ITC 298 Search Engine Optimization

301 Redirect HTML to PHP tutorial

I was losing 12 years of SEO juice by moving articles from a venerable old magazine website to a new WordPress site. Here is the tutorial I put together on how to do a 301 Redirect from HTML pages to Wordpress php posts and pages.

Redirecting from a PHP page to another PHP page is easy. From an HTML page to a PHP page requires a separate file. Doing this in WordPress requires an extra little script. It's easy to maintain once you set it up. Preserve your juice! Try this.

Assignment 8: 8 Tips for Blogger Outreach

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/8-tips-for-blogger-outreach

This article caught my attention because much of my work in the past has been with a form of blogging. I am doing more of it these days, in conjunction with magazine publications. According to Vancouver blogger Jon Chow, writing guest posts is a great way to increase readership and make a few bucks.

"SEOs should be building relationships through outreach - a responsive network of bloggers with whom you have an ongoing conversation can help make your promotion efforts much easier. Contacting bloggers cold and only when you want something is bound to be less successful than if you put the groundwork in first."

Assignment 7: Title Tags in Workpress

I’m taking a divergence from the usual assignment of reporting on articles I’ve read. Today in class there was some discussion on the importance of title tags in SEO. I apply these principles to a recent WordPress client website.

Assignment 6: Technical Site Audit Checklist

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-do-a-site-audit

“At the end of your audit, don’t write a document that says what’s wrong with the website. Instead, create a document that says what needs to be done. Then explain why these actions need to be taken and why they are important. What seems to be really helpful is to provide a prioritized list along with your document of all the actions that you would like them to implement. This list can be handed off to a dev or content team to be implemented easily....”

Assignment 5: 10 Super Easy SEO Copywriting Tips for Improved Link Building

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-super-easy-seo-copywriting-tips-for-link-building

Author Cyrus Shepard starts by comparing two pages with similar content: one is bulleted with lots of white space, and the other is a large block of text in only a few paragraphs. The pages earned links 378 to 6 (or 60 times more). The author offers ten tips to improve web copy to attract more links.

Assignment 4: Google Rolls Out Its Panda Update And Begins Incorporating Searcher Blocking Data

http://searchengineland.com/google-rolls-out-its-panda-update-internationally-and-begins-incorporating-searcher-blocking-data-72497

Google launched a substantial algorithm change (known as “Farmer” or “Panda”) aimed at identifying low-quality pages and sites. These are pages (often seen on so-called “content farms”) with text that is relevant for a query, but may not provide the best user experience. (Google calls it a “high quality sites algorithm”.) How do they do this and how does it affect existing sites?

Assignment 3: 8 Easy Wins for On-page SEO

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/8-easy-wins-for-on-page-seo

Author give eight effective SEO tricks to put in action that won’t take much time, focusing on eCommerce site architecture...

Assignment 2: Quality Content Brings Organic Search Traffic

www.searchenginejournal.com/quality-content-brings-organic-search-traffic/29156/

"One of the most effective ways to ensure your blog's success is to create remarkable content, the most critical element in attracting new visitors and owning your niche.... I think remarkable is what stands alone, like an island that has every resource you’d need to survive 100 years.... Make your blog like the island, a tropical one."

Assignment 1: How Google Instant Autocomplete Suggestions Work

http://searchengineland.com/how-google-instant-autocomplete-suggestions-work-62592

"It’s a well known feature of Google. Start typing in a search, and Google offers suggestions before you’ve even finished typing. But how does Google come up with those suggestions? When does Google remove some suggestions? When does Google decide not to interfere? Come along for some answers."