Presented by Tracy Terry, Founder of Trust eMedia. WordPress Milwaukee User Track - In this session, participants will learn important SEO tactics, social aspects you need on a website, and inbound marketing best practices for performance, engagement, and lead generation. Inbound marketing has taken the marketing industry by storm. Today’s customers not only want you to provide a website, but to also be able to include best practices that will turn their website into a lead generating machine. Clients are happy when they realize they do not have to hire additional agencies to perform different strategies to their website. By knowing what makes a website “work” for a customer, you will have an edge on competition and a one-stop shop for clients.
2. Helping Companies, Brands, and Organizations Get Spotted!
o Located in Lake Geneva, WI
o Full-Service Inbound Marketing Agency
o Family Business
www.TrusteMedia.com 262-204-7855 Get Spotted!
3. Founded Trust eMedia 2010
Inbound Marketer of the Month Award 2010
Certified Inbound Marketing Professional
Certified Competent Internet Marketer SEO/SEM
Inbound Marketing Educator, 1 of 20 across the globe
Brazen Careerist Featured Speaker
Contribute Monthly to Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing Blog
Recently Featured in Mashable and Social Media Examiner
WE Magazine’s Top 100 Women in ECommerce
Speaking and Training on Inbound Marketing / Social Media
Highlight Reel
6. About
In this lesson we are going to go over specific items
your website and/or blog should have on it to be
most effective.
7. Social Search
Google and Bing both have what is
called Social Search. Google and
Bing feel that a recommendation
from your friend is more important
than a recommendation from a
stranger. Therefore, content you
are searching for on the search
engines that has been
shared, created, liked, subscribe
to, or +1’d by your Facebook friends
or Google circles will be placed
higher in search results for that
search term query.
8. Social Search
Seen this yet?
Google+ Business Pages are Appearing in Search Results on the Right Side of Page
9. Social Search
•A Larger Community in Social Networks Means More Referral Traffic to Website
•A Larger Community in Social Networks Means More Chances to be Found by Customers
in Search Engine Results via Social Search Results
•Enticing Users to Share Content Drives Traffic to Your Site and Increases Rankings
•Online Users See Content Shared by Their Social Networks 1st in Search Results
•Online users make purchasing decisions based on the recommendations of others. A
social share shown in SERPs can influence buying decisions.
•Google and Bing both not only have a social search feature, but also have admitted that
your social authority is part of their page ranking algorithms.
10. #1 Keywords
Keywords are the words users type into the search bar in a search engine (such as
Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) to find your product or service.
11. #1 Keywords
What are your keywords or keyword phrases?
Think about what your customers would type in a search bar to find your product or service.
What you need to know about keywords:
1. Use Google Insights for Search to help you choose keywords.
http://www.google.com/insights/search/
12. #1 Keywords
What are your keywords or keyword phrases?
Think about what your customers would type in a search bar to find your product or service.
What you need to know about keywords:
2. You can also use Google Adwords
https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__c=1000000000&__u=1000000000&i
deaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS
13. #1 Keywords
3. Your keywords should be the very first words in your page title. (Your page title is your
website coding). If you are a hotel in Janesville, WI, your top keyword phrases would
probably be: Janesville hotel, Janesville Wisconsin hotel, Janesville WI hotel. Those words
should be first in your page title. NOT YOUR COMPANY NAME.
Every page of your website should have a unique page title. No two should be the same.
<title>Janesville Wisconsin Hotel | Sleepy Inn</title>
<meta name="keywords" content=“janesville wisconsin hotel, janesville hotel, janesville wi hotel">
<meta name="description" content=“This is the area that you see below a page title in a Google Search.
You description should have a call to action and be enticing for a visitor to click.">
14. #1 Keywords
<title>Janesville Wisconsin Hotel | Sleepy Inn</title>
<meta name="keywords" content=“janesville wisconsin hotel, janesville hotel, janesville wi
hotel">
<meta name="description" content=“This is the area that you see below a page title in a Google
Search. You description should have a call to action and be enticing for a visitor to click.">
This is where your keyword,
meta description shows up.
