Search engine optimization Organic search authoring basics July

Interactive table of contents How to use this course § Search COE mission and goals § Course purpose and scope § This course is best used in slideshow mode. § Throughout the course, there are link icons at the bottom of slides that enable you to move around the course. § Why take this course? § § What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? § How users view search engine results pages § § What is your missed opportunity? The table of contents at right is interactive. Click the links to jump to the sections you want to learn about. § How search engines work § How to improve rankings: Keyword usage § Improve search results: Writing techniques The keyword usage and writing techniques sections are also interactive. Click the guidance statements to access more information. Click the link back icons to go back to the guidance list. § Writing techniques for title tags § Optimizing abstracts and short descriptions § Examples At the end of the course, you can take a pop quiz to see how well you have done. § Tools for researching optimal keywords In the pop quiz, wait for the questions and use the down arrow to display the answers. § Search resources and checklists § Pop quiz on SEO SEM COE 2 Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

The Search COE consists of four pillars Audience Programs Measurement Standards & Infrastructure program support WW Community SEM Methodology infrastructure SEM COE 3 Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

This course is part of the SEM Methodology pillar Audience Programs Measurement Standards & Infrastructure program support WW Community SEM Methodology infrastructure SEM COE 4 Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

SEM Methodology activities § Defined SEM process § Defined and delivered the SEM Roadmap for IBM § Scoped and created leading-edge workshops and best practices § § § “Resolving keyword conflicts” (July 15, 2007) “Understanding paid search ad copy” (May 23, 2007) “Beating click fraud” (June 6, 2007) “Organic search authoring basics” (July 18, 2007) Six more workshops by the end of 2007, including: § PR & Search § MM & Search (product/solution naming etc. ) § “Advanced organic search authoring” § Others § Evaluate and scope supporting tools SEM COE 5 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Course purpose and scope §This course helps authors, editors, terminologists, and folks who are not writers by trade improve the visibility of their content for search engines. §This course focuses on organic search—how external search engines find content on ibm. com pages. It does not address paid search —how ibm. com pays for position on external search engines. Organic search results Paid search results SEM COE 6 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Why take this course? § 84% of technology buyers begin looking for information on products and services through search engines. § 70% of buyers click organic results before they click paid results. § IBM pays by the click for paid search placement. Organic search results cost nothing but author awareness and education. Source: Knowledge. Storm survey, May 2007 SEM COE 7 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

What is your missed opportunity? § Software Group (SWG) search data shows that organic search effectiveness is a key traffic driver to its brand sites. § There is a strong correlation between search ranking and traffic to SWG Web pages. § When the visits, share of clicks, and the ranking are low, it means the content is not well optimized for organic search. Source: Lee Moore, Search and syndication program manager, ibm. com SEM COE 8 § There are 5. 33 million missed opportunities in this month alone. TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

What is search engine optimization? § Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of guiding the development or redevelopment of Web content so that it naturally attracts visitors by winning top ranking on the major search engines. § SEO increases traffic to content containing selected search terms and phrases. It includes the following practices: § Ensuring that your site enables spiders to visit and index the content on your site § Ensuring that the pages on your site are as compliant as possible with the search engine scoring algorithms § Ensuring that your pages do not resort to keyword or metadata spamming or other tricks to entice spiders to come to your site § Ensuring that your pages include the keyword phrases actually used by searchers § Ensuring that your site’s pages are shown in the top three in organic search results § Ensuring compelling and action-oriented abstracts or descriptions that encourage visits SEM COE 9 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

How users view search engine results pages (SERP) SEM COE 10 TO TOC Previous

Searchers mainly focus on the title or snippet § Note: Search Engines highlight the keyword phrase used by the searcher when found in the title and snippet (also known as the abstract or short description). This draws the attention of the searcher to those places. SEM COE 11 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Users scan search engine results in this pattern Aggregate heat map: All consumer-search activity Red is most-viewed; black is not viewed. X indicates user clicks Source: Enquiro SEM COE 12 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Get in the top three if you want users to click through § Visitors view their results for an average of 6. 3 seconds before clicking on a link. § 6. 3 seconds is just enough time to scan the first three results and the top two ads. SEM COE 13 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Technology buyers are particular in how they search § Technology buyers conduct sophisticated, patient searches. § 56% of technology buyers using a major search engine typically use complex phrases of three or more words when they look for technology information. § More than 53% will scan three to five pages (30 -50 results) before finding a result that interests them, redefining, or abandoning their search. § Marketers can reflect the more complex search terms used by technology buyers when they optimize their pages for search. § 47% of technology buyers click on one of the top five organic results. Source: Knowledge. Storm survey, May 2007 SEM COE 14 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

