seo for recipe and food blogs - rand fishkin

Food Blogs & SEO:

Marketing Made Delicious

Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz @randfish

http://bit.ly/foodbloggerseo

Let’s See What’s on the SEO Menu Today:

I. Why Search Matters So Much

II. Making an SEO-Friendly Site

III. Quick Setup Guide for Bloggers

IV. Choosing Keywords & Optimizing Your Pages

V. Link Building Dos & Don’ts

VI. 10 Actionable Tips for Your Blog

VII. Answers to Frequent Questions

The Growth of Search

Number of Searches/Day on Google

3 Billion Searches/Day (announced Aug. 2012)

SEO vs. Paid Search Ads

75%+ of all clicks go to organic

results, not paid ads.

SEO vs. Paid Search Ads

More than 50% of search

queries have no paid ads at all.

Great SEO Builds On Itself

Done right, consistent, quality posts + solid

SEO lead to a natural growth in referrals

Making Your Blog SEO-Friendly

“(Wordpress) is a fantastic piece of software, it makes your site easily

crawlable by search engines, solves some 80-90% of mechanics of

SEO and is the first big step anyone can take towards creating a

popular online business.”Via: http://www.howtomakemyblog.com/seo/googles-matt-cutts-wordpress-the-best-blogging-platform-for-seo/

Using Wordpress? You’re 80% There!

Wordpress Users: Read This Guide!

http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/ - I also recommend Joost’s plugin “Wordpress SEO”

Other SEO-Friendly Platforms Include:

http://drupal.org/, http://joomla.com and http://www.squarespace.com are all good choices if Wordpress isn’t a match.

Less Ideal Platforms for SEO

I wouldn’t recommend these platforms as a first choice for SEO-friendly blogging, though some (like TypePad and Expression Engine) can be customized with enough elbow grease.

Quick Setup Guide for Bloggers

Step 1: Google Webmaster Tools

http://google.com/webmasters - can help you diagnose and repair issues w/ your site

Step 2: Feedburner

http://feedburner.com – create RSS feeds and track your subscribers and clicks

Step 3: Google Analytics

http://google.com/analytics - track how visitors get to you and what they do on your site

Step 4: Bit.ly to Track Sharing

http://bit.ly – great for determining which shares your fans/followers really enjoy

Optional: SEOmoz PRO

http://pro.seomoz.org – good if you’re hardcore into SEO, otherwise less ideal

Choosing Keywords &

Optimizing Your Pages

Step 1: Go to Google AdWords

http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal is nice & free!

Step 2: Use “Exact Match”

http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal is nice & free!

Don’t Use This “Broad” as Numbers are Way Off

Use “Exact” - These are Much Better

Step 3: Choose Keywords Wisely

http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal is nice & free!

Step 4: Make Great Titles Using Your Keywords

Note the title doesn’t have to just be keywords, and that you can combine terms, too!

Step 5: Employ Keywords Wisely in Your Post

Keyword use in the first paragraph or two is smart, as is including a relevant picture or two

Choose Keywords that Aren’t Too Competitive

Strong, popular sites w/ targeted titles + content

Choose Keywords that Aren’t Too Competitive

Weaker, lesser known sites and

non-targeted titles

Focus on the Long Tail & Chunky Middle First

A Few More General Keyword Rules

A) Don’t target more than 2 pgs on your site to a given keyword

B) Never use a keyword in a post more than what feels natural

C) Not every post needs to be keyword targeted

E) The better the post, the better your chances for ranking.

SEO is less about the perfect formula and more about people

loving & sharing your work.

D) Choose keyword subjects that you have expertise in. Don’t

try to force a keyword+post combination that won’t be quality.

Link Building Dos and Don’ts

Don’t Fall for This Crap

Or This Other Crap

Or This Equally Terrible Crap

Or This Magnificently Scary Crap

Or This

Or This

Or This

Got it? Good!

Chart of Link Tactics & Relative Risk

<p><a href=http://www.seomoz.org rel=“nofollow”> SEOmoz’s Website </a> is a good resource for those seeking to learn more about search engine optimization.</p>

Anchor text(tells the engine what

this link is about)

URL(the link target)

Surrounding Text(may provide context on

the link’s relevance)

Rel=“Nofollow”(a tag that indicates search

engines shouldn’t trust/count this link)

What Elements Matter in a Link?

Tactics to Earn Great Links

• Beginner’s Guide: Chapter 7 – Growing Links & Popularity

• Link Building Blog Posts on SEOmoz

• Webinar on Link Building Strategies

• 101 Ways to Build Links from SEOBook

• Link Building Presentations on Slideshare

• The Science of Retweets from Dan Zarrella

• The Noob Guide to Link Building from Mike King

• 1000s of Link Building Tactics from the SEOmoz Blog

10 Actionable Tips for Your Blog

Where Geraldine Started Her Blog

#1: Be Willing to Fail for a Long Time

Where people usually give up.

#1: Be Willing to Fail for a Long Time

2.5 years in, she finally reaches 1000s of daily visits

#1: Be Willing to Fail for a Long Time

“The only thing that I see that is distinctly

different about me is that I’m not afraid to

DIE on a treadmill. You might have more

talent than me, you might be smarter than

me, but if we get on a treadmill together,

there are two things: 1- You’re getting off

first OR 2- I’m gonna DIE. It’s really that

simple”

- Will Smith

#2: Blog Posts Can Be More than Text & Photos

#3: Don’t Separate Into Multiple Sites or Subdomains

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites

#4: Experiment with Lots of Different Networks

Users: 200mm 900mm 200mm 150mm 20mm

Users: 15mm 30mm 14mm 15mm 15mm

#5: Don’t Just Aim for Rankings, Go for CTR

Which one would you click?

#6: Use Google Reader to Find Other Blogs

Whose Communities to Participate In

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#directory-search/travel%20blog//0

#7: Use Followerwonk to Find Twitter Influencers

http://followerwonk.com

#8: Use FindPeopleOnPlus for Google+

http://findpeopleonplus.com

#9: Your Followers Aren’t All Online at the

Same Time. Share More than Once.

Via http://followerwonk.com

#10: Use Rel=Author & Google+ to Get Your

Mugshot Next to Your Pages in SERPs

http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/how-to-implement-rel-author

Answers to Frequent Questions

What Was Google’s “Panda” Update? Do I

Need to Worry About That?

Check out http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-googles-panda-update-changed-seo-best-practices-forever-whiteboard-friday for more on how Panda imapcted SEO and http://www.seomoz.org/blog/beat-google-panda for tips on how to beat it.

What About “Penguin”?

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/penguins-pandas-and-panic-at-the-zoo

Should I Worry About Spam Comments?

Can Links from Low Quality Sites Hurt Me?

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-if-my-competitors-point-spammy-links-to-my-site

What About Image Search SEO?

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/image-seo-basics-whiteboard-friday

What About Local SEO?

http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

Normal Algorithm

Maps Algorithm

What About Recipe SEO?

Rich Snippets

Specific Filters

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-recipe-search.html

Really?

Google’s smart, but even they f#$% up

Thank you! Let’s do some Q+A!

Download this Webinar:

http://bit.ly/foodbloggerseo

Contacting Me:

@randfish or rand@seomoz.org