Search Engine Optimization

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Search Engine Optimization

• Presented by William Pasky, President, TTS
  Systems Inc.
• Contact TTS for more information at 888-433-1040

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Presentation Highlights

• Best and worst practices for search engine
  visibility
• 3 keys to maintaining high rankings
• How to beat your competition on Google
• Demonstration of a content management system with
  SEO tools to help you optimize your site without
  coding

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SEO Glossary

• SEO Search Engine Optimization
• SEM Search Engine Marketing (SEO PPC)
• PR Page Rank
• CPC Cost Per Click
• PPC Pay Per Click
• CTR Click Through Rate
• Landing page a keyword focused page (one theme)
  designed to convert
• Splash page graphical page designed to wow the
  viewer
• Above the fold first screen of the page
  visible
• SERP Search Engine Results Page
• ROI Return On Investment

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What is Search Engine Optimization

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and
  science of raising web site visibility in search
  engines and directories to increase targeted
  leads. SEO improves natural or organic listings
  in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), and
  PPC optimization improves paid listings.

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Search Statistics

• Every day, the search engines and directories
  average 300 - 500 Million searches
• Recent Forrester Research report, 81 of
  consumers on the Internet find products by using
  search engines
• Only 7 of all web sites are visible by the
  search engines
• Most web sites are not properly optimized for
  maximum search engine visibility

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Why Rankings Matter

• Appear on 2nd or 3rd page of Google (positions
  11-30)
• One month after - 5.2 times original traffic
• Two months after 9.4 times original traffic
• Appear on 1st page of Google (Top 10)
• One month after 30 more traffic of 2/3 page
  (3.36 X Original)
• Two months after 30 more traffic of 2/3 page
  (6.26 X Original)
• Conversion rate up 42 after 1st month, up 94
  after 2nd month

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Search Engine Overview

• Google dominates the search engine landscape with
  56.9 share
• 82.9 of all business users prefer Google, 86.9
  for higher income
• Google has almost 3 times the search traffic than
  Yahoo!
• Conclusion Optimize for Google

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Search Engine Behavior

• Overall 60.5 click on natural results of the
  SERPs
• Google has highest CTR for natural results
  (72.3)
• MSN reverses this trend, with more PPC ads
  displayed
• Maximum coverage, do both SEO and PPC SEM

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Click Through Positioning

• Over 50 click on the first paid ad
• Nearly 60 click on the first three organic
  results
• If youre ranked below 10 your click through
  rate falls dramatically

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SEO Best Approach

• Narrow keyword search by topic and geographically
• Buy a domain that includes a key phrase, avoiding
  underscores, dashes, and periods
• Name your business as your top key phrase
• Make your site link worthy with fresh content,
  tools, and information
• Optimize your site for high search visibility
• Integrate top key phrases into design process up
  front
• Create buzz with news, content, tools, software,
  whitepapers, blog and social networking
• Get indexed
• Mix last two items well and repeat
• Get links, links, and more links

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SEO Worst Practices

• Use lots of Flash and splash pages
• Make it all graphics, including copy
• Waste your TITLE tag (Welcome to Company.com,
  Home page of,or even worse with no TITLE,
  http//www.company.com)
• Make it difficult to navigate, like a game
• Use the same META tags on every page
• Fake XHTML structure, graphic headers etc.
• Stuff lots of keywords into your page, Keyword
  Stuffing
• Make it inaccessible, (no ALT attributes) and
  hard to use
• Throw everything into one page like a sales
  letter
• Make is as slow as possible

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Optimum Keyword Phrases

• Target 2 to 4 word key phrases
• Conversion rate peaks at 4 word key phrases
• Optimum is between 2 and 3 word key phrases
• Exception, unique corporate names higher
  conversion rates
• One and two word key phrases account for 88 of
  search traffic

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3 Keys to SEO

• Linking
• Make the content useful and compelling
• SEO is intertwined with web site design and
  content
• Keywords and Content
• Theme optimization keyword focused content
• More content higher PR
• Follow best practices, avoid worst
• Link Popularity
• Maximize high inbound links
• Key phrase filled anchor text (example
  keyphrase.com)
• Match theme with your site

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Keywords and Content Optimization

• The keywords and content that you use, tell the
  search engines what your site is about
• Buy a domain name with your top key phrase
• TITLE tag with top key phrase up front, Yellow
  Birds, or Red Hat
• Use key phrase in text based headers (H1, H2, H3
  tags)
• Use key phrase in the first sentence, the first
  25 words are the most important
• 2-3 instances of your primary keyword phase per
  100 words
• Create keyword focused pages with single theme
  matched queries
• Use keywords in links and text (hrefyellowbirds.htmlYellow Birds)
• Use keywords in ALT tags (g altyellow birds)
• Use text menus and lists
• Google favors full sentences over fragments
• Create lots of compelling content regularly

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Keyword Research

• Select key phrases that are narrow enough to rank
  well, and broad enough to garner adequate traffic
• Use Tools such as Google Keyword tracker
• Use Log file analysis
• Analyze your competition
• Brainstorm and expand words and phrases
• Sort keywords by popularity
• Narrow topically and geographically for better
  results
• Ideally integrate key phrases into site
  design/architecture
• Don't forget misspellings/alternates,
  singulars/plurals
• Best to target 3 or 2-word phrases

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Google Keyword Tools

• https//adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExter
  nal

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Do the Research

• Check the results from top engines like Yahoo and
  Google of your selected keywords. Scrutinize
  competitor sites. What do they possess that
  attracts their customers?

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Do the Research

• Take a look at the tags in the source code
  of the site. They will show what keywords
  attracted the traffic generated.
• To locate the source code of a page open a
  browser window and go to the menu bar at the top
  labeled VIEWPAGE SOURCE
• We will be looking at the page source code for a
  site named Our Greenhouse.http//ourgreenhouse.com
  

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Do the Research

• This source on the next slide shows a sample of a
  site where the title for the page,
  description and the tags, all using
  similar and same keywords and phrases.
• The keywords and phrases also clearly represent
  the web sites theme

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Tip

• Consider deliberately misspelling words in the
  keyword list for the tags as there are
  some bad spellers.

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CMS and SEO Collaboration

• A Content Management System with SEO tools allow
  you to collaborate on keywords, phrases, titles,
  linking and edit content without the need to
  understand HTML code
• SEO tools place the title tags, descriptions and
  h1 tags into the page dynamically

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Collaborative Updating of Pages

• Access to specific sections on a website can be
  assigned and collaborated on by team members that
  do not have coding experience

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No Coding Necessary

• Keywords, titles and phrases are typed directly
  into the SEO key word fields and then are
  dynamically applied to that specific page

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Content Editing

• Developing and editing themed content is
  essential to any good SEO/SEM campaign
• A visual page editor allows team members to
  collaborate on content without coding

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Summary

• Do the research on your competition
• Theme your site
• Select your phrases and keywords and analyze the
  selections with a tool like Googles Key word
  tool optimizer
• Sort and organize key words according to rank
• Optimize all of your pages individually and set
  them up with keywords and phrases using best
  practices
• Create compelling content such as whitepapers and
  articles
• Link to others and look for places to get links
  back
• Use content management website SEO tools for
  collaboration allowing team members to optimize
  pages without coding
• Optimize for Google