Meta Description
Your meta description can be as long as you want, but only the first 150 characters show up in Google.
This is why you see the “…” at the end and the sentence is not finished. Try to limit your characters to under
this amount. Use a call to action here that entices a person to click through to your website.
15. #1 Keywords
I like to use All In One SEO Pack
as My WordPress SEO Plugin
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/
16. #1 Keywords
4. Place keywords in the first sentence of your website page text.
5. Place keywords throughout your text without overpopulating or
sounding spammy.
6. Place keywords at the end of your website page text.
7. Bold some keywords in your website page text.
Download the Google SEO Starter Guide here:
http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
17. #1 Keywords
8. Make use of heading tags in your website coding. Place keywords in your heading tags. Use
only 1 <h1> tag. Heading tags are used by search engines to identify words which are more
important than the rest of the page text. The theory is that headings will sum up the topic of
the page, so they are counted as important keywords. Heading 1 has a larger size font than
Heading 2 and so on… They are mostly used as paragraph headings.
Download the Google SEO Starter Guide here:
http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
18. #2 Call to Actions
If you have optimized each page of
your website properly, then all your
pages should be able to rank well in
search engines. Therefore, you
never know which page a website
visitor may land on. That being said,
you need at least one call to action
on every single page of your website.
19. #3 Social Media Networks
Website visitors should be able to
connect with you via your social
networks from your website. Use
social media icons or widgets on
your pages.
20. #3 Social Media Networks
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/social-media-icons/
21. #3 Social Media Networks
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/floating-social-media-icon/
22. #4 Blog on Your Own Website
If you are blogging on an external
platform, that’s great you are blogging.
But, if you are trying to get your website
found by customers, (your blog is not
your website and your website is on a
separate domain) blogging on an
external platform is not your answer.
Each blog post is a new page to your
website. This means, fresh content on a
consistent basis – which Google loves,
more chances to rank for more
keywords, and more chances to gain
more inbound links to your website (to
your blog posts). Stats show you’ll gain
55% more website traffic, 97% more
inbound links, and 434% more indexed
pages. Woo hoo! Get that blog on your
own website, please! You can easily
install WordPress onto your domain.
23. #5 RSS Button
Don’t forget to add your RSS feed button for your
blog next to your social media icons on your
website’s home page. Where do you link it to?
Most of the time, you can just add /feed to the
end of your blog URL. Here’s an examples of an
feed URL, www.yourcompany.com/blog/feed.
If you use FeedBurner, you can get your RSS
button and a subscribe by eMail code for your
website.
24. #6 eNewsletter Sign Up
If you have an eNewsletter, be sure
to get your subscription form or
button on your website. You can get
this from your software
(MailChimp, etc.)
25. #6 eNewsletter Sign Up
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/newsletter-sign-up/
26. #7 Social Sharing Buttons
You should have social sharing buttons placed throughout
your website on various pages, if not all your pages, so
they can be shared in social media. Do not limit the
website users choices of social media networks to share
to.
Nothing is more annoying than going to share an article or
webpage and noticing your favorite social media network
site isn’t listed as a sharing choice – the share button for
that particular site is not there. It happens to me ALL the
time.
People are busy and don’t have time to manually copy
and paste your heading and links into social network
posts. It will discourage them and you will lose a share.
So, make sharing easy and available to all social networks.
You need to keep the Share or Add all button.
The best way is to use an Add This or Share This button.
27. #8 Google +1
Be sure when you set up your AddThis or ShareThis
account and choose your styling, that you get a
Google +1 button. If you do not, please go to
Google and download the code for the +1 button
and get it on your website. In social search,
websites that have been +1’d by friends in your
social network will show up first in search results.
