Getting started-with-seo-web-gnomes

Getting Started with
SEOThe Definitive Beginner’s Guide

© 2012 Web Gnomes, LLC (http://www.webgnomes.org) 2
This book from Web Gnomes provides an introduction to search engine
optimization (SEO). It is designed to help non-technical people understand and
implement basic SEO techniques.
Why Is SEO Important?
According to Google, 97% of consumers do research online before buying. SEO
enables prospective customers to find your website when they are looking
for products or services that you offer. Without SEO, your wonderful site is
like a treasure buried on a desert island. Only the person with a map will be able
to find it (if that!).
Who Should Read this Book?
This book is for anybody who either has a website or is thinking about creating a
website and wants to make sure the website is successful:
• Entrepreneurs
• Non-Profit Leaders
• Bloggers
• Marketing Managers
Do you fit this description? If yes, read on! (Or quit at your own risk…)
NOTE: If you are looking for a get-rich-fast book, you have downloaded the
wrong eBook. However, if you stick with us, you will find lots of tips for building
long-term value through reputable SEO techniques.
INTRODUCTION
All websites can
benefit from SEO!

What Does this Book Cover?
We wrote this book to be short, simple, and fluff-free. After reading this book you
will have a better understanding of SEO and know how to improve your website
to start climbing the search engine rankings.
Here are the main things you will learn:
How Search Engines Work
Not the scary technical details, but just enough to help the search engines find
and read your website.
How to Optimize Your Website
There are several techniques available to boost your website as a whole.
How to Optimize a Webpage
This section covers techniques involved in optimizing a specific page for a
specific keyword phrase.
How to Build Links
Links from other sites have a big impact on ranking. This section provides tips on
how to get those links.
How to Leverage Social Media
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ can all help with SEO. Find out how to
make the most of these social networks.
How to Measure SEO
Find out how customers are arriving at your site and which keywords they used
to get there.
Let’s get started!

HOW SEARCH
ENGINES WORK
Search engines are software programs designed to
return relevant information in response to a given
keyword or keyword phrase.
The top five search engines are (click for source):
Google Sites: 65.3%
Yahoo Sites: 15.5%
Microsoft Sites: 14.7%
Ask Network: 3%
AOL, Inc: 1.5%
All the search engines have so-called robots (aka
“spiders” or “crawlers”) that spend all day and all
night traversing (or “crawling”) the Internet to find
new information. They get from page to page by
following webpage links.
The robots store new information they find on big
servers using a process called indexing. By
indexing the content, the search engines can more
easily retrieve it later.
Keyword Phrase: One
or more words, which
are used by users to
search for information
on search engines
Bing & Yahoo: As of
2010, the Yahoo search
engine is replaced with
the Bing search engine.
Robot (“Bot”): A
software program that
traverses the Internet to
find and index new
content.
Indexing: A technique
for increasing speed of
data retrieval in
databases.
Follow the
links…

When an online user enters a search query into
the search box, the search engine uses an
algorithm to determine relevancy and ranking.
Relevancy means looking at only the content that is
relevant to the given keyword phrase (e.g.
returning pages that talk about dog grooming for
the query “dog grooming”). Ranking means
displaying those results with the most relevant
result at the top.
Thanks to crawling and indexing, search engines
are able to determine relevancy and serve up
ranked webpages in a matter of milliseconds:
This makes users happy.

The rest of this book will take you through the
various techniques for helping the search engines
find and index your content as well as some of the
things Google looks at when determining relevancy
and ranking.
(Now you know as much as you need to know
about how search engines work!)
Search Query: The
keyword phrase that a
user enters into the
search field.
Algorithm: A set of
rules to compute the
answer to a question.
(E.g. what is the most
relevant page for “dog
grooming?”) Google’s
algorithm is top secret.
“Relevancy means looking at only
the content that is relevant to
the given keyword phrase.”

