How to Make SEO an Integral Part of your

Community Strategy

Jennifer Sable Lopez Director of Community at Moz

@jennita

How many times per day do you search?

https://history.google.com/history/lookup

How many times per day do you search?

What do you search for?

What do you search for?

What’s after search?

You click the link Oh! An online community.

And then another…

Looks like I can search!

An internal search?

Looks like I can search!

This is what I want!

Just what I was hoping for

How do you find it again?

This looks similar, but not the same.

Actually… This is better!

*click*

3.5 billion + Google searches/day

46,042 searches in just one second

People search with specific intent.

Make sure your community can be easily found.

How can a Community Manager do that?

How can a Community Manager do that?

We’ll start with keywords!

Knowing the language your community uses is a win-win!

You create the right content.

You create the right content. They find it.

You create the right content. They find it. Everyone wins!

Keyword Research

@jennita #FBSprint

Check on-site searches

@jennita #FBSprint

Google Suggest

Start with a simple search

@jennita #FBSprint

Google Suggest

Capture all these suggested keywords

in a spreadsheet @jennita #FBSprint

Google Suggest

Then click on one to get more

suggestions @jennita #FBSprint

Google Suggest

Keep doing this

@jennita #FBSprint

Google Suggest

Until you’ve got…

@jennita #FBSprint

Google Suggest

50 or so keywords you can dive into

@jennita #FBSprint

Keywordtool.io

@jennita #FBSprint

Keywordtool.io

@jennita #FBSprint

Followerwonk

@jennita #FBSprint

Now, put those keywords into action!

Create a spreadsheet

@jennita #FBSprint

Test them on social first

@jennita #FBSprint

Test them on social first

@jennita #FBSprint

Focus your blog posts

@jennita #FBSprint http://moz.com/blog/7-advanced-seo-concepts

Synonyms are good

@jennita #FBSprint http://moz.com/blog/7-advanced-seo-concepts

Where matters also

@jennita #FBSprint http://moz.com/blog/7-advanced-seo-concepts

Do this in forums too

@jennita #FBSprint

Those keywords in discussions

are great

They can rank well!

@jennita #FBSprint

Yes, that is Moz ranking higher than Google. :)

Longtail keywords FTW

@jennita #FBSprint

This ranks first

Longtail keywords FTW

@jennita #FBSprint

This… does not.

Would *you* ever search for that?

I’m feeling good about keywords. What’s next?

Ahh… links.

I’m feeling good about keywords. What’s next?

Links are best when earned and not built.

Links are best when earned and not built.

So make it super dumb easy.

Make sure the content is working well on its own.

http://moz.com/blog/visual-guide-to-keyword-targeting-onpage-optimization

Let’s look at this post

@jennita

How it looks in search

Pretty photo!!@jennita #FBSprint

449 calories!!

Enticing description!

And on Facebook

@jennita #FBSprint

What about Twitter?

@jennita #FBSprint

Boom. Pinterest.

@jennita #FBSprint

Overall experience?

That content is making sharing so

easy! J

@jennita #FBSprint

How can I do that?

@jennita #FBSprint

Start with Open Graph

How Open Graph works

@jennita

On-Page Title + Title Tag!

Title When Shared on FB!

@jennita #FBSprint

Open Graph code

!<!-- Open Graph data -->!<meta property="og:title" content="Title Here" />!!<meta property="og:type" content="article" />!!<meta property="og:url" content="http://www.example.com/" />!!<meta property="og:image" content="http://example.com/image.jpg" />!!<meta property="og:description" content="Description Here" />! !

@jennita #FBSprint

http://ogp.me

Facebook Debugger

https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug!

@jennita #FBSprint

If your page isn’t showing up properly in FB!

@jennita #FBSprint

Facebook Debugger

Use the FB Debugger to re-cache!!

@jennita #FBSprint

Facebook Debugger

Next up, Twitter Cards

Regular Text Tweet

Snooze...

@jennita #FBSprint

Summary Card (default)

Community

WIN

@jennita #FBSprint

Summary Card Large Image

Community

@jennita #FBSprint

The winningest!