How search engines work SEM COE 15 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide ©

How does a typical search algorithm work? § Spam and inflation detection § Verifying that no unethical tricks are being used § Verifying that the page honestly reflects its content and its relationship to other pages on the site § Keyword phrase inclusion or content relevancy § How are the keywords located on the page and relative to each other? § What is the relationship of the keyword to the content? § Internet relevancy § How many other sites and pages are linked to this site and page? § How “relevant” are the pages and sites linking to the page? § How are the other links referenced that point to the page? SEM COE 16 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Leverage keyword placement to increase relevance 1 2 3 SEM COE 17 TO TOC

Before optimization, this page ranked #175 on Google SEM COE 18 § Only the acronym is used. The full term product lifecycle management searched 100 times more frequently. § The keyword phrase is in a graphic that is invisible to search engines. § Content is not very compelling to a searcher nor does it help relevance. And there isn’t enough content on the page. § There are no contextual cues for these links. Source: Bill Hunt TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

After optimization, the page ranked #1 or #2 on Google and Yahoo in all countries § Used the full search term § Converted image to text so search engine can read and score with prominence § Linked to SWG PLM page, which helped push it to #2 § Content is more relevant and compelling § Site updated to 2006 ibm. com design template § 74% of all traffic to page is from search engines SEM COE 19 Source: Bill Hunt TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Improve search rankings: Keyword usage § Use your keyword frequently and spread it throughout the page. § Structure your content to include your keyword. § Bolded text increases click-through rates. § If your keyword is more than one word, keep the words adjacent. § Use terms related to your keyword. § Stem your keyword and use its plural when possible. § Use synonyms and the complete forms of acronyms with any acronym based keywords. § Marketing writers: Check with your business unit search leader to ensure that you are using the right words. SEM COE 20 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Improve search results: Writing techniques § For content heavy pages, use inline links and anchors to different parts of the page and include the keyword. § Use descriptive link text rather than generic text. § Use direct and simple language to complement the searcher’s mindset to get information quickly. § Include problem statements, not just solution names. § Include at least 300 words per page. SEM COE 21 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Writing techniques for title tags SEM COE 22 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide

Where is the title tag? The title tag displays in this field The page

Generic writing techniques for title tags § § The copy you use in the title tag is one of the most important factors in how search engines rank your site. § It’s very important to get the balance right in optimizing the title tag with keywords relevant to the Web page. § Also, make it stand out in a way that people are more likely to click your listing instead of your competitor’s. § Think of the title tag as the title of a movie, book, or magazine; it is the first experience most users and customers have with your Web site. It helps them find the content in your site that responds to their need. § Follow the tips below to optimize the title tag: The title tag is also what appears in the search engine result pages as the clickable heading describing what your site is all about. § Use primary, unique keywords in the <title tag>. Title tag could be up to 65 characters that count. Place the primary keyword towards the beginning of the title. § There should only be one title tag per page which should include the "Primary Keyword" identified for the page. Each title tag should be unique and relevant to the content of the page. Avoid repeating keywords within a title tag. Remove stop words (for example a or the) from title tags where possible. § IBM should be the first word but the keyword should be second if possible. Title tags must be compliant with 3. 3. 0 standards. If you use acronyms in Title tags, they should be spelled out as well. http: //w 3 -03. ibm. com/transform/sas/as-web. nsf/Content. Docs. By. Title/HTML+Authoring § Format: <IBM – Primary Keyword – Additional Keywords – Country> For example, “IBM Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Solutions for Small and Medium Business – Canada” § Include call to action words in title tag such as benefits right within the title tag. SEM COE 24 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Writing title tags that humans can scan § Titles should be easy to scan for the human user and the search engine. The title should make sense to the user who will see the title in the search results; it should also contain keywords that will make the page rank well. • For example this title… <title>IBM Web. Sphere - e-business on demand, middleware, application server, portal, business integration, infrastructure software</title> might rank well in a search engine for a search on those terms, but it does not tell the human reader what the page is about and would not encourage the user to click on the link and the page. Instead, a title such as this… <title>IBM Websphere Application Server Software</title> This is more user-friendly and has the specific keyword most relevant to the page. SEM COE 25 Source: Jennette Banks: developer. Works External search and community lead TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Writing ever more detailed title tags in a hierarchy § The more detailed the page, the more focused the title tag keywords should be. For example, rather than giving the title Web. Sphere Portal Server for a page focused on software, use a title such as Web. Sphere Portal Server Software. Also, top level overview pages (those closer to the top of the directory) need to be labeled with just a short keyword description of the individual content. As you drill -down deeper into the directory, you can elaborate further within the title tags and add more keywords. Example of hierarchy: Top page: IBM Software Landing page : IBM Rational Software Leaf page (Article): IBM Rational Application developer SEM COE 26 Source: Jennette Banks: developer. Works External search and community lead TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Title tag optimization matrix SEM COE 27 Source: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s

Optimizing abstracts and short descriptions SEM COE 28 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide

Techniques to help ensure clear and concise abstracts in search results § Structure the first three sentences as follows: § In addition to the keyword phrase, clearly explain the problem and how IBM solves the problem. § Eliminate any unnecessary words. § Keep your information at the highest level. You can always fill in the details lower on the page. § Avoid jargon, brand names or technical terms. § This abstract is often pulled into search results as the description for the page. Ensure that it gives enough relevant information to encourage the user to click the link. SEM COE 29 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Techniques to improve abstracts for PDFs § § Before you save your PDF, set the document properties by clicking File > Document Properties Google scans the Title field first before reviewing the content within the PDF. If you don’t fill it in, some authoring tools will fill it with gibberish, and Google will display that gibberish in its abstracts. It helps to have the same subject in the document properties file as the metadata you tag the content with. Don’t spam the keyword field, but a few keywords can help. Partner. World improved search placement on selected PDFs on average from 20 th to 1 st using this method alone. SEM COE 30 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Examples SEM COE 31 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

§ Avoid keywords based on internal product names (IBM speak) or add the generic term as description. § § § Where are the keywords? § § Is this relevant? § § SEM COE 32 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide Have some links above the fold– search engines assume information above the fold is most relevant Include keywords within links: Replace all “Learn More Next Steps” links with “Learn more about drug development”. Have some context to the links on the page: Ask are they linked to relevant content? Have links to related content and other Life Science solutions, it’s effective marketing and increases the number of relevant links on the page. Organize content using headings, bold and ordered lists, on page anchor links. Use terms related to your keyword. Stem keywords and use their plural forms when possible. Use your keyword in the opening sentence of the page. Include at least 300 words per page. Have the keyword occur at least 210% of the total word count (e. g. for 300 words, primary keyword needs to show up 2 -3 times at least!). © 2007 IBM Corporation

§ § § § Use terms based on keyword demand what users actually search for – for example. “Drug Development” instead of “Drug discovery”. Make use of breadcrumbs navigation trail to increase links with relevant keywords. Replace graphic page titles with text. Add secondary keywords in bold. Write compelling content; include the primary keyword, ensure that it is easy to read, concise and free of IBM-speak. Use keywords within page headings. Include featured products, related services, spotlight, and special offer modules. (You increase crossselling and search at the same time. ) SEM COE 33 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