A Note About Organic vs. Paid Search Results
The search results we discuss in this book are so called “Organic Search
Results” (or “Natural Search Results”).
Organic search results are determined entirely by the relevance algorithms
described above. Nobody can pay Google or Bing to have their site appear
higher in the organic search results. Ranking is completely dependent on
implementing a good SEO strategy.
Search engines make money by selling advertising that shows up in the search
results. These are referred to as “Paid Search Results.”
Paid search results can help with click-through-rate (CTR), and running paid
advertising campaigns can help quickly to determine which keywords work and
which do not.
See below screenshot to see how Google presents organic vs. paid search
results (ad space is highlighted in red):
You can see that paid advertising takes up a big portion of the screen. But that
doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t spend time on SEO. They work together.
Learn more about organic search results here:
http://www.webgnomes.org/blog/organic-search-results/

In this chapter, we will cover the most important techniques for making sure that
search engines can easily crawl your site and other key site-level best practices.
HOW TO OPTIMIZE
YOUR WEBSITE
Your Domain Matters
Your domain is your base address on the Internet.
For example www.webgnomes.org.
Here are some things to keep in mind about your
domain:
1. The older, the better: If you have an existing
domain and are thinking about changing it, think
twice. The search engines prefer older domains
to newer ones.
2. Keep it short and sweet: Really long domain
names are difficult for people to remember.
3. Target a keyword: Your domain is a great
place to target one of your keyword phrases.
This may be your company name, a specific
brand, or even a given product. Make sure it
matches closely what your website is about.
4. Register domain for several years: Search
engines take you more seriously if it seems like
you are committed to your domain. Your domain
registration should be at least two years out.
Domain: A domain
name is a string of
characters representing
an IP resource. Domain
names are easier for
humans to remember
than a set of numbers.
Introducing Yoast: If
you use WordPress as
your CMS, we suggest
you use the Yoast SEO
plugin:
WordPress SEO
Throughout this book,
we will reference the
Yoast plugin and how it
can help you with SEO.
Action Items:
ü Register your domain (if you haven’t already)
ü Include a keyword phrase in your domain (this
might be your company name or brand)
ü Make sure you have paid for your domain to
be registered for at least two years in the
future.

Canonical Homepage
This is not as scary as it sounds. The main thing you need to know here is that
http://www.yoursite.com is not the same as http://yoursite.com.
You want one to redirect to the other in order to avoid duplicate content issues.
Website Load Times
Users don’t like to wait for slow-loading pages. Neither do search engines. Make
sure your hosting service is good and don’t bog your pages down with too many
large images and videos to load.
Selecting a good web host is one important aspect of ensuring good
performance. A few of the currently top-rated web hosts include:
iPage – “Affordable Web Hosting”
FatCow – “Udderly Fantastic Web Hosting”
justhost.com – “The Last Hosting Plan You’ll Ever Need”
GoDaddy – “Domains, Websites & Everything in Between!”
(See: http://www.consumer-rankings.com/hosting/)
Gnome Tip!
Learn more about how to set up a canonical homepage:
http://www.webgnomes.org/blog/avoiding-duplicate-content/
Gnome Tip!
Check your website load time here: http://www.iwebtool.com/speed_test
Action Items:
ü Test to make sure that you have a canonical homepage. E.g. if your site
has www.yoursite.com as the canonical homepage, when you enter
“yoursite.com,” it should redirect to www.yoursite.com.
ü If redirects are not working properly, check out the blog post for tips on
how to resolve the issue.
ü Check your website load time and make sure it’s at an acceptable speed.
Try to keep it under 3 seconds.

Google Webmaster Tools
Google provides a set of tools to help webmasters with SEO called Google
Webmaster Tools (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/).
Here are some of the features Google Webmaster Tools provides:
• Information about how Google sees your website (includes crawling and
indexing metrics).
• A list of sites that link to your webpages.
• Search data related to keywords used to find your site and how many
people clicked on your site when it appeared in the search results. (See
screenshot below.)
• Ability to set up alerts to find out when Google finds malware on your site or
encounters other problems such as missing pages.
• Sitemap submission (see below).
Signing up for Google Webmaster Tools is easy. Follow these three steps to get
started:
1. Sign in with your Google account at
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
2. Click the “ADD A SITE” button and enter the main URL of your site (e.g.
http://www.webgnomes.org)
3. Verify that you own the site (follow the detailed instructions on the
Webmaster Tools website)
It may take a few days to weeks before you start seeing information about your
site. Be patient. It’s worth the wait!

Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing also provides tools for web masters at www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster.
You can access this site with your Windows LiveID.
Bing Webmaster Tools provides similar capabilities
to Google Webmaster Tools and presents the data
in three main categories:
• Pages Crawled
• Pages Indexed
• Traffic Information (Impressions, Clicks, and
Rank by keyword phrase)
Like Google, Bing allows you to submit an XML
sitemap (see below) to improve your chances of
being crawled and indexed.
Signing up for Bing Webmaster Tools is easy.
Follow these three steps to get started:
1. Sign in with your Windows LiveID at
http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster.
2. Click the “Add Site” button and enter your
main website URL.
3. Verify ownership (follow the instructions
online). We recommend option #1, “Place an
XML file on your web server.”
As with Google, it may take a few days to weeks
before you start seeing information about your site.

