Search Engine Optimization – An Introduction What is SEO? Three Major Factors Popularity Link Building Content SEO and Social

What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization is the practice of increasing the visibility of a website through natural, non-promoted or advertised means. A holistic approach to the development of a website from design, to content, to social media, and beyond is required to truly take advantage of SEO opportunities

Three Major Factors of SEO Popularity of a site Link Building Content

Site Popularity How many people have previously searched for (and clicked on) your site vs. another website with similar content? More unique visitors = higher priority in search results Amount of control: Low Further Resources: Google Analytics - Alexa - Wildfire -

Link Building What’s linking to you? What are you linking to? Embrace relevant and meaningful social media platforms Build a community of fans and with other’s in your industry Embrace blogging Encourage others to link to you Amount of control: Medium

Content Add content to your site that is useful, descriptive, informative, and relevant to what people are searching for. Content should be useful (and keyword rich) Site Design should be clean and as simple as possible from a code- base perspective Your site should load quickly. (No big images or laggy script)

Content (Continued) Amount of control: High (It’s your site after all) : Untitled Document = Bad!!! Descriptions Text: Keep it direct and to the point Keyword rich content Links: Keyword rich as well : Don’t get lazy Video & Audio: Use Schema’s Update content on your page over time! If your don’t, your page rank will drop.

Content (Continued) Source: HTML & CSS – Design and Build Websites Copyright John Wiley & Sons 2011 Further Resources: Google Webmaster Tools - Google Keyword Tool - Schema - Schema.org

Content (Continued) Schema.org Avatar Director: James Cameron (born August 16, 1954) Science fiction Trailer

Social SEO Social media platforms provide a unique arena to post content, drive traffic, and continue link building. If social isn’t a part of your SEO strategy, it should be. YOUR SITE

Facebook Add keyword rich content (Mind blowing right?) Links: Add additional keywords to link descriptions Always link to you main page in general posts

Facebook Complete your About and Info Pages Add links to your main site Descriptions and links on ALL images

Twitter Mix it up with text, image, and video tweets. Again, be descriptive #UseHashTagsResponsibly Instagram Complete your profile Add image descriptions #UseHashTagsResponsibly

Linkedin Complete your personal account Fill out your skills section Add a keyword rich bio Link to your other social platforms and websites For brands, create a Linkedin Business page with company info, contact resources, and links to employee profiles.

Pinterest Hash Tags Alts Tags Add descriptions

Additional Resources Google SEO Intro Guide - PDFPDF Bing Webmaster Guide – Search Engine Land - searchengineland.com