§ Browser title: IBM – Drug Development & Life Science Solutions – United States § Breadcrumbs: Express Advantage for medium business > Industries > Life Science Solutions > Drug Development § Page title: <H 1>Life sciences: Drug Development</H 1> § Subtitle: Drug discovery solutions for midsize Life Science Businesses § Keywords within page headings: Benefits of IBM Drug Development Solutions § Include featured products, related services, spotlight, special offer modules SEM COE 34 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Create content that search engines will find and place in the top three results Keyword phrase: § Create, manage, and distribute digital media Google scans the first 100 words of Web pages to help determine content relevance. SEM COE 35 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Example: Title tag with keyword SEM COE 36 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide

Tools for researching optimal keywords SEM COE 37 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide

What are keywords? § Keywords are content elements that you want search engines to find relevant, and to highly rank your content on search engine results pages. Depending on your audience, your keywords can be one word, a combination of words, or an entire phrase. § Keywords are the emphasized words in the visible text of search results pages. § Optimizing your content for keywords means using keywords in ways that match user queries when they enter terms and phrases into search fields, and maximizing your rankings on the pages that result from user search queries. SEM COE 38 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Tools in selecting keyword phrases that work § Google Ad. Words: https: //adwords. google. com/select/Keyword. Too l. External § The site does help you choose keywords, but it doesn’t give you numbers. SEM COE 39 Source: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site, Mike Moran and Bill Hunt TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Tools in selecting keyword phrases that work § Free Web sites tell you what people are searching on: Use the Digital Point Solutions “Keyword Suggestion Tool” (create an account first): http: //www. digitalpoint. com/tools/keywords/? action=create&lang=english These tools give you numbers. But the results are based on information from Webcrawler, Dogpile, and Yahoo, so the numbers are not completely definitive. SEM COE 40 Source: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site, Mike Moran and Bill Hunt TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Keyword selector tool § Try the Overture Keyword Selector Tool: http: //inventory. overture. com/d/ searchinventory/suggestion/ at no cost from Yahoo. § Yahoo uses the Google engine, so results reflect how the keywords would work on Google. SEM COE 41 Source: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site, Mike Moran and Bill Hunt TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Free tools for the Web copywriter § To check a Web page for keyword prominence and density use Ranks NL located at http: //www. ranks. nl/tools/spider. html. § To check for synonyms you can use the Synonym Directory located at http: //vancouver-webpages. com/synonyms. html § For related words and synonyms you can also use the Lexical Freenet located at http: //www. lexfn. com/ § The Acronym, Abbreviation, and Initialism Dictionary can be found at http: //www. acronymfinder. com/ § IBM Mulilingual Terminology located at http: //w 3117. ibm. com/standards/terminology/cgibin/lookup. pl? user_group=corporate SEM COE 42 Source: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site, Mike Moran and Bill Hunt TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Keyword usage in the body SEM COE 43 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide

