Will O'Brien Startup Corner - SEO And Social Media

Startup CornerSEO and Social Media

February 22, 2009Will O’Brien ([email protected])

Copyright © 2009 Will O'Brien (willobrien.wordpress.com)

OverviewWeb startups will struggle as we continue to face challenging economic times. There are fewer sources of capital and more risk is pushed onto the entrepreneur.

With limited resources for paid search and other costly marketing techniques, an early stage internet company can build organic traffic through SEO and social marketing.

This presentation gives best practices for these approaches.


2

About The AuthorWill O’Brien ([email protected])

Startup founder, casual filmmaker and general optimist

Blog: willobrien.wordpress.com; Twitter: @willobrien

Education: MIT Sloan MBA and Harvard University Computer Science

Work: Founder of His Catalog (hiscatalog.com)


• Eliminate the hassle of shopping for men’s clothing

• Get recommendations based on your personal preferences

• Read advice on what to wear from real expert stylists

• Visually build outfits with clothes from your favorite brands

h i scata log .com

3

mailto:[email protected]

SEO and Social MediaHow To Build An Organic Following Online


4

There Are 3 Sources Of Inbound Marketing; You Have Greatest Control Over SEO And Social Media†


† Slide Originally by HubSpot

5

SEO 101 – Understand The Impact Of Being A Top Organic Result (Golden Triangle Statistics)†

85% click on “natural” (unpaid) results

72% of searchers click on the first link of interest

25.5% read all listings first, then decide

Position 7-10 in natural listings = top 4 PPC slots on the right hand side


† Data from Range Online Media

6

Building SEO Strength Takes Time; Focus Your Energies On The Key Drivers For SEO

Continuous generation of original contentKeyword-rich URLs (e.g., http://hiscatalog.com/style-advice/outfits/64-warm-weather-cocktail-party)

Unique page titles and descriptions

SitemapXML listing of all pages on your siteDon’t forget to sitemap your blog!

Links from sites with more PageRank than yoursPress coverageComment in other blogs and sitesSocial media sites


7

http://hiscatalog.com/style-advice/outfits/64-warm-weather-cocktail-party

Take Advantage Of Social Media – Promote New Content To Social Channels On A Regular Basis


8

Lessons Learned From Building His Catalog : Don’t Expect SEO to Be Automatic

Bake SEO into the DNA of your product .. EarlyIt takes a while for Google to index your siteSitemaps and URL structure are critical

Allow users to share your content and promote your brandUse tools like on content pages

Build buzz on Twitter and Facebook!Tweet regular updates and follow tweeple in your industryBuild a Facebook product page and syndicate your blog


9

http://hiscatalog.com/

http://twitter.com/hiscatalog

http://www.facebook.com/pages/His-Catalog/36734570867?ref=ts

Tools and Resources


Website GraderWebinars

SEO Starter GuideGoogle AnalyticsWebmaster Tools

Email lists, forums, friends

Books

Larry Weber, Marketing to the Social Web

10

http://website.grader.com/

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/11/googles-seo-starter-guide.html

http://www.google.com/analytics/

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tour/tour1.html

http://www.amazon.com/Marketing-Social-Web-Customer-Communities/dp/0470124172

Will O'Brien Startup Corner - SEO And Social Media

Technology

Transcript of Will O'Brien Startup Corner - SEO And Social Media