Leveraging Plone for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Leveraging Plone for Search Engine Op4miza4on (SEO)

Heather Wozniak, Ph.D.

UCLA Office of Informa4on Technology

[email protected]

Plone and SEO

•  Good news: 1.  Many features built-‐in to Plone

2.  No add-‐ons required •  Caveats:

1.  Keyword research 2.  Training content providers/editors

•  BoXom-‐line: Quality content will bring you traffic (and hold visitors’ aXen4on)

What maXers to search engines?

•  Text: content is king! •  Posi4on: star4ng from top-‐le^

•  Structure: headings, strong/emphasis, lists, table headers, form labels, clean HTML

•  This stuff is good for accessibility too

What maXers to search engines?

What maXers to search engines? 1. Document 4tle


2. URL


2. URL

3. Page 4tle / first heading <h1>


2. URL


4. Descrip4on


2. URL


4. Descrip4on

5. Content (headings <h2>-‐<h6>, <strong>, <em>)


2. URL


4. Descrip4on


6. Alt-‐text for images


2. URL


4. Descrip4on


6. Alt-‐text for images 7. Meaningful filenames for images and files (see #2)

Great! How do I control this stuff in Plone?!

EVERYTHING MATTERS: leave no field blank

Don’t under-‐es4mate the value of Descrip4on

Appears in • Google and other search results • Plone search results • Folder lis4ngs and collec4ons • Link mouseovers/hovers

Can be hidden on page if it cramps your style

Adding a new content item


2. URL


4. Descrip4on


6. Alt-‐text for images 7. Meaningful filenames for images and files (see #2)

Controlling the short name

•  By default, the 4tle you enter upon first crea4ng a page becomes the short name.

•  IT DOES NOT CHANGE WHEN YOU LATER CHANGE THE PAGE TITLE.

•  There are two ways to edit it: – Managers only (default)

– Content contributors/editors

Managers can edit the short name by checking “rename” in the “Contents” view of a folder.

Or, you can enable short name edi4ng for users

•  Cau4on: may result in broken links

•  Under “Site Setup,” check “Show ‘Short Name’ on Content”

•  Advise users to go to their “Personal Preferences” and “Allow edi4ng of short names”

New field

Adding images and files

•  Fill in every field (4tle, descrip4on, etc.) –  For images, 4tle is used to generate alt-‐text (but you can change this at 4me of inser4ng image)

–  For files, 4tle is used as link 4tle (displays on hover) –  Both 4tle and descrip4on display in site search and folder lis4ngs

•  Use meaningful filenames: –  chancellor-‐block.jpg vs. image4035.jpg –  2010-‐annual-‐report.pdf vs. reporrinaldra^_a.pdf

Recap: elements you can control in Plone out-‐of-‐the-‐box

•  Document 4tle (page 4tle + site 4tle) •  URL (short name) •  First heading (page 4tle) •  Descrip4on •  Headings for content •  Alt-‐text for images •  Meaningful filenames for images and uploaded files

Keyword Research

•  No point op4mizing for terms that nobody searches for

•  Iden4fy your target audience •  Know what they search for •  Use Google to gather intel

Google Tools for Keyword Research

•  Webmaster Tools (webmasters.google.com) – What does Google think your site is about? – Where does your site rank for your target words? – What terms does your site use most frequently? Too frequently?

•  Analy4cs (analy4cs.google.com) – What words actually bring visitors to your site?

•  Adwords Keyword Tool (adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) – What do users actually search for? – What related terms and phrases could you adopt?

Implement the Keywords

•  Armed with this knowledge, get your keywords into the content

•  Op4mize each page for 1-‐2 keywords or key phrases

•  Don’t use the keywords excessively: duplicate and distributed content will dilute your rankings

•  Every page doesn’t need a target keyword; just ensure that each desired keyword does have a page

Train your content providers and editors!

•  Since content ul4mately determines the search rankings and results, the people providing your content need to know all these concepts

•  Ensure they use all the page elements correctly •  Ensure they know the short-‐list of primary keywords for your site

•  Ensure they are thinking in terms of keywords each 4me they create a new piece of content

•  Ensure they add links to external sites and cul4vate incoming links

Last but not least: site administra4on

•  Use robots.txt to direct crawling •  Provide a sitemap (expose through Plone control panel)

•  Setup 301 redirects for: – Preferred domain (with or without www) – Pages that are moved or renamed – Don’t use aliases that allow the content to exist in two places at once

•  Monitor your logs and search stats