Wordpress, blogging, and SEO. Selecting a Wordpress Theme

Wordpress, Blogging, and SEO

Presented by
Andrea Kalli and Mary Motz

Concept of Extreme Content
Marketing
• Your Blog Is the Vehicle for
your Content Marketing
Strategy
• Golden Opportunity to
Become the Expert
• Offer visitors unfolding
value = Gain Trust

Andrea Kalli Online Marketing Support team - http://www.virtualassist.net . Video Marketing resource - http://www.amazingsalesvideos.com

Golden Triangle to Successful Search
Engine Optimization Strategies
• Keyword Research - *tip: identify keyword phrases
that have acceptable traffic and low competition from
other websites. Repeat this step a few times a year to
stay current with what is changing in your industry.*
• On-Page Optimization - *tip: have a special optimized
page for every service and product you offer.*
• Backlinks - *tip: dedicate a few hours a month to this.
It is never-ending.* (think quality, not quantity)
No Magic Fairy Dust – This is a long-term plan


What to Write About? =
What Are My Services?
• Look within your own list of services to
identify what you’re going to write about.
• Example: a Virtual Assistant that offers –
– Wordpress Websites and Blog support and
strategies
– Product Launch Support
– Internet Marketing support
– Social Media Marketing support
– Video and Audio editing
– Content Repurposing Strategies and Support

…has a lot of topics to choose from and develop!

Article Writing for SEO 101
aka “Posting with Purpose”
1. Great Title with Keywords
2. One or Two Categories
3. Up to 7 Tags using Keyword Phrases
4. Target Keyword Phrase in the First Paragraph and the
Last Paragraph.
5. Sprinkle Keyword Phrase throughout, and use simple
variations, such as plurals, related phrase, etc. (site vs.
website, website vs. websites)
6. Internal link/s to other similar articles
7. Images with Alt text and a good file name


Article Writing for SEO 101
aka “Posting with Purpose”
Note: It is better to have targeted keyword tags
used multiple times in various posts, than to
have many tags used one time in a single post.


Avoid Duplicated Content
• Wordpress creates duplicate content for you
automatically, and you don’t even know it.
– Archive pages for categories, tags, and search will
all produce content that is on your site in other
pages and posts.
– Easiest solution is to use excerpts.
• Available via your theme settings
• Available via a plugin (Excerpt Editor)


Avoid Duplicated Content


Keyword Research is the Foundation of
Your Content
• How to use your identified keyword phrases:
– Ideas for blog content – either as single articles or
a series (a series can get you into multiple top
spots in the search engine results)
• Use as category, tags, post title, link anchor text, image
alt text and photo file name
• KEEP YOUR KEYWORDS TOGETHER IN THE PAGE TITLE
TAG (BLOG POST TITLE)
– Use Calendar events to rank well for your content
by tying the two together.
• Example: Colorado garden blog writes an article on
special holiday events and attractions at local public
gardens and garden centers.

Keyword Research is the Foundation of
Your Content
– Use site analytics to identify valuable keywords you
are currently “accidentally” ranking for, then create
additional focused content for it.
– Do some product or service reviews: “This vs. That”,
“Review of This”
– Keep an eye on current events surrounding your
keyword phrases and write articles on them.
– Use the keyword phrases (ideally as anchor text) in
Press Releases surrounding hot topics.
– Use them in your Social Network profiles, YouTube
video descriptions, and Google Places description
– Create a Q & A page or FAQ page answering many of
the questions you get asked or see people asking
during your online reading, and use the keyword
phrases within them.

