http://www.hortonseo.com - A quick overview of specific items that you should pay attention to in order to properly optimize your website for Google beyond just the basics. Topics include layout, title tags, keyword usage, site structure, social media, image and video tagging, and much more.

1.  

2. Got a website that’s struggling? We’ll review it for free here on
our Youtube Channel and go over some strategies to help.
Send your website address to reviews@hortonseo.com
Don’t want others to see? We’re available for affordable SEO
consultations also.
Chris Horton
Horton SEO
http://www.HortonSEO.com
@HortonSEO
Facebook Link: http://on.fb.me/Y3Bwqh

3. SEO stands for Search
Engine Optimization –
What It Is
Optimizing site structure & content
to get it viewed favorably by the
search engines which allows you
to rank well in the Search Engine
Results Pages (SERP’s).

4. Google looks at over 170 pieces of info to decide who
sits on the top of that list. Some of the primary
items that get considered during the ranking
process include;
 Domain Level Keywords
 Incoming Links (and quality of those links)
 Title Tags
 Content
 Social Media Activity (Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc)
 And many more (about 165+ more).

5. Domain Level Keywords
60% of people type in an exact company name into a
Google search window. This is one of the primary
reasons why Domain Level Keyword Matching is
important.
Type a company domain name verbatim in Google such
as “Horton SEO” or “Home Depot”.
The results will always pull up the company site as #1
because the domain name exactly matches what the
person typed into the search window.
The search engine has to assume that the person may
have been searching for that company name.

6. This also works in certain keyword phrases. An example would be
a term like “Georgia Singer” which shows this site at #1
• Not Ray Charles
• Not Trisha Yearwood
• Low quality
• Same text forever
• Coming soon

7. It’s even done when there’s no question as to what the user is searching
for. Type in Google Keyword Tool & you get this at #1 or #2 position
• Not owned by Google
• No affiliation with
Google (even says so)
• No question as to what
the user is trying to
search for
• Worse case scenario
at position # 3 for a
site that is NOT the tool

8. Why it’s important.
 Google displays the results with this top consideration
in mind.
 Quality apparently makes no difference, but it still
needs to be relevant
 Does not always work and especially for highly
competitive keywords (i.e. – SEO, Barbie dolls, dog
grooming, etc.).
 The more competitive the term, the more relevant the
site has to be.
 Before you waste a bunch of money buying a domain
name, do your research.

9. Next Up: Title Tags
 Title tags appear as the
name of the link in the
SERP’s.
 Optimize your title tags for
the top 3 keywords that are
relevant to that page’s
content.
 Do NOT use the same title tag across the entire site
 DO NOT use your company name as the only text in
your title tag

10. Next Up: Title Tags (continued)
Atlanta Chevrolet Dealer | Chevy Dealership | Atlanta Chevy

11. Next Up: Site Speed
 Yslow (developer.yahoo.com/yslow)
 Google Webmaster Tools (google.com/webmasters)

12. Fixing Site Speed problems
 Condense Scripts (Javascripts, CSS, etc.)
 Pay attention to image sizes
 Keep linking to external scripts to a minimum

13. Next Up: Site Structure
 Site structure is very important
 Silo your site correctly (Stay tuned for future lesson)
 Subdomains – (http://linkbuilding.hortonseo.com)
 Subdirectories (hortonseo.com/link-building /)
 Page names (hortonseo.com/link-building/link-building-
tips.html)
 Robots.txt (block out CGI folders, admin folder, etc.)
 Sitemaps (multiple versions. Examples: Video sitemap, article
sitemap, product sitemap, etc.). List them in robots.txt file
 Get a free XML sitemap from auditmypc.com & then submit them
to Webmaster Tools

14. Site Structure (continued)
The correct redirection commands
301 – Indicates that a page has permanently moved
Remove them from Google’s index via Webmaster Tools
302 – Indicates that a page has temporarily moved
(IIS users, beware. 302 is the default and 301’s have to be
turned on)
401 – Unauthorized. Are you blocking Google?
404 – Page Not Found. Custom? Check your links.
Always edit 404 pages to allow users to navigate back into your
site.