Keywords in the first sentence § Place keywords in the first 25 words in the visible text of the page to increase keyword prominence. The first sentence of the page should be a brief statement of a specific call to action or purpose of the page. § Engines such as Google create the description for the results page by displaying the first sentence on the page that encapsulates the keyword that was entered by the user in the search field. § If possible the keyword should be the first word of the string. § Your page will also be more relevant if your keyword appears at the end of the visible text. To do this, put your keyword in the last paragraph of your copy. SEM COE 44 TO 20 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Keyword density § Your keyword should constitute between 2% and 10% of the total number of words on the page. This is referred to as keyword density. § Break the page into subgroups and use the keywords in headings, subheadings, bold statements, bulleted lists, and anywhere it captures a person's attention and tells them they are in the right place. § Use the keyword phrase often and do not switch exclusively to an acronym replacement. SEM COE 45 TO 20 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Keyword ordering § How you order your keywords on a page helps search engines determine how important that keyword is for search. If it is in the first sentence of every section or subsection within a page, the search engine will flag it as a primary keyword on that page. § If you build a logically structured page, with a hierarchy of terms and concepts, the spider will more easily rank the relative importance of keywords within the hierarchy. § HTML formatting, such as headings, bolded text, ordered lists, on-page anchor links, and organization, is critical to determining the page structure. SEM COE 46 TO 20 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Keyword formatting § Keywords appearing as emphasized or bolded text stand out to search engine spiders by increasing the keyword prominence factor. § For example, spiders allocate more value to words found in the <h 1> HTML tag, which creates the content page title or headline. § Include keywords in and around hyperlinks. Like emphasized text, if your keyword phrase appears in or near a hyperlink, search engines will determine that it is more relevant. SEM COE 47 TO 20 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Keyword proximity Keep keyword phrases together. When search engines cannot find an exact match they will look for the individual keywords that are close to each other. This is called keyword proximity. This is an excellent way to integrate keyword variations on the page. SEM COE 48 TO 20 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Keywords in context § Search engines examine all of the text in a document on a page to determine to what extent the words are relevant to each other, or to commonly used terminology. § For example, if your keyword phrase is PC hardware, and other terms such as RAM, CPU, and hard drive also appear on the page, the search engine will determine that the page has a higher relevance than a page that did not have as many related terms on it. SEM COE 49 TO 20 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Keyword stemming § Include other grammatical variations of your keyword on the same page—called stemming. Users might enter your keyword in many different parts of speech. For this reason, search engines give pages with multiple variations of the same keyword a higher degree of relevance than pages with uniform keyword usage. § An example of stemming is diet, dietician and dietary. If a keyword is stemmed to its root form (for example financing and financial to finance) search engines will view anchor text, search queries, and the like containing that term as equivalent and interchangeable. SEM COE 50 TO 20 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Keywords & acronyms § Include the spelled out form of your acronym in close proximity to the use of the acronym. IBM style dictates that you spell out your term on first reference and include the acronym in parentheses right after the term’s first use. This also helps search engine ranking. § Do not rely solely on the acronym after first reference. Use the spelled out version frequently, especially at the start of a major subsection and in link text. § For example, include Customer relationship management (CRM), CRM solution, and CRM solutions in the same page. Use keyword research to determine which is more popular – the phrase or acronym. SEM COE 51 TO 20 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Effective 7/16/07 A IBM Audience P O IBM Media Paid Organic Ogilvy Acct Sher Taton X X Dave Manzo John Anagnost Search Team – Contact Leader List Global James Mathewson Cynthia Fishel Damian Haase LOB Terri Michigan IT X X Ogilvy Media Jason Clement Addam Berger Bill Hunt Claudio Zibenberg Jen Rosen Jennifer Regan Jason Clement David Rittenhouse John Fredette Julie Cohen David Bruce Judi Tennenbaum Molly Wagman Jason Clement Addam Berger MM Debbie Wildgoose Donna Branca Joanne Jackson Michael Maloney Jason Clement Addam Berger CIO Dave Bayuk X X Dave Manzo Becca Valle Jason Clement David Rittenhouse ITM Marco Pereira X X Dave Manzo Nedim Aruz Jason Clement David Rittenhouse AG Maria Hensel Europe Sophie Davidson X X AP Rowan Watts X X X Jason Clement Addam Berger Michael Harp Mikhail Basman Vicky Argyrakis SEM COE 52 TO 20 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Additional writing techniques SEM COE 53 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007

Write descriptive anchor text § Search engines use named anchor data, particularly in longer documents or those carrying a consistent structure (as with many Wikipedia entries) to help with classification and ranking. SEM COE 54 TO 21 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Write descriptive link text § Link text is one of the essential areas engines scan to determine keyword rankings. Where practical, incorporate the keyword phrase, product name, or product category related to the content of the page to which you are linking. § Creates a contextual bond to the page that is it linking to making it more relevant. SEM COE 55 TO 21 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Write with industry-standard terms § Describe your topic with a primary keyword phrase this is understood by clients and the industry. Don’t use IBM jargon. § For example, IBM uses the term Information Management to describe what the industry typically calls database software. Though you’re required to use the term Information Management somewhere on the page describing DB 2 or Informix offerings, the keyword phrase you place near the top should be database software. Source: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site, Mike Moran and Bill Hunt SEM COE 56 TO 21 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Write solutions to problems § Searchers don’t necessarily use formal solution names, rather they use language to help them solve problems. § Action words such as improve, enhance, and reduce work just as well as improve productivity or consolidate resources. § Common industry problems include lowering total cost of ownership, increasing revenue, and increasing customer satisfaction. § Solutions that include an expected return on investment will rank higher than those that do not. SEM COE 57 TO 21 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Write a minimum of 300 words per page § Studies show that a 300 -word count for each optimized page exactly balances reader needs and search engine requirements. § Search engines prefer pages with an overall word count of between 300 and 500 words. § Using more words does not dilute relevance as long as there is an adequate representation of the primary keyword phrase. § Pages should include the relevant information, especially the primary keyword phrase above the fold—that is on the first screen of the page. With strong design elements, 300 to 500 words will just fit above the fold. § Detailed feature and benefit statements are the golden nuggets that tempt prospects and create conversions. SEM COE 58 TO 21 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Pop quiz on SEO SEM COE 59 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide ©

