Got a website that’s struggling? We’ll review it for free here on our Youtube Channel and go over some strategies to help. Send your website address to reviews@hortonseo.com

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Chris HortonHorton SEOhttp://www.HortonSEO.com@HortonSEOFacebook Link: http://on.fb.me/Y3Bwqh

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization –

What It IsOptimizing site structure & content to get it viewed favorably by the search engines which allows you to rank well in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s).

Google looks at over 170 pieces of info to decide who sits on the top of that list. Some of the primary items that get considered during the ranking process include;

Domain Level Keywords Incoming Links (and quality of those links) Title Tags Content Social Media Activity (Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc) And many more (about 165+ more).

Domain Level Keywords60% of people type in an exact company name into a

Google search window. This is one of the primary reasons why Domain Level Keyword Matching is important.

Type a company domain name verbatim in Google such as “Horton SEO” or “Home Depot”.

The results will always pull up the company site as #1 because the domain name exactly matches what the person typed into the search window.

The search engine has to assume that the person may have been searching for that company name.

This also works in certain keyword phrases. An example would be a term like “Georgia Singer” which shows this site at #1

• Not Ray Charles• Not Trisha Yearwood• Low quality• Same text forever• Coming soon

It’s even done when there’s no question as to what the user is searching for. Type in Google Keyword Tool & you get this at #1 or #2 position

• Not owned by Google

• No affiliation with Google (even says so)

• No question as to what the user is trying to search for

• Worse case scenario at position # 3 for a site that is NOT the tool

Why it’s important. Google displays the results with this top

consideration in mind. Quality apparently makes no difference, but

it still needs to be relevant Does not always work and especially for

highly competitive keywords (i.e. – SEO, Barbie dolls, dog grooming, etc.).

The more competitive the term, the more relevant the site has to be.

Before you waste a bunch of money buying a domain name, do your research.

Next Up: Title Tags

Title tags appear as the name of the link in the SERP’s.

Optimize your title tags for the top 3 keywords that are relevant to that page’s content.

Do NOT use the same title tag across the entire site DO NOT use your company name as the only text in your title tag

Next Up: Title Tags (continued)

Atlanta Chevrolet Dealer | Chevy Dealership | Atlanta ChevyAtlanta Chevrolet Dealer | Chevy Dealership | Atlanta Chevy

Next Up: Site Speed

Yslow (developer.yahoo.com/yslow) Google Webmaster Tools (google.com/webmasters)

Fixing Site Speed problems Condense Scripts (Javascripts, CSS, etc.) Pay attention to image sizes Keep linking to external scripts to a minimum

Next Up: Site Structure Site structure is very important Silo your site correctly (Stay tuned for future lesson) Subdomains – (http://linkbuilding.hortonseo.com) Subdirectories (hortonseo.com/link-building/) Page names (hortonseo.com/link-building/link-building-

tips.html) Robots.txt (block out CGI folders, admin folder, etc.) Sitemaps (multiple versions. Examples: Video sitemap, article

sitemap, product sitemap, etc.). List them in robots.txt file Get a free XML sitemap from auditmypc.com & then submit

them to Webmaster Tools

Site Structure (continued)The correct redirection commands301 – Indicates that a page has permanently movedRemove them from Google’s index via Webmaster Tools302 – Indicates that a page has temporarily moved (IIS users, beware. 302 is the default and 301’s have to be turned on)401 – Unauthorized. Are you blocking Google?404 – Page Not Found. Custom? Check your links.Always edit 404 pages to allow users to navigate back into your site.

Next Up: Images 31% of searchers click on images in blended search results Properly name your image names (white-ford-bronco.jpg) Take time to properly populate the image ALT tags

<img src=“images/white-bronco.jpg” alt=“2013 white ford bronco” />

Next Up: Images (continued) Image file naming matters!

Next Up: Images (continued) Not just file naming, but also Properties area. Fill out

the properties. Google sees all! Right click on the

image, click on Properties, go to the Details tab and

FILL IT OUT!

Things Google Ignores (Kind of) Flash – Google CAN see Flash text not flattened on the layer. Javascript – Google pays no attention to it. If your navigation

menus are built using Javascript, change it. CSS – Google has to look at it to check for certain spam

techniques, so yes, it gets read Frames – Can cause bad traps. Video – Can’t see the video, but Bing is now reporting that it’s

doing audio analysis. Make sure you edit the metadata for any video you’re doing.

Images – Same as videos. Google has to rely on what you tell it. Changes coming? Probably, but for now, edit those properties!

Meta Tags – Mostly ignored with some exceptions. Future class.

Next Up: Social Media Activity Social bookmarking versus social networking Social bookmarking sites you CAN’T ignore:

Digg, Delicious, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Google Bookmarks. Hit them all using OnlyWire.com

Social networking sites you can’t ignore; Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter. Hit them along with tons of others using Ping.FM (or Onlywire.com).

Have a blog? Make sure that you implement social plugins like AddThis that allow readers to do this for you as well.

RSS Feeds – Make sure you use these as well. Do video? Check out TubeMogul.com that can submit your videos

to multiple sites with one click.

Think social media isn’t important? Let’s go back to our referring sites slide…

Next up: Linking (The Good, The Bad, the Ugly)

The Good Highly relevant to your site or industry Pagerank of 3 or higher Sites that rank in top 50 for terms that you’re chasing Relevant directories (Yahoo, BOTW.org, DMOZ.org. etc.)

How to get them: Use programs like IBP (www.axandra.com) to pull lists of highly qualified sites along with contact information & contact

directly. Start a useful, entertaining blog that folks will link to. Offer discounts to bloggers that people will share. Offer Best Of Web awards that people will post.

The Bad and the Ugly Totally irrelevant to your site or industry (Viagra,

gambling) Pagerank of 0 (Not always bad and not a deciding factor) Sites that aren’t in Google’s index Mass linking sites or providers that offer thousands of

links for a fee

How to avoid them: Delete the email requests. Don’t sign up with mass linking services If it doesn’t look natural to Google, it will fail miserably

Linking (The Good, The Bad, the Ugly): The Tips

Don’t buy your links. Google knows who they are. If you’re acquiring a few links a month and then all of a sudden acquire

hundreds or thousands within a week, get on your bathing suit. You’re going for a dip.

If the amount of links you acquire is higher than your visitor count, buy another swimsuit, you’ll be drowning for a while once you’re caught.

Write helpful articles and submit them through sites like SubmitYourArticle.com where relevant sites will re-post your material.

Write useful, informative blogs Get involved with various related blogs and actively commenting. Tweak out all of your “profiles” for any member sites

Next Up: Good Tools to Use Google Webmaster Tools –

(www.google.com/webmasters) Google Webmaster Forum –

(www.google.com/support/forum/) SearchEngineLand – (http://www.searchengineland.com) SEOMoz – (www.seomoz.org) IBP – (www.axandra.com) SEOElite - (www.seoelite.com) SEOBook – (www.seobook.com - Tools section) LotusJump – (www.lotusjump.com) Wordpress - (www.wordpress.com or www.wordpress.org)

Got a website that’s struggling? We’ll review it for free here on our Youtube Channel and go over some strategies to help.

Don’t want others to see? We’re available for affordable SEO consultations also.

Chris HortonHorton SEOhttp://www.HortonSEO.comDirector of SEO@HortonSEOreviews@hortonseo.comFacebook Link: http://on.fb.me/Y3Bwqh