1. 10 SEO Commandments Kim McDaniel (@tivogirl) Jamie Mottram (@jamiemottram) June 22, 2012

2. 1. Create content that people want to link to. Content should be high quality, relevant, specific and unique. This attracts SEO-boosting links from sites, social networks, etc. This is the Golden Rule, really.

3. 2. Include keywords in headlines. Write out names and keywords in full. Put keywords at the start of the headline. – The Mullet Strategy: business (keywords) in the front, party (cleverness) in the back. Example : “Miami Heat Take NBA Title to South Beach” Related: Include keywords in URLs too.

4. Keyword Headline Examples Good: Los Angeles Kings win 2012 Stanley Cup against New Jersey Devils Bad: Kings' Cup filled with perseverance Good: NBA Finals a superstar showdown between Kevin Durant, LeBron James Bad: A full dance card at the NBA Finals

5. 3. Include keywords in copy as well. Relevant keywords should be in the lead and seeded throughout the copy in a natural way. – Example: Headline: Jerry Sloan a finalist for Bobcats head coach job Lead: ESPN reported Monday night that former Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan is one of three finalists for the Charlotte Bobcats' head coaching job.

6. 4. Link from within (with keywords). Links embedded within a story bring SEO value. Include keywords in the anchor text of links, and avoid generic text such as “more ” and “here.” – Example: “Kevin Durant fought back tears” instead of “fought back tears”. Link to relevant content on your own site. – Adding links to related in-network content at the bottom of articles/posts is helpful too.

7. Linking Example

8. 5. Include keywords in image titles too. Helps users discover content via image search. – Example: The top Google Image search result for “bryce harper tattoo” is bryce-harper-tattoo.jpg.

9. 6. Use keywords that people are using. Highlight keywords that are trending and also those that receive higher search volume over time (e.g. “BCS playoff,” 28,500,000 results vs. “college football playoff,” 7,340,000). Note: Google autosuggest is an excellent tool.

10. 7. Publish quickly and update often. Relevance is achieved by speed and timeliness. The ideal scenario for breaking news is to publish quickly and then update as the story unfolds with additional information.

11. 8. Get out ahead of big events. Plan ahead and get your content into search engines early and linked up from both within your site and hopefully from outside as well. Related: Don’t change URLs for big events year to year (e.g. “super-bowl” and not “super- bowl-2012”).

12. Big Events Example

13. 9. Publish and favor original content. Original content ranks better than partner or wire content. Produce your own version of the story and pay it favor via programming/links across site.

14. 10. Push social to help SEO. Get your content out via social channels quickly as part of the production process. Social signals impact search results.

15. Bonus: SEO Tools Google Suggest: https://www.google.com/https://www.google.com/ – Good for highlighting what users are searching for in Google. Google Adwords Keywords: http://bit.ly/MJ4HnMhttp://bit.ly/MJ4HnM – Highlights which keywords are most searched in Google – provides estimates and is filtered. Google News Top Stories: https://news.google.com/https://news.google.com/ – Good insight into what keywords are getting the most clicks/interest. Twitter Trends: https://twitter.com/https://twitter.com/ – Real-time trending topics and keywords users are looking for.