Search Engine OptimizationMichal Neuwirth

Product Manager – Kentico Software s.r.o.

Search Engine Optimization

• SEO Overview• SEO Recommendations• Kentico CMS & SEO

SEO the basics

• IS NOT– … a magic tool that guarantees a #1 rank in the search

engine– … an AI that works without your help and inputs

• IS– … is a set of activities that you can perform to increase the

number of visitors who come to your website via search engines

– … requires a patience as it’s a long time running process – … includes Developers, IT Pros, Marketers, Designers, PRs,

Content Editors and other stuff

How does it work?

Search engine

Search ranking algorithm (black box)

Don’t forget

• … each search engine has it’s own specific search engine algorithm– They will not open their secrets, but they provide

recommendations• … you never know when an existing search engine

algorithm is going to morph into something different!

• … search engines don’t like tricks and hacks• … the most important part of all SEO tactics is up-

to-date content!

Search Engine Optimization

• SEO Overview• SEO Recommendations• Kentico CMS & SEO

Content I.

• Search engines are “text” based automats– They don’t understand graphics/multimedia/flash/etc.

• Search engines repeatedly visit your web to check for a new content– and the engine remember how often you are adding a

new content• Keywords– Identify the “right words” and use them properly in the

content– Include keywords in links wherever possible

Content II.

• Page title– The most visible text – Use unique names for each title

• Invisible information:– meta keywords tag, meta description tag and ALT

image tags– meta keyword tags are often IGNORED by the

engines

Content III.

• Search engines look for the header texts and index their content

• Make sure your company name exists in text form once on every page

• Don’t duplicate content• Canonical issue– Two or more different URLs lead to the same

content (e.g. index.aspx, main.aspx & default.aspx)– Use 301 instead of 302 redirection

Linking …

• Search engines look for links leading to your website– Engines read content of the linking page– Don’t use “links directories” as the engines hate

them• Page rank is based on the quantity and

quality of both incoming and outgoing links• Use internal links to “navigate” to any

important content on your website

Other SEO features

• Friendly names– http://mysite.com/getproduct.aspx?id=1238973– http://mysite.com/products/computers/My-computer.asp

x• Sitemap • Robots.txt

– To exclude stub pages • Flash

– Provide alternate content for Flash• AJAX

– Prepare URLs for AJAX activity

Search Engine Optimization

• SEO Overview• SEO Recommendations• Kentico CMS & SEO

Metadata

• Document -> Properties -> Metadata

Document aliases

• Document -> Properties -> URLs

SEO settings

Other supported features

• How to handle Robots.txt file– http://devnet.kentico.com/Blogs/Martin-Hejtman

ek/September-2010/DIY--How-to-handle-robots-txt-and-favicon-ico-in-t.aspx

• Canonical links– http://

devnet.kentico.com/Blogs/Martin-Hejtmanek/January-2010/SEO-tip--Canonical-link-elements-in-Kentico-CMS.aspx

Coming in Kentico CMS 6.0

• Language prefixes– Old: http://localhost/Products.aspx?lang=en-US– New: http://localhost/en-US/Products.aspx

• External/internal search Keywords statistics• Preparing SEO testing tool which checks

selected document against several SEO recommendations

SEO - summary

• SEO is not a magic tool, it’s an on-going process

• SEO is set of recommended activities• The most important part of SEO is up-to-date

content• Kentico CMS supports SEO in several ways

Links …

• Google Webmaster Guidelines– http://

www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769

• Yahoo! Webmaster Guidelines– http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/basics-18.html

• Bing Webmaster Guidelines– http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=wl_webmasters&

querytype=&query=&tmt=&domain=help.live.com&format=b1

• Ask.com Webmaster Guidelines– http://about.ask.com/en/docs/about/webmasters.shtml

• Michal Neuwirth: michalne@kentico.com

Q&A