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Slide 1: Blog & Feed Search SEO © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 2: Optimizing for Blog & Feed Engines  Yahoo News & Blog Search – Sorted by relevance. Only top 4 get onto News SERPs  Google Blog Search – Sorted by relevance. No way to submit. Only a matter of time before it ends up in the “One Box”  Technorati – Sorted by date. Tagged posts featured in sidebar.  Feedster – Sorted by date.  PubSub – No immediate SERPs. Delivered only in RSS. CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 3: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 4: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 5: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 6: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 7: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 8: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 9: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 10: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 11: Optimizing Your Feeds          Full text, not summaries 20 or MORE items (not just 10) Multiple feeds (by category, latest comments, comments by post) Keyword-rich item <title> Your brand name in the item <title> Your most important keyword in the site <title> container Compelling site <description> Don’t put tracking codes into the URLs (e.g. &source=rss) An RSS feed that contains enclosures (i.e. podcasts) can get into additional RSS directories & engines CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 12: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 13: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 14: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com Slashdot headlines syndicated on Nanodot.org sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 15: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 16: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 17: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 18: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 19: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 20: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 21: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 22: Optimizing Your Blog  Rejig your internal hierarchical linking structure – – – – Tag clouds & tag pages (e.g. UltimateTagWarrior plugin) Related Posts (e.g. Contextual Related Posts plugin) Top 10 posts Next & Previous posts  Build inbound links – Add Technorati tags to your posts (must claim your blog first) – Get onto bloggers’ blogrolls – Trackbacks & comments won’t help with link gain CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 23: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 24: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 25: Tags point to Technorati tag pages Tags point to internal tag sspencer@netconcepts.com pages CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Slide 26: This tag page contains post content CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 27: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 28: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 29: This tag page contains no post content No tag cloud on sub pages CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 30: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 31: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 32: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 33: Optimizing Your Blog  Title tags – Blog name at the end of the title, not at the beginning – Tag name should go in title on a tag page – Customize with additional keywords for display only on your home page – Override title tags w/ custom one (“SEO Title Tag” plugin)  URLs – Rewrite to contain keywords, hyphens not underscores – 301 redirect from yourblog.com to www.yourblog.com – Maintain legacy URLs even after switching blog platforms CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 34: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 35: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com #8 for “web marketing blog” after creating a custom title for the home page sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 36: Great name for the blog! CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 37: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 38: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 39: “SEO Title Tag” plugin for WordPress  Free & open source  Allows you to override the title tag with a custom one (defined through a custom field in a post or a page)  Allows you to define a custom home page title  Reverses the order of the blog name and the title, or drop the blog name altogether, or replace it with a shorter nickname  Puts the tag in the title of (UltimateTagWarrior) tag pages  Uses category’s description as the title on category pages  Has an Options page in the admin to change settings  Download at www.netconcepts.com/seo-title-tag-plugin.htm CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 40: Optimizing Your Blog  Anchor text – Make the post’s title a link to the permalink page – Use Neat-o tool (webuildpages.com/neat-o) to look for opportunities to request revisions to anchor text on inbound links – Internally link back to old, relevant posts within the body of a blog post. Don’t use “here” or “previously” etc. as the anchor text!  Heading tags – category name on category page – Yes for post titles, no for dates! CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 41: Neat-o tool CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 42: Post title is anchor text CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 43: Optimizing Your Blog  “Sticky” posts – Always appear at the top of the page – A way to add keyword-rich intro copy to a category page or tag page – e.g. Adhesive plugin  Author profile pages & author links (for group blogs) CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 44: Sticky post CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 45: Author profile CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 46: Optimizing Your Blog  Emphasis tags within posts (bold, strong, etc.)  Rel=Nofollow – All links in trackbacks, comments, and in posts where you don’t vouch for the site – Where the link would be reciprocal  Pings – Lets the feed search engines know you’ve u pdated – pingomatic.com, pingoat.com, pings.ws, feedshot.com CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 47: Blog SEO  It’s child’s play! My daughter, SEO-in-training CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 48: CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 49: #10 for “neopet cheats” within 2 weeks, and with only 1 link! CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 50: More Gritty Details about RSS      1-click subscribe buttons “Add to My Yahoo” link in SERPs Tracking Customization Link gain CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 51: Make It Easy to Subscribe  1-click add to your favorite aggregator – “Add to ____” buttons – Link tags for autodiscovery • e.g. <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 0.3" href="http://feeds.stephanspencer.com/scatterings" /> – Make your listings in the Yahoo! SERPs display the “Add to My Yahoo!” link CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 52: “Add to My Yahoo!” link in SERPs  Add your feed to your My Yahoo! Page  Ping Yahoo! with your updates – e.g. http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping? u=http://www.whatever.com/rss) – Or just use Pingomatic  More info at – http://my.yahoo.com/s/publishers .html CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 53: Track Subscriber Behavior  Subscribers from User-Agent field in log files – e.g. User-Agent: Bloglines 2.0 (182 Subscribers)  Reads through “web bugs” – e.g. <img src="http:www.company.com/cp/.5424Cafaa903cf09ecafb2316 62ca053c4c56” border=0 size=1 width=1>  Clickthroughs through clicktracked URLs – e.g. http://www.company.com/rss.php? 88288Cafaa903cf09ecafb231662ca053c4c56 CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 54: Personalized/Customized Feeds  Best practice for users – Subscription form with interests tickboxes – Allow the user to stay anonymous if they so choose – Give them the option of subscribing via RSS, or email, or both  Personalized feeds not ideal from an SEO standpoint – Because you’re not reinforcing the same items across multiple sites. – Offer standardized feeds for your affiliates, other webmasters. Make keyword-rich as a value-add. CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 55: Subscribe to a feed personalized to you CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 56: Capture the Link Gain  Encourage links through RSS directories/engines submission (www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/), trackbacks, pings (Technorati, Pingomatic,…),  Clicktrack your links and pass the link gain – 301 (“permanent”) redirect, not 302, or link gain may not flow – Most ads and affiliate links sufferthis fate – Warning: Feedburner use 302, not 301  Pay attention to each item title; it’ll become link text  Keep your RSS feed URL at your own domain CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Slide 57: Taking It Further  Great ebook: Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS (Marketingstudies.net)  MarketingProfs.com’ Thought Leaders Summit on blogs for marketing – email me for a free copy of the executive summary, podcast, and transcript: sspencer@netconcepts.com  Download the Powerpoint from – http://www.netconcepts.com/learn/blog-feed-search-seo.ppt CONFIDENTIAL © 2006 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com