google seo guide - googlefest 2013 - charleston sc

Google's SEO

Starter Guide

Tina Arnoldi

Coastal Community Foundation

I’m easy to find

The Day Job

• tina@coastalcommunityfoundation.org o 793-6036

The Evening Job

• tina@360internetstrategy.com o 410-9320

o Blog with helpful tips

Online

• Twitter: TinaArnoldi

• LinkedIn: TinaArnoldi

• Slideshare: TinaArnoldi

• YouTube: TinaArnoldi

The Fun Stuff

• Pinterest: TinaArnoldi

• UniqueAndHandmade.com

A quick plug for upcoming events

RestartSC.org Social media workshop – June 22nd

SCTechAcademy.org Email Marketing – June 20th & 27th

Computer Security – July 10th & 17th Email: Annette@CoastalCommunityFoundation.org

What is SEO?

• It’s about making your website easy to find

- both by spiders and by humans.

• Intent

o Navigational

o Informational

o Transactional

• Short phrases

• Blended search

Tags

What are tags anyway?

• HTML tags are coding instructions that tell

the web browser how to see the page

• <title>

• <h1>

• <meta description>

• <alt> (images)

<title>Coastal Community Foundation of

South Carolina - Community Giving -

Charleston, SC</title>

Title

Examples

Online marketing strategy for nonprofits and small business

Google Analytics Training - On site - Charleston, SC

Why do page titles matter?

• Lets the user and search engine know what

the site is about

• Describes the content

• Descriptive. Relevant. Brief.

• Keep it under 70 characters

Meta Descriptions

Why do meta descriptions matter?

• Lets the user and search engine know what

the site is about

• Not a ranking factor

• It’s a quick ad for your content

• You don’t always need to write it

• Keep it under 160 characters

Heading <H1>

• H1 - tells Google and users this is important

o <h1> Training </h1>

o <h2> Google Analytics </h2>

o <h1> Services</h1>

• Think of it like an outline: h2, h3, h4, h5, h6

Alt (for images)

If your image doesn't display for some

reason, the "alt" attribute will at least show a

description of the picture.

What if this picture doesn't

display?

alt="Geekend Savannah GA 2011"

src="http://360internetstrategy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Geekend-screen-shot-300x164.png

Friendly URLs

x8alskjfd?a;slk.html

Navigation

Why does navigation matter?

• People want to find what they need quickly

• If an item on your site is more than three

clicks away, it’s not important

Don’t do this

http://360internetstrategy.com/online-

marketing-services/

http://360internetstrategy.com/online-

marketing-services/another-

directory/have-you-found-what-you-need-

yet/are-you-seriously-still-reading-

this/now-i’m-annoyed

Sitemaps

Sitemaps

• A list of pages on your site.

• Dynamic content.

• New site with few links.

• For people to use if they have trouble finding

something on your site.

o Hopefully, they won’t need it

• For Google to use to find pages on your site. o Sitemap generators

Sitemap for people

Sitemap for Google http://360internetstrategy.com/sitemap.xml

Is it working?

Google Webmaster Tools

404 errors

404 errors

• An irritation more than a crisis

• A status code seen by the user when the

page doesn’t exist o Link out there pointing to that page

• Use Webmaster tools to find URLs causing

"not found“

Customize your 404 page

• Will help users find what they are looking for o Same look and feel as rest of the site

o Link to popular posts

o Webmaster tools widget creates a search box and

shows alternatives

o Show a specific landing page

• Or redirect to homepage

Keywords

Consider keywords when developing content

• How people search

• Analytics

• Keywords tool

• Customer centric

• Long tail

Google’s Keyword Tool

Content

Content

• Blogs

• Social Media

• Enewsletters

What makes good content?

• Engaging

• Unique

• Serves a purpose

• Lists

• Negative

• Use keywords

• References your site

• Images

• Videos

Share it

3

6

Anchor text

What’s anchor text?

•Visible, clickable text in a hyperlink

•Helps determine the subject matter of

the item linked-to

Anchor Text

Click here to learn more

VS

Learn more about Charleston nonprofits

Anchor Text

Read our article

VS

Read our tips for customer service

Mobile Matters

Check your mobile traffic

www.howtogomo.com

Think Local

GetListed.org

Now what?

• Setup:

o Google analytics

o Google webmaster tools

• Read:

o Google’s SEO Guide

• Check:

o Source code

o Keywords

o Sitemaps

I’m easy to find

The Day Job

• tina@coastalcommunityfoundation.org o 793-6036

The Evening Job

• tina@360internetstrategy.com o 410-9320

o Blog with helpful tips

Online

• Twitter: TinaArnoldi

• LinkedIn: TinaArnoldi

• Slideshare: TinaArnoldi

• YouTube: TinaArnoldi

The Fun Stuff

• Pinterest: TinaArnoldi

• UniqueAndHandmade.com