Impressions: The
number of times a link
to your web page
appears on another web
page. In this case, in
the Bing search results.
Clicks: The number of
times a user of the
search engine clicks on
your link.
Click-Through-Rate
(CTR): The number of
clicks divided by the
number of impressions.
Rank: The relative
position in the search
results.

Generate and Submit Sitemaps to the Search
Engines
A sitemap is a map of your website. There are two types of sitemaps:
• HTML - for users on your website
• XML - for search engines
This section is about the XML sitemap, which is simply a list of the webpages
(URLs) that you want the search engines to crawl.
Generate a Sitemap
There are multiple sites on the Internet that will generate a sitemap for your
website. We recommend www.xml-sitemaps.com.
If you are using WordPress and the Yoast plugin, Yoast will automatically create
an XML sitemap for you.
It will be called <your domain>/sitemap_index.xml.
Submit Your Sitemap to Google
Follow these steps to submit your XML sitemap on Google Webmaster Tools:
1. Sign in to your account at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/.
2. Select your website by clicking on the link.
3. Select Site Configuration -> SItemap in the menu on the left side of the
page.
4. Click “Submit a Sitemap.”
5. Enter the name of your sitemap file and click “Submit Sitemap.”
Gnome Tip!
For detailed instructions on how to generate a sitemap, check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-QV44GoBdo
Gnome Tip!
You can also watch this video to learn how to submit your sitemap to Google:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx6pvEQBV-s

Submit Your Sitemap to Bing
Follow these steps to submit your XML sitemap on Bing Webmaster Tools:
1. Sign in to your account at https://www.bing.com/webmasters/.
2. Select your website by clicking on the link.
3. Select “Sitemaps (XML, Atom, RSS)” under “CRAWL” in the menu on the
left side of the page.
4. Click “Add Feed.”
5. Enter the name of your sitemap file and click “Submit.”
Gnome Tip!
You can also watch this video to learn how to submit your sitemap to Bing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_KEuzXXsD4
Action Items:
ü Create a Google Webmaster Tools account
(http://www.google.com/webmasters/) and submit your website.
ü Create a Bing Webmaster Tools account
(www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster) and submit your website.
ü Generate a sitemap for your website.
ü Submit your sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools.
ü Submit your sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools.

Crawling/Indexing Tips
You have some control over which pages the search engines (at least the
legitimate ones) crawl. This section will cover two options:
Robots.txt
Robots.txt is a text file that is placed in your top-level directory on your Web
server. Use robots.txt to block search engines from indexing specific directories
or pages.
Robots.txt - Allow access to all pages:
User-agent: *
Disallow:
Robots.txt - Remove access to all pages:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Robots.txt - Remove access to all pages in /support directory:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /support

Robots.txt - Remove access to specific page in /support directory:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /support/index.html

NOTE: This does not prevent the URL of a given page to be indexed if other
pages refer to that URL.
Why would you want to exclude certain pages from the crawlers? It depends on
what you store on your servers. In a lot of cases, you would want the crawlers to
access everything.

NoIndex Meta Tag
Add the noindex meta tag to pages you don’t want indexed. If Google sees this,
they will drop the URL from their search results completely (even if other pages
link to it).
Here is an example of the noindex meta tag (goes in the <head> section of your
page):
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
Some examples of pages you would not want to be indexed are search results
pages and other auto-generated content.

Action Items:
ü Check your website to see if you have a robots.txt
ü If you do have a robots.txt file, make sure it has the correct settings to
ensure the search engines can find the webpages you want them to find.
ü If you do not have a robots.txt file, consider creating one, even if you don’t
want to block the search engines.
ü Add the noindex meta tag to webpages you don’t want indexed, e.g.
search results pages and other auto-generated pages.