Describe your topic with a primary keyword phrase § Most clients will already have a sense of what these business tools are and whether they might help: – Customer relationship management – Enterprise resource management – Product lifecycle management – Service oriented architecture – Supply chain management Instant quiz: Is “grow my profits” a good primary keyword phrase? (Decide on your answer — you’re on the honor system, now — and then press . ) X No. A real need and widely desired, but 100% generic — and in no way specific to any single IBM offering. SEM COE 60 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Pop quiz: Use the primary keyword phrase near the top Pop quiz: Does this copy show good placement of the primary keyword phrase? X No. The primary keyword phrase should be “service oriented architecture, ” but it’s not in the headline or in the first few lines lof the body copy: zero for two. SEM COE 61 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Pop quiz: Using acronyms as keyword replacements Pop quiz: Once you’ve spelled out supply chain management (SCM) the first time, how about just using SCM from there on? That would save a lot of space. X No. 1) Spelling out the primary keyword phrase several times will improve search engine rankings. 2) Readers skim to the section that seems most relevant to them. It’s important to spell out the keyword phrase near the top of each major section. SEM COE 62 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Pop quiz: provide a clear and concise content statement near the top Pop quiz: Will these statements enable search engines to rank them highly? Yes. All of these ranked #1 or #2 on searches within the ibm. com domain. SEM COE 63 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Pop quiz: provide a clear and concise statement of content near the top Pop quiz: Are these descriptions/title sufficient to rank highly in a Web search? üYes. This ranked #1 on searches for the bolded keyword phrases. X No. The keyword phrase of “service oriented architecture” is correct and in the top 10 results, but it is too broad and there is too much competition for this term. To rank higher, this term should be modified with keywords a searcher would use to refine the query. SEM COE 64 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Include problem statements, not just solution names § How many people will search for these exact phrases? – Financial and accounting solution for media and entertainment from IBM – Private e-marketplace solutions for automotive from IBM – Multichannel solution from IBM and Chordiant – Rational or Tivoli or any product name without a description of the functionality of the product ( Hint: Not many. ) Instant quiz: Is “improve productivity” a good problem statement? Yes. Searchers will most likely use Boolean logic by adding terms such as: “+automotive, ” “+banking, ” “+consumer products, ” So optimize for those terms as well. SEM COE 65 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Thank you! Great job! SEM COE 66 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide ©

Search resources and checklists SEM COE 67 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide ©

Quick reference for using keywords § Title tag: up to 65 characters; put the primary keyword towards the beginning of the title; put the Title tag as the first tag after the <head> tag generally helps improve the page ranking. § Descriptionabstract Tag: up to 150 characters; the primary keyword should be in the description. Keep it short, concise, and to-the-point, and create a unique description for each page. Use keyword near beginning of text, show benefit and call to action. § Keywords: Ideally 20 to 25 keywords; do not repeat the same keyword more than two to three times and only include keywords that reflect the content of the page. The keyword list should be unique to each page. Put the primary keyword and the most relevant terms at the start of the list; use both single words, phrases, acronyms or misspellings § Keyword density: Your keyword should constitute at least 2%, while with your page it is only 1. 7%. Increase the keyword weight so its value ranges within the boundaries of 2 -10 percent. Keep in mind the possibility of using different forms of keywords. While ranking, search engines consider not only direct matches of keywords, but also their various alterations. § Keyword prominence: Ensure that the page title is within the <H 1> tag with keyword in it; keyword should also be high up in the body, so first paragraph of text on the page should have the primary keyword towards the beginning of the text, since SE will often use this snippet within the search results; Using the <H 1> tag or using the bold face for the keyword increases its prominence. SEM COE 68 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

