This presentation was presented at BlogHer Handmade in St. Paul. The goal was to provide actionable steps for increasing a blog/site's SEO at an intermediate level.

1. Growing Your ReachUsing Technology for SEO BlogHer Handmade September 15, 2011 Connie Bensen @cbensen September 15, 2011

2. Connie Bensen Community Management and Strategy http:CommunityStrategist.com

3. Know Your Audience Who are your crafts for? (audience) What are they looking for? (keywords) What supplies do you need (content) Putting it together (crafting) Tools to use (free technology)

4. SEO Basics What do search engines prefer? Search engines rank websites on two factors: Content and keywords (on-page) Inbound links to your site (off-page) Two types of search: Paid Search: Most common is Pay Per Click (PPC). The price increases with the popularity of the term. (Google Adwords & Facebook Ads) Organic (or natural) Search: The phenomenon of ranking in search results due to keyword match and number of links to website. This is free! Research shows that people are 75% more inclined to click on organic results vs paid. (Hubspot)

5. A Pattern for Blinging Out Your Blog Gather list of Keywords - Tools Optimized Blog – On Page SEO & Off Page SEO Content & Editorial Calendar Engage, share & network Refine keywords & measure

6. Keywords andTools

7. Keyword Research => Market Research Know Your Audience via Keyword research What people are interested in Relevance and reach Insight into actual language Competition and authority Free Tools KeywordDiscovery.com Wordstream.com SEMRush.com Google Adwords, Insights & Trends Facebook Ads

8. KeywordDiscovery.com Create a Free Account Offers ability to drill in to terms on left (results show in right column)

9. WordStream.com These free tools are located in the middle of the bottom of the page. Free Keyword Tool Free Niche Tool

10. SEMRush.com Volume indicates challenge to rank for SEO Provides niche ideas

11. Adwords.Google.com Search by word, phrase or URL Uncheck ‘Broad” and check ‘Exact’ Star items and they are collected on the right

12. Common Mistake: A Keyword List of the most common terms How to Avoid that: Consider many avenues (build a broad list) Use thesaurus.com to find synonyms for your main terms Find high-traffic phrases that are less competitive Spy on your competition and look at their titles, meta tags, and content Use add-ons for Firefox or Chrome Use BackLinkWatch.com and the URL to see pages linking to the site & anchor text Knitting types of yarn specific types of items (socks, baby items, sweaters, etc) techniques gift giving demographics: men, children Go Broad Rather than Narrow

13. Reverse Engineer Facebook Ads Facebook.com/Advertising Click on ‘Create Ad’ Type any word in “Body’; Click on ‘Continue’ at bottom Type the topic in the ‘Precise Interests’ field Watch the dropdown as additional words appear and the respective audiences Click on the right to add additional terms

14. Google Insights for Search

15. Google Trends

16. Behind the Scenes

17. On-Page SEO Try Website Grader (www.websitegrader.com) to see how your site appears to search engines Use keywords for: Content Page title URL Tags Headings Put keywords in the invisible places on your site Meta-tags Alt-text on images

18. Off Page SEO Build more links within context Anchor text: the text that is hyperlinked to another page on your site Encourage inbound links from other sites into yours Link building tips Submit your website to directories like Yahoo! and Business.com Build relationships with others in your industry (blogs) Create compelling tools and content (that people will share & link back to) freebies

19. Content andEditorial Calendar

20. Content is King Interesting content is not enough Need to focus on people that are interested in your topic Use keyword research for ideas Find related words Create compelling headlines

21. Engage, Share andNetwork

22. Join the Community Read industry blogs Set up Google reader & subscribe to RSS feeds Comment Add a point, a useful link, ask a question or disagree Write Use your own domain (not blogger.com or typepad.com) Find blogging software (MS LiveWriter) Frequency of once a week Topic Ideas Lists Recent experiences Answer questions received Comment on other blog posts Convert a press release Promote on Social Sites .

23. Share Help Others Answer questions Be helpful Publish everywhere Monitor what others publish and promote it Use Tweetdeck Use shareable sites Flickr YouTube Podcasts Slideshare

24. Refine Keywords and Measure

25. Web & Social Analytics Blog metrics Number of blog visitors Number of subscribers SEO • rankings Technorati blog rank. Number of leads and customers from blog Social Media metrics Del.icio.us bookmarks Inbound links Facebook fans, Twitter followers, connections on LinkedIn SEO metrics Number of inbound links Keyword rank over time and compared to competition

26. Make Keywords Are Your BLING! SEOMoz.com

27. Thank you! Connie Bensen Connie_Bensen@Dell.com @cbensen http://slideshare.net/conniebensen http://CommunityStrategist.com