Website Design and User Experience
The layout and general design of your website has a significant impact on SEO.
There are several reasons:
1. A flat, intuitive navigation helps search engines index your pages quickly.
2. Properly naming your menu items and linking them to pages with the
same names helps both search engines and human users understand
what your site is about and how to navigate through it.
3. Humans enjoy a well-designed, easy-to-use website and are more likely to
link to it if they can find what they need. (You will find out later in this book
that links are awesome for SEO!)
A Note About HTML
It is important to follow the latest HTML best practices. If you are using a CMS
such as WordPress, you don’t have to worry much about this.
User Experience Checklist
This book is not a user experience book, but since it is an important for SEO,
we’ve provided a list of key things to look for in your site to help determine the
usability (for a comprehensive report, consider investing in a user experience
review):
ü New user can determine what the website is about in 5 seconds.
ü Website is aesthetically pleasing.
ü Organization’s logo is clearly displayed and links to homepage.
ü New user can easily find and understand the main navigation (menu).
ü Navigation labels are clear and concise.
ü User can easily find information about the organization.
ü User can easily locate the “Contact Us” information.
ü User can find company phone number and email.
ü Testimonials/Case Studies are present, if applicable.
ü Privacy policy is in place if collecting user information.
ü Site search is easy to access.
ü Avoid pop-ups and other non-user initiated actions.
ü Pages function as designed and are error tolerant.
ü Webpages are efficient to use (e.g. registration form).
Gnome Tip!
You can check the quality of your site’s HTML here:
http://validator.w3.org/unicorn/

Avoid Duplicate Content
Ah, duplicate content - the archenemy of SEOs across the globe.
But what is duplicate content?
Duplicate content is content that is the same (or similar) on multiple webpages
within your site. This is bad, because the search engines may get confused about
which content is the original (or canonical) and not know which version to show.
Here are the main sources of duplicate content:
• www vs. non-www homepage (see page 8)
• Multiple domains with the same content
• CMS-generated archives
• Mobile-friendly pages
• Printer-friendly pages.
So what do I need to do about it?
301 Redirects
301 HTML redirects is the best way to redirect one page to another. This is one
option for resolving the duplicate content issue.
NOTE: There is also a WordPress plugin to help you with redirects:
http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/redirection/
Canonical Tag
If you don’t want to redirect the user, but want to note that a page is a duplicate
of another, you can add the following tag to the duplicate page:
<link rel="canonical"
href="http://www.mysite.com/canonical_page"/>
Gnome Tip!
Learn more about 301 redirects on Google’s help page:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93633

This chapter covers key SEO techniques for optimizing a given webpage.
Search Query Relevance
On-page search engine optimization is all about making sure your page appears
as relevant as possible to a given search query.
For example, if you have a dog grooming business, you’d want your homepage
to show up in the search results for the query “dog grooming,” especially when
coupled with a local search in your area.
This will likely not happen without some level of SEO best practices applied to
the content of your homepage (unless you have no competition).
The search engines look at a number of elements of your page to determine
relevance. We will review these in detail in this chapter:
• Page content
• Title tag
• URL
• Header tags
• Image alt tag
• On-page links
However, before we dive into the specifics, let’s talk about keyword research.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is not as scary as it sounds. It is simply the process of
determining which keyword phrase to target on a given webpage. Keyword
research should always be your first step when contemplating a new webpage
(or when rewriting an existing one).
Here are the key secrets to successful keyword research using only free tools:
HOW TO OPTIMIZE
A WEBPAGE
Keyword research should always be your first
step when contemplating a new webpage.

Listen to Your Audience
It’s important to understand the language of your audience. If you sell dental
prophylaxis services but your potential customers think of this as dental cleaning,
you should use the term “dental cleaning.”
The search engines do search for synonyms, and it doesn’t hurt to keep this in
mind. But we still recommend using terminology that your audience understands.
It’s equally important that the target page answers the question users are asking
when entering the search query. If you manage to get people to your site for the
term “dog grooming” but don’t offer information about how to make an
appointment, you haven’t gained anything.
Google and Bing Search
One good way to get a quick feel both for the value of the keyword and the
amount of competition out there is to do a search on your potential keyword
phrase.
Note for this search (with location Minneapolis, MN) rendered over 68 million
results and a fair amount of paid advertising. This tells us that there is a good
deal of competition for this phrase, because it’s a high-value keyword.
It’s important to understand the language of your
audience.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool
The Google AdWords Keyword Tool is the most useful, free keyword research
resource.
If you have an AdWords account, you can access the keyword tool via the Tools
and Analysis menu item:
There is also an external version of the keyword tool:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Here are some tips for using the keyword tool:
1. Enter your keyword phrase into the search field.
2. Note the level of competition (High/Medium/Low).
3. Note the number of local monthly searches (based on your location
settings).
4. If you selected a keyword with very few or negligible (marked with a dash)
searches, it’s a good idea to reconsider.
5. Take a look at the “Keyword ideas” for other keyword phrases to consider.
The Google AdWords Keyword Tool is the most
useful, free keyword research resource.