Twitter Card code !<!-- Twitter card data -->!<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary">!!<meta name="twitter:site" content="@twitterhandle">!!<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@AuthorTwitter”> ! !<meta name="twitter:title" content=”Title specific to Twitter – short works great!">!!<meta name="twitter:description" content=”Remember this is being shared on Twitter, make it enticing to the FB user.">!!<meta name="twitter:image" content=”image URL for the image you want to display">!!

@jennita #FBSprint

Twitter Card Validator

https://dev.twitter.com/docs/cards/validation/validator!@jennita #FBSprint

Add your site

@jennita #FBSprint

Twitter Card Analytics

@jennita #FBSprint

Wait. What does social sharing have to do with search?

The first few days are key to gaining momentum…

It usually starts with social shares.

Create a great resource

Get lots of social shares

@jennita #FBSprint

Shared with authority

@jennita #FBSprint

Of varying degrees

@jennita #FBSprint

Lots of people see it

@jennita #FBSprint

Get mentions across web

@jennita #FBSprint

Earn lots of links

@jennita #FBSprint

With varying anchor text

@jennita #FBSprint

The words used to link to

the content

From high authority sites

Page Authority

Rank #1 in Google!

@jennita #FBSprint

Got it. But what if we already have a bunch of links *and* social shares?

Got it. But what if we already have a bunch of links?

Ok. Let’s make sure they’re working!

Find & fix broken links

Psst… Picking on a fellow speaker

@jennita #FBSprint

Open Site Explorer - Top Pages

These pages return 404 page not found error.

@jennita #FBSprint

Any low-hanging fruit?

This one has 31 links from 7 different websites

@jennita #FBSprint

Ok, this one looks easy!

This page, links to http://www.fitbit.com/%E2%80%8E instead of http://www.fitbit.com/

@jennita #FBSprint

Send the author an email

Hi! Would you mind

fixing this link?

Thanks!

@jennita #FBSprint

Go back and fix the next one!

Another page with several good backlinks

@jennita #FBSprint

Then temporary redirects

These pages do a 302 (temporary) redirect. You want a 301 (permanent)

redirect instead.

@jennita #FBSprint

Then temporary redirects

Holy shmoly! This page has 424 links from 134

different sites.

@jennita #FBSprint

Then temporary redirects

Simply changing this 302 to a 301 will help

increase your authority.

@jennita #FBSprint

Email your dev right away Hi! Can you fix this

from 302s to 301? It

will help us show

up in Google better.

Cool. I’ll get that on my list to change. Will let you know

when it’s done!

@jennita #FBSprint

Let’s talk a bit about evergreen content.

Use same URL over & over

@jennita #FBSprint

We do this every two

years

@jennita #FBSprint

It continues to earn social

shares

Use same URL over & over

Keep earning links!

@jennita #FBSprint

Because we don’t change the current

URL

Keep earning links!

@jennita #FBSprint

And we keep earning links each year it

gets updated

Keep earning links!

@jennita #FBSprint

355 links in the past 60

days… and it’s 3 years old!

Keep earning links!

@jennita #FBSprint

All of which helps give this page

super high page authority

Which helps you rank better

@jennita #FBSprint

Oh, hai! That’s Moz.

Whew. What’s next?

Whew. What’s next?

Can Google crawl my site?

Screaming Frog

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

Moz Analytics

@jennita #FBSprint

q  Integrate keyword research & optimization

q  Longtail FTW q  Set up Open Graph + Twitter cards for

easy sharing q  Social assists Search q  Fix links to increase authority q  Remember evergreen content q  Run checks for crawlability q  Make friends with your SEO & dev!

Checklist

Integrate SEO into your Community Strategy.

Because your community is searching for you.

SEO + Community =

Jennifer Sable Lopez Director of Community at Moz

@jennita !!

Thank You

Ø  Google History Lookup Ø  Google Suggest Ø  Keywordtool.io Ø  Followerwonk Ø  Open Site Explorer Ø  Open Graph Ø  Facebook Debugger Ø  Twitter Cards Ø  Screaming Frog Spider Ø  Moz Analytics

Tools Mentioned

Ø  Beginner’s Guide to SEO http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

Ø  7 Advanced SEO Concepts http://moz.com/blog/7-advanced-SEO-concepts

Ø  Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting http://moz.com/blog/visual-guide-to-keyword-targeting-onpage-optimization

Resources