SEO Presntation

Search Engine Optimization

Getting Found on the Internet Through Organic Searches of a

Trillion Other Websites

My Name is Jim Byrd. My partner and I own and operate Twin Cities

Dining Guide, an online directory of restaurants in the Twin Cities.

Here’s the ideal scenario: Someone types in a phrase looking for what you have to offer and you show up at the

top. This doesn’t happen by accident!

Research shows that 70% of people using search engines regard the organic results of the search to be much more

relevant to their inquiry than paid search items.

Not only that, research has also shown that websites found through organic search results produce 17% more

sales conversions than do paid listings.

So how DO you rise to the top of the search engine listings when your potential customer goes online to look for a product or service like yours?

This presentation is not exhaustive by any means, but it will attempt to

answer some basic questions about SEO and how to think about it.

Let’s start by looking at the HTML code that produces the page on the web.

Just right-click somewhere on the page until a dialogue box pops up with choices

If you get a dialogue box that has choices like “Save Picture As” you have right-clicked over an image. Just move your mouse and try again.

The dialogue box should include a choice that says “View Source.” Click on it.

A new window should pop up in Notepad with the actual HTML code that produces the page.

Let’s take a closer look, especially the section between <head> and </head>

It is clear that this site has not been optimized at all. How can I tell? Let’s start with the title.

Now imagine that you are a computer looking for “Fine Dining” or “Steak restaurants” in Lino Lakes, MN. Would you look at a home page called “Red Oak?” No I think you would breeze right by it!

At least this site’s home page has a title that is the partial name of the restaurant. You would be amazed how many sites have a home page

entitled “Home” or “Index”

There are other issues too besides the title. The title should be listed first, then the description, then key words, with nothing in between

them. A great deal of communication is possible with the search engines in just this little section of the HTML.

The truth is that most web designers and even web developers know little or nothing about search engine

optimization. SEO is a completely different skill set, so even the easiest SEO practices are totally omitted.

Now let’s look at the home page content. Don’t forget, search engines are trying very hard to find

websites that are relevant to people’s searches!

We’ll scroll down to look at the entire home page

Notice that there is very little text on the page. Ideally, descriptive copy should echo the meta tag description found in the source code. This tells the search engine that this site has a lot of content relevant

to the search.

Actually, there are optimal word counts and key word density percentages that vary from one arena to another. This is the advanced SEO practice that requires an expert to get good

positioning in a highly competitive field.

Now let’s look at this restaurant’s profile page on

Twin Cities Dining Guide

Here is the full Profile Page

excluding the TCDG banner and the six photos at the bottom of the

page.

Let’s look at the HTML code in the “head” section for

this page.

Notice how the HTML title, description, and

keywords are reinforced by the title and text on the page

This coordination of the HTML code and the page content is literally the tip of the iceberg in the SEO game. It is the first step in optimizing your chances

for good placement in search engine results.

Now let’s go to Google with our keyword phrase:

“Fine Dining Lino Lakes”

Notice who has Positions #1 and #2 for this keyword phrase.

The first link goes to Red Oak’s Profile Page, and the second goes to Bob McClain’s review.

Optimizing every Profile Page on our site is just one way that TCDG is able to increase

our client’s visibility on the Internet.

SEO Presntation

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