Note that there is a setting for “Match Types” in the left
column. This allows you to get more specific with your
search terms:
• Broad: Search query includes your keyword(s). E.g. “Dog and cat
grooming.”
• [Exact]: Search query includes your exact keyword phrase (no other
words). I.e. “Dog grooming.”
• “Phrase”: Search query includes your exact keyword phrase, but may
also include other words. E.g. “Dog grooming and supplies.”
Action Items:
ü For a given page, brainstorm what you are trying to convey to visitors
ü Listen to your audience to determine what terminology they use. E.g. visit
forums, successful competitor sites, and listen in Facebook/Twitter.
ü Perform a search on your keywords to get a feel for competition and
relative value (based on paid ads).
ü Use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to refine your list and get
additional ideas.

Writing Search Engine-Optimized Content
Before we delve into the ins and outs of writing search engine-optimized content,
I must say this:
You write primarily for humans,
NOT for search engines.
Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s talk about what writing search engine-
optimized content looks like.
It involves using the keyword phrase you selected and writing insanely useful or
funny or inspirational (or all of the above) content. You must keep your audience
in mind first.
However, there is nothing wrong with also adding some information to help the
search engines understand what your wonderful content is all about. This is what
we refer to as on-page signals.
What follows are a list of best practices (good) SEOs all over the world follow.
These best practices are based both on what the search engines tell us, and
what we discover as we test and tweak and test again (aka research).
Title Tag
Here is what Google has to say about the title tag:
“A title tag tells both users and search engines
what the topic of a particular page is.”
Google thinks the title tag is so important that it’s the very first section in their
Search Engine Starter Guide.
The title tag is an HTML tag that is included in the <head> section of a web page:
<head>
<title>Page Title</title>
</head>
Gnome Tip!
For more on writing for your audience, read this blog post:
http://www.webgnomes.org/blog/seo-writing-keep-your-audience-in-mind/

There are three important things to keep in mind as it relates to the title tag:
1. Make sure every page in your website has a unique title.
2. Place keyword in the beginning of the title.
For example: Dog Grooming | Pampered Pets Grooming
3. Use less than 70 characters for your title (Google will truncate the rest
when displaying the title in search results).
NOTE: If you are using the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin, you can set the page
title in the user interface right on page editor:
Notice that the page title is also your main headline when your webpage shows
up in search results. So make sure it conveys what your page is about.
Meta Description
The meta description is an HTML tag that summarizes the page content for users
when search engines display search results:
Dog Grooming | Pampered Pets Grooming
www.pamperedpetsgrooming.com/dog-grooming/
Visit Pampered Pets Grooming for professional dog grooming services. Our
groomers are friendly and skilled. Your dog will look amazing!
Gnome Tip!
Learn more about creating a great SEO title here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBoJtL1z-Vk

The search engines don’t use this particular tag to determine relevancy and
ranking. However, it is what they may display in the search results as noted
above.
It’s important because it is the description that users see when deciding whether
or not to click the link. Make it as relevant as possible!
NOTE: If you are using the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin, you can set the meta
description in the user interface right on page editor:
Keep your meta description to 140 characters or less to avoid text being cut off.
URL
A meaningful URL is good for both humans and search engines (sense a trend
here…?).
The URL is the human-readable address for your webpage on the Internet. The
good news is that it is also search engine-readable. Search engines do look at
the URL when they determine relevancy.
Let’s hear what Google has to say about well-structured URLs:
“If your URL contains relevant words, this provides users
and search engines with more information about the page
than an ID or oddly named parameter would.”
Gnome Tip!
Learn more about creating a great SEO meta description here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVh14zOl7SU

For example, if you have a B2C eCommerce site, it is much better to use the
product name in the URL of the main product page versus some random item
number.
It is a general practice to remove stop words (such as and, of, with) from the
URL. Use common sense here: If the stop word is part of our keyword, by all
means keep it. If your URL ends up being really long, take out non-keyword stop
words.
NOTE: If you are using WordPress, you can edit the URL (Permalink) in the user
interface:
Heading Tags
Just like books, magazine features, and newspaper articles, good web pages
have headings to help users easily scan the content.
Typically, the page title uses the <h1> tag, and first-level sub headings use the
<h2> tag.
</head>
<body>
<h1>Dog Grooming Tips</h1>
<h2>Brushing Your Dog</h2>
<p>One of the basic elements of dog grooming is brushing
your dog’s hair. Whether you have a non-shedding dog or a
shedding dog, it is important to brush the hair frequently.
</p>
Here is what Google has to say about heading tags:
“Heading tags are an important website component for
catching the user's eye, so be careful how you use them!”
It’s good to put your keyword phrase in at least one heading tag on the page.
However, only do it if it makes sense to the user. Don’t force it!

