user experience-seo-indiana-bar-camp-2010

WHO AM I ?

NAME:

ADDITIONAL:

COMPANY:

POSITION:

Nat FinnGolden Technologies

Officer - NWITweetup

Regional Director - Blog Indiana

Author - SEOBoy.com

Internet Marketing Specialist

WHO IS GOLDEN TECHNOLOGIES ?

ELEVATOR PITCH:

A solution-based technologycompany that specializes inthe BIG 3:

IT & Support

Custom Development

Marketing & (Web) Design

WHAT DO I DO ?GOOD QUESTION:

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE:

E-Strategy: Client & Corporate

SEO, SEM, Social Media, Corporate Blogging, Copywriting...

Conversion Optimization: A/B Testing

Even some general marketing

5+ Years

WHY ARE YOU HERE ?PROBABLY:

POSSIBLY:

You don’t know a whole lot about SEO

Because you want to learn how SEO will help your agency grow

You’re killing time till either Kyle Lacy or Dave Woodson starts their presentation

WHAT YOU WILL GAIN

A common-sense understanding of SEO

SEO Techniques you don’t have to be a programmer to implement

A few learning resources

WHAT IS SEO ?

GOAL IN SEO:

“the active practice of optimizing a web site by improving internal and external aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines” – SEOMoz (Seattle-Based SEO Firm)

Generate relevant traffic to your website via top search engines:

Google

Bing

Yahoo!

Ask.com

ANATOMY OF A SEARCH ENGINE

(Image credit: http://www.6smarketing.com/how-search-engines-work/)

3 BRANCHES OF SEO

Content

Backlinks

Traffic

CONTENT

Static

Dynamic

Text in html

Pictures

Streamingvideo

Mp3s Animation – JavaScript / Flash

Note: Text embedded in dynamic content can’t be seen by search engine bots

BACKLINKS

Quantity of Links

Quality of Links

Anchor Text and Link Tags

(Image credit: http://bloggingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Get-More-Backlinks.jpg)

TRAFFIC

SEARCH ENGINES TRACK:

Keyword searches

Results

Clicked links

WHAT THE SEARCH ENGINE BOT IS LOOKING FOR

Keyword themes

Keyword phrases

Frequency a website updates content

Keywords on a link’s text

Keywords in a URL

Meta Data

Tags on dynamic content (more on that in the Onsite SEO Section)

The number of links that point to a page

The amount of traffic the search engine sends to a page

BEFORE YOU BEGIN -

NO:

YES:

Keyword rankings

Traffic

Sales

Branding / Awareness

IDENTIFY YOUR GOALS

(presumptive)

MATT CUTTS’ ADVICE

WHO IS MATT CUTTS ?

ADVICE (TYPICALLY)

Webspam Team Leader at Google

Write great content people will want to link to.

Search for his videos on YouTube. Great content!(Image credit: twitter.com/mattcutts)

REMEMBER: SEO IS A PHILOSOPHY,A STRATEGY AND A PROCESS!

SEO, LIKE GRAPHIC DESIGN, COPYWRITING, IS A CREATIVE ART. CONSIDER IT IN ALL ASPECTS OF YOUR WEB MARKETING:

Planning

Development

Execution

Analysis

SEO IN ACTION

SEO Design

Onsite SEO

Offsite SEO

User Experience

SEO DESIGN

Search-Engine Friendly Programming Technology

Subfolder Structure - SEOMoz Rule of 100

Robots.txt File

“Google-friendly URLs”

Canonical URLs

XML Sitemaps

ONSITE SEO

Keyword Research

Tagging

Meta Descriptions

Internal Linking

SEO Copywriting

Blogging for SEO

OFFSITE SEO

Search Engine Submission

Local SEO

Blogging for SEO

Backlinks

(Image credit: http://www.verticalmeasures.com/linktoberfest-seo-infographic-for-link-data-visualization/))

USER EXPERIENCE: WHY DO YOU THINK IT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT?

YEAH. THAT’S ALL I WANT TO KNOW ON THIS SLIDE.

(Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/395969573/)

WHY USER EXPERIENCE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT.

BECAUSE YOUR WEBSITE IS DESIGNED FOR YOUR USERS, NOT YOU!

No marketing, SEO or advertising will help if the visitor doesn’t have a positive user experience.

(Image credit: http://xkcd.com/773/)

OTHER SEO ASPECTS TO CONSIDER

Site Speed Optimization

Mobile Optimization

Print Cross Promotion

Email Signatures

Business Cards

Promotion / Branding

ANALYTICS AND REPORTING

Traffic

Conversion

SEO Reporting

Webmaster reports

Keyword (SERP) rankings

Backlink reporting

DIAGNOSTICS - YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER...

Be critical of your site. Be critical of your design.

How much traffic does the site/page get?

Where is the traffic coming from?

How easy is it for the user to engage with the content?

How easy is it for the user to perform the desired action?

Have you tested the site?

FINAL NOTES

Test, test, test…

Like market conditions: SEO is always evolving

Remember: it’s about the USER/Visitor/Customer

For basic content writing tips, consult the Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

IN CONCLUSION

Content, content, content

Let Conversions guide you

“When in doubt, plan broad.” -Gregory House, M.D.

AND DON’TScrape content from other websites

Believe anyone who guarantees #1 rankings

Start a blog on another domain and expect it to boost your SEO the same as a blog under your company’s website would (1 to 1 linking)

Work with anyone who says, “Black Hat is okay”

Spam other websites

Give up after a couple months

Believe anyone who claims to have Matt Cutts’ permission

(Image credit: http://myhosting.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/seo-cartoon-white-hat-seo-firm.gif)

IT’S LIKE ANY CRAFTIT TAKES TIME, PATIENCE AND YOU SELDOM GET IT RIGHT ON THE FIRST TIME, BUT IN THE END YOU WILL END UP WITH SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL THAT WILL REWARD YOU.

(Image credit: http://www.artic.edu/aic/conservation/revealingpicasso/)

I THANK YOU - Nat Finn

WORK:

nfinn@golden-tech.com

http://www.golden-tech.com/

NOT AS MUCH WORK:

http://www.natfinn.com/

twitter.com/natfinn

APPENDIX: INDIANA-BASED SEO RESOURCES OF NOTE

http://www.seoboy.com/

http://www.marketingtechblog.com/

http://www.slingshotseo.com/blog

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/ (new Hoosier Jay Baer)

http://blog.golden-tech.com/

BONUS TIP FOR REALTOR SITES -

Never take down a listing once it’s sold. Put up a “sold” sign and update the content with a link directing the visitor to a new page:

This will help add pages to your site.

Like Property

Neighborhood Page

Latest Deals