Architecting Your Site For Search Engine Performance: And We Ain't Talkin' Just Keywords - [119]

Editor's Notes

1. You poured the foundation but you forgot to build the house.
2. the dream house!
3. the dream house!
4. Create new content Create a new page for every goal Don’t limit yourself to Web pages - videos, pdfs, blog posts, images, twitter feeds, RSS feeds, anything!
5. What will motivate them to click on your search result vs. another?
6. Great ranking on land use publications, land policy, land policy publications, Chicago nonprofit
7. (Haiti photo gallery)
8. Critical to set up all that technical stuff, but so much of SEO depends on content. And mostly, YOU keep creating content.   we worked with a wonderful SEO expert, cheryl haas -- literally teached the grad-level courses in this at gtown!   can't afford an expert to SEO every piece, so we're learning to do it ourselves.   Share a little of EDF's experience...then conversation.   And we're just at the beginning. I'm sharing my grand plan with you, but some of it isn't working yet...   And, it'll be different for you org.
9. every time content is created or updated on the site -- it's a chance to improve SEO...or screw it up.   at EDF -- my team is always involved, even if someone else does the writing. 
10. Great opportunity for SEO   -- b/c they get posted on other sites. Links back to your own site are valuable! -- also can show up in news searches, good for time-sensitive material   At EDF, we have a media team.   Have had several trainings with them, will share next a little of what we've covered.
11. at EDF, more blog posts than press releases or web pages.    -- these can get picked up and reposted, another good opportunity for links.  -- can show up in blog searches, can be easier to get to the top distributed -- a couple dozen people blog, in all different offices. harder to get them all trained in SEO   you might have other sources of content, but these are the big categories we work with at EDF
12. Okay, you have your team. SEO is a tiny slice of their job. they can't keep track of much, even though they want to help.    series of in-depth trainings with our consultant, all sorts of background. feedback was:    "interesting, but GIVE US SIMPLE THINGS TO DO!" we picked three things...  
13. pick a small set of terms you want them to knock out of the park. At EDF, we have a site where we share training materials. posted a list of key terms there.
14. important for search engines, but important for people, too...   headlines show up on tons of other lists in addition to search engine results. improving them means improved visibility everywhere.
15. especially in things that will go out -- use links wisely to get search juice back to your site. training just on how many to include, where in the release what words. lots of q's... still working on this one. if you look through our releases, you'll see a few like this one where the media director clearly paid attention (thanks, sean!) but lots more where we need to remind and coach more. Covered your overworked, super-busy team and what to tell them.  Next, how do you know it's working??
16. obsessively checking google for your listings won't do anything but stress you out -- UNLESS your issues are timely ones and you're trying to get into google news at a few minutes' notice.   figure out a good interval for your seo goals and set up a measurement schedule that fits.  
17. gotta keep metrics simple, too, or no one will understand them.    We brainstormed a list of about 20 things, decided to focus on just a few.    first -- broad metric that can tell us at an aggregate level what direction we're moving in.  clicks from search, have to look in context.  
18. but it does matter WHICH traffic comes from search.  we're monitoring a few key terms looking for progress -- higher listings, more clicks.