitybusiness schools business collegesbusiness schools mba top business collegebusiness schools rankgraduate business schoolgraduate business schoolsinternational business schoolsrankings business schoolstop business schooltop business schoolsundergraduate business schoolsuniversity business schools

Keywordsbest business schoolbest business schoolsbusiness collegebusiness educationbusiness management schoolsbusiness schoolbusiness school rankingsbusiness schoolsbusiness schools mbabusiness schools rankexecutive mbagraduate business schoolgraduate business schoolsinternational business schoolsmanagement schoolmanagement schoolsmba degreemba programmba programsrankings business schoolstop business schooltop business schoolsundergraduate business schoolsuniversity business schools

Break out the list into categories

Web Writing

• Write for the “inverted pyramid”.• Make the visible text on a page "search-

friendly" • Embed links in body copy• Add <strong>tags</strong>• Add captions with strong keywords/phrases

frequently

Optimizing Body Copy

YUCK!

Large blocks of text without headlines and subheadings

Bad for SEOBad for Visitors

Web Writing

Use keywords – a few times per page

Create AZ indexes for Department, Organizations, College and Schools

Write more - at least 250 words per page

Add extra pages

Never sacrifice tone, feel or usability

Poynter Institute

Eye Tracking Studies Nov 2007

600 subjects in 4 cities

We have not lost our ability to read in depth

F Pattern

Eye Tracking StudiesPoynter Institute

Inverted Pyramid

Poynter Institute


Attention spans have not shortened dramatically.

Readers are more selective about what they read.

We are more dependent on navigation, headings and bulleted text

It helps us find info or identify what not to read

Poynter Institute


“Most surprising, they read further into stories online than in print. That was true for stories of all lengths.”

MetricsMeasuring Success

• Track ranking in SERPs – screenshots, or excel files

• Follow traffic through web analytics

BlackHatSEO

Black Hat SEO

• Evil trickery

• Breaks search engine rules

• Poor user experience

• Google hacks

Black Hat SEO Techniques To Avoid

Keyword stuffingPacking long lists of keywords.

Invisible textWhite text on white background.

Doorway PagesRedirects packed with keywords.

It can get you banished from search results!

Social Media OptimizationPotential for organic traffic and quality backlinks

“Linkbait”

Google News Sitemap

• News releases and other campus related stories are packed with keywords

• But they may be getting lost and not recognized by Google in a timely way

• Search for “Google News Sitemap”

Resources: Books

Search Engine Optimization: Your visual blueprint for effective Internet marketing

Resources: Books

Search Engine Optimization:

How to Optimize Your Website for Internet Search Engines

Resources: On the Web

SEOmoz.orgEspecially see SEOmoz Beginner’s Guide

SearchEngineWatch.comhttp://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/

Google Webmaster Toolshttp://www.google.com/support/webmasters/


SEOBook.comhttp://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

Don’t let the tail wag the dog.

• SEO is a best practice

• Write good content

• Get everyone involved

• Know the factors

• Try out key phase research tools

Documents

Search Engine Optimization Beyond META Tags Brian Smith Web Developer [email protected] Flunky