Cygnus Business Media

 Brief overview of what SEO is

◦ What is SEO
◦ Why is it important
 Important Terms and Definitions
 Determining target keyword phrases
 Creating SEO Elements
◦ Creation of the title tag
◦ Creation of the description tag
◦ Choosing meta keywords

 Changes to the CMS and how to update SEO elements on your site pages in the CMS
◦ Changes to the section pages (site & publication)
◦ Changes to the article pages (publication, news, and online)
◦ Inclusion of the site page

 Take-a-ways
 Final Example
 What is SEO?
◦ SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization
◦ Search Engine optimization is the process of improving the volume and the quality of
traffic to a web site

 Why is it important?
◦ Having the best content on your site won’t mean anything if no one can find it; SEO
helps qualified end users find your site
◦ SEO allows you to have some control over the quality of end users that visit your site
◦ Controlling the quality of traffic (visitors) to your site means higher ROI for your
advertisers by providing very targeted and interested end users
◦ Bottom line: SEO is a much needed stepping stone in providing you with more traffic,
more subscribers, and more sales!
Let’s Get Started…
 Choose 2 or 3 target keyword phrases for each page of your site
◦ List approximately 25 to 30 keyword phrases (2-3 words each) that you believe an end user
would use to locate the specific page you are working on
◦ Validate the chosen keyword phrases can be located in the content of the page at hand
◦ Use a keyword tool to help you determine how many times end users are searching for those
words in the search engines. If the word is not being searched for at a minimum of 25 times
per day, do not use it.
 http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/index.php (recommended)
 http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
 https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
 http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
◦ Determine the highest ranking keyword phrases for use on your site page

 Record the chosen top two or three keyword phrases (for use in the next section)

 Below is a list of chosen keyword phrases to be used for the examples throughout the remainder
of this document. For the purposes of this document we will be completing this exercise for a
fictional florist site in Miami Florida specializing in wedding bouquets.
florists Miami, florists Florida, wedding bouquets
 Creating the title tag
◦ Of the three elements presented in this exercise, the title tag is the most important; it is held
in high regard for relevancy by the search engines
◦ The title of the page should incorporate the two/three keyword phrases you have chosen
◦ Search engine penalties will occur for ‘keyword stuffing’ (using the keyword too many times in
the title tag)
◦ The title tag should be in human readable sentence format (phrase or phrases)
 This is not an SEO requirement, but rather a convenience to your end user
 The title tag is used by browsers when your site is added to the end user’s favorites

◦ Titles should be between 13-15 words in length using the most important keyword phrases
first
 Google reads 66 characters or approximately 14 words
 Yahoo reads 120 characters; making longer titles acceptable (Keep in mind Google will only read about ½ of
that)

◦ Limit the use of stop words or commas within your title if possible
 Stop words will not be indexed by the search engine (i.e. the, and, or etc)
There is a limited use of words (characters). Why waste them on words that will not be indexed? However, keep in
mind that the title will be seen by your end user and they need to understand it
 Commas force the search engine to index by phrase; if commas are not used, the search engine will
combine any of the necessary words to determine relevancy for the search
 Title: <title>Funky Florists in Miami Florida – wedding bouquets a specialty</title>
 End user search phrase: Miami wedding bouquets
 The search engine will read what is marked in yellow bolded text:
Funky Florists in Miami Florida – wedding bouquets a specialty
______________________________________________

 Title: <title>Funky Florists in Miami Florida, wedding bouquets a specialty</title>

 End user search phrase: Miami wedding bouquets
 The search engine will read what is marked in yellow bolded text: (that’s correct - nothing)
Funky Florists in Miami Florida, wedding bouquets a specialty
◦ The description tag should be about 200 characters in length (most search engines will not
index more than that)
◦ Include your target keyword phrases at least one time within the description, but no more than
3 times
◦ The description should be in readable sentence format; it is what the end user will view in the
search results

Example:
<META name= “description” content= “If you’re seeking a florist in Miami Florida, Funky Florists create
unforgettable wedding bouquets, floral arrangements, tributes and displays for all occasions. Order
online for a 10 percent discount”>
◦ The meta tag keyword should include your target keyword phrases
◦ Variations of your target keyword phrases should also be used
 Foreign spelling (if market is international i.e. US: color European: colour)
 Plurals
 Synonyms
 Misspellings

◦ List the important keywords first; search engines grant greater relevancy to the keywords that
are listed first. Avoid using commas in this tag.

