Search Engine Optimization of a Forest Fragmentation Content

Search Engine Optimization of a Forest Fragmentation Content Management System: Example of the Fragfornet Website Aurélie Gandour, Amanda Regolini Cemagref Grenoble Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

Summary • Frag. For. Net: A Forest Fragmentation Network • Search Engine Optimization: Ø What Search Engine to take into account? Ø Definition of a keywords’ pool Ø How to do an In Page Optimization? • Unwinding of Frag. For. Net’s SEO • Results of Frag. For. Net’s SEO Ø Google positionning Ø Keywords used by visitors Ø Website’s traffic • Conclusion 2 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

Frag. For. Net : A Forest Fragmentation Network Researchers Information Professional Socio-economical actors Fragmentation Forest Network Decision-makers Portal + Mailing List 3 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

Frag. For. Net : A Forest Fragmentation Network http: //fragfornet. grenoble. cemagref. fr 4 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

Frag. For. Net : A Forest Fragmentation Network • Goal: touching a larger audience • What to do? Gaining a better position for selected keywords on search engines pages of results • How to do it? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 5 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

SEO: What search engine to take into account? ( http: //gs. statcounter. com/ ) 6 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

SEO: definition of a keywords’ pool • Establish a wide list of potential keywords and expressions • Analyze those keywords potential by grading them: Interest Feasibility Average number of monthly requests Mark Number of found results Mark 0 - 1 000 000 20 1 000 - 10 000 5 1 000 - 10 000 15 10 000 - 50 000 10 50 000 - 100 000 15 50 000 - 100 000 5 100 000 and above 20 100 000 and above 0 • Keep the keywords with the highest marks and build the website’s indexing strategy on this pool 7 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

SEO: In Page Optimization • Goal: optimizing pages of the site on keywords of the pool by placing them on strategical spots • Where to place keywords for a maximum impact: Ø <title> tags ü As high as possible within the HTML code ü Structure : [Content] – [Rubric] – [Site’s name] ü Containing 5 to 10 descriptive words ü The page’s title shall match the editorial title 8 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

SEO: In Page Optimization Ø Visible text ü « Content is King » ü Each page must contain at least 100 words ü Important keywords at the beginning ü Underlining keywords for more weight (in title tags <hn>, <strong> tags, or links <a>) ü A keyword density between 2 and 5% 9 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

SEO: In Page Optimization Ø URL ü Possess your own domain name ü The older, the better ü Important keywords in the URL ü No accentuated character ü Lower cases only 10 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

SEO: In Page Optimization Ø Meta tags ü Meta description tag: can be used by Google as an abstract of the page but no optimization utility ü Meta keywords tag: not taken into account anymore by search engines ü « Lang » option: useful only if metatags are filled in Ø Attributes of the IMG tag ü ALT: taken into account by Google only 11 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

Unwinding of Fragfornet’s SEO (year 2010) • January – February: preliminary study and creation of the keywords’ pool • May – June: in page optimization of the website • June: first results; intense following of the SEO’s immediate consequences • Follow up: - at the beginning of each month, data recollection and production of a short report - to maintain a good positioning, the updates of the website have increased from 1 each month to 2 or 3 each week. 12 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

Results of FFN’s SEO: Google positioning • Observation: Frag. For. Net’s position within Google’s results pages for simple searches based on the keywords’ pool • Results: Ø Fragfornet stayed invisibled for many keywords (not in the first 100 results) Ø Fragfornet’s position varies greatly under the impulse of news updates Ø It is essential to update the site very regularly to maintain its Google ranking 13 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

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Results of FFN’s SEO: Keywords used by visitors • Observation: lists of the keywords used in search engines by FFN visitors to access our website • Results: Ø Top keywords = generic words for which FFN stayed invisble on Google ( « biodiversity » , « fragmentation » , « ecology » , etc. ) Ø Those keywords are used in more complex request (like « Brazil biodiversity loss » or « koala landscape fragmentation » ) Ø The pool’s keywords use in such requests has doubled after the site’s optimization and is now stable around 6% of the keywords used to reach our website 15 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

Results of FFN’s SEO: Keywords used by visitors 16 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

Results of FFN’s SEO: Site’s traffic • Observation: Number of different visitors by month • Results: Ø The website’s traffic has always varied a lot, according to the period of the year or the events to which FFN’s members participate 17 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

Results of FFN’s SEO: Google positioning Ø Nevertheless, if we compare the traffic for a same month over the years, we observe that the optimization of the website benefited the network with an increase in its traffic 18 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

Conclusion • SEO shall be incorporated at the very beginning of website’s project planning • SEO is meant to be an uninterrupted, long-term work, lasting the whole life of the website • Optimization follow-up, what to do? Ø Continue to gather data like presented above to better evaluate and anticipate FFN’s needs in optimization Ø Update very regularly the site to maintain its attractiveness Ø Consider an optimization on « off-page » criterions (quantity and quality of the external links leading to our site) 19 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011

Thank you for your attention… 20 Euraslic 14 – Lyon, France – 05/18/2011