UPDATE: July 8, 2011 – The slides for this SEO presentation are embedded below.

Here are the slides from the SEO presentation & workshop.

If you are a WordPress user – or even if not – you’ll learn how to set up your website to collect the essential information you need to find out whether your search engine optimization efforts are paying off.

For more information – including map and directions to TechStars – and to RSVP, visit the SEO Success with WordPress Presentation page on the Seattle WordPress Meetup site.

Here’s a summary of the presentation and workshop, which also appears on our Meetup.com website (link above). You do not need to be a Meetup.com user to attend, but do sign up if you would like to learn more about our very active and growing WordPress group for developers, designers, and users of every stripe, including great support for newbies. [...]

The presentation will be about 40 minutes with 5 minutes for questions at the end. We will also do a follow-up Q&A and SEO workshop after the break. I’ll show how to install the required search optimization plugins and tools during the workshop instead of during the main presentation.

Some background
Justin Briggs gave a great presentation on SEO at the recent WordCamp Seattle. He noted that WordPress does a good job of optimizing your posts and pages automatically. All you need to do to get these benefits is install WordPress. Combine this with the list of SEO techniques Justin offered in his talk and you are on your way towards practical SEO for WordPress.

Once you apply SEO techniques, you need to use some basic analytics and SEO tools to find out if the work you did actually paid off. My presentation will show you how to set up and use those basic tools so you can clearly see the connection between optimizing your website and getting the results you need to achieve success for your business.

Specifically, you’ll be able to use the All In One SEO Pack plugin and the information you get from Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools and the Gravity Forms SEO Add-on to follow a process of continuous optimization that will actually make you money, not just put you at the top of search rankings.

In the main SEO presentation we’ll cover the following:

1. How to choose good keywords and improve the content you already have
2. Where to put keywords (and how to come up with great ideas for new content)
3. How to check Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools and  Gravity Forms for feedback about keywords and traffic on your website
4. How to refine content on your website using keywords that produce the best results

Following the break, I will offer an informal search engine optimization workshop/SEO class to show how to install the following plugins and tools you’ll need.

1. Install All In One SEO Pack plugin
2. Install Google Analytics plugin by Yoast
3. Setup a Webmaster Tools account
4. Install Gravity Forms
5. Install SEO Add-on for Gravity Forms
6. Install Rank Checker add-on for Firefox

For more information – including map and directions to TechStars – and to RSVP, visit the SEO Success with WordPress Presentation page on the Seattle WordPress Meetup site on Meetup.com.

You can ask a question about WordPress in the comments on this page (click here), and we will answer just as soon as we can. For FREE!

Mark McLaren and McBuzz Communications have been offering Free WordPress Help and Free and Easy WordPress Tutorials for nearly four years. That’s 28 years in dog years, and 132 years in Internet years, or something like that.

Got a question about Search Engine Optimization? Check out this video tutorial on Search Engine Optimization and WordPress recorded at WordCamp Portland 2010. You can post SEO questions in the comments on that page, and we will answer for FREE! (Please note that McBuzz Communications, McBuzz.com and Mark McLaren are not affiliated with Automattic, WordPress.com or the WordPress.org website.)

You can also search for Answers to WordPress Questions that have already been answered on these help pages:
WordPress Q&A: More Answers to WordPress Questions
Questions About WordPress? Ask Them Here!
More WordPress Questions? Ask Them Here!

I have added a new search feature to the www.McBuzz.com site (at the top of the page up there on the right). Looks terrible, but it works great. If you are looking for something specific, try putting it in quotes, like “free wordpress help” or “submit xml sitemap”. You can also put only part of your search term in quotes, like theme “navigation menu”. This search feature does a much better job of searching through comments, where there are lots of questions and answers about WordPress, SEO, Online Marketing and such.

One great Search Engine Optimization resource for beginners is the Google guide. I can’t find a link in the form of a URL, but you can get it here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Search+Engine+Optimization+Starter+Guide
( The file name is search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf )

Another good Search Engine Optimization resource for beginners is from SEOmoz.
http://guides.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization

The SEOmoz Search Engine Ranking Factors survey is a very good overview of things that really matter in SEO. I also like the way they handle the degree of disagreement that exists on the topic of search optimization – even among professional SEOs.

Choosing good keywords is hard – no matter what size your business is. Sometimes it’s a challenge to get my clients to see the importance of using language in their marketing materials – including their website – that they themselves wouldn’t necessarily use to talk about their products or services.

Sometimes C-level executives don’t like using words they feel have the wrong connotation. Sometimes this boils down to the fact that they see their product or service as unique, so unique that it can’t be described in standard terms. Sometimes the Marketing Department is concerned about the brand, about setting their company apart from the competition in a good way. These things are fine. You want to show that you are different from your competitors in significant ways. But there are a couple of serious problems with insisting on being unique when it comes to choosing the language you use for marketing.

First, if you brand your product or service using language that none of your competitors uses, you stand a good chance of not being found in search results for the keywords that really matter, the keywords that will bring success. Second, you risk being so unique, so innovative, in the way you talk about what you do, that customers and potential customers won’t see you as being able to solve the problems that matter to them, the problems they know your competitors can solve – because you are not using language that they recognize and associate with the needs of their business.

