Maybe you don’t even know what search engine optimization (SEO) is? Search engines are the first place that nearly everyone goes when looking for something. Having your site displayed at the top of results for relevant searches is a powerful way to get visitors to your website. In a sense it’s a way to provide free traffic to your site. Also because when people search, they are usually looking for a specific thing and being able to provide it to them you are gaining a relevant visitor. Unfortunately, when people think about SEO immediately those emails of spammers who guarantee #1 results in search engines come to mind. SEO doesn’t have to be black magic, pixie dust, or snake oil. College websites already have the authority to rank well in search engines, but are you getting the most exposure and relevant traffic that you could be? This presentation will go through the fundamental and approved methods for on-page optimization, off-page optimization, and implementing these best practices into your marketing efforts going forward. These actionable steps will be practices that you can take home and begin implementing on your site right away. More Details: http://2010.highedweb.org/EventDetail.aspx?guid=3d25bd15-1661-4aaa-9d19-f6ca1c0673dc

1. SEO Best PracticesHitting the Low Hanging Fruit Kyle James kyle@nucloud.com twitter.com/kylejames linkedin.com/in/jameskm03 kyle-james.com doteduguru.com nuCloud.com hubspot.com

2. No Need To Take Notes doteduguru.com doteduguru.com/seo

3. Why Am I Talking to You? ?

4. What I Do?

5. If a tree falls in a forest and noone is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

6. If people can’t find it,does it matter?

7. What SEO is NOT

9. SEO is Usability and Accessibility

10. Search Engine Crawlers are your blindest users Yahoo Microsoft Google

11. By the Numbers (on one site) 30% of traffic is delivered by Search Engines 82% of that traffic is delivered by Google On a large school website w/ 1,000,000 visits per month that is 300,000 visitors

13. Optimize your content

15. It All Starts With Keywords “It’s NOT about what you want or what you call it, it is about what people are actually looking for.” “Nobody cares about your products (except you)” – David Meerman Scott

16. The Long Tail

17. The Long Tail

18. Long Tail Keywords Best Biology College in Cincinnati Ohio Biology College in Cincinnati Ohio College in Cincinnati Ohio College in Ohio College

19. Search Trends Yahoo = navigational Bing = transactional Ask = informational Google = commercial investigation

20. Keyword Research

21. Adwords Keyword Tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

22. Google Insight http://www.google.com/insights/search/

23. Thesaurus http://thesaurus.reference.com/

24. Powerful Keyword Tools

25. An SEO Breakdown

26. Two Parts of SEO On-Page Off-Page

27. On-Page Optimization PageTitle URL Meta Description Headers MetaKeywords

28. Page Title Describe The Page Include Keywords 70 Character Limit PageTitle

29. URL Describe The Page Include Keywords A Dynamic URL is hard to understand What are the following two pages about? http://tomahawktake.com/2009/04/11/game-no-5-recap-braves-5-nationals-3/ http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090411&content_id=4225972&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb URL

30. Headers Semantic Markup Include Keywords Describe sections of the Page Headers

31. Example: Using Headers in Word

32. Meta Description & Keywords MetaKeywords Unique for Each Page Only Viewable in Source Meta Description limit 150 characters Meta Keyword limit 10 keywords max Meta Description

33. Off-Page Optimization We’ve all heard Content is King, so Links must be the Queen?

34. Off-Page Optimization Inbound Links Site Authority Anchor Text

35. Inbound Links Content Creation Strategy “If You Build It, They Will Come”

36. Publish Content Worth Sharing

37. Videos & Slideshows http://www.wofford.edu/sightsandsounds/

38. Audio http://itunes.stanford.edu/

39. Student Blogs http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/campus_life/studentblogs

40. Interactive Campus Tours http://uscupstate.edu/map/

41. Social News http://engineering.tamu.edu/news/

42. RSS & Calendar http://www.allegheny.edu/news/feeds.php http://www.utk.edu/events/events/

43. Site Authority

44. Anchor Text Count!

45. What are those buildings called?

46. What are people looking for?

47. What are people looking for?

48. Getting Ranked

49. Search Call To Actions Page Title Meta Description Page Title and Meta Description are all you get in search results. Make sure that they count.

50. Navigation Helps SEO Usability Cross Linking Content Sitemap Footer

51. Web Analytics Helps SEO

52. Internal Site Search SEO also helps with your Internal Site Searchand good for Keyword Research

53. Visits By Keywords Know what keywords you are already getting search traffic from

54. Web Analytics Helps SEO Quickly make sure your page titles are optimized

55. Web Analytics Helps SEO Scan referral sources to see where you are getting links from

56. 404 Pages 404 Reporting tells you where you are failing to better optimize your site

57. 301 Redirects (Almost) Always use 301 Redirects because they pass search authority http://delicious.com/jameskm03/301redirects

58. URL Canonicalization Avoid “Double Vision” Every page on your site becomes duplicate

59. Splash Screens

60. Flash Websites Flash should add not dominate Search Engines aren’t very good at reading flash

61. SEO Tools

62. The Lynx Browser http://bit.ly/lynx

63. SEOmoz Tools http://www.seomoz.org/tools

64. SEO Book Toolbar The Only Firefox Toolbar you will need for SEO Competitive Research Keyword Research Link Information Rank Checker Page X-Ray More… http://tools.seobook.com/seo-toolbar/

65. Free Website Grader Report http://website.grader.com/

66. Create Optimize Link

67. Google Instant

68. Google Instant

69. How Fast Is Your Website?

70. Website Speed Tester http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

71. Final Thoughts

72. SEO is NOT a sprint… it’s a Marathon

73. Help People FindYour Buried Treasure

74. Additional Reading www.seomoz.org/blog sphinn.com searchengineguide.com searchengineland.com

75. SEO Best Practices: Hitting the Low Hanging Fruit Questions? Kyle James jameskm03@gmail.com twitter.com/kylejames linkedin.com/in/jameskm03 kyle-james.com doteduguru.com hubspot.com nuCloud.com