+1s also show up on a Google+ user’s Google
profile. Get the +1 button!
http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/
28. #9 Google+
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can just add a Google+ icon to your page and link it
to your Google profile. That is not the case. You must either use the Google badge
provided by Google here:
https://developers.google.com/+/plugins/badge/config
Or use the rel=“publisher” code in your link from the icon to your Google+ profile. NO NOT
JUST PLACE AN ICON ON YOUR WEBSITE AND USE AN A HREF TAG TO YOUR GOOGLE
PROFILE WITHOUT THE REL=“PUBLISHER” CODE. See instructions here:
https://developers.google.com/+/plugins/badge/
You must also link from your Google+ profile to your website. This is the only way to be
eligible for Google Direct Connect. Learn More Here:
http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1711199
You can test your coding here to make sure everything works:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
29. #10 Google Authorship
Google is now showing authorship
information in search results. If you would
like your photo and information to show
up in Google searches next to the content
you create, you need to establish
authorship.
Learn to do so here:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408986
We’ve copied and pasted the instructions
from Google for this on the following
pages.
30. #11 Keep It Current
Be sure to keep your website current. If you have
outdated information, get it off. If your promotion is
over, get it off.
When a website visitors lands on your website and sees all
this old information lying around, they most likely think
that no one is even looking at this website or it wouldn’t
be out-of-date like this. So, why bother even trying to
contact you? No one will probably get the eMail. Are you
even in business any more?
Also, be sure to advertise your current promotions on
your website. If you are running a Facebook contest, do
your website visitors know that? They should. Be sure to
integrate your marketing efforts and use every vehicle
possible to extend your reach.
31. #12 Ease of Use
Your website should be easy to use and easy to navigate.
Users should not have a hard time finding the information
they are looking for. Every website page should be only 2
clicks away from your home page.
32. #12 Avoid Flash Websites
You see it all the time. Websites made entirely of flash because they WOW visitors. The
problem is half your visitors probably never see your flash website.
Problem #1 – Load time. Even my high speed DSL doesn’t load a flash website fast. I close
the window before it’s even done loading because I don’t want to wait, like everybody else.
Problem #2 – Google doesn’t read flash. There is no text for spiders to crawl. Google states
they can read some flash elements now, but not all. And other search engines may not be
able to ready any. They recommend flash for decorative purposes only and not your entire
website. It cannot be read by all phones or iPads.
33. #13 Use ALT Tags
An alt tag is used to describe an image. It stands for Alternative Text. Google cannot read
images, so an alt tag tells Google what an image is about. Also, if images cannot be shown
on a website, a person can read what the image is about. This is also a good place to use
some keywords.
Here is a sample image code: <img src= “http://www.yourcompany.com/image.jpg”>
Here is where an alt tag fits in:
<img src=“http://www.yourcompany.com/image.jpg” alt=“image description goes here”>
Learn more from Google, by watching a video here:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/12/using-alt-attributes-smartly.html
34. #14 Landing Pages That Convert
Each page of your website needs at least
one call to action because you never
know which web page a visitor may land
on. Each call to action text or button
needs to direct the website visitor to a
landing page where they can convert.
Your contact page, newsletter sign
up, and content offers all need
conversion forms where your website
visitor can convert.
35. #15 Contact Information
Give your website visitors various ways
of getting in touch with you.
• Phone number
• Fax number
• eMail address
• Contact Form
• Mailing Address
Provide them with as many different
ways of getting in touch as possible.
Don’t make the contact form on the
contact page the only option. Some
people like to do business over the
phone, some by eMail, and others
through the form. Make all options
available.
38. #16 Press Room
If you create and submit press releases,
don’t just submit them to press release
distribution sites. Create a Press Page
on your website and place your press
releases on that page. You can set this
up in WordPress just like your blog with
each press release a new post. I just
create 2 different categories. 1 for blog
and 1 for press. This will create new
pages to your website, fresh content, a
new chance to rank for keywords, and a
new chance to gain more inbound links
to your website – just like your blog.
39. #17 Testimonials
Testimonials are great. Video
testimonials are awesome. Any
type of testimonial you can
place on your website is
testimony to the quality of your
product or service. Scatter
testimonials throughout your
website, not just all on one
Testimonials page.