Some companies understand this, and they do the right thing. Here’s a concrete example. Look at the box for Bayer Low Dose Aspirin above. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Why does this low dose aspirin have a bottle with an Easy Grip Cap? Because the product is for elderly people. If it’s for elderly people, why does it say “Baby” Aspirin on the box? This aspirin is most certainly not for babies. The fact that “Baby” is in quotes is a clue. It means that this product is identical to baby aspirin. It’s what’s called “Baby” Aspirin. It’s the same dosage. This is the aspirin we have all heard so much about in the news and in medical studies. One tablet a day prevents heart attacks. Not in babies. Babies don’t have heart attacks. Bayer wants you to know that this product is for elderly people AND it is the “Baby” Aspirin dosage, just in case there’s any doubt.

This is exactly how we need to choose keywords – the language we use in web pages and in links to our web pages. Just as people will search for “Baby” Aspirin on a grocery store shelf, people will search for and recognize keywords they associate with what they need when they use Google or any other search engine. If your web pages don’t include those keywords, you’re missing a huge opportunity and you are not going to win at SEO.

If Bayer didn’t put “Baby” Aspirin on the box, shoppers might see the easy grip cap and think that’s not what they’re looking for. All the studies and all the news reports have said “Baby” Aspirin is the form of the drug that is most effective against heart attacks. Is it aspirin for babies? No. Should Bayer call it that? Absolutely.

I’m buying. Along with work by Eric Ward it’s one of the best posts I have read on link building in some time. The article is well-documented (at least I take the author at her word) and well-written.

The author recommends a strategy of developing quality links from legitimate sites rather than a large volume of links from sites that are much less obviously related to the focus of the site you are trying to optimize.

It’s particularly interesting that Stott says “Anchor text [in inbound links] isn’t the signal it once was.” I still think we should always try for good anchor text, but the point of the article is that engineered links are more obvious today than they once were, and that probably includes anchor text in inbound links.

Today Google has much more information at its disposal when it determines what a web page is about, so it doesn’t need to rely on anchor text as much, just as directories like Yahoo! and DMOZ used to have much more significance for search engine optimization. Still, all other things being equal, better anchor text is better SEO.

Here’s Google’s Maile Ohye saying very recently that anchor text in internal links will influence sitelinks.

So clearly Google still looks at anchor text for important clues about a page’s content.

I will be speaking, as well. The topic is Search Engine Optimization and WordPress. This will not be the same SEO and WordPress presentation I gave at WordCamp Vancouver. The focus will be on keywords and the importance of links for search engine optimization.

Did I mention that WordCamp Portland also features awesome food – and BEER?! How many conferences, un- or otherwise, have you been to that have kegs of killer microbrew at the snack table? Right.

My presentation was called “Get Found Easier and Grow Your Business: 5 Tips for Better Search Engine Optimization with WordPress”. Thirty minutes is just about enough time to get through the essentials of SEO for WordPress, although I’m sure it could be a two-hour presentation without too much trouble.

Half of the time does not involve using WordPress! I do a quick overview of what a keyword is, how to pick a good keyword, how to check your initial search ranking, and, after optimizing, how to see if your optimization efforts had any effect!

Understanding keywords is absolutely critical to search optimization, but it’s not often talked about in a way that most people can get. This is going to have to change as more businesses use WordPress and other CMS solutions for websites and then decide that they need to do their own SEO.

The 5 Tips for Better SEO are spelled out in the presentation slide deck below. They are also available in PDF form here (right click and select “Save Target As…” or “Save Link As…” to download).

5 Tips for Better Search Engine Optimization with WordPress (PDF)

At the end of the slides and the PDF, there are links to SEO Plugins, Tools and Resources. If you would like the .pptx file of  the presentation – including the Notes – contact me.

Here are the 5 Tips for Better Search Engine Optimization with WordPress in case you want a quick overview:

Tip #1: Use keywords in your HTML page title

Tip #2: Write a page description that makes people want to read more (include keywords)

Tip #3: Customize permalinks

Tip #4: Use keywords in the visible page

Tip #4 continued: Make content “sticky”, useful, a resource

Tip #5: Links

I was talking with a client about Social Media Marketing and ways to host video on a WordPress site. If your WordPress website is self-hosted, you have plenty of options. I won’t even begin to go into the many video plugins for WordPress. That is a different topic. But when it comes to video hosting, there a lot of reasons to use YouTube rather than anything else. Visit the McBuzz YouTube Channel here.

Because uploading and inserting images is so easy with WordPress, you might think that video should be simple in the same way. But because you need a video player – which is complicated – and video files are typically quite large (unless they are converted to Flash and compressed), there are lots of factors that make handling video different than handling images.

[Click on the image above right for larger view. The screen shot shows Google search results for "introduction to wordpress dashboard". Google Universal Search Results feature video, images and other kinds of content along with the standard text listings for web pages. Here video thumbnails appear near the top of the results. The McBuzz Business Blogging 101 tutorial featuring the same video is at the bottom of the results page. Two listings for the price of one!
   Click on the image below right for larger view. Similar results for "wordpress static page". This time, video thumbnails are at the bottom of the page, and Business Blogging 101 is at the top.]

