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

2. SEO and WordPress
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/
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
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
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
7. pandas, penguins, hummingbirds
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
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
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
11. fundamentals • solid, strong brand • great copy • adds value • well‐designed site • useful information • fast • mobile responsive
12. what are you working towards? • Know your goal • Research • Competitor analysis
13. content is king • Owned/Earned/Paid • Increase Owned/Earned • Create • Distribute • Share & Interact
14. Content Development • Photos • Videos • Text / written articles • Curated content • WordPress app makes it easy on the go Photo credit: Yutaka Tsutano
15. taxonomy • Map it out • Identify primary • Supporting branches • Categories – One per post • Tags as modifiers – Not contained in post titles
16. Plan Blog Categories Cupcakes Chocolate Birthday Decorating Parent Category Child or Secondary Categories
17. Plan ‘Tags’‐ Micro Categories Dark Chocolate White Chocolate Milk Chocolate Child Category Chocolate Tags
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.
19. schema.org • html tags to markup pages • Search engines rely on this markup • created by the four major search engines
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/
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
22. all ins • Title – page – file media library • Text • Tags – alt – post – H2, H3 • Page • Subheads • Descriptions
23. other considerations • Inbound links • Bold • Cross site links as on‐ page navigation • No “click this link” rather, “click for map to our location”
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
25. rich snippet example
26. share, friend, participate
27. lather, rinse, repeat • monitor • adjust • refresh • keep alert to Google’s changes • competition Photo credit: 1950sUnlimited