Increasing your Organization’s
Internet Presence
July 17th, 2012
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Today’s Overview
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• Introductions
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• Increasing Visibility
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• Questions / Discussion
Increasing Website Visibility
• Introductions
• Attracting visitors to your site
– Search engines and directories
– Paid services
– Getting others to link to you
• Getting people involved
– Donations / Volunteering
• Analyzing and reacting to web traffic
• The Dark Side
• Time for questions
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Introductions
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Introductions - Confluence
• Mission:
– To help our nonprofit clients achieve the greatest
strategic value from their technology resources
• Founded 3/01
• ~500 clients nationwide
– Concentration on East and West Coasts
• Over 30 full time staff and consultants
• 95% of our work is for the nonprofit sector
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Introductions – Lisa Rau
• CEO and co-founder, Confluence
(www.confluencecorp.com)
• Frequent Nonprofit Technology Consultant
• Computer Scientist
– BS, MS in Computer Science from UC Berkeley
– Ph.D. from University of Exeter specializing in
Information Retrieval and Artificial Intelligence
– 20 years experience in IT / support services industry
• Stints on Board of YWCA of National Capital Area
• Peer Reviewer, for MD Nonprofits’ Standards of
Excellence Program
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Services Breakdown
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Breadth of Services
• Open source implementations
– CiviCRM, Joomla, Drupal, custom web software
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Strategic technology consulting
Website design, development support
Salesforce implementation
Interface Design
Full branding, print and graphic design
Infrastructure Support
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Setting the Stage
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Definitions / Setting the Stage
• Being visible on the Internet is important
• Search Engine Optimization
– Not Paid Placement
– Google, Images, Videos, Local…
• Anchor text, link label or link text is the visible,
clickable text in a hyperlink
• Cloaking is an attempt to boost search result
rankings by serving different content to
Googlebot than to regular users
What is SEO?
• SEO = Search Engine Optimization
• Improving visibility of your site by changing
the design, words and phrases of the site
• So search algorithms will have searchers more
likely to find you
– Not paid placement or advertising
– Not specialized search (e.g. image search, local
search, maps, etc.)
Overview - SEO
• Specific and implementable methods of
increasing the visibility of your web site
• Tailored for organizations that want to be found:
– Search engines
– At related web sites, and/or
– When individuals are looking to get involved –
through donations of time or money.
• Search engines: How they work, how to raise
visibility on major search engines
• Meta-Tags and web programming for SEO
Overview – SEO (cont’d)
• Linkages: Why links from other sites are
important, and how to find good places that
will link to your site
• Web Site Submittal Services:
• What they are, how they work, whether they are
worth the money
• Pitfalls: Things to make sure you don’t do if
you want your web site found
Your Expectations / Our Objectives
• Increase your leverage of the internet
– Attract site visitors
– Increase and ease participation
• Improve comfort level with technology
– This is not rocket science!
• Suggest resources
• Provide specific suggestions
– Things you can take back to the office and implement
immediately, at little or no cost
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HOW SEARCH ENGINES WORK
Words, words, words
• If you don’t remember anything else…
– Search engines are still primarily word based
• A statistical match between the phrases in the
input (a “search query”) and phrases on a page
– More common words/phrases get a low weight
– Precise, uncommon words/phrases get a high weight
– Extra weight given to repeated words/phrases
(except if it looks like “spam”)
– Extra weight given to titles, headers, and other
seemingly important words/phrases
Page Rank (aka “Link Popularity”)
• Page Rank is Google’s name for an algorithm that
ranks pages higher when linked to by other
“important” pages
– This concept is “recursive”
• importance of page depends on importance of back-linked
pages, which in turn depends on other backlinks
– All search engines today use something like this
– Think of page rank as being a “tie-breaker” – a
secondary factor (in general) that ranks pages that
already match the search words
– Link popularity is affected by “anchor text” – the
words “inside” the link that points to a page
Aside: “Google Bombs”
• “Google Bombs” are a conspiracy (but can be
either “left wing” or “right wing”) to
overwhelm a search engine by making link
popularity so high that a page matches a
query that it otherwise wouldn’t
– Requires many pages using the same anchor text
and pointing to a common selected page and/or
to each other
– Sometimes, but not always, dismantled by Google
The most famous “Google Bomb”
Google’s “Dismantled” Bomb
Other Search Factors
• Many other factors (hundreds!) influence
search results, and they change daily…some
examples
– Personalized search results (based on user’s
location, search history)
– Extra weighting given to timely or frequentlyupdated information
• However, this does not change the basic
emphasis (words and link popularity)
Attracting Visitors
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The Search Engine Algorithm Arms
Race
• White Hats and Black Hats
• Algorithm Arms Race
• Google Panda update
– Penalizes websites containing content duplicated
from other websites and sources
Search Engine Algorithms
• Details are highly proprietary
– Why?
