PR and SEO

Evaluate Your Website How much traffic does your site get? What are the most popular pages on your Web site? How long do users stay on your site? From what pages do your users exit your site? Is your Web site user-friendly? How often do you update your Web site? Is the most important information easy to find?

Look at Your Competitors Look at Web sites of similar organizations What do they have that you need to have? Are they ranked higher than your organization on major search engines? How much traffic do they get? What key words are they targeting? Check out Alexa for traffic stats.Alexa

Usability Navigation Breadcrumbs Consistency Use white space. Keep it simple. BAD Sites: Example 1 Example 2 Good Sites: Webby Awards

Developing a Web Hierarchy Similar to an outline Start with a chart –Page title –Sub page title –Keywords –Summary of page contents –Copy –Links –Graphics Example –Peabody Awards

Tips for Effective Web Sites Avoid splash pages Avoid duplicate content Avoid Flash websites Photos (JPG), logos (GIF) Link internally Limit special effects and animation

Tips for Effective Web Sites Have legible text Always have contact information Display your privacy policy Update content frequently Keep writing concise, tight, snappy Open external links in a new window so users can easily return to your site.

Develop an Online PR Strategy What are your organization’s online goals? –Increase rankings –Increase traffic –Increase “conversions” –Maintain positive relationships with publics –Combat negative opinions –Conduct research –Obtain feedback

Search Engine Optimization The importance of search engine rankings: 49% of all Internet users access search engines daily Searching is 2 nd most popular online activity after 94% of Internet visitors conducted a search last quarter (Oct. 2010) 90% of users click on results in the first 2 pages

Why Do SEO? Third party validation No one uses the phone book! Boost sales, awareness Become an industry leader Fight content with content

How Do Search Engines Work? Bots or spiders crawl the web following links... Building the index and cataloging keywords... So search engines can retrieve results... Based on relevance... Which ultimately affects page rank.

How do search engines work?

Getting Started Check out Alexa for traffic stats.Alexa Get the Google ToolbarGoogle Toolbar –Cached snapshot –Similar pages –Backward links

Generate and Use Keywords What are keywords? Keywords Long-Tail keywords Trophy keywords

Generate and Use Keywords How do you find keywords? Your Web analytics tool Google AdWords Tool Website submission tool How do you decide which keywords to use? Pick 8 to 10 trophy keywords per site Concentrate on 1 keyword phrase per page

Generate and Use Keywords Use keywords and phrases high on the page (first words) Use variations of keyword phrases Keep keyword density between 5-7% –Golf exampleGolf example Never present text as a graphic!

Generate and Use Keywords Use keywords in: Meta tags Title tag Header tag Meta description tag Body text Links Alt tags Sitemaps Anchor links Domain name Image names

Get Indexed Index vs. Web Web crawlers and bots –Crawl text and links –Press Ctrl-A on a Web page to see what the crawlers seeWeb page –Important text for crawlers: Title of the page Content near the top of the page Links Sitemap

Get Indexed Make sure every page allows bots to visit: See which pages are indexed – search for: “site:domain.com” Submit your site to the search engines –Google Webmaster CentralGoogle Webmaster Central –Then visit Google AnalyticsGoogle Analytics –Submit to Yahoo!Yahoo! –Submit to BingBing –Submit to DMOZ (aka Open Directory Project)DMOZ –Submit to AlexaAlexa –Use a website submission enginewebsite submission engine

Develop Your Link Building Strategy More links to your site = higher search engine rankings But, it’s not so simple High quality links, high quantity of links and site relevance determine rankings Right link building

Where to Get Quality Backlinks Industry leaders, associations Charity sites Places you sponsor Old sites with established domains Chambers of commerce, BBB News and press release sites Blogs and forums Quality articles.gov,.edu Social media and bookmarking sites Customer review sites

Consider Link Juice What makes a link juicy? Relevant to your content Other links on the page are relevant Page has been recently cachedcached Page is respected Page has multiple incoming links Page has few outbound links Page and links have been around for a long timelong time

Develop Your Link Building Strategy Link to other relevant sites on the Web Link internally –site mapssite maps –bread crumbsbread crumbs Link to the sites you want to link to you site owner to politely request a link (and show where you’ve linked to them)

Develop Your Link Building Strategy See who’s linking to you already: –Check out Alexa –Google: “+ or Link:domain.com –Ex: “+ or Link:dreamland.com“+ –Yahoo: linkdomain:examplesite.com –Bing: link: examplesite.com

Search Engine Optimization Remember: You want traffic, but traffic that’s interested in your organization Content must be relevant to keep publics interested - WIIFM? Anticipate publics’ needs, interests, questions and then write optimized content Every page is now your homepage Make sure a call to action is on every page of your Web site (purchase, sign-up, register, etc.)

Search Engine Optimization Remember: Good, strong, relevant content is rewarded Keyword list should remain current Do the “(your organization) sucks” test –Kryptonite locksKryptonite locks –DellDell SEO can be part of a crisis management plan Fight content with content

Search Engine Optimization Search engines – Strong, relevant, fresh content – Frequently updated content –Well structured architecture –Intelligent link structure Algorithms change - so SEO should be an ongoing process You need a content strategy to keep content fresh

Content Development Strategy What is good content? Covers one subject per page Follows proper grammar and spelling rules Updated frequently Short, easy to digest paragraphs Keywords sprinkled throughout – many focused at the top of the page Induces repeat visitors Generates links

Ways to Add Content User-generated content – comments, reviews Images Videos Press releases White papers News articles (used with permission) Case studies Podcasts How-to’s User tips for products or services Transcripts from videos Quiz, polls or test Research reports New site sections for products, departments, services Before and afters Start a blog!

Other Ways to Get Traffic Add your site to directories: Yelp.com InsiderPages Yahoo Local CitySearch Superpages –Other general directories (Starting Point, ExactSeek, and Best of the Web)

Other Ways to Get Traffic Social media Blogs Buying ads on Google and Yahoo!GoogleYahoo! Viral videos Contests Promotions s, newsletters Online only content

What NOT to Do Link farms Keyword stuffing Duplicate content Lack of original content Hidden text and links Deceptive titles Machine-generated pages Copyright violators