Make A Commitment to Your Plan
• Commit to one full year of
adding new and valuable
content to your blog
• 52 weeks = 52 articles
• Ghost writer: 52 articles @
$20 each = $1040


Content Repurposing – Your Best Friend
• YouTube Videos
• E-Books for Giveaways and to Sell
• Audio for a Podcast
• Training Courses – Audio, Video, Text
• Tip Sheets, Checklists, Workbooks
• Slideshare.net presentations
• eNewsletter content
• Guest Blog Posts
• Blog Talk Radio topics
• EzineArticles.com articles (although hit by Panda, has tightened
up article acceptance policies. May not be indexed as easily as
BP (before Panda))
Call to Action with Link to Specific Pages/
Posts on Your Website

The Link Building Key is to Diversify
• External links to deeper
content on your site
• Internal links to deeper
content on your site
• Use Anchor Text
– Click here for Product Launch
Support AND NOT
– Click here for Product Launch
Support


ROI – Return on your Content
Investment
• You do this for yourself, you can do this for
your clients. Your very happy clients. 


ROI – Return on your Content
Investment
• Increased traffic
to your
website/blog.
• Majority of
traffic will come
from the Search
Engines.
80%
comes
from
Search
Engines

A Little Chat About Panda/Farmer
• Google’s recent algorithm update is the biggest
change in nearly a decade.
• Primary goal is to provide better and cleaner
results in the search results to provide quality,
original content.
• Primary targets are low-value websites, scraped
content, content farms.
• What is a Content Farm?
– “Articles in content farms have been found to contain
identical passages across several media sources”
Research from these sites:
http://www.pingkaching.com/blog/googles_panda_update/
http://www.slideshare.net/ispymarketing/google-farmer-update-aka-panda-what-you-need-to-know
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googles-farmer-update-analysis-of-winners-vs-losers


Who Gained Traffic and Who Lost It?
Losers – citing those most included Winners – citing those most
in our marketing strategies included in our marketing strategies
• Ezinearticles.com • Scribd.com
• Associatedcontent.com • Dailymotion.com (video)
• Articlesbase.com • Photobucket.com (pictures)
• Hubpages.com • Metacafe.com (video)
• Merchantcircle.com • Linkedin.com (social media)
• Squidoo.com • Youtube.com (video)
• About.com • Facebook.com (social
• Ehow.com media)
• Vimeo.com (video)
“The sites that saw the largest increase in rankings were News Sites, Media Sites
(Video Mainly), Sharing Sites, Social Media Sites and Blogs.”

Biggest Takeaways from Panda Update
• Marketing with videos has moved mainstream.
• Write more content on your own site/blog and promote it
through social media.
• Do guest blogging – work together to share ideas for
content.
• Still OK to use PLR content, but only as an outline or
starting place for your article.
• You now have less competition in the search engine results
as long as you have quality content that provides value.
• Don’t put all your SEO eggs in one basket. If you primarily
relied on article directories, Hubpages, and Squidoo for
your backlinks, the wind has now left your sails and you’re
left paddling your boat manually.


Biggest Takeaways from Panda Update
• Duplicate content on your site is a killer!
• Sites with excessive ads seemed to be affected
negatively
• Sites with excessive outgoing links seemed to be
affected (price comparison, review sites, and
coupon code type sites)
• Sites with a lot of broken links. Use a Wordpress
plugin, such as Broken Link Checker to stay on top
of and rectify broken links.


The Land of OZ
• The Bricks of the Yellow Brick Road = Your
Multitude of Valuable Articles and External
Links


The Emerald City = Your Website Showing Your
Varied and Valuable Skills and Knowledge


The Wizard = YOU


What Do You Offer at the End of the
Yellow Brick Road?
• Have your solid set of skills ready and waiting
to WOW people when they get to your site.


Updated SEO Research and Resources
• SEOmoz.com
– http://www.seomoz.org/
• Search Engine Journal
– http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
• Graywolf’s SEO Blog
– http://www.wolf-howl.com/
• Wordtracker Blog
– http://www.wordtracker.com/blog
• Outspoken Media
– http://outspokenmedia.com/
• Search Engine Land
– http://searchengineland.com/
• Search Engine Watch
– http://searchenginewatch.com/
• ReelSEO (video SEO)
– http://www.reelseo.com
• Search Engine Roundup
– http://www.searchengineroundup.com