15. Next Up: Images
 31% of searchers click on images in blended search results
 Properly name your image names (white-ford-bronco.jpg)
 Take time to properly populate the image ALT tags
<img src=“images/white-bronco.jpg” alt=“2013 white ford bronco” />

16. Next Up: Images (continued)
 Image file naming matters!

17. Next Up: Images
(continued)
 Not just file naming, but also Properties
area. Fill out the properties. Google
sees all!
 Right click on the
image, click on
Properties, go to
the Details tab and
FILL IT OUT!

18. Things Google Ignores (Kind of)
 Flash – Google CAN see Flash text not flattened on the layer.
 Javascript – Google pays no attention to it. If your navigation
menus are built using Javascript, change it.
 CSS – Google has to look at it to check for certain spam techniques,
so yes, it gets read
 Frames – Can cause bad traps.
 Video – Can’t see the video, but Bing is now reporting that it’s doing
audio analysis. Make sure you edit the metadata for any video you’re
doing.
 Images – Same as videos. Google has to rely on what you tell it.
Changes coming? Probably, but for now, edit those properties!
 Meta Tags – Mostly ignored with some exceptions. Future class.

19. Next Up: Social Media Activity
 Social bookmarking versus social networking
 Social bookmarking sites you CAN’T ignore:
Digg, Delicious, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Google Bookmarks. Hit them all
using OnlyWire.com
 Social networking sites you can’t ignore;
Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Hit them along with tons of others using Ping.FM (or
Onlywire.com).
 Have a blog? Make sure that you implement social plugins like AddThis
that allow readers to do this for you as well.
 RSS Feeds – Make sure you use these as well.
 Do video? Check out TubeMogul.com that can submit your videos to
multiple sites with one click.

20. Think social media isn’t important? Let’s go back to our
referring sites slide…

21. Next up: Linking (The Good, The Bad, the
Ugly)
The Good
 Highly relevant to your site or industry
 Pagerank of 3 or higher
 Sites that rank in top 50 for terms that you’re chasing
 Relevant directories (Yahoo, BOTW.org, DMOZ.org. etc.)
How to get them:
 Use programs like IBP (www.axandra.com) to pull lists of highly qualified
sites along with contact information & contact directly.
 Start a useful, entertaining blog that folks will link to.
 Offer discounts to bloggers that people will share.
 Offer Best Of Web awards that people will post.

22. The Bad and the Ugly
 Totally irrelevant to your site or industry (Viagra, gambling)
 Pagerank of 0 (Not always bad and not a deciding factor)
 Sites that aren’t in Google’s index
 Mass linking sites or providers that offer thousands of links
for a fee
How to avoid them:
 Delete the email requests.
 Don’t sign up with mass linking services
 If it doesn’t look natural to Google, it will fail miserably

23. Linking (The Good, The Bad, the Ugly): The
Tips
 Don’t buy your links. Google knows who they are.
 If you’re acquiring a few links a month and then all of a sudden
acquire hundreds or thousands within a week, get on your bathing
suit. You’re going for a dip.
 If the amount of links you acquire is higher than your visitor count, buy
another swimsuit, you’ll be drowning for a while once you’re caught.
 Write helpful articles and submit them through sites like
SubmitYourArticle.com where relevant sites will re-post your material.
 Write useful, informative blogs
 Get involved with various related blogs and actively commenting.
 Tweak out all of your “profiles” for any member sites

24. Next Up: Good Tools to Use
 Google Webmaster Tools – (www.google.com/webmasters)
 Google Webmaster Forum –
(www.google.com/support/forum/)
 SearchEngineLand – (http://www.searchengineland.com)
 SEOMoz – (www.seomoz.org)
 IBP – (www.axandra.com)
 SEOElite - (www.seoelite.com)
 SEOBook – (www.seobook.com - Tools section)
 LotusJump – (www.lotusjump.com)
 Wordpress - (www.wordpress.com or www.wordpress.org)

25. Got a website that’s struggling? We’ll review it for free here on
our Youtube Channel and go over some strategies to help.
Don’t want others to see? We’re available for affordable SEO
consultations also.
Chris Horton
Horton SEO
http://www.HortonSEO.com
Director of SEO
@HortonSEO
reviews@hortonseo.com
Facebook Link: http://on.fb.me/Y3Bwqh