North Country Technology Symposium Wednesday, May 25, 2011 Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY Presenter: Jeff Yette

1. Focusing on SEO Presented By Jeff Yette Sales Engineer Slic Network Solutions

2. Slides available online http://www.slideshare.net/jeffyette

3. Who is this guy? Director of Sales & Marketing Slic Network Solutions since 1998 Sole Proprietor of 274web1 (Websites since 1997) 5 Years as Graphic Design Director for a 3 publication newspaper (Won a few awards for design) Attended SUNY Potsdam for Fine Art/Graphic Design

4. What is SEO? Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website/web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic) search results.

5. Look before you leap Before you can put together a SEO strategy, measure what you have first. Google Analytics Alexa Website Grader

6. Google Analytics

7. Google Analytics Uses a “snippet” of code added to each page of your website that allows Google to collect stats about visitors <script type=&quot;text/javascript&quot;> var gaJsHost = ((&quot;https:&quot; == document.location.protocol) ? &quot;https://ssl.&quot; : &quot;http://www.&quot;); document.write(unescape(&quot;%3Cscript src='&quot; + gaJsHost + &quot;google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E&quot;)); </script> <script type=&quot;text/javascript&quot;> try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(&quot;UA-4480215-2&quot;); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}</script>

8. Google Analytics What does it track? Visitors (habits & technology used) Traffic Sources (where they came from and how they found me) Content (what is being viewed) Goals (is the site working for me)

9. Google Analytics – Visitor Habits How many visitors? How long do they stay on my site? What pages are they viewing? New vs Returning visitors?

10. Google Analytics - Technology What browsers are they using? What screen resolution are they using? (Am I getting mobile users?) What is their connection speed?

11. Google Analytics - Resolutions 1024 x 768 is the current “standard” Approximately 900 x 700 viewable

12. Google Analytics - Traffic Where are my visitors coming from? Direct | Referring Links | Search Engines What keywords are they using to find me?

13. Alexa Must “Claim” your site Receive Confirmation Email View stats similar to Google Analytics

14. Website Grader www.slic.com is 451,170 of the 3,533,230 websites ranked by Website Grader A website grade of 87/100 means that Website Grader scores it higher than 87% other sites in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses over 50 different variables, including search engine data , website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others.

15. Website Grader I. Create Content A. Blog Analysis B. Blog Grade C. Recent Blog Articles D. Indexed Pages E. Readability Level II. Optimize A. Metadata B. Heading Summary C. Image Summary D. Interior Page Analysis E. Domain Info F. MOZ Rank G. Linking Domains III. Promote A. Link Tweet Summary B. Twitter Grade IV. Convert A. RSS Feed B. Conversion Form V. Analyze A. Traffic Rank B. Score Summary

17. Descriptions (150 words)

18. Content (use <h1> tags)

19. URLs

20. Image names & Alt text BEWARE: Deliberate overuse of keywords on your site – a practice known as “keyword-stuffing” may actually decrease your SEO as many search engines are programmed to ignore these sites.

22. Word Stemming: orthinologist, orthinolgy, etc.

23. Synonyms

24. Location/GEO modifers: “New York Bird Watching”

25. Use Tools SEO Book http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/ Overture Keyword Suggest http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ SEO Tool Keyword Suggest http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-suggestions-overture/ SEO Logs http://www.seologs.com/keyword-suggestion.html Digital Point Keyword Suggest Tool http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

26. Where does my page rank? http://www.thumbshots.com/Products/ThumbshotsImages/Ranking.aspx

27. Links Internal & External Links The more words (keywords & phrases) that point to a page, the more likely that page is to appear in search results when users run a query for those terms. External Links: Contact webmasters of related non-competing sites for reciprocal link opportunities. Make personal contact, not through an annoying automated link spammer (which will usually be ignored ). How do you tell if a potential link partner site is well regarded? Google's Web browser toolbar offers a PageRank. A link from a site with a PageRank of 10 can is valuable, while a link from a site with zero is worthless.

28. Create a Sitemap A simple file often called sitemap.xml used by search engines to “spider” your site. <?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;UTF-8&quot;?> <urlset xmlns=&quot;http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9&quot;> <url> <loc>http://www.mywebsite.com/index.html</loc> <lastmod>2011-03-01</lastmod> <changefreq>monthly</changefreq> <priority>0.8</priority> </url> </urlset>

29. Create a Sitemap An actual website that list all of the page links on your site usually in outline format: Home Products Product 1 Product 2 Contact The fewer clicks a viewer has to make to get to relevant content the better!

31. Not compatible in all browsers (will not work on iPhones & iPads) Google and other search engines give sites with fast load times higher page rankings. http://pagespeed.googlelabs.com/

33. Create more opportunities for internal and external linking

34. Giving your site a more personal voice

35. Make Sure They Can Find You Tell search engines your website exist. Google Webmaster Tools Yahoo http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit Google http://www.google.com/addurl/ Bing http://www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx DMOZ http://www.dmoz.org/add.html

36. Social Networking Blogging is just the first step. Distribute links to fresh content on your site across appropriate social networking platforms. Whether displayed on your company's account, or recommended, re-tweeted, and re-distributed by someone else, this strategy exponentially multiplies the number of places where visitors will view your links.

37. Social Networking Blogging is just the first step. Distribute links to fresh content on your site across appropriate social networking platforms. Whether displayed on your company's account, or recommended, re-tweeted, and re-distributed by someone else, this strategy exponentially multiplies the number of places where visitors will view your links. Facebook & Facebook Places – Twitter – Google Places Linked In – Four Square – YouTube

38. Conversation Rate The ratio of people viewing your website compared to the number of those who take the desired action – reach the goal The most common type of conversion is a URL Destination goal - a page that visitors see only once they have completed an activity. Examples: For an account sign-up, this might be the “Thank You for signing up” page. For a purchase, this might be the receipt page. Most goals require some type of form.

39. Wash – Rinse - Repeat Give SEO changes 2 -3 months to make an impact Check analytic quarterly Make necessary adjustments

40. While You Wait Google Webmaster Central YouTube Channel High Rankings SEO Community Forum