• In 2010, Google made over 500 algorithm
changes - almost 1.5 per day
• Combine (review):
– Link popularity/”page rank” (primary Google
innovation)
– Computed relevance: keyword frequency, proximity
and term weighting
– Checking for gaming the system (e.g. repeated terms,
lots of extra tags)
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Search Engine Market Share - 2011
Getting “Found” - Basics
• Optimizing for Google covers the lion’s share of
potential searches
• Following Google’s own guidelines for
webmasters is a good start
(http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/ans
wer.py?hl=en&answer=35769)
• Concentrate on consistently using accurate,
distinct words and phrases (in the right places) on
your site
• Maximize linking potential
Google’s Own Tips
• Do 301 redirect (permanent) from
domain.com to www.domain.com
• Verify ownership in Google tools; set up
email forwarding for alerts from Google
• Look at keywords in tools in case of issues
• Do “fetch” as GoogleBot and submit to index
• Include Analytics
• Have design strategy – 1 page = 1 topic
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Google’s Own Tips, Continued
• Define conversion and have opportunity to do
something on every page
• Have natural keywords in your copy
• Focus on answering questions you expect people
to have
• All Pages
– Topic, Title, Meta-Description (for snippet)
– Anchor Text, and all titles / keywords lowercase with
hyphens
• Use Webmaster Tools’ Search Queries
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Getting “Found”: Words
• No single trick optimizes for all engines
• Some factors for some engines include words
that are:
– High up on the page
- In headings
– In the URL
- In the page title (very important)
– In description
- In link text (“anchor text”) for
inbound links
– In the ALT tags for graphics - In generic keywords
metatags
– Bold text
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Example: Friends of Rock Creek’s
Environment (Rock Creek Conservancy
Example: Friends of Rock Creek’s
Environment (Rock Creek Conservancy
What the Webmaster Sees
<base href="http://www.rockcreekconservancy.org/" />
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow" />
<meta name="keywords" content="FORCE, &quot;Rock Creek&quot;,
RiverSmart, Rainscapes, &quot;Rock Creek Park&quot;, kids, families, RCC,
&quot;Rock Creek Conservancy&quot;" />
<meta name="description" content="Rock Creek Conservancy works to
protect and restore Rock Creek, a natural treasure in the heart of Washington,
DC, and Montgomery County, MD." />
<meta name="generator" content="Joomla! 1.5 - Open Source Content
Management" />
<title>Rock Creek Conservancy (formerly Friends of Rock Creek's
Environment)</title>
Summary: Rock Creek
Conservancy
• Changed name to something more unique (we
can’t all do this!)
• Still succeed in getting found through old name
• Use page title, repetition for SEO
• Use “description” tag for summary info to be
displayed in search results
• “Keywords” meta-tag doesn’t matter much
• No spam, nothing here conflicts with good
design principles
Getting “Found”: Key Factors
• More weight is on the factors that would be
hard to fake
– Inbound link text (“anchor text”)
– Page title
• This shows up on the SERP -- Search Engine Results
Page
• Description
• Google pays no attention to metatags
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Getting “Found”: Maximize
Linking Potential
• All engines today use some kind of “link
popularity” like Google’s Page Rank
• Link popularity “kicks in” when other factors
are roughly equal (especially when there are
a lot of exact word matches)
• Again, link popularity is “recursive”, depends
on how many sites link to you, and how
popular those sites are
Maximizing Linking Potential
(cont’d)
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Get “important” sites to link to you
Get all your friends to link to you
Supply accurate, consistent anchor text
(Less important) submit your site to engines,
directories (e.g., Yahoo! and OpenDirectory)
• Link your own pages and choose anchor text
carefully (e.g., environmental impact, not
click here)
Link Popularity: Examples
Link Popularity: Wikipedia
• Wikipedia has the highest page rank
• Why not get a Wikipedia entry for your
organization?
• Get the Wikipedia entry to link to your site?
• As long as it follows Wikipedia’s rules, it’s fair
game
• Other “popular” sites are possibilities for this
as well
Link Popularity: Competing for Rank
Link Popularity: Competing for Rank
Who Links to You?
