re bar camp presentation site design and seo 2010 06 17
DESCRIPTION
Building an extremely professional, results-driven site nolonger requires a Developer, Designer and thousands of dollars. I\'llshare 20-30 different design and functionality principles that anyonecan easily integrate into their sites with CMS\'s like Wordpress,Drupal, and Joomla. I\'ll share 5-10 different online tools & servicesyou can use to get valuable free advertising and exposure for yoursite. Users who implement these principles soon find their sites onGoogle 1st page for some extremely competitive terms like "[STATENAME] mortgage" or "[CITY NAME] mortgage". We\'ll take one extremelysuccessful Agent\'s website & dissect it to show you exactly how theyachieve success.TRANSCRIPT
Engaging, Sales-Driven Website Design + SEO
rICh morrowprofessional Web geek
1st acronym: SEO
• Content• Content• Content• (OK, there is more…)• Inbound Links• Popularity
6/17/10 RE Bar Camp Denver
SEO is not
• About gimmicks and "tricks" (keyword stuffing, "tricking" googlebot)
• "Cracking the code” of the Engines ( unless you can afford 2-3 full time SEO experts )
6/17/10 RE Bar Camp Denver
SEO is
• Good site design, "getting the mice to the cheese". Have no more than 5 pieces of cheese.
• Balance of product + service promotion, and valuable content.
• Providing value through content (variety & frequency, the more the better)
6/17/10 RE Bar Camp Denver
The Search Engines
• Google is King (66% of search, & growing) -- the most bang for your buck.
• Don't forget to check your rankings in Yahoo (17%) & Bing (11%), if you have traction there, keep it.
• You can buy "organic" placements in Yahoo & Bing, but not Google
6/17/10 RE Bar Camp Denver
• LOVES content ( variety, frequency ). Blogs, Videos, widgets.
• Rewards (and punishes) you swiftly - usually within the day (if not hours).
• Like all engines, constantly changes things… check in once or twice a week to see where you are.
6/17/10 RE Bar Camp Denver
For users coming to your site• Keywords in Domain, in URL, in page "<title>", "<meta>", "<h1>", "<h2>"
tags, density in page (3-7% for Major keywords, 1-2% for minor).• Blogs are huge (don't write a novel, but try to write at least 2-3 times /
week). No time? Pay a bright, articulate College English major by the blog.• Find a "niche" you're passionate about & sharing your passion( Local
Architects, Neighborhood history, Charting, representing data in an easy-to-consume format).
• "join our mail list".. build a list and mail to it. Put links in your mails, and make the content fresh and not "salesy". If you mail from your domain, make sure to check it on blacklists (spamhaus, etc), and set up DKIM & SPF keys.
• Keywords in "anchor text" (eg: <a href='http://site.com">Denver Mortgage Info</a>) of inbound links.
• Talk to your users, what do they want, how did they find you?
6/17/10 RE Bar Camp Denver
Social Media gets you popular fast• LinkedIn + Facebook: Full Personal Profile, Company Profile, Update,
leverage their features (Ask/Answer questions on Groups, request & give recs, follow / like companies you interact with, etc).
• make ”biz name" accounts, on Twitter, Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, MySpace, Delicious, et al. Link them all from your site.
• Social Media Links: "Like this", "Digg this", "Follow us"… have at least 5-10 links prominently displayed on all pages.
• RSS/ATOM your blog content out to all of your sites• Videos, screencasts on YouTube. Camtasia is only $99, & it lets you
record videos of your screen. - Meetup.com -- create or join & participate in groups. If you give presentations, put them back on your sites.
• Optimize only what’s performing.
6/17/10 RE Bar Camp Denver
Make your life easier
• Learn & use Wordpress (or Drupal), basic HTML & CSS (two weekends @ borders with a laptop, or use online training like nettuts, Lynda.com) -- or make the decision to outsource.
• If your site is not in Wordpress or Drupal already, junk it now, or pay someone to migrate it for you.
• Learn to search for & implement modules in your sites. Recommend "Tag Clouds", “SEO Tools”, etc.
• Demarc what you want to outsource. Pay fair price for fair value (don't go "cheap" & limit yourself).
• Use Google Analytics as a dashboard for your traffic, Google Docs for your email, Document sharing, productivity.
6/17/10 RE Bar Camp Denver
What you want to avoid
• Perfection. Don't optimize something until it proves itself. 5 "rough" sites are WAY more valuable than one "pro" site. Release in BETA.
• Copying. Google catches you and you plummet -- although there is some leeway with RSS/Atom feeds. Don’t just swap a logo & domain name to put another site up.
• Hiring "experts" without examination. Thoroughly vet anyone claiming to be an "expert".
• Ceilings. Only use, buy, or implement services & products that scale and are easy to use.
6/17/10 RE Bar Camp Denver
In short, it’s about D.E.A.L.*• Define the keywords you're after, your customer demographic, the CMS you
want to use, demarc what you "own" and what you "outsource", what you're passionate about, what your users want.
• Eliminate anything slowing you down (perfection, content creation, useless content / distractions or roadblocks keeping the mice from the cheese, non-CMS sites, lack of knowledge, find if someone's already built the wheel & use their solution, own the technology, don't let it own you).
• Automate content creation ( outsource it, RSS/ATOM it), mail lists, Social Media, HootSuite or Ping.fm your content out. Set up repeatable processes to create and consume videos, blogs, content feeds, etc.
• Liberate yourself from meaningless, unfulfilling work. Play with the kids, go dancing, learn Chinese… do what you love.
* From the book, "4 hour work week” by Tim Ferris
6/17/10 RE Bar Camp Denver
Real World Example
• Ben Yost has learned and implemented these principles with great results. He’s been gracious enough to let me lift the hood on one of his sites & show you how.
• http://www.benyost.com
6/17/10 RE Bar Camp Denver
Further Reading
• SEO:– http://www.webconfs.com/15-minute-seo.php– http://www.webconfs.com/seo-tutorial/– http://www.seobook.com/Keyword
• Keyword Tool:– https://www.wordtracker.com/trial/http://adlab.
msn.com/ForecastV2/KeywordTrendsWeb.aspx• Customer Relationship Management:– http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp– http://www.mailchimp.com//
6/17/10 RE Bar Camp Denver