Susan Price of Firecat Studio offers these 10 tips for helping Google, Bing and Yahoo find and index your site for keywords that matter to you. Includes advice for hiring SEO providers that work in your best interest - not theirs. Presented May 2, 2012 to San Antonio Business Journal Business Owners Success Series attendees (B.O.S.S.).

1. Optimize Your Website
for Google and Bing
10 Easy SEO Tips for Business
By @firecatsue

2. What Is SEO?

3. Natural SEO vs. Paid SEM
Search Engine Search Engine
Optimization Marketing
• NATURALLY RELEVANT RESULTS • PAID PLACEMENT
• On-site coding & tags • Google AdWords
• Content strategy • Bing/Yahoo AdCenter
• Social media profiles and links • Pay-per-click
• Directories • Daily Budgets
• Professional Association listings
• Continual

4. Anatomy of a Search Result
HTML
Title Tag
Meta Description Tag OR
first text Google finds

5. #1: HTML Title & Desc Tags
http://searchwritten.com/title-tags-explained.html

6. #2: Target some Keywords
•Google’s Keyword Tool

7. #3: Friendly Domains & URLs

8. #4: Register for the Locals
•Google Places
•Bing Local Listing Center
•Yahoo Local

9. … Claim free directory listings.
•Yelp
•Citysearch
•Insider Pages
•Merchant Circle
Do it yourself, if you are able. Be thorough.
Don’t pay more than $400 to get placed in
these.

10. #5: Link Social Media Profiles

11. #6: Consider Blogging
• First, try social media
• Put your site in a content
management system
(CMS)
• Leverage OPC —
“other people’s content”

12. #7: Talk About What You Do

13. #8: Craft Content for Extra Mojo
• Headings
• Linked text
• URLs
• Domains
• Video

14. #9: Maintain Your Pace
• Search engines reward fast-loading sites
• Don’t cheap out on hosting
• Keep your content fresh

15. #10: Repeat what Works
•Google Analytics or other metrics
•Figure out what keywords pull best
•Use a URL shortener/tracker to track
relative popularity of links shared* bit.ly
•Watch the referring domains and URLs in
your metrics

16. Google Analytics

17. Watch for Snake Oil
Apply Credibility Tests to Enthusiasts, Vendors

18. Run Away!
• We’ll get you the #1 spot on Google,
no problem!
• “EVERY business needs ___.”
• Let’s focus on PAID search right
away…
• First you need a blog…
• Let’s get you going in Facebook &
Twitter & MySpace & SecondLife &
Delicio.us & Groupon & LinkedIn &
YouTube & _____ & …
• We’ll buy your domain, set you up in
our systems….

19. More Like It
• “Let’s see how people are
getting to your website now.”
• “Are you Local, Nationwide, Worldwide?
• “Are you paying Yellow Pages or another
vendor to manage this for you now?”
• “What are you trying to accomplish?”
• “Are you doing some Social Media?”
• “How often does your content change?”
• “Is your website ready for the traffic?”

20. Twitter: @firecatsue
LinkedIn: Firecat-Studio
Facebook: Firecat Studio
Website: firecatstudio.com
email: susan@firecatstudio.com