NOTE: If you are using WordPress, your page title will automatically use the
<h1> tag. You can select headings from the page/post edit interface:
Image Alt Tag
The image alt tag was invented to allow web developers to enter text to describe
an image. There are a couple of scenarios when this is helpful:
1. User is visually impaired and is using a screen reader.
2. User has a slow connection and has disabled images in their browser.
You should always add descriptive text to images on your webpages:
<img src=”descriptive-filename.jpg” alt=”Dog grooming
example - Bichon Frise” height=”300” width=”192” />
Beyond the use cases listed above, search engines also look at the image alt tag
to determine the content of the image.
It is good practice to include your keyword phrase in the filename and alt tag of at
least one image on your page. Just be careful not to overdo it.
NOTE: If you are using WordPress, you can define the image alt tag (Alternate
Text) when you upload your image. Make sure your image filename is already
optimized, since this cannot be changed in WordPress.
You should always add descriptive text to images
on your webpage.

On-Page Links and Anchor Text
Search engines follow links to get from one webpage to another. The robots look
at the text on the link (anchor text) to determine what the page you’re linking to is
about.
Example copy with link and meaningful anchor text:
The SEO Audit link links to the Web Gnomes “SEO Audit” page. The anchor text
lets the search engines and users know what to expect when they click on the
link.
It’s good to have a few links on any given webpage. However, you don’t want to
have too many. A good number to keep in mind is less than 100 links.
Here are Google’s best practices for writing anchor text:
• Choose descriptive text
• Write concise text
• Format links so they’re easy to spot
• Think about anchor text for internal links too
The last point is an important one that is easy to forget. Rather than using anchor
text like “click here” or “learn more,” use descriptive text for internal links as well!
Content Tricks
As we noted above, content should be written for humans. However, there are
some tricks to keep in mind (as long as they don’t ruin the reading experience):
• Use your keyword phrase several times. SEOmoz recommends at
least 3X, but more if there is a lot of text.
• Place your keyword phrase in the first paragraph and put some
emphasis on it (e.g. bold).
• Use correct spelling and grammar. Yep, the search engines look at this.
• Write at least 300 words.
• Consider the reading level of your audience. Don’t use big words and
complicated sentence structure unless you’re writing for a bunch of PhDs.
Do you want to find out how well your website is optimized for search engines?
Sign up for an SEO Audit today! (http://www.webgnomes.org/seo-audit/)

NOTE: If you are using Yoast, you can check many of these best practices on
the Page Analysis tab:
Action Items:
ü Write content for humans; optimize for the search engines.
ü Write a unique <title> tag for each page and include your keyword phrase
at the beginning. Don’t go over 70 characters.
ü Write a unique meta description for each page and include your keyword
phrase. Don’t go over 140 characters.
ü Structure your URL (Permalink) for readability. Use words over IDs.
ü Use heading tags to structure your content for optimal readability. Try to
use your keyword phrase in the heading tags – especially the <h1>.
ü Add alternate text to every image on your webpage and include your
keyword phrase in at least one image alt tag on the page.
ü Include both internal and outbound links in your text. Use meaningful
anchor text to help users and search engines better navigate your site.
ü Include your keyword phrase at least 3X in the body text.
ü Place your keyword phrase in the first paragraph and make it bold.

This chapter will teach you some of the techniques for building valuable links to
your website.
The Importance of Links
Linkbuilding is perhaps the most difficult SEO activity. But it is one of the most
impactful strategies as it relates to website rankings. It must be done.
As you may recall, search engine robots traverse the Internet by following
links. So having external links point to your site is important for indexing.
But even more importantly, external links are an important part of the search
engines’ relevancy and ranking algorithms.
It’s a Matter of Trust
The search engines are all about trustworthiness of websites. They want to know
that the links they serve up in the search results are good and useful. Otherwise,
their users may start using a different search engine, which may lead to a drop in
advertisers spending their ad dollars with the original search engine.
Trustworthy websites have many quality sites linking to them. Search engines
view external links as votes of confidence in the content on a given website.
Certain domains (e.g. .edu and .gov) are considered especially trustworthy.
HOW TO BUILD LINKS
Trustworthy websites have many quality sites
linking to them.
Gnome Tip!
Learn more about external links here:
http://www.webgnomes.org/blog/what-are-external-links/

