Growing Your Reach Using Technology for SEO BlogHer Handmade September 15, 2011 Connie #bhhseo September 15, 2011

Global Marketing Connie Bensen Community Management and Strategy

Global Marketing Know Your Audience Who are your crafts for? (audience) What are they looking for? (keywords) What supplies do you need (content) Putting it together (crafting) Tools to use (free technology)

Global Marketing SEO Basics What do search engines prefer? Search engines rank websites on two factors: 1. Content and keywords (on-page) 2. Inbound links to your site (off-page) Two types of search: 1. Paid Search: Most common is Pay Per Click (PPC). The price increases with the popularity of the term. (Google Adwords & Facebook Ads) 2. Organic (or natural) Search: The phenomenon of ranking in search results due to keyword match and number of links to website. This is free! Research shows that people are 75% more inclined to click on organic results vs paid. (Hubspot)

Global Marketing A Pattern for Blinging Out Your Blog 1. Gather list of Keywords - Tools 2. Optimized Blog – On Page SEO & Off Page SEO 3. Content & Editorial Calendar 4. Engage, share & network 5. Refine keywords & measure

Global Marketing Keywords and Tools

Global Marketing Keyword Research => Market Research  Know Your Audience via Keyword research –What people are interested in –Relevance and reach –Insight into actual language –Competition and authority  Free Tools – KeywordDiscovery.com – Wordstream.com – SEMRush.com – Google Adwords, Insights & Trends – Facebook Ads

Global Marketing KeywordDiscovery.com 1. Create a Free Account 2. Offers ability to drill in to terms on left (results show in right column)

Global Marketing WordStreamWordStream.com These free tools are located in the middle of the bottom of the page. Free Niche Tool Free Keyword Tool

Global Marketing SEMRush.com  Volume indicates challenge to rank for SEO  Provides niche ideas

Global Marketing Adwords.Google.com 1. Search by word, phrase or URL 2. Uncheck ‘Broad” and check ‘Exact’ 3. Star items and they are collected on the right

Global Marketing Common Mistake: A Keyword List of the most common terms How to Avoid that: 1. Consider many avenues (build a broad list) 2. Use thesaurus.com to find synonyms for your main termsthesaurus.com 3. Find high-traffic phrases that are less competitive 4. Spy on your competition and look at their titles, meta tags, and content Use add-ons for Firefox or Chrome 5. Use BackLinkWatch.com and the URL to see pages linking to the site & anchor text Knitting types of yarn specific types of items (socks, baby items, sweaters, etc) techniques gift giving demographics: men, children Go Broad Rather than Narrow

Global Marketing Reverse Engineer Facebook Ads 1. Facebook.com/Advertising 2. Click on ‘Create Ad’ 3. Type any word in “Body’; Click on ‘Continue’ at bottom 4. Type the topic in the ‘Precise Interests’ field 5. Watch the dropdown as additional words appear and the respective audiences 6. Click on the right to add additional terms

Global Marketing Google Insights for Search

Global Marketing Google Trends

Global Marketing Behind the Scenes

Global Marketing On-Page SEO 1. Try Website Grader ( to see how your site appears to search engineswww.websitegrader.com 2. Use keywords for: – Content – Page title – URL – Tags – Headings 3. Put keywords in the invisible places on your site – Meta-tags – Alt-text on images

Global Marketing Off Page SEO 1. Build more links within context Anchor text: the text that is hyperlinked to another page on your site 2. Encourage inbound links from other sites into yours 3. Link building tips – Submit your website to directories like Yahoo! and Business.com – Build relationships with others in your industry (blogs) – Create compelling tools and content (that people will share & link back to) – freebies

Global Marketing Content and Editorial Calendar

Global Marketing Content is King 1. Interesting content is not enough 2. Need to focus on people that are interested in your topic – Use keyword research for ideas – Find related words – Create compelling headlines

Global Marketing Engage, Share and Network

Global Marketing Join the Community 1. Read industry blogs – Set up Google reader & subscribe to RSS feeds 2. Comment – Add a point, a useful link, ask a question or disagree 3. Write – Use your own domain (not blogger.com or typepad.com) – Find blogging software (MS LiveWriter) – Frequency of once a week 4. Topic Ideas – Lists – Recent experiences – Answer questions received – Comment on other blog posts – Convert a press release 5. Promote on Social Sites.

Global Marketing Share 1. Help Others – A nswer questions – Be helpful 2. Publish everywhere 3. Monitor what others publish and promote it – Use Tweetdeck 4. Use shareable sites – YouTube – Podcasts – Slideshare

Global Marketing Refine Keywords and Measure

Global Marketing Web & Social Analytics Blog metrics  Number of blog visitors  Number of subscribers  SEO rankings  Technorati blog rank.  Number of leads and customers from blog Social Media metrics  Del.icio.us bookmarks  Inbound links  Facebook fans, Twitter followers, connections on LinkedIn SEO metrics  Number of inbound links  Keyword rank over time and compared to competition

Global Marketing Make Keywords Are Your BLING! SEOMoz.com

Global Marketing Thank you! Connie