Eric Highland's November 27, 2012 presentation on DIY SEO for the WordPress Austin Meetup group. Faithful blogger/website owner, don't stick your masterpiece in the basement. Join us for a course that unpacks and demystifies the SEO jargon that has always given you a headache, and equips you to get your blog "seen" by search engines and the millions around the world who use them daily to find blogs just like yours.

1. DIY SEARCH ENGINE
OPTIMIZATION
@erichighland / @knektion / @theaustinot

2. Blogging and Me
 Austinot.com
 Birthday:
November 13, 2011
 Regular content:
January 12, 2012
 StudioPress theme
 5 posts/wk inc. Friday
audio podcast
 225 articles published

3. Google Analytics: March 2012

4. Google Analytics: April 2012

5. Google Analytics: May 2012

6. After 10 Months of Regular
Content
 All-time Alexa bests so far are175,713 in the
world and 28,573 in the U.S.
 Social presence
 Facebook: 1,265
 Twitter: 2,520
 Pinterest, Google+
 20% of traffic from search
 10 direct sponsors total, 2 pending
 Local ad network partnership: Checkout Austin

7. SEO 101: How Search Engines
Work

8. SEO 101
 SEO encompasses any unpaid methods used to
get a website to rank well on search engine
results pages (SERPS)
 SEO vs. SEM
 Paid beats out organic 2:1 on keywords with high
commercial intent (WordStream)
 Generally, organic results receive 85% of clicks,
compared to 15% for paid (Compete.com)
 White hat vs. black hat
 In 2012, no SEO strategy can fit on a bumper
sticker.

9. Is Your Site Indexed by
Google?
 Use the query = site:[domain]
 Example = site:austinot.com

10. Is a Specific Page Indexed by
Google?
 Use the query = inurl:[URL snippet]
site:[domain]
 Example = inurl:movember site:austinot.com

11. When Was the Last Time Google
Came to Visit?

12. When Was the Last Time Google
Came to Visit?
 “This is Google’s cache of http://austinot.com.
It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on
Nov 26, 2012…”

13. What If I’m Not Showing Up?
 Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools
 Verify your site (use WordPress for SEO plugin
by Yoast)
 Health  Fetch as Google  Submit to Index
 Google can find you without this tool, as it
crawls links on the Internet
 Google can choose not to index web pages it
crawls
 Fresh content encourages Google to visit
regularly

14. On-Page Optimization
 On-page = the content and code that you have
control over as the administrator of your
website
 In order to perform on-page optimization, you
need to perform keyword research first

15. Google AdWords Keyword Tool

16. Google AdWords Keyword Tool
 Sign in
 Set search parameters

17. Google AdWords Keyword Tool
 Save and download

18. SEOmoz Pro Keyword Difficulty
Tool

19. Keyword Focus
 Remember:
 Image
file names
 Meta
description

20. WordPress SEO by Yoast

21. What Are You Lookin’ At?
 File name
 Alt tag
 Proximity
 Placement
(for humans)

22. Off-Page Optimization
 On-page optimization is just the beginning of
SEO
 Social signals matter (tweets, likes, blog
comments)
 Link-Building matters (the rise and demise of
PageRank)
 OpenSiteExplorer.org (3 free reports/day)
 2,200+ external links for The Austinot
 Guest writing
 “Battle rhythm”

23. Recommended Social Plugins
 Digg Digg  Shareaholic

24. How to Dominate Your Blogging
Niche
Relationships Content
Marketing SEO

25. Marketing
 “Battle rhythm”

26. Relationships
 Influencers IRL and on social platforms
 The Austinot has a reach of ~200,000 when
our influencers get involved
 Be consistent
 Go the extra mile

27. SEO Changes All the Time
 Resources
 SEOmoz
 Search Engine Land
 State of Search
 Search Engine Watch
 Search Engine Journal
 Knektion
 Facebook.com/Knektion
 Twitter.com/Knektion - @Knektion

28. Knektion Services & Partners
 Flyers are available if you’d like to learn more
about Knektion’s online marketing services:
 SEO/social media consulting
 On-page optimization
 Social media management
 Web design from our partner HMG Creative