◦ Limit to 25 words – anything further will most likely be ignored by the search engines
(penalties are not given for this tag – it is no longer held in high regard by the search engines
because too many web masters have abused this tag)
 If using site keywords, you will need to limit the page specific keywords to 15
 Site keywords are the permanent keywords that have been predetermined and added to each page of
your site; most sites already have these in place, but should be reviewed and cleaned

EXAMPLE:

<META name= “keywords” content= “florists Miami florists Florida wedding bouquets wedding flowers
florist wedding roses Valentine’s Day bouquets Mother’s Day bouquet floral arrangements birthday gifts”>
 Each section page (both site and publication) has been updated with
the following:
◦ SEO Title, description, and keyword fields have been added
◦ Word/character counters have been added to aid in entering the data within the guidelines
presented
◦ SEO fields are labeled (to inform end users the field impacts their SEO)
◦ Help links have been included for each SEO link
◦ Alert message (indicated in red)
 Outdated or empty SEO data fields
 Any attempt to save the section with outdated or empty SEO fields will render the alert message and you
will be sent back to the edit page for completion
 
 Changes to the article/online pages
◦ SEO Title and description fields have been added
◦ Word/character counters have been added to aid in entering the data within the guidelines
presented
◦ SEO fields are labeled (to inform end users the field impacts their SEO)
◦ Help links have been included for each SEO link for detail
 
 Inclusion of the site page
 Site page is required only in the site section pages
 While it doesn’t impact SEO, it is important to advertising and tracking.
 Part of the goal of this project is to track pages by tying together SEO
and OAS fields in the HBX (hitbox) includes for a more granular and
accurate tracking and measurement of the numbers for advertising and
revenue purposes.
 Determining the site section or publication section page information to
enter into the CMS:
 Site url + section name
 Ex: section name – Wedding Bouquets
site url – www.funkyflorists.com
site page – http://www.funkyflorists.com/weddingbouquets
 If you are creating a new site page incorporating the new site or
publication section, please complete the following:
(This step will be completed by your site manager upon publication request)
◦ Submit a ticket through the ticketing system indicating that you have set up a site section for
SEO that requires a developers attention
 Please include the verbiage “Please add SEO configuration to this page”
 Please include the site section id for the section you have created
 To locate the section ID:
 Log into CMS
 Select “section-list” from the drop down menu to the upper left of the page
 The rendering page will include all section titles, as well as, their section ids
 Locate the title that you have entered and include the corresponding section id in the ticket
 The developer assigned to the ticket will update the site page code
 Setting up your initial site and publication sections
◦ To get you started we have created a template for you to fill out. It will include the
site/publication sections to include in your SEO program
◦ For each section you wish to set up, you will need to provide:
 Site/publication section name
 Title
 Description
 Keywords
 Sitepage
◦ Return that document to our SEO group for implementation

 If after this initial set up you wish to include new site and
publication sections, you will need to create a title, description,
keywords, and sitepage for each section
 Having your website found through search engine optimization is critical to interactive sales
growth at Cygnus

 SEO is one of the key drivers of relevant website ranking (getting your website found)
 Target keyword phrases are one of the cornerstones to effective SEO
 For phase one of the Cygnus SEO effort, keyword phrases are executed in the following areas:
◦ content (keywords should be included in the content of the site page)
◦ alt tags (implemented by your site manager or person updating the content of the site)
◦ header tags (implemented by your site manager or person updating the content of the site)
◦ title tag
◦ meta description tag
◦ meta keyword tags

 The CMS has been updated for input of the title, description, and keyword tags to make the
optimization process more efficient
 TARGET KEYWORD PHRASES: 24K GOLD, ITALIAN GOLD CHAIN, YELLOW GOLD CHAIN

 TITLE TAG: <TITLE> Top Quality 24k Italian Yellow Gold Chain exclusively at San Francisco
Jewelers </TITLE>
 DESCRIPTION TAG: <META name= “description” content= “San Francisco Jewelers offers
heirloom quality Italian gold chain, expertly crafted to your expectations. Our yellow gold chain
is an exquisite gift choice for your love or for any 24K gold chain aficionados”>
 KEYWORD TAG: <META name= “keywords” content= “24K Italian Gold Yellow Gold Chain
Chains Imported from Italy 24 karat 24 carat pure gold High Quality heirloom quality Italian
imports Italian imported”>

Notes:
◦ Commas are not used in the title tag or the keyword tag to allow the search engine to form its own phrases.
The description tag may include commas because its purpose is to explain what the content of the site page
is about.
◦ The target keyword phrases can be combined as they are represented in this example if they share common
words.
◦ The keyword tag includes the plural of the word chain (chains), a misperceived spelling of karat (carat),
several ways of referring to Italian gold (imported from Italy, Italian imports, Italian imported), and several
ways of referring to higher quality (24k, 24 Karat, High Quality, heirloom quality).