Strategies for creating content in Plone that will boost your site's visibility in search engines (plus a few words about keyword research and site administration).
Emergent Methods: Multi-lingual narrative tracking in the news - real-time ex...
Leveraging Plone for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
1. Leveraging
Plone
for
Search
Engine
Op4miza4on
(SEO)
Heather
Wozniak,
Ph.D.
UCLA
Office
of
Informa4on
Technology
design@heatherwozniak.com
2. Plone
and
SEO
• Good
news:
1. Many
features
built-‐in
to
Plone
2. No
add-‐ons
required
• Caveats:
1. Keyword
research
2. Training
content
providers/editors
• BoXom-‐line:
Quality
content
will
bring
you
traffic
(and
hold
visitors’
aXen4on)
3. What
maXers
to
search
engines?
• Text:
content
is
king!
• Posi4on:
star4ng
from
top-‐le^
• Structure:
headings,
strong/emphasis,
lists,
table
headers,
form
labels,
clean
HTML
• This
stuff
is
good
for
accessibility
too
14. Don’t
under-‐es4mate
the
value
of
Descrip4on
Appears
in
• Google
and
other
search
results
• Plone
search
results
• Folder
lis4ngs
and
collec4ons
• Link
mouseovers/hovers
Can
be
hidden
on
page
if
it
cramps
your
style
16. What
maXers
to
search
engines?
1.
Document
4tle
2.
URL
3.
Page
4tle
/
first
heading
<h1>
4.
Descrip4on
5.
Content
(headings
<h2>-‐<h6>,
<strong>,
<em>)
6.
Alt-‐text
for
images
7.
Meaningful
filenames
for
images
and
files
(see
#2)
17. Controlling
the
short
name
• By
default,
the
4tle
you
enter
upon
first
crea4ng
a
page
becomes
the
short
name.
• IT
DOES
NOT
CHANGE
WHEN
YOU
LATER
CHANGE
THE
PAGE
TITLE.
• There
are
two
ways
to
edit
it:
– Managers
only
(default)
– Content
contributors/editors
18. Managers
can
edit
the
short
name
by
checking
“rename”
in
the
“Contents”
view
of
a
folder.
19. Or,
you
can
enable
short
name
edi4ng
for
users
• Cau4on:
may
result
in
broken
links
• Under
“Site
Setup,”
check
“Show
‘Short
Name’
on
Content”
• Advise
users
to
go
to
their
“Personal
Preferences”
and
“Allow
edi4ng
of
short
names”
New
field
20. Adding
images
and
files
• Fill
in
every
field
(4tle,
descrip4on,
etc.)
– For
images,
4tle
is
used
to
generate
alt-‐text
(but
you
can
change
this
at
4me
of
inser4ng
image)
– For
files,
4tle
is
used
as
link
4tle
(displays
on
hover)
– Both
4tle
and
descrip4on
display
in
site
search
and
folder
lis4ngs
• Use
meaningful
filenames:
– chancellor-‐block.jpg
vs.
image4035.jpg
– 2010-‐annual-‐report.pdf
vs.
reporrinaldra^_a.pdf
21. Recap:
elements
you
can
control
in
Plone
out-‐of-‐the-‐box
• Document
4tle
(page
4tle
+
site
4tle)
• URL
(short
name)
• First
heading
(page
4tle)
• Descrip4on
• Headings
for
content
• Alt-‐text
for
images
• Meaningful
filenames
for
images
and
uploaded
files
22. Keyword
Research
• No
point
op4mizing
for
terms
that
nobody
searches
for
• Iden4fy
your
target
audience
• Know
what
they
search
for
• Use
Google
to
gather
intel
23. Google
Tools
for
Keyword
Research
• Webmaster
Tools
(webmasters.google.com)
– What
does
Google
think
your
site
is
about?
– Where
does
your
site
rank
for
your
target
words?
– What
terms
does
your
site
use
most
frequently?
Too
frequently?
• Analy4cs
(analy4cs.google.com)
– What
words
actually
bring
visitors
to
your
site?
• Adwords
Keyword
Tool
(
adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal)
– What
do
users
actually
search
for?
– What
related
terms
and
phrases
could
you
adopt?
24. Implement
the
Keywords
• Armed
with
this
knowledge,
get
your
keywords
into
the
content
• Op4mize
each
page
for
1-‐2
keywords
or
key
phrases
• Don’t
use
the
keywords
excessively:
duplicate
and
distributed
content
will
dilute
your
rankings
• Every
page
doesn’t
need
a
target
keyword;
just
ensure
that
each
desired
keyword
does
have
a
page
25. Train
your
content
providers
and
editors!
• Since
content
ul4mately
determines
the
search
rankings
and
results,
the
people
providing
your
content
need
to
know
all
these
concepts
• Ensure
they
use
all
the
page
elements
correctly
• Ensure
they
know
the
short-‐list
of
primary
keywords
for
your
site
• Ensure
they
are
thinking
in
terms
of
keywords
each
4me
they
create
a
new
piece
of
content
• Ensure
they
add
links
to
external
sites
and
cul4vate
incoming
links
26. Last
but
not
least:
site
administra4on
• Use
robots.txt
to
direct
crawling
• Provide
a
sitemap
(expose
through
Plone
control
panel)
• Setup
301
redirects
for:
– Preferred
domain
(with
or
without
www)
– Pages
that
are
moved
or
renamed
– Don’t
use
aliases
that
allow
the
content
to
exist
in
two
places
at
once
• Monitor
your
logs
and
search
stats