1. 5 Key SEO Elements  5 KEY SEO Elements for YOUR Blog Mary E. Archer marcher@strategic-ranking.com www.Strategic-Ranking.com/blog www.twitter.com/RichmondSEO www.linkedin.com/in/MaryArcher 1© 2010 Strategic Ranking

2. Sadie Lu 2© 2010 Strategic Ranking

3. Shameless Plug  Guest Pet Bloggers WANTED!  RichmondPetLovers.com and sister blog RichmondDogs.com RichmondPetLovers.com RichmondDogs.com 3© 2010 Strategic Ranking

4. 5 Key SEO Elements 1. SEO-friendly Blog Design 2. A Killer Keyword Strategy 3. A Killer Linking Strategy 4. Killer Content, Optimized Feeds & Social Media 5. On-going Analytics & Tweaking 4© 2010 Strategic Ranking

5. SEO-friendly Design  Clean, valid and optimized code is KEY  Search Engines analyze the HTML code of your blog to find the content that tells them what a particular blog or post is about and where to rank it  If your code is bloated and full of errors, the search engines may have a difficult time figuring out what your blog or posts are about  Separate HTML code from the other stuff (CSS, PHP, JavaScript, etc.) 5© 2010 Strategic Ranking

6. Clean HTML Code 6© 2010 Strategic Ranking

7. Blogging Platforms & Themes  Host your own Blog (no blogspot.com, typepad.com, wordpress.com)  All blogging platforms are NOT equal  WordPress RULES!  All WordPress themes are NOT equal  Recommend Thesis Theme for WordPress by DIY Themes http://diythemes.com/thesis/ (SEO-friendly design options and tools) 7© 2010 Strategic Ranking

8. Killer Keyword Strategy  Keyword Analysis Define your target keywords for overall site and each blog post 8© 2010 Strategic Ranking

9. Keyword Placement  Post titles  Post descriptions  Post URLs  Headings,,  Copy of post  Image alt text  Image description  Categories and tags 9© 2010 Strategic Ranking

10. WordPress Edit Post  10© 2010 Strategic Ranking

11. Keyword Tips  Think it through  Don’t over do it  Don’t allow post permalink pages or category pages to be auto-generated  Use synonyms, common misspellings, multiple verb tenses, etc.  Keep post titles below 65 characters in length  Craft keyword-rich, benefit-oriented page titles to entice readers 11© 2010 Strategic Ranking

12. Killer Link Strategy  Search Engines find and value (rank) your blog based on whose linking to it  It’s about the “quality” of the links; not the “quantity”  Think about your online reputation  Topic-relevant links  Links from authoritative sources  How someone links to you matters  How you link to your posts within your own blog matters 12© 2010 Strategic Ranking

13. Internal Link Strategy  Multiple URLs for your blog (canonicalization tag – 301 redirects)  Don’t index unnecessary pages (disallow in robot.txt file)  Organize blog by keyword-rich categories and tags (delete date-based hierarchy or rel=no follow date links)  Make comment links no follow (rel=no follow)  Create an XML site map  Use related post links & keyword-rich anchor text when linking to other internal posts 13© 2010 Strategic Ranking

14. Link Anchor Text  Bad Read the full article  Good Dog groomer goes wild 14© 2010 Strategic Ranking

15. External Link Strategy  Get listed in top blog directories like http://blogs.botw.org/ and http://portal.eatonweb.com/http://blogs.botw.org/http://portal.eatonweb.com/  Get links from relevant vertical directories  Get & promote links from (do follow) social bookmarking sites like http://digg.com and http://www.stumbleupon.comhttp://digg.comhttp://www.stumbleupon.com  Get links in copy of relevant blogs/sites with good page rank and high number of readers  Become a Guest Blogger in relevant blogs with good page rank and high number of readers  Post comments with links to your blog/posts in relevant blogs and discussion boards 15© 2010 Strategic Ranking

16. Content, Feeds & Social Media  Content really is KING (post quality content often)  Take control of your RSS feeds (feeds should be to your URL or use feedburner’s My Brand service)  Optimize RSS feeds (full text, keyword-rich site and item titles, and descriptions)  Unique RSS feeds for categories and tags (each category/tag should have it’s own feed)  Use Social Media Apps for SEO & to drive traffic to your blog (facebook, twitter, linkedin) 16© 2010 Strategic Ranking

17. Analytics & Tweaking  “You can’t improve what you don’t measure”  Install Google Analytics on your blog http://www.google.com/analytics/ http://www.google.com/analytics/  Monitor referring sites, visitors, page views, keywords used, etc.  Look for opportunities for improvement, tweak, monitor and measure 17© 2010 Strategic Ranking

18. YOU Can Do This  Go slow  Make small changes and measure results  SEO is a process  Keep your readers in mind 18© 2010 Strategic Ranking

19. WordPress SEO Plugins  All in One SEO Pack All in One SEO Pack  SEO Title Tag SEO Title Tag  Automatic SEO Automatic SEO  Google XML Sitemaps Google XML Sitemaps  Meta Robots WordPress plugin Meta Robots WordPress plugin  Nofollow Case by Case Nofollow Case by Case  Platinum SEO Plugin Platinum SEO Plugin  SEO Friendly Images SEO Friendly Images © 2010 Strategic Ranking19

20. Thank You! © 2010 Strategic Ranking20