• Google search using the link: operator
link:www.confluencecorp.com
• Lists a selection of web pages that have links
pointing to the confluencecorp.com page
Getting sites to link to yours
• Stay away from link sites / link exchanges –
they undermine your credibility
• Look at your “competitors” and go where
they are
– Search for their domain name
– Search using quotes
• Get your name out there, use links when you
do
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Getting sites to link to yours
• Seek out places where those you want to find
you go to look
– Government resource lists
– Membership organizations
– Yellow pages, business listings
• Call / email people asking to be added to
their page
• Do this periodically
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Other Factors that Increase
Visibility
• Cross link within site (remember anchor text)
• Write content with good keywords
• Anchor text and “alt” tags for images (good practice,
anyway, for accessibility)
• Name all filenames good names
• Update content often
• Have SEO friendly URLs (with real words)
• 301 redirects
– Moved Permanently
– IIS, CF, ASP.NET, PHP, JSP, CGI Perl, htaccess
Other Factors that Increase
Visibility
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Quantity and quality of content
Technical precision of source code
Spelling
Functional v. broken hyperlinks
Volume and consistency of searches
Viewer traffic
Site Map and Image Site Map
Other Factors that Increase
Visibility
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Time within website
Page views
Revisits
Click-throughs
Uniqueness
Redundancy
Relevance
Advertising revenue yield
Freshness
Other intrinsic characteristics
How to Get “Found”: Summary
• Content: Make sure pages, titles and descriptions
contain the words you expect searchers to use
• The more unique your names, the better
• Get partners/friends, high volume sites to link to you
(don’t forget anchor text)
• Organize your site consistently, with links
• Submit your site to all automatically indexed engines
• Submit your site to all manual indices
– Open Directory
– Google Directory - http://www.google.com/addurl.html
– Yahoo
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Keywords
• Create a list of top keywords that users would
search on to find your site
• Tools can help find the right keywords
– WordTracker
– Overture’s Search Term Suggestion Tool
– Google’s AdWords
• Google Webmaster Tools
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Google Webmaster Tools
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See which parts of a site Googlebot had problems crawling
Notify of an XML Sitemap file
Analyze and generate robots.txt files
Remove URLs already crawled by Googlebot
Specify the preferred domain
Identify issues with title and description meta tags
Understand the top searches used to reach a site
Get a glimpse at how Googlebot sees pages
Remove unwanted sitelinks that Google may use in results
Receive notification of quality guideline violations and
request a site reconsideration
Webmaster tools
Sitelinks
AdWords Keyword Help
Rich Snippets
Meta Tags
• Two main types of meta tags that are indexed by
search engines:
• Description meta tag
– The more important tag
– Google and others will use this tag for descriptions
appearing with search results
• Keywords meta tag
– Not heavily weighted in any search engine
– Has basically become obsolete
– Debates on its continued use: pros and cons
• Other types of metadata exist, but most are not
recognized by search engines
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What’s Important Here?
• If you are relevant and differentiated, you will be
found. Be Relevant
– Popularity
• If people click on YOU when your link comes up after a web
search
• If lots of legitimate sites point to your site
– Differentiated
• Your domain name and organization name are totally key
• If your name consists of common words, no amount of
popularity or work will cause you to come up without
quotes
• Stick to your knitting and the rest will take care
of itself
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Mobile Sites
• Don’t be thought to cloak
– Serve the same content to Googlebot as a typical
desktop user would see
– Serve the same content to Googlebot-Mobile as
you would to browser on a mobile device
Getting People Involved
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How to get people involved
• Volunteers
– CARES
– VolunteerX.org
– Networkforgood.org
– VolunteerMatch.org
• Money
– Idealware – A Few Good On-line donation tools
• Take Action / Advocacy
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Analyzing and Reacting
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Monitoring your success
• How do you know how well you are doing at
increasing web traffic?
• Use a web traffic tracking system
– Most web hosting packages “come with” a web
statistics analysis package
– As Google Analytics is Free for Nonprofit Use, Use it
• Make changes and improvements based on
traffic, trends
– Track baseline visits
– Most frequent downloads, best pages
– Geographic / domain segregation, most common
referrers
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Monitoring your success
• Without a real internet address, most visitors
are lumped together
– Hard to tell who they are
• More sophisticated tools are required when:
– Track visits when you have a dynamic site / a
content management system
– Ensure new site is “SEO Friendly”
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Google Analytics
• Get insight into how users reach and behave on
your site
• Discover the most popular content on your site
• Measure the impact of optimizations you make
to your site
– Did changing those title and description meta tags
improve traffic from search engines?
• Google Website Optimizer
– Run experiments to find what on-page changes will
produce the best conversion rates with visitors
The Dark Side
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Website Hacking
• Maintain your site regularly
– Up to date software
– Installed patches
• Lock down your site
• Use password best practices
• Secure / protect the computers that access your
site (and your contractors!)
• Even so, it can be hard to fix
• It can take 3 weeks for Google to remove
“malicious scripting error”
What Have We Covered?
• How to get found when people are looking for
you
• Stick to your knitting – good web sites, good
communications get better ranking
• Keep your eye on the ball / measure your
progress
• Make sure you are proud of your site and it is
up-to-date
• Once you are visible on the web –
– Have people get involved
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Thank You!
• Lisa Rau
• Confluence Corporation
– 800-819-7232 (toll free)
– 703-819-3067 (mobile)
– lrau@confluencecorp.com
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Time for Questions!
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