SEO 101 - important terms Body copy The first sentence of the page should be a brief statement of a specific call to action or purpose of the page. This sentence is like the opening sentence of an article and sets theme for the page. Also, engines like Google create the description for the results page by displaying the first sentence on the page that encapsulates the keyword that was searched. Search engines generally focus on the first 300 words of a given page, so these words should contain our targeted keywords in order to build a solid keyword density. Search engines prefer pages with an overall body word count of between 250 – 500 words. Having more words is not a problem as long as there is an adequate representation of the primary keyword phrase. Primary keyword A particular word or phrase that we expect searchers to frequently use as a query. Keyword frequency The number of times a keyword appears within a Web page. If your page contains 12 occurrences of a keyword, its keyword frequency is 12. Keyword prominence The placement and position of a term on a page indicates its relative value to a search engine. The most prominent keyword location is the first word of the page’s title, because the title is the best placement and the first word is the best position. We recommend placing important keywords at, or near, the start of a Web page, a sentence, or a TITLE or META tag. Keyword density The ratio of a particular search query's terms to all terms on a page. For example, if you want your 200 -word page to be found for a specific word and your page contains 12 occurrences of that word, the keyword density of your page is 6% for the given term (12/200). Link popularity Google and Yahoo use links to the page as a secondary indicator or the quality of the information on the page and also to validate the context. The goal is to get as many high-quality, contextually relevant links from pages outside of your domain as possible. There is no magic number you just need to have more quality votes than those pages currently ranking higher in the search results. Link text A word or short phrase on a Web page that provides the visual hypertext link to another page or to somewhere else on that same page. Using keywords instead of “Learn More” adds context to a link and increases its relevance to a SE. Page heading Search engines view <h 1> to <h 6> tags just like the headline of a newspaper article or a press release. Engines give the tags weight because the tags describe the content that follows. In a perfect scenario, a spider looks for a combination of title tag, <h 1> tag, and the first and last 25 words on a page to contain a common theme, including specific keywords. Preferred landing page (PLP) A preferred landing page is the optimal page that should be seen by the searcher for this specific keyword. Stop words Words that occur with a very high frequency (such as and or the) are ignored by search engines when entered by searchers. SEM COE 69 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Quick reference worksheet § Keep these things in mind when writing your page content. Making sure each is addressed will improve your page’s visibility on search engines, both inside and outside IBM. Keywords Primary Reminder What words are target audience using? Use 2 -3 words per page, esp. in page titles and title tags. Content First paragraph of text Bulleted lists Links for more info, etc. Titles Browser title Page title Notes Reminder Notes Use direct, simple, relevant language. 140 -150 characters. Develop in abstract and metatags. Use to help keep language simple. Include keyword phrase in links, don’t just say “learn more, ” use descriptive text. Reminder Use primary keyword in titles. Use <H 1> tag instead of graphic. Notes Reminder Page “indexing. ” Include primary keywords at start of list. Description/abstract meta tag Use keywords toward beginning of abstract, limit to 150 characters. Notes Metadata Keyword meta tag SEM COE 70 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Keyword planning and selection checklist Be able to answer these initial questions Don’t just focus on single words – multiple word phrases are often more effective and targeted. Consider noun + adjective. q. What do your customers need? q. What problems are they trying to solve? q. What words do they use to describe their needs and problems? q. What Content do we have on our site that would satisfy someone's search? q. What words would you search for to find that Content? q. How would you describe your product to a novice? q. What words do industry magazines and industry analysts use to describe your products? q. Is there a product Category name that they use? q. What words are your competitors targeting? q. Where in the Learn – Shop – Buy cycle do the customers fall? For example, “fast server” rather than just “server. ” Also use plurals, synonyms, and the complete forms of acronyms with any acronym based keywords. For examples, “crm solution, ” “crm solutions, ” “customer relationship management. ” SEM COE 71 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Title tag checklist q. Does the page have a title tag with the title tag’s character limit met? q. Is the title tag unique to the