Transcript Search engine optimization tips within commonspot

Dan Krueger – Webmaster – UW Stout
Agenda
Search engine basics
 Characteristics of SE Friendly Sites
 Page Layout Tips for Improved SEO
 Promoting your site
 Analyzing your site traffic
 Optimize for Stout’s GSA
 Advanced searching techniques

Search Engine Basics

Crawling
Process by which web pages are discovered and added to an index

Indexing
Compile a massive index of all the words found on:
 The web page itself
 Key content tags (ex. title, alt)

Process Queries & Rank Results
Search the index for matching pages and return in relevant order
the most relevant results to the user

Serving Results
Characteristics of SE Friendly Sites
They give visitors the info they are looking for
 They make sure that other sites link to them
 They make their site easily accessible

Characteristics of SE Friendly Sites
They don’t fill their pages with lists of keywords
 They don’t “cloak” or put up “crawler only”
pages
 They don’t use images to display important
names, content or links
 They don't create multiple copies of a page
under different URLs
 Don’t necessarily use a SEO service

Page Layout Tips for Improved SEO
Create unique, accurate page titles
 Make use of “description” meta tag
 Improve the structure of your URLs
 Make your site easier to navigate
 Offer quality content and services
 Write better anchor/link text
 Use heading tags appropriately
 Optimize your use of images

Create unique, accurate page titles
Accurately describe the page’s content
 Create unique Title tags for each page
 Use brief, but descriptive titles
 Shows in search results

Make use of “description” meta tag
Accurately summarize the page’s content
 Use unique descriptions for each page
 “May” show in search results

Improve the structure of your URLs
 Use
words in URLs
 Create a simple directory structure
 Provide one version of a URL to reach
a document
Make your site easier to navigate
 Create
a naturally flowing hierarchy
 Use mostly text for navigation
 Consider what happens when a user
removes part of your URL
Offer quality content and services
 Write
easy-to-read text
 Stay organized around the topic
 Use relevant language
 Create fresh, unique content
 Offer exclusive content or services
 Create content primarily for your
users, not search engines
Write better anchor text
Choose descriptive text
 Write concise text
 Think about anchor text for internal links too

Use heading tags appropriately
 Imagine
you're writing an outline
 Use headings sparingly across the page
Optimize the use of Images
 Use
brief, but descriptive filenames and
alt text
 Supply alt text when using images as links
 Store images in a directory of their own
 Use commonly supported file types
Promoting your site
Blog about new content/services
 Don’t forget about offline promotion
 Know about social media sites
 Reach out to a related community

Analyzing your site traffic
Get insight on how users reach and behave on
our site
 Discover the most popular content on your site
 Measure the impact of optimizations you make
to your site
 Discover additional keywords that searchers
might use to find your site
 All CommonSpot site traffic is captured with
Google Analytics. Contact webmaster group
to get started: [email protected]

Optimize for Stout’s GSA

GSA – What is it?
Google Search Appliance

Keymatches
Keymatches prioritize and establish a specific result in
response to a particular search term.

Synonyms
Same principle as keymatches only it suggests alternate
terms, which may bring better results.

Go to the following site to submit GSA requests:
http://www3.uwstout.edu/webdev/optimizing_google.cfm
Advanced Search Techniques
Basic Examples
biking Italy
recycle steel OR iron
"I have a dream“
salsa –dance
Louis +I France
castle ~glossary
fortune-telling
define:imbroglio
the words biking and Italy
information on recycling steel or recycling iron
the exact phrase I have a dream
the word salsa but NOT the word dance
information about Louis the First (I), weeding
out other kings of France
glossaries about castles, as well as
dictionaries, lists of terms, terminology, etc.
all forms of the term, whether spelled as a single
word, a phrase, or hyphenated
definitions of the word imbroglio from the Web
Advanced Search Techniques
Calculation Examples
+–*/
basic arithmetic
12 + 34 - 56 * 7 / 8
% of
percentage of
45% of 39
^ or **
raise to a power
2^5 or 2**5
old units in new units
convert units
300 Euros in USD,
130 lbs in kg,
31 in hex
Advanced Search Techniques
Restrict Search
city1 city2
site:
[#]..[#]
filetype: (or ext:)
link:
book (or books)
phonebook: Disney CA
rphonebook:
movie:
stocks:
weather
Book flights
Search only one website or domain.
Search within a range of numbers.
Find documents of the specified type.
Find linked pages
i.e., show pages that point to the URL.
Search full-text of books.
Search for Disney's phone numbers in CA
Show residential phonebook listings.
Find reviews and showtimes.
Given ticker symbols, show stock info
Show weather for a given a location
(zip code or city)
Advanced Search Techniques
Restrict Search
info: (or id:)
related:
inanchor:
intext:
intitle:
inurl:
Find info about a page.
List web pages that are similar/related to the URL
The terms must appear in anchor text of links to the page
The terms must appear in the text of the page
The terms must appear in the title of the page
The terms must appear in the URL of the page
Resources
Webmaster Group: [email protected]
http://www3.uwstout.edu/webdev
 SEO Cheat Sheet:
http://www.seomoz.org/user_files/SEO_Web_D
eveloper_Cheat_Sheet.pdf
 SEO Guide (more in depth):
http://www.seomoz.org/article/beginners-1-page
 Google Searching Help:
http://search.uwstout.edu/user_help.html
http://www.googleguide.com/

Keyword Research
http://www.wordtracker.com/
 http://www.google.com/sktool/#
 https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
 http://www.wordstream.com/keyword-research
 http://www.trellian.com/
 http://advertising.yahoo.com/smallbusiness/ysm
 http://www.seotoolset.com/cgi-bin/checktraffic.cgi
 http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/
 http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/
