WordPress and SEO were made to go together just like chocolate and peanut butter. With strategic marketing and planning, you can achieve your SEO and business lead goals. This presentation is an overview of essential things you need to understand today to optimize your site in compliance with current accepted best practices. For a version of the presentation which includes links to references and supportive information, visit http://charlestonpr.com/posts/2014-wordpress-seo-fundamentals/.

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

7. pandas, penguins, hummingbirds

8. panda rules
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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-buildinghigh-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
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solid, strong brand
great copy
adds value
well‐designed site
useful information
fast
mobile responsive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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
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/
• Google’s Markup Helper
Use Google’s Markup Helper: https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/

21. wordpress SEO
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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
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Title
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Text
Tags
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page
file media library
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
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monitor
adjust
refresh
keep alert to Google’s
changes
• competition
Photo credit: 1950sUnlimited