WordPress makes it super easy to embed a video when you use the URL from YouTube or a similar hosting service like Vimeo or VodPod. These other services are as easy to use as YouTube, but YouTube is the best easy solution for lots of other reasons. Unless, for some reason, you want complete control over your videos and you want to limit access to them or keep them out of the Google Index altogether, there are many good reasons to use YouTube or a similar service as a host for your video files. In terms of search engine visibility, these services – and especially YouTube – are far superior to hosting video on your own server.

Here are 10 reasons why YouTube is the best choice for WordPress video hosting:

1. YouTube is free.
2. YouTube works with many file formats and converts those files into several different sizes of Flash movie, including HD. If someone has HD capability on their computer or other device, they can watch in HD, otherwise they can watch at a lower resolution. Creating these options on your own would be time-consuming and require special software and skills.
3. You can add unique, keyword-rich titles and descriptions for every video you upload.
4. Your YouTube account itself is great for your personal visibility and for your business.
5. In many cases, YouTube searches exceed the number of Google searches as a source of viewer traffic for your videos. That traffic will, in turn, see your YouTube profile and you can do a lot on your profile and in the video descriptions to encourage visitors to go to your main website.
6. Google owns YouTube; they pay very close attention to content on YouTube.
7. As part of “Google Universal Search Results“, video thumbnails often appear on search results pages independent of other search results, this means you have a better chance of being found in Google results when you keep video on YouTube. It’s possible to get a standard search result listing along with a video thumbnail or image thumbnail listing, so you get multiple listings on the same search results page.
8. People will pick up and embed your videos in their own website or blog. This is great for inbound links and for increasing traffic to your site because you can include a URL in the video description as well as a URL that displays at the beginning or end of your videos. (Branding your videos is very important for this reason. Sometimes I do a good job at this, sometimes not. Here’s one example I’m happy with: Installing WordPress on BlueHost)
9. YouTube gives you fairly comprehensive stats (YouTube calls these viewer analytics “Insight”) over time regarding how many people watch your videos, how they found them (via YouTube search, a search engine, direct link, etc.), their demographics and so forth. You won’t get any of that if you host your own videos.
10. Many web hosts will charge you an additional fee for the increased bandwidth and server space demands you put on their servers when you host your own video. Whether or not they have fees, they may limit the bandwidth and space you are allowed for large files like video.

Free Social Media Marketing Tool: Press Release Grader

Unlike monitoring tools, Press Release Grader is not about gathering information and figuring out what to do with it. It’s an instructive tool that runs your press release through a checklist, giving you feedback about things like the readability level (high school, college, graduate school), overused words and words used most often.

One of my favorite features is a link checker that inspects the number and quality of links you include in the body of the release. Since many press releases will wind up on the Web, links are especially important. You need to be sure to include good links: think about the pages you are linking to and whether you have included keywords in the links.

Press Release Grader is an instructive tool in another sense: it teaches the user how to optimize content. Many of the same principles apply to all Web-based publishing. It’s also likely that this tool will improve as Hubspot gets feedback from users. There are search engine optimization tools that do the same thing, Hubspot and Optify are two notable providers.

Press releases are not dead. They are still a valuable way to get the word out and build inbound links. So, as long as you are going to use them, you should take a few minutes to check them over with a tool like Press Release Grader.

Click to enlarge

Universal Search, also called “Blended Search”, refers to the search results offered today by Google and others on their search engine results pages (SERPs) – pages like the one at right. Rather than simply listing links to web pages as they did four or five years ago, SERPs now display results for other media. These can include Image results, News results and Video results.

Optimizing for Universal Search means doing things (ethical things) to get your links to rank highly for a particular keyword.

Let Universal Search guide the way you do search engine optimization:

• In order to be competitive in Universal Search, you need to have content on multiple web sites, not just your own website, but also YouTube (and other video sites), product sites like Google Base, News sites and others.
• You need to better optimize the images on all your web properties if you want them to show up in Universal Search results.
• If you optimize well, you can get more than one result – sometimes 3 or 4 – showing up on page one of Google SERPs.

Click to enlarge

In the SERP at left, you can see mcbuzz.wordpress.com in positions 1 and 2 for a search on “upload pdf wordpress”, and you can also see an image from a McBuzz video tutorial (bottom right) on the same page. The listing in position 2 and the video image are the essentially the same content. One link is to a blog post with the video embedded in it. The other is to the video itself on YouTube. And, although the video is not at the top of the page, people are more likely to click on the graphical video image than they are on a plain text listing.

This is the beauty of Universal Search: the potential for more listings, and listings with images. Add to this the fact that your competitors are probably not optimizing very well for Universal Search – not yet, anyway – and you see why it’s important to know about it, and to turn that knowledge into action.

In the next post, I’ll talk about how to optimize for Universal Search.

Click here to learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services offered by McBuzz.