SEO WordPress Fundamentals

A presentation by Cheryl Smithem of Charleston PR (http://charlestonpr.com) at the WordPress Charleston User Group meetup on February 11, 2014

Transcript

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2. SEO and WordPress
   

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3. truth
   “SEO has evolved to become the
   result of an actual marketing
   strategy versus marketing tactics”
   Rae Hoffman
   Read the article: http://sugarrae.com/rants-in-bitchland/google-propaganda-marketers-wake-up/
   

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4. seo planning is step 1
   • rank cannot be bought
   • must be earned
   • seo is not an item to be
   left to the end
   • plan first
   • w/o planning, you’ll
   never get where you
   want to be
   Photo credit: Oatsy40
   

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5. seo components
   • A strong SEO strategy has three core components:
   – links
   – content
   – social media
   • What's become more pronounced in the last year is
   the relationship between these elements.
   • Best user experience, e.g. mobile compatibility is no
   longer optional
   Read more: 5 SEO Trends Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know for 2014
   

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6. expectations are blown apart...
   • Nothing is the same
   • No tricks
   • No games
   • No kidding.
   • Follow best practices
   Photo credit: Morgali Photography-House Explosion 2009.12.22 Ohio Ave
   Extension
   

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7. pandas, penguins, hummingbirds
   

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8. panda rules
   • Summer 2011
   • High‐quality, original
   • Trust
   • Authentic, interesting
   • Not full of ads
   • Involved
   • Useful/UX
   • Not overly optimized
   • Google notes
   Read Google’s post about quality: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-
   high-quality.html
   

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9. penguin – this bird can’t fly
   • Debuted April 24, 2012
   • Updated May 25, 2012
   •  rankings of websites
   that violate Google’s
   Webmaster Guidelines
   • demote black‐hat SEO
   tactics, e.g. link
   schemes
   Read Google’s Webmaster Guidelines: https://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
   

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10. hummingbird – nimble, fast
    • September 27, 2013,
    Google’s self‐given
    birthday gift, core algo
    • improved, more natural
    search
    • focused on natural
    speech
    • finding you precisely
    what you seek
    

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11. fundamentals
    • solid, strong brand
    • great copy
    • adds value
    • well‐designed site
    • useful information
    • fast
    • mobile responsive
    

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12. what are you working towards?
    • Know your goal
    • Research
    • Competitor analysis
    

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13. content is king
    • Owned/Earned/Paid
    • Increase Owned/Earned
    • Create
    • Distribute
    • Share & Interact
    

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14. Content Development
    • Photos
    • Videos
    • Text / written articles
    • Curated content
    • WordPress app makes it
    easy on the go
    Photo credit: Yutaka Tsutano
    

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15. taxonomy
    • Map it out
    • Identify primary
    • Supporting branches
    • Categories
    – One per post
    • Tags as modifiers
    – Not contained in post
    titles
    

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16. Plan Blog Categories
    Cupcakes
    Chocolate Birthday Decorating
    Parent
    Category Child or
    Secondary
    Categories
    

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17. Plan ‘Tags’‐ Micro Categories
    Dark
    Chocolate
    White
    Chocolate
    Milk
    Chocolate
    Child
    Category
    Chocolate
    Tags
    

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18. Why strategy?
    If you put effort into planning your
    marketing and content strategy you
    you’ll have a higher success rate and
    also continue to execute based on a strategy,
    versus reacting to what is wrong due to lack of
    organization.
    

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19. schema.org
    • html tags to markup
    pages
    • Search engines rely on
    this markup
    • created by the four
    major search engines
    

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20. Google’s markup helper
    • Optimize Your WordPress Blog Content with
    Google’s Markup Helper
    • Google’s Markup Helper
    Read an article guiding you through how to optimize your WordPress blog content:
    http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/01/optimize-wordpress-blog-content-googles-markup-helper/
    Use Google’s Markup Helper: https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/
    

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21. wordpress SEO
    • Best in class
    • Light weight
    • Easy to configure
    • Updated regularly
    • Content analysis
    functionality
    • Optimize your sites titles
    and descriptions with the
    snippet preview.
    • Automatically generate XML
    Sitemaps
    

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22. all ins
    • Title
    – page
    – file media library
    • Text
    • Tags
    – alt
    – post
    – H2, H3
    • Page
    • Subheads
    • Descriptions
    

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23. other considerations
    • Inbound links
    • Bold
    • Cross site links as on‐
    page navigation
    • No “click this link”
    rather, “click for map to
    our location”
    

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24. author, author
    • Rich snippets
    • Google Profile
    – rel=”author” and
    rel=”me”
    • Best writer about this is
    Joost de Valk aka Yoast
    http://yoast.com/wordpress‐rel‐author‐
    rel‐me/
    Learn from Google: What are rich snippets?
    https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/99170?hl=en
    

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25. rich snippet example
    

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26. share, friend, participate
    

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27. lather, rinse, repeat
    • monitor
    • adjust
    • refresh
    • keep alert to Google’s
    changes
    • competition
    Photo credit: 1950sUnlimited
    

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