1. SEO: Search Engine Optimization Michael Rabby, PhD Washington State University-Vancouver September 29, 2010 Heaven’s Gate

2. Why SEO? Most people only look at first few pages of Google/Bing/Yahoo …though “social” searches are gaining popularity Branding is important That said, please do not get obsessed with becoming “#1”

3. How do search engines work? EX: Google: Crawl Index Serve www.google.com

4. What is most important to Google? Title <title> title>

5. What is most important to Google? Good TEXT body copy Inbound links How long your site has existed

6. Less important to Google, more important to searchers Meta keywords <meta name= “keywords” content=“1keyword, 2keyword, 3keyword” /> <meta name="description" content=“whatever you want it to say beneath your name on Google" />

7. Step 1: Register your site Google: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl Bing: http://www.bing.com/toolbox/ Yahoo: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

8. Step 2: Easy things you can do on your site Make sure your images have “alt” text in them Flash-heavy sites, you too… http://www.mono-1.com/monoface/main.html Have compelling content

9. Content Above all else, you should have compelling content on your blog Strategically work in keywords

10. Step 3: Monitor your keywords Start to monitor how and why people come to your website Google analytics Statcounter.com