March 10, 2010 (SEO)

Interactive presentation and resource links provided by Dennis Lees.

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Presenter:  Dennis Lees, a web designer and online marketer based in southern New Hampshire.  He provides freelance web development and marketing assistance, is the co-founder of the Bandaloop Creative web-services firm, and owns "The Tech Assistant" personal-tech consultancy.  He also writes an excellent blog called "Not Entirely Necessary."

Dennis presented an overview of Search Engine Optimization - it's a game of figuring out how Google ticks!  Lots of background info to understand the importance of SEO and how to best make it work  in your Joomla site.

This was a wonderful turnout with lots of new folks!

• There are countless search engines playing catch-up with Google.  Make your site pleasing to Google and you'll rank well.
• The Google algorithm can change daily.  The art of SEO is a "cumulative best guess."
• Key word(s) within the meta-title tag
• Relevance: the key to how Google finds your site . . . key phrases (while meta-tags may not be terribly important keywords are CRUCIAL)
• Authority: how many sites point to you . . . the more fingers you have pointing to your site, the more authorityyou have
  • ie: PageRank google juice or link juice . . . one way links to your site. The highest "currency" for  SEO is a one-way link.
  • ie: the value of your site is diminished with outgoing links - Link exploitation
  • Key is to manage which of your site's links the spiderbots follow ("rel=no follow")
• Considering SEO for your site, you need to think like a visitor, how would you find your site? Ask folks to sit down and do searches relating to your site: Use 5-10 "major keyphrases" ie: Joomla, dentist, Joomla Training, etc. Various queries are developed
• Semantic indexing . . . language rules built around keywords: develop clusters for key phrases
• To develop keywords: Google adwords keywords tool, google webmaster, wordtracker
• core terms + variations = keyword cluster
• URL is the single most important item for SEO
• The benefit of a "sitemap."  Can control your site better (sitemap.xml - how to tell google which pages you want ranked and which you dont)
• Anchor tags ~ the most common anchor text is "click here" - need to change to more descriptive links
• Speed:  how quickly the page loads; Google's goal is to provide optimal user experience; 1 second load time for home page is ideal - faster page loading helps ranking.
  • Octagate Site Timer - Firebug also shows load time
• Link reputation
• Use Google Analytics (once you create account, you get a snippet to paste at the bottom of your template's HTML page, right above the closing body tag)
  • set up page goals
  • doesn't recommend google analytics extensions
  • tag links in email campaigns with monetary goals
  • Google Conversion University
• Use plurals, tenses, variations of your keywords in H1, H2, H3, strong, UL/OL, a tags
• COPY: produce original content as opposed to copying and pasting because google can detect and penalize your site.
• Description meta tag:  keep to 160 or less characters - generated in Google organic search. 
  
  • Default Joomla install uses Joomla keyword and description meta tags.  Need to edit these in Global Configuration setting to reflect your site. 
  • Google will generate a snippet, which you may not like, if you don't provide a description meta tag.
• Keyword density: Do not use your keyword too many times, otherwise google will penalize your site
  • keyword density should be between 4-8%
• Link & relationship tags
• ALT="" avoid!-  fill in ALT tags
• Who's linking to you (manage that relationship, send suggested link code)
• Competitor analysis
• Our links are our "asset inventory"
• yahoo site explorer -
• Link baiting
• Get rid of unused Joomla pages before putting site online.  Installing sample data during the Joomla install is fine when you are building a site, but make sure you've deleted them before going live or they will be indexed by Google.