SEO for Writers

IF PEOPLE CAN’T FIND IT IS DOESN'T’T MATTER

By the numbers

• 30% of traffic is delivered by Search

Engines

• 82% of that traffic is delivered by Google

• On a large school website w/ 1,000,000

visits per month that is 300,000 visitors

The Goal

How do we get there?

Keywords are crucial - do your research. Use in title and throughout the content.

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

http://www.google.com/insights/search/

Think common natural words not academic talk or

FIU lingo

Title tags and headlines are the hook

Great title = concise, newsworthy and keyword rich

8-12 words at very most, 1-2 keyword phrase –

remember, we need to to retweet

Use actual headers for subheads, not just bold

Link Keywords, not “click here” or

“download”

Link within site to related articles or other sites with relevant content

Links from outside

Hard to do but not impossible

• Guest blog for other sites

• Comment on other sites and include links

• StumbleUpon, Digg Reddit (not every post, think

pitching)

Use Keywords in image/ video filename

and alt tags

Number1

Content is KINGWrite content that people want to share and link to that contains relevant keywords throughout

500 words post, 2-4 keyword mentions, word count half that of conventional writing

When it comes down to it, SEO is really as simple as 1, 2, 3

• First, you need the right keywords, so you

understand the language your readers, customers,

or clients are using when they search for you.

• Second, you need compelling content that

people love and search engines know is relevant

to those searchers.

• Third, you need incoming links so search engines

treat your site as a trusted and relevant source.

Resources

• Keyword tools

http://go.fiu.edu/cf3

• Writing for web handout

http://go.fiu.edu/cf4

• Beginners guide to SEO

http://go.fiu.edu/cf5