Table of Contents
Modern SEO
Traditional SEO Strategies
Traditional SEO Strategies Introduction
Reviewing traditional paths to SEO, Mike talks about building a site with unique and target content that is easy for web spiders to index.
SEO Strategies for Business with Physical Locations
Mike talks about tips and process for brick-and-mortar businesses.
PageRank
Discussing the first algorithm used by Google for search results, Mike reviews Page Rank. PageRank works by counting the number and quality of links to a page to determine a rough estimate of how the importance of a site compared to other sites of a similar nature or content. Mike answers PageRank questions from students.
Long Tail Keywords
Mike reviews long tail keywords, which are three and four keyword phrases that are very specific to a site's content or business. Compared to the relatively fewer top keywords with higher demand, long tail keywords are more plentiful and therefore more cost effective to use.
SEO Keyword Tools
Demonstrating two tools for finding potential keywords, Mike shows how to use Google's Keyword Planner and Google Trends.
Link Building Campaigns
To improve a site's SEO, Mike demonstrates how to build authority within an industry and research competitor's sites to help with link building strategy.
White Hat SEO vs. Black Hat SEO
Mike talks about the desire for organic, sustainable growth with SEO tactics rather than trying to subvert search engine algorithms. Gains from these furtive tactics, known as Black Hat SEO, might result in short term gains but are quickly found out and penalized with poor search engine rankings.
Removing Bad Links
If your site has bad links that have been indexed by Google, Mike reviews tools and tips to eliminate these links and inform Google that you disavow them. Mike takes questions from students.
Ad Campaigns
Besides organic SEO, Mike introduces buying ads on search engines as a way to drive traffic.
Challenge 1: Basic Metadata
In this challenge, students write metadata for an example site.
Challenge 1: Solution
Mike reviews platforms that allow developers to provide a richer context for pages. Mike demonstrates how Facebook's Open Graph protocol enables developers to integrate their pages into a limited subsection social graph to give more information as to what content can be found at a URL.
Social Metadata
Facebook OpenGraph
Mike introduces the OpenGraph protocol, which can add Facebook and Twitter social media functionality to pages through the use of specific HTML5 metadata elements.
Challenge 2: OpenGraph
In this challenge, students add Open Graph data to pages on an example site.
Challenge 2: Solution
Mike walks through the solution to Challenge 2.
Twitter Cards
To bring richer context of pages on Twitter, Mike shows how to build Twitter Cards.
Challenge 3: Twitter Cards
In this challenge, students add Twitter metadata to pages for build Twitter Cards.
Challenge 3: Solution
Mike walks through the solution to Challenge 3.
Pinterest Rich Pins
Called Rich Pins, Mike reviews the social metadata for the Pinterest social network including article and reviews pins.
Structured Data
Structured Data Introduction
Mike shows how structured data for events, products, reviews, recipes, and more that placed in the HTML body element can be used by various services like Gmail and Google search results to provide a richer, interactive experience.
Challenge 4: Course Data
In this challenge, students add Open Graph data for course data and breadcrumbs.
Challenge 4: Solution
Mike walks through the solution to Challenge 4.
Mobile Optimizations
Preparing for Mobile Devices
With Google's showing preference to sites built for mobile delivery, Mike reviews tips and techniques for responsive web design development including viewport media queries, meta tags, manifest JSON files, icons, and more.
Challenge 5: Mobile Optimizations
In this challenge, students prepare a web site for mobile fitness.
Challenge 5: Solution
Mike walks through the solution to Challenge 5.
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project
Introducing AMP Project
Mike introduces Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project which is a type of HTML design for fast mobile web browsing.
Challenge 6: Building AMP Pages
In this challenge, students create an application that delivers AMP for mobile devices.
Challenge 6: Solution
Mike walks through the solution to Challenge 6.