Linkbuilding Strategies
There is no magic formula for getting links. In fact, it is a long, tedious process.
What follows are some common industry strategies for building external links to
your site.
Write Great Content
This is perhaps the most clichéd advide in SEO, but it’s true. Great links start with
great content. You must write interesting, useful, funny, or otherwise “link-worthy”
content in order to get links.
End of story.
Be a Guest Blogger
Get involved on a prominent blog and approach the author about writing a guest
post. Not only do you get great exposure on the famous blog, but you’ll also get a
link back to your site.
Score!
Contact the Webmaster
If you find a site that has a list of <whatever it is that you do>, contact the
webmaster to get your site listed.
Make sure to specify the anchor text you want.
Participate on Forums and Blogs
Some forums and blogs have a place to leave your website address. A lot of
times, these are nofollow links, but it still doesn’t hurt to get your name out there
and participate in the conversation.
Just don’t be spammy!
Encourage Bookmarking and Sharing
There are several bookmarking and web content voting websites out there. Digg,
Delicious, and StumbleUpon come to mind. Make sure your visitors have an easy
way to share your content on these types of sites.

Local and Business Links
There are several options for getting listed at the local level as well as through
your business connections:
• Chamber of Commerce
• Better Business Bureau
• Business Partners
• Client Websites
• Affiliate programs
It never hurts to ask!
Create Link Bait
Link bait is the term used for content that is created specifically to attract links:
• eBook (yep, this book is link bait – gotcha!)
• Infographic (information presented graphically)
• Funny video
• Contests and give-aways
• Anything FREE (e.g. tools, tutorials, webinars)
Action Items:
ü If you know how to write, start writing! Write blog posts, eBooks, tutorials –
anything that your audience will find useful and link-worthy.
ü If you don’t know how to write, hire somebody to write for you. Elance.com
is a decent, affordable place to start.
ü Reach out to industry superstars and inquire about links/guest blogging
opportunities.
ü Make sure your visitors can share you content on sites like Digg and
StumbleUpon.
ü Do some local searches to determine what local directories are available
in your area. Get listed!
ü Ask business partners & customers to link to you.
ü Create a funny video. J

This chapter focuses on how you can leverage social media to boost rankings.
Social Media and Website Rankings
Social signals are becoming increasingly important for ranking well in the
search engines. Social signals are cues to the search engines that a given
webpage is share-worthy.
Examples of social signals are Twitter tweets, Facebook likes, LinkedIn shares,
and Google +1s.
How It Works
The social shares may influence ranking if you or your friends have “liked” a
particular webpage. This is because search engines believe that
recommendations from friends are more valuable than recommendations from
strangers.
The search engines also consider the authority of the person “liking” a particular
piece of content. So if you can get a heavy-weight in your field to share your
content, this will be worth more than several shares from unknown fans.
Bottom line: Make sure your fans can spread the word about your awesome
website and content.
This is best accomplished by having social share buttons available on all your
content pages:
HOW TO LEVERAGE
SOCIAL MEDIA

You can either go to the individual social networks to get the sharing buttons (see
list below) or use a service such as AddThis or ShareThis.
List of Links for Social Sharing Buttons
• Facebook: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/about/resources/buttons
• Google+: http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/index.html
• LinkedIn: http://developer.linkedin.com/plugins/share-button
There are obviously other social networks, but these are the ones we focus on in
our social media efforts.
NOTE: If you use WordPress, there are several plugins avaialble to accomplish
the same. I use “WP Socializer” on my personal bog.
In Summary
Social signals are up-and-coming in influencing search engine rankings.
Encouraging social shares is a win-win situation.
However, keep in mind that social signals are only one out of hundreds of
signals. Don’t drop everything to focus only on social.
Social sharing is one component of a solid SEO strategy.
Action Items:
ü Install social sharing buttons on your website.
ü Encourage your visitors to share your content.
ü Attempt to get shares/likes from influencers in your field.