41. #18 Google Analytics
If you are not tracking your website traffic in detail, you need to be. Google Analytics is a
free tool from Google that tracks your website traffic and provides you with information on
your website visitors. Sign up for free and place a tracking code on your website:
http://www.google.com/analytics/
Some WordPress themes have a designated area for your Google Analytics code. If not, can
usually place in the appropriate file, header.php, etc. found in the WordPress Editor section.
42. #19 Above the Fold
Keep the navigation and other important items, such as Call to Actions above the fold.
Above the fold means the portion of your website that is visual on a person’s computer
screen. Below the fold is the portion of your website that is not visible on a person’s
computer screen – they have to use the scroll bar to see what is below the fold.
A website visitor who is seeking a product or service may not scroll down your home page
if they do not see what they are looking for right away. They may just leave your site.
Therefore, it is important to keep all priority information above the fold. Items above the
fold need to grab a website visitor’s attention and keep them on your page looking for
more information.
Fold Line
43. #20 Website Features
Below are some givens and a couple website features you should think about.
o Of course you should have your company name and logo on your website.
o Most websites have an About Us page. Make sure yours is the best it can be. People are
curious about you, so provide them with some details about your background and what
your business is all about.
o Clearly state the purpose of your website. When someone lands on your website, they
should know exactly what you offer right away. Your website should also be pleasing to
the eye. You know how you’ve run across some of those just plain ugly websites
and, well, you leave right away. You don’t want that happening to you.
o It’s been a common practice to place a duplicate navigation menu in
the footer of your website. Sometimes just the top pages are placed
in the footer, such as: contact, about, eNewsletter, or Privacy. You
decide if you want to place navigation in your footer and what links
you want to place there. You can add normally add your page
navigation into your footer from the Widgets area of your WordPress site or blog.
44. #21 Website Content
o Your website needs to have quality content that appeals to your buyer personas. You can
have the best looking website in the world, but without valuable, remarkable content, it’s
worthless. Write copy not only with keywords in mind, but also with buyer personas in mind.
Provide them with the information they are seeking and make that information easy to find.
All created content offers and blogs should be written around keywords and be interesting to
buyer personas (eBooks, reports, white papers, blog, social media posts…)
o A search bar is optional. If you have a great amount of content on your website, having a
search bar may be useful to your website visitors.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-custom-search/
45. #22 SiteMap
o A sitemap can help website visitors find the page they are looking for if they get lost on your
website. It also is a great way to keep all your website pages 2 clicks away from your home
page.
46. #23 Mobile Site
o With millions of mobile phones being used to access the internet,
having a mobile version of your website is almost a must. You can
create an entire mobile site separate from your current website
or you can add some coding to your current website to optimize
it for mobile viewing.
WordPress Mobile Pack
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mobile-pack/
48. #23 Mobile Site
Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress
There's no redirection to a mobile version of the blog - URLs are exactly the same on web
and mobile giving you the ability to promote and use one single domain!
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/
49. #23 Mobile Site
GOMO by Google
Mobile site building. Mobile site testing. Mobile Google Ads.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/
50. Anatomy of a Blog
o Make sure your blog includes best practices
– A page title
– All meta tags
– A description
– A Sidebar with Call to Actions
– An RSS Feed
– A Subscription by eMail
– Categories Section
– Recent Posts Section
– Archives
– Social Media Profiles
– Link to Home Page / Blog Roll
– Contact Information
51. Anatomy of a Blog Post
• Make sure your blog post includes best practices
– A page title
– Meta keywords
– A meta description
– An image with an alt image tag
– Heading tags with keywords
– An enticing headline
– Content interesting to your buyer persona
– Search Engine Optimized to get found
on Google by customers
– A question at end to encourage comments
– A clear call to action at the bottom, typically
driving the user to a landing page where they
can convert to a lead.
– In-text links to landing pages, sources
– Social sharing buttons