page? The title tag should be the first tag after the <head> tag so search engines can locate it Also known as the browser title, example: <title>IBM Tivoli Software</title> where title tag can have up to 75 characters. It should be easy to read for human eyes while having the primary keyword to help the spiders, since this is what users will see as the heading of a search result. There should only be one title tag per page which should include the primary keyword identified for the url. Each title tag should be unique and relevant to the content of the page. Avoid repeating keywords within a title tag. quickly. q. Is the primary keyword phrase used as the first word or near the beginning of the tag? q. Follow standards - Does the Primary keyword should be in the title tag. Remove stop words (for example, a or the) and hypens from title tags where possible. title tag include IBM as the first word? IBM should be the first word but the keyword should be second if possible. Title tags must be compliant with 3. 3. 0 standards. If you use acronyms in Title tags, they should be spelled out as well. Format: <IBM Primary Keyword Additional Keywords Country> For example, “IBM Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Solutions for Small & Medium Business – Canada” q. Does the title tag match the Should help to continue theme of the page/describe the content on the page. content described in the first paragraph of visible text? q. If you use acronyms in Title Example: IBM Service Oriented Architecture - SOA tags, they should be spelled out as well. SEM COE 72 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Page title checklist q. Is the page title a graphic or text? q. Is the format for the page title Important note: if the page title is an image, you lose valuable real estate for your search term. Change to Text and include the primary keyword. The h 1 title should be in text and contain the keyword. a <h 1> tag or CSS? q. Is the primary keyword phrase Page title and title tag should have similar keywords - graphic page titles do not count. used as the first word or near the beginning of the page title? q. Does the title tag match the content described in the first paragraph of visible text? Page should not lead with a set of bullets. There should be a brief value statement explaining what the user can find and do on the page. SEM COE 73 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Page content checklist q. How many occurrences of the primary keyword are in visible Your keyword should constitute at least 2% of the words on the page (2 instances of the keyword per 100 words on the page) - Aim between the 2 -10% range. text? q. What is the keyword Place keywords higher up in the page, in the first paragraph or first 100 words, are keywords used as bolded prominence? text or links. q. Are the keywords in the first Rewrite the description, make it concise and include the primary keyword within the first 20 words. 10 -20 visible words on the page? q. Is the primary keyword included within the ALT tag for images? q. Use a text version of "Why IBM“ rather than an image version for upper level page hero spots. q. Update Images containing text into plain text Use alternative text that strongly describes all of your images so that search engines and sight-impaired readers understand them. Make pages search friendly right from the start. Page titles and the first visible content is essential for engines to determine ranking and is also essential for maintaining relevant results in IBM's site search. Where possible, rather than rendering text onto images, the text should be written as html text in a table with a background image. The same look can usually be achieved but using this technique the search engines will be able to read the text. SEM COE 74 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

General search considerations q. Additional places to consider for external links: business blogs, wikis, forums q. Does your site have The number of links you have to your site is called link popularity. In general the search engines weigh external links higher than internal because it is a measure of another's evaluation of your site. Take a keyword, see who comes up in the top five and see who links to them. For example, take the keyword "Infrastructure security" and see who is in the top 5 sites. Then, check backlinks coming to them and compile a list of folks you would want to link to your site. Use "link: URL" in the search bar to find all the pages that are linking to your page. competitors? SEM COE 75 TO TOC Previous slide Next slide © 2007 IBM Corporation

Anatomy of an organic search result <title>Web. Sphere Business Integration software: model, integrate, connect, monitor and manage</title> OR <meta name="description" content="IBM Web. Sphere Business Integration (WBI) software allows companies to realize the benefits of end-to-end integration through five core capabilities: model, integrate, connect, monitor and manage, IBM Web. Sphere Business Integration allows companies to realize the benefits of end-to-end integration through five core capabilities: model, integrate, connect, monitor and manage" /> SEM COE 76 TO TOC Previous slide © 2007 IBM Corporation