This chapter covers ways to track and measure SEO efforts.
Setting Goals for SEO
Before embarking on an SEO campaign, it is crucial to set some goals for the
project. Otherwise, there’s nothing to measure!
Goals may include:
• Increasing number of blog subscribers by 20% over the next 3 months
• Building email list to 500 members over the next 6 months
• Increasing online sales by 15% by next quarter end
• Increasing brand awareness (harder to measure)
Goals should be defined and written down before starting any SEO campaign.
Keep in mind that good SEO takes time, so set realistic goals.
Track Visitor Data with Google Analytics
There are several different analytics packages available. Some are free and
some cost quite a bit of money.
For the average small to medium-sized business, Google Analytics is a good
option. It’s free and integrates well with other Google applications such as
Google Webmaster Tools and Google AdWords.
Getting set up with Google Analytics is easy as pie. Simply go to:
http://www.google.com/analytics
Follow the step-by-step instructions for creating an account. On the last step, you
will be presented with a code snippet to paste into every page you want to track
immediately before the closing </head> tag. If you do not maintain your website,
this will require the assistance of your webmaster.
HOW TO MEASURE SEO

NOTE: If you are using WordPress, most themes have a location in the theme
settings where you can provide your Google Analytics code. This makes it much
easier to implement.
Once you have Google Analytics installed, you will be able to view lots of
interesting information about your visitors.
Link Your Google Webmaster Tools to Google Analytics
If you have signed up for Google Webmaster Tools as mentioned above, you can
link the two together. This allows you to view SEO-related information right inside
of Google Analytics.
Follow these instructions to link your Google Webmaster Tools to Google
Analytics:
1. Sign in to Google Webmaster Tools
2. Click the “Manage site” dropdown next to
the site you want to link and select
“Google Analytics property.”
3. Select the “Analytics Web Property” you
want to link to and click “Save.”
4. Confirm the association by clicking “OK.”
Useful Reports for Measuring SEO
Depending on your goals, there are several excellent reports to help you
determine how things are going:
Traffic Sources
The Traffic Sources section in Google Analytics will tell you from where your
traffic is coming:
Gnome Tip!
Watch this short video for hands-on instruction on this topic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i3grBseHgA

Search Traffic
In the above screenshot, we can see that this site received 44.18% of visits from
search traffic in the given time period.
Under “Sources” on the left, you can get details about the search traffic. I.e.
which search engines are sending you traffic (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc) and
which keywords were used.
By tracking the percentage of search traffic over time, you can determine if your
efforts are paying off.
Looking at the keywords people are using to find your site may also give you
ideas for new keyword phrases to target as you expand your website.
Referral Traffic
You can also see that 27.22% of the visitors came from links on other sites
(“Referral Traffic”). This is important information, if part of your campaign involves
link building.
If you click into the reports, you can see which sites link to you. Based on the
volume of traffic you get from specific sites, you can determine on which types of
sites to focus your link building efforts.

Content
Another useful area in Google Analytics is “Content.” This is where you find
information about which pages were most frequently visited.
This is useful in assessing the type of content that appeals to your audience.
Write more of what works!
Goals in Google Analytics
If you want to go a step deeper, consider adding one or more Goals in Google
Analytics.
Goals allow you to specify a URL or other event that you want the visitor to
accomplish on your site.
For example, if you want visitors to sign up for your newsletter, you can enter the
URL of the thank you page as your goal. This way, you can track how visitors
reached this goal and (if you use a funnel) where they dropped off along the way.
To access goals, click the settings icon in the top right corner and select the
“Goals” tab.
Gnome Tip!
Check out Google’s training on Google Analytics goals here:
http://services.google.com/analytics/breeze/en/goals/index.html
Action Items:
ü Set concrete (and realistic) goals for your next SEO campaign.
ü Install Google Analytics (or other analytics software on your site.
ü Track traffic sources & keywords to understand how visitors find you.
ü Track popular content and write more of what works.
ü Set analytics goals for even more useful reporting.

About Web Gnomes
Web Gnomes is a research-based Internet marketing consulting firm committed
to helping companies of all sized succeed online.
We offer live seminars, free how-to videos, and eBooks like this one for business
owners, non-profit leaders, and marketing professionals who want to learn more
about search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and other areas of
Internet marketing.
In addition, we offer the following services:
• SEO Audit
• UX Review
• Local Search Audit
• Keyword Research
• SEO Writing
• Link Building
• Social Media Strategy
• PPC Management
About the Author
Tabita Green is an Internet marketing consultant at Web
Gnomes. She frequently contributes to the Web Gnomes
blog and also writes at Simply Enough, a simple living
blog.
She specializes in PPC management, local search
marketing, social media strategy, user experience expert
reviews, and SEO writing.
Connect With Us
Continue your SEO education by connecting with us online:
http://www.facebook.com/webgnomes
http://www.twitter.com/webgnomes

Getting started-with-seo-web-gnomes

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (12)

Similaire à Getting started-with-seo-web-gnomes

Similaire à Getting started-with-seo-web-gnomes (20)

Plus de techgreen solution

Plus de techgreen solution (6)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Getting started-with-seo-web-gnomes