My talk from the NYC Faith and Tech Meetup on February 13th, 2012.

2. First off, who am I?
Name: John Doherty Twitter: @dohertyjf
Title: SEO Consultant G+: gplus.to/dohertyjf
Company: Distilled Read my stuff: Website
Email: john.doherty@distilled.net

3. What are we talking about?
“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of
improving the visibility of a website or a web
page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid
("organic" or "algorithmic") means.
In general, the…higher ranked on the search results
page, and more frequently a site appears in the search
results list, the more visitors it will receive from the
search engine's users.”

4. Huh?
“SEO is how awesome
content gets found” –
Abraham Lincoln

6. So what is SEO?
Image: Source

7. First, what is it NOT?
Not some nerd sitting in his momma’s basement in his
underwear spinning some dark magic (usually)

8. Not this
It’s not stuffing your pages with keywords (that’s soooo 2005)

9. Also not…
It’s not comment spamming (still happens, still sucks)

10. Common Myth

11. Click through rate to your site from Google/Bing does not
affect your rankings.

12. Cool, so what IS it?

13. Your site gets found through a
combination of different ways.

14. This is how your content gets found
and ranked by Google/Bing/etc
Links to page (21%)
Links to site (21%)
Use of keywords on the
page (15%)
Use of keywords on the
site (11%)
Branding (7%)

15. Great Content created
around keywords
Ranks for “Linkbait” “Linkbait Guide”

16. Making people aware of
that great content

17. Links coming to your site
Links are the currency of the Interwebs,
because they pass authority.

18. What are the main
elements of SEO?

19. Elements of SEO
Keyword Research

20. Elements of SEO
Image: Source (SEOgadget)
Information Architecture

21. Elements of SEO
Linkbuilding

22. The SEO Process
Image Courtesy of Michael King (@ipullrank)

23. Scared yet?


24. Don’t Be!


25. Let’s talk about minimum
viable SEO (the basics of
what you need)


26. Your own domain


27. Your own domain
 http://www.moniker.com/ ($4-$10/year)

28. Analytics on your site
 http://www.google.com/analytics ($free.99)

29. RSS Feed
 http://feeds.feedburner.com/ ($free.99)

30. Clean, short URLs
Ideal: http://www.site.com/permanent-link
Also works: http://www.site.com/category/permanent-link
 http://www.johnfdoherty.com/lessons-from-google-about-url-lengths/

31. Unique Titles and Content
 http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo/basics-of-search-engine-
friendly-design-and-development/ and http://www.seomoz.org/blog/are-your-
titles-irresistibly-click-worthy-viral

32. Keyword Research
 http://www.johnfdoherty.com/minimum-viable-keyword-research/

33. Get Social


34. Best Easy CMS For SEO
 http://wordpress.org/

35. Plugins You Need
 http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-seo/ and
http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/

36. Plugins You Need
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-slugs/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/
 http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

37. Plugins You Need
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sharebar/
Or some plugin to allow sharing.
Follow the K.I.S.S. methodology
 http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

38. Just don’t overwhelm your use


39. Resources
 http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

40. Resources
Definitive Wordpress SEO
Guide:
http://yoast.com/articles/wordp
ress-seo/


41. Chrome Extensions You Need
Mozbar http://www.seomoz.org/seo-toolbar
 https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/extensions

42. Measurement Tools
 http://www.google.com/analytics

43. SEO Tools
 http://www.seomoz.org (free then $99/month)

44. Rank Checking (free tools)
http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/ran
k-checker/
http://www.seomoz.org/rank-tracker
 http://www.evolvingseo.com/2012/01/24/the-ultimate-list-of-rank-checkers/

45. Social Measurement Tools
 http://crowdbooster.com/

46. Finding Others in Your
Niche on Twitter
 http://followerwonk.com/

47. Pro Tips
 http://www.google.com/alerts for
your name/brand

48. Pro Tips
 http://myblogguest.com for guest
posting

49. Pro Tips
 Reverse Image Search if you have photos (photographers?)

50. Thanks a bunch!

51. Happy to answer
questions