Transcript OMNITURE SITE CATALYST END USER TRAINING

Search Engine Optimization
& PR
December 3, 2009
Alan K’necht
President/Founder K’nechtology Inc.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @aknecht
About K’nechtology
PR Today
 PR = Public Relations
 PR does not simply mean Press Releases
 PR is now part of Social Media
 Both good public relations and press releases will help you
rank better in the search engines and get found
 Now a bit of history first
The Original PR Search Engine
What is SEO?
 An art / structured methodology
 A series of best practices
 The optimization of a web site for search engines
 An on-going long-term strategy
 A method for improving ranking in Search Engines
 A way to have the search engines recognize a site as
important for a specific phrase or phrases
 One way to attract visitors to a web site
SEO in the old days
 1998: Target search engine Altavista
 simply fill in keyword meta tag
 2000: Target search engines Altavista & Google
 Complete good title tags, description meta tags, get some links
 2007: Target search engine Google
(~90% of all searches in Canada ~60% of US searches)
 Create SEO friendly pages/templates/web sites
 Write SEO content
 Get good quality links
 2009: Target Google, Bing, Yahoo,YouTube, Twitter etc.
 Need to be everywhere
 Need to establish authority on subject matter
2008 Google Releases Blended Search
2008 Google Releases Blended Search
2008 Google Releases Blended Search
Goals today
 Get as many links to your site as possible
 Get as many other web sites as possible talking about you
 This means:
 Lots of text based links on company name, product
names, product descriptions, etc.
Keyword Research
The One Constant
What 3 Things do SE still like?
 Words
 Words
 Words
 Words in all the usual site places plus
 Words in links from social media
 Words/Links in Press Releases
 Words around links from other sites
 Words in video
 And more
Keys to Good Keyword Research
 Start with what you existing clients call your product or service
 Use a variety of tools to explore variations
 Wordtracker (Paid)
 Trellian Keyword Discovery Service (Paid)
 Google's Keyword Tool (Free)
 Google Insights for Search (Free)
 Find terms that have good search volume & little competition
Demo Time: Google Insights
Headline from press release for this event says
“IABC/Toronto - MEDIA ADVISORY - Get Searched and Found”
Summary says
“Upcoming IABC/Toronto Seminar Reveals Tips and Strategies for
Increasing Your Online Visibility”
SECTION 2
Optimizing Social Media
The Press Releases
SEO Optimized Press Releases
 Old days:
 Press release were sent to news rooms
 Reporters would occasionally rummage through looking for stories
 Recent times
 E-mailed to reporters who subscribed
 Posted on PR firms site in news section (somewhat searchable)
 Expected reporters to look here for stories
 Now
 Press releases indexed by Google,Yahoo, Bing etc. (when done right)
 Reporters use SE’s to find info, subject matter experts, etc.
How to Optimize a Press Release
 Reference keyword research
 Head line must contain the appropriate keyword phrase
 Summary must also contain keyword phrase
 Avoid relying heavily on corporate jargon
 Only use industry jargon when appropriate
 Body of the press release must be written in an SEO effective way
 Ensure one deep link to web site (on keyword if possible)
 Verify PR company distributes the press releases to the SE’s
Demo Time: Press Releases
Twitter For Press Releases?
 Can you write a press release in 140 characters?
 Are reports that cover your industry following you?
 Are you following reporters from you industry?
 If not, get on the ball
 Make sure all corporate announcements also go out via
Twitter
 Do link to the story on your web site or the press release?
Write Optimize posts/tweets
 Using keywords very important in blog posts and not as
critical in tweets
 For twitter monitor # tags for relevant terms
 Be prepared to respond
 Twitter requires quick response time: nearly instantaneously
 Monitor blogs for comments and respond in a timely manner
 Example: WebTrends monitors Twitter for problems, etc.
 Replies (usually within 15-30 min) with a link to the solution;
or who to contact
Thank You – Questions?
Alan K’necht
K’nechtology Inc.
www.knechtology.com
Follow me @aknecht
Look for my first book sometime in 2010 entitled
“The Last Original Idea”