Wordpress, Blogging, and SEO

Selecting a WP Theme
By Mary Motz


How WordPress Helps You with SEO
• WordPress, as a blog platform, comes with
your SEO template “baked-in”
• The your post template provides you with:
– The “title tag” - your post’s title that appears at the top of
the browser window frame
– The H1 tag – the post’s title
– H2, H3, H4 headline tags (if you choose to use them)
– The description tag (initial text that appears in SERPs);
either initial content or the post excerpt


Kicking SEO “Up A Notch” with Plugins
• Juice-up your WordPress SEO with plugins that
add features and control. Check out:
– All-In-One SEO Pack – Allows super-control over your tagging and
indexing, including Title tag & description overrides (useful when you
want a “catchy-cute” title to display, but allows the keyword-rich title
to be indexed in search.
– Scribe – Paid plugin service that helps you select and focus on
keywords as you write your posts (monthly fee)
– Google XML Sitemaps – Automatically generates an XML file while
Google reads to more easily index your site. Keeps everything fresh &
updated.
– Redirection – makes redirections easy – good to have when you need
to move content, but don’t want to lose traffic.


Check Your Theme’s Features
• Many premium themes have built-in SEO
features (most of the big ones do)
– WooThemes
– DIY Themes (Thesis)
– StudioPress
• Some content type-specific themes will have
features to support the content’s SEO.
Specifically, photo/image portfolio, video
showcase themes, e-commerce


Selecting A WP Theme
• HUGE number of themes available
• Most overwhelming part of WP projects for
clients – best to develop a short-list.
• Start with client’s intended content focus
(blog posts, video, real estate, portfolio)
• Go with premium whenever possible – better
coding, support & ease of modification


For Serious Bloggers
• DIY Themes’ Thesis (great SEO features)
• Consider “magazine” style themes for high-
volume blog posts that feature photos.

Examples:
– WooThemes’ Delicious Magazine, FreshNews
– StudioPress’ Lifestyle, Magazine, Sleek
– Elegant Themes’ Magnificent, The Style


Great for Business Sites
• “Business” type themes look like traditional
brochure websites, usually with “widgetized”
areas on the home page (not blog entries)
• StudioPress & WooThemes have a lot in this
category. Examples:
– WooThemes’ Feature Pitch, Optimize, Suit & Tie
– StudioPress’ Agency, Outreach, Corporate
– Elegant Themes’ Modest


Specialty Content Themes
• Real estate themes have back-end features
which makes showcasing listings easier:
– StudioPress’ AgencyPress
– Elegant Themes’ Elegant Estate
• Portfolio themes put the spotlight on images:
– StudioPress’ BeeCrafty, Crystal
– Elegant Themes’ Deep Focus
– WooThemes’ Elefolio, Apeture, Sophisticated Folio,
Snapshot


Specialty Content Themes
• Event Promotion:
– Elegant Themes’ Event
– WooThemes’ Diarise
• Menus & Restaurants:
– WooThemes’ Diner
• Book Promotion:
– WooThemes’ Book Club, Chapters
• Countdowns:
– Elegant Themes’ Anticipate
– WooThemes’ Placeholder

A Few More Theme Selection Tips
• Think about the planned content FIRST!
• Check out the demo site’s navigation structure. Some
themes have multiple navs – one of which is category
driven (this is common with magazine style themes)
• Rule of thumb: The sexier it looks out of the box, the
harder it will be to customize
• Paying the license fee for a premium theme is WORTH IT
(never more than $79 or so).
• Look for available page layout templates. Some offer
several layout options (sidebars, full width, contact
pages, etc.)


If You Must Go FREE…
• The default WP theme “Twenty-Eleven” is great!
• You can possibly consider using WordPress.com, if
the project budget is very low.
• Minimize customization, limit to basic CSS & hex
code, font changes
• You will likely need more plugins to do what
premium themes offer as part of the core theme.


Wordpress, blogging, and SEO. Selecting a Wordpress Theme

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Wordpress, blogging, and SEO. Selecting a Wordpress Theme