Search Engine Optimization

Adil AlsalmiE-Business | 2010

The Rise of Search

• Search is the 2nd most popular online activity, after email.

• Percentage of net users who search on a typical day grew 70% from 2002 to 2009

The Rise of Search

SEO = Search Engine Optimization

Using targeted keywords and phrases so a website’s pages will rank high on SERPs.

SERP = Search Engine Results Page

Definition

SERPs - Organic Listings

Eye Tools Research

Pay Per Click

Organic = Free

Statistics

85% click on organic

72% click the first link of interest

25% read all listings first, then click

Web Search Market ShareJuly 2010

Google 84.9%Yahoo 5.9%Bing 3.3%Baidu 3%Other 3%

Google

Yahoo

Bing

PageRank• One of the methods Google uses to determine a page’s

relevance or importance.

• Each web page - not site - has a PageRank score

Links - Best Practices

Bad• http://mysite.com• http://www.mysite.com/index.html• http://mysite.com/index.html

Good• http://www.mysite.com/• Use redirects and make all internal links point to your

domain using the “http://www.mysite.com/”

Link Text

SEO: Link nouns not verbs

Avoid “click here”

View the donation page

View the donation page.

Off-The-Page SEOLink Building

• Reciprocal linking • RSS news feeds• Blogs• Digg, Delicious, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter• Forums

Factor 1: Page TitleThe #1 important on-the-page ranking factor!

Length: 70 characters or lessGoogle description uses 70 characters.

Use Keyphrases or KeywordsAlso use it in beginning of page text.

The title is your search results link. It should be clear, sensible, and encourage a click.

Page Title Strategy

Page titles are for more than just SEO

•Bookmark text

•Answers question “Where am I”

META Description

• 70 words

• Sometimes shows up in Google SERP

• Page specific

• Includes main page keyphrases

Keyword Use in Meta Description Tag

Search Engine Ranking Factors Keywords

Keyword Use in H2, H3 etc…

Keyword Use in Page URL

Keyword Use in ALT Tags

Frequency of Page Updates

Keyword Use in Meta Description Tag

HTML Validation

Keyword Use in Meta Keywords Tag

META Keywords

•Stuff you don’t want in page text

• Misspellings

• 5 to 10 phrases

• Do not repeat too much

Keyword Use in Meta Keywords Tag

Avoid ….

Keywords

Keywords are the foundation of SEO

Your non-profit website should determine critical keywords

Research their potential value and effectiveness

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Best free keyphrase tool

Helps with brainstorming

Displays keyword/phrase effectiveness

Finds opportunities

AvoidImage Text

Iframes for displaying content

Flash, Silverlight or video for content without text equivalents.

Optimizing Body Copy

YUCK!

Large blocks of text without headlines and subheadings

Bad for SEOBad for Visitors

Web Writing

Use keywords – a few times per page

Write wisely- 250 words per paragraph

Use Heading: distinguish you paragraph

Add extra pages

Never sacrifice tone, feel or usability

Eye Tracking Studies

Poynter Institute

Social Media OptimizationPotential for organic traffic and quality backlinks

Final Words

• SEO is a best practice when used appropriately• Write good content• Get everyone involved• Learn SEO techniques• Try out keywords research tools

Thank you, Shokran

SEOmoz.orgEspecially see SEOmoz Beginner’s Guide

Google Webmaster Toolshttp://www.google.com/support/webmasters/http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349