PR and SEO

Evaluate Your Website

• How much traffic does your site get?• What are the most popular pages on your Web

site?• How long do users stay on your site?• From what pages do your users exit your site?• Is your Web site user-friendly? • How often do you update your Web site?• Is the most important information easy to find?

Look at Your Competitors

• Look at Web sites of similar organizations• What do they have that you need to have?• Are they ranked higher than your

organization on major search engines?• How much traffic do they get?• What key words are they targeting?• Check out Alexa for traffic stats.

Usability

• Navigation • Breadcrumbs• Consistency• Use white space.• Keep it simple.

BAD Sites:• Example 1• Example 2

Good Sites:• Webby Awards

Developing a Web Hierarchy

• Similar to an outline• Start with a chart

– Page title– Sub page title– Keywords– Summary of page contents– Copy– Links– Graphics

• Example– Peabody Awards

Tips for Effective Web Sites

• Avoid splash pages• Avoid duplicate content• Avoid Flash websites• Photos (JPG), logos (GIF)• Link internally• Limit special effects and animation

Tips for Effective Web Sites

• Have legible text• Always have contact information • Display your privacy policy• Update content frequently• Keep writing concise, tight, snappy• Open external links in a new window so

users can easily return to your site.

Develop an Online PR Strategy

What are your organization’s online goals?– Increase rankings– Increase traffic– Increase “conversions”– Maintain positive relationships with publics– Combat negative opinions– Conduct research– Obtain feedback

Search Engine Optimization

The importance of search engine rankings:• 49% of all Internet users access search

engines daily• Searching is 2nd most popular online activity

after email• 94% of Internet visitors conducted a search

last quarter (Oct. 2010)• 90% of users click on results in the first 2

pages

Why Do SEO?

• Third party validation• No one uses the phone book!• Boost sales, awareness• Become an industry leader• Fight content with content

How Do Search Engines Work?

• Bots or spiders crawl the web following links . . . • Building the index and cataloging keywords . . . • So search engines can retrieve results . . . • Based on relevance . . . • Which ultimately affects page rank.

How do search engines work?

Getting Started

• Check out Alexa for traffic stats.• Get the Google Toolbar

– Cached snapshot– Similar pages– Backward links

Generate and Use Keywords

What are keywords?• Keywords• Long-Tail keywords• Trophy keywords

Generate and Use Keywords

• How do you find keywords?• Your Web analytics tool• Google AdWords Tool• Website submission tool

• How do you decide which keywords to use?

• Pick 8 to 10 trophy keywords per site• Concentrate on 1 keyword phrase per

page

Generate and Use Keywords

• Use keywords and phrases high on the page (first 100-200 words)

• Use variations of keyword phrases• Keep keyword density between 5-7%

–Golf example

Never present text as a graphic!

Generate and Use Keywords

Use keywords in:

• Meta tags• Title tag• Header tag• Meta description tag• Body text• Links

• Alt tags• Sitemaps• Anchor links• Domain name• Image names

Get Indexed

• Index vs. Web• Web crawlers and bots

– Crawl text and links– Press Ctrl-A on a Web page to see what the

crawlers see– Important text for crawlers:

• Title of the page• Content near the top of the page• Links• Sitemap

Get Indexed

• Make sure every page allows bots to visit:<meta name=“robots” content=“index, follow”>

<meta name=“googlebot” content=“index, follow” />

• See which pages are indexed – search for: “site:domain.com”

• Submit your site to the search engines– Google Webmaster Central – Then visit Google Analytics– Submit to Yahoo!– Submit to Bing– Submit to DMOZ (aka Open Directory Project)– Submit to Alexa– Use a website submission engine

Develop Your Link Building Strategy

• More links to your site = higher search engine rankings

• But, it’s not so simple• High quality links, high quantity of links

and site relevance determine rankings• Right link building

Where to Get Quality Backlinks

• Industry leaders, associations

• Charity sites• Places you sponsor• Old sites with

established domains• Chambers of

commerce, BBB

• News and press release sites

• Blogs and forums• Quality articles• .gov, .edu• Social media and

bookmarking sites• Customer review

sites

Consider Link Juice

What makes a link juicy?• Relevant to your content• Other links on the page are relevant• Page has been recently cached • Page is respected• Page has multiple incoming links• Page has few outbound links• Page and links have been around for a

long time

Develop Your Link Building Strategy

• Link to other relevant sites on the Web• Link internally

– site maps– bread crumbs

• Link to the sites you want to link to you• Email site owner to politely request a link

(and show where you’ve linked to them)

Develop Your Link Building Strategy

• See who’s linking to you already:– Check out Alexa– Google: “+www.examplesite.+com” or

Link:domain.com – Ex: “+www.dreamland.+com” or

Link:dreamland.com – Yahoo: linkdomain:examplesite.com– Bing: link: examplesite.com

Search Engine Optimization

Remember:• You want traffic, but traffic that’s interested in

your organization• Content must be relevant to keep publics

interested - WIIFM? • Anticipate publics’ needs, interests, questions

and then write optimized content• Every page is now your homepage• Make sure a call to action is on every page of

your Web site (purchase, sign-up, register, etc.)

Search Engine Optimization

Remember:• Good, strong, relevant content is rewarded• Keyword list should remain current• Do the “(your organization) sucks” test

– Kryptonite locks– Dell

• SEO can be part of a crisis management plan• Fight content with content

Search Engine Optimization

• Search engines – Strong, relevant, fresh content– Frequently updated content– Well structured architecture– Intelligent link structure

• Algorithms change - so SEO should be an ongoing process

• You need a content strategy to keep content fresh

Content Development Strategy

What is good content?• Covers one subject per page• Follows proper grammar and spelling rules• Updated frequently• Short, easy to digest paragraphs• Keywords sprinkled throughout – many

focused at the top of the page• Induces repeat visitors• Generates links

Ways to Add Content

• User-generated content – comments, reviews• Images• Videos• Press releases• White papers• News articles (used with permission)• Case studies• Podcasts

• How-to’s • User tips for products or services• Transcripts from videos• Quiz, polls or test• Research reports• New site sections for products, departments,

services• Before and afters• Start a blog!

Other Ways to Get Traffic

Add your site to directories:• Yelp.com• InsiderPages• Yahoo Local• CitySearch• Superpages

– Other general directories (Starting Point, ExactSeek, and Best of the Web)

Other Ways to Get Traffic

• Social media• Blogs• Buying ads on Google and Yahoo!• Viral videos• Contests• Promotions• Emails, newsletters• Online only content

What NOT to Do

• Link farms• Keyword stuffing• Duplicate content• Lack of original content• Hidden text and links• Deceptive titles• Machine-generated pages• Copyright violators