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Untangling spring week2
This document provides an agenda and overview for a class on search engine optimization (SEO). It reviews the previous class, discusses upcoming projects that students can choose to work on, and covers the history and mechanics of SEO, including on-page and off-page factors. Students are instructed on using tools like Google Analytics and GitHub for SEO tasks and source code management. Homework involves analyzing and suggesting improvements to a website based on SEO best practices.
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Untangling spring week2
- 1. UNTANGLING THE WEB WEEK2 – SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
- 2. AGENDA • Quick reviewof class 1 – go over homework from last week • Presentation on project ideas from CanAssist • Discussion of project 1, IP agreements, etc • Why do SEO? • History of search engines • The mechanics of current SEO practices • Lab exercises • Homework and discuss the upcoming project 1
- 3. CLASS 1 REVIEW •Slideshare.net/derekja has the class slides • Particularly if you missed last week, please review that material • We looked in the homework at your laptop to make sure that you have enough hard disk space and RAM to install the software we need • You should also have installed git bash to get ready for today’s class. Anyone run into problems with that?
- 4. CANASSIST • Uvic-based organizationto provide assistive technologies • Invited them in to pitch some project ideas so that the thing you build can be more than an exercise!
- 5. PROJECT 1 • Ifyou choose one of the CanAssist topics: • You’ll need to sign an IP agreement so that they can use it • You’ll form a group with those others that are interested in that topic, or if larger than 3-4 people break into smaller groups. More than one group on the same topic is fine since you’ll come up with different designs. • Presentation on Jan 25th will be graded (out of 15) as • 3 points for analysis of users and showing fit to the proposal requirements (does it match the requirements?) • 5 points for presentation of compelling user stories (will people want to use it?) • 5 points for website design and usability (will they be able to use it?) • 2 points for presenting a scoped-down subset of the full design that is achievable for projects 2 and 3 (will you be able to build it?)
- 6. PROJECT 1 • Ifyou choose a project of your own rather than a CanAssist project • No IP agreement, obviously. The work is yours, but do be aware of disclosure. • Groups should be 3-4 people. 2 in a pinch, 5 if necessary. No 1 person projects will be allowed. • Grading (out of 15) for the Jan 25th presentation: • 3 points for a compelling idea, supported by market analysis (will it be viable?) • 5 points for compelling user stories (will people want to use it?) • 5 points for website design and usability (will they be able to use it?) • 2 points for a scoped-down subset for projects 2 and 3 (will you be able to build it?)
- 7. WHY DO SEARCHENGINE OPTIMIZATION?
- 8. FINDING CUSTOMERS • Atone point, finding customers was a non- issue • Towns were small, customers were local • If you sold something people wanted, they’d find you • But with such a small customer base you need to sell only things everyone wants • “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it!”
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- 10. SALES OUTSIDE YOURIMMEDIATE NETWORK • If people don’t find you, you have to find them • Outbound sales • Cold Calling • This is not fun!!!
- 11. PAID ADS ASOUTBOUND SALES • Today’s topic is organic search results, also known as natural search results • But automated outbound methods are still important • Next week we’ll talk all about paid advertising and pay-per-click • It’s all about “qualifying” the customer. Making sure that they are a good target for your ads before you spend money on reaching them
- 12. INBOUND IS BETTER •When your customers find you, they do the work • By the time they reach your site they have qualified themselves
- 13. THE LONG TAIL •The book is getting a little bit dated • It was one of the first systematic analyses of why the web enables specialty products to dominate • Since a website has very little marginal cost to add a new product, and storage of that product is in a warehouse not an expensive storefront, consumers can suddenly get exactly what they want
- 15. WHY IS SEOTHE FIRST MODULE ON CREATING WEBSITES?
- 16. GOOGLE KNOWS! • Theyknow what people are searching for • They know what kind of content people want • It’s in their interest to tell you • But they also know when you’re cheating! • So since you eventually want a page that searches well and has the content you users are looking for, it’s just easier to start with SEO • http://searchengineland.com/seotable
- 18. HISTORY OF WEBSEARCHING
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- 26. ON THE PAGE •Content quality • Is there enough content? Is it relevant? • Site architecture • Crawlable? Robots.txt? Sitemap? • HTML • Tags well-formed? Titles relevant? Keywords? • http://blog.halfabubbleout.com/blog/bid/263765/SEO-Basics-How-to-Add-Keywords-to-a-Website
- 27. OFF THE PAGE •Trust • Reputable site, not brand new, well=known • Links • Particularly from trusted sites • Personal • Location, browsing history • Social • Social media. Youtube is huge.
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- 29. CATEGORIES OF TOOL •Keyword tools • https://serps.com/tools/rank-checker/ • Traffic analysis • analytics.google.com • Paid dashboards • Majestic • Moz
- 30. ANALYTICS • Let’s lookat the test account for some interesting examples • Instructions are at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6367342
- 33. ANALYTICS EXERCISE • Usingthe demo account explore google analytics and report back to the group on a surprising thing you found
- 34. GOOD VERSUS BADWEBSITES • Huge field. This is just scratching the surface, we’ll go into more detail later • Essence is that the website is tuned to the intended user • But there are some general principles: • Make it simple (but not too simple) • Know your user • More detail at https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/bad-design-vs-good-design-5- examples-we-can-learn-frombad-design-vs-good-design-5-examples-we-can-learn-from-130706 (and many other places, of course)
- 35. GITHUB AND GITHUBPAGES • Source code control is the essence of modern website development • Never develop anything that is not in a repository • Safer – can track changes and prevent accidental loss • Portable – can develop on multiple machines • Workflow – can share development with other people • Portfolio – employers look at github
- 36. INSTALLING GIT ANDGIT BASH • Windows • Download from https://git-scm.com/download/win • Run to install • Open the “git bash” desktop app • Mac • Might already be there ($ git –version) • If not, you can get an installed from https://sourceforge.net/projects/git-osx-installer/files/ • Or use homebrew, “brew install git” then check the version
- 37. SOURCE CODE CONTROL •Github, Gitlab, SVN +many, many proprietary solutions that you’ll never use (if you’re lucky!) • We will focus on github • Gitlab is very similar, based on GIT • “Global Information Tracker”? Other less savory acronyms • May not stand for anything other than not having a UNIX command named git previously and kind of sounding like “get” • Written by Linus Torvalds (of Linux fame) to manage linux sources
- 38. USING GIT • Avoidmost of the GUI tools! • They may be easier initially but they will eventually get in your way • Technically called a “BASH” terminal in the version I’ll be having you install
- 39. THE GIT BASHTERMINAL • Demo of git in a bash terminal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQUcmNO4diQ we’ll probably do this live, but if you want a refresher later this video is decent. Longer one at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVsySz-h9r4 is even better)
- 40. ESSENTIAL GIT COMMANDS •In a bash shell, create a new directory (mkdir untangling) • Create a new repository in the github.com website (or use git init if you want to do it locally) • Clone that repository to your local machine (git clone $projectpath) • Edit or add a file using an editor (I like visual studio code - http://code.visualstudio.com/) • Make sure git picked up the change (git status) • Add the file (git add $filename) • Commit the add (git commit –m “message”) • Push the commit to github (git push origin master)
- 41. SHORT GIT TUTORIALWALKTHROUGH • May or may not have time to walk through this in class • https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/using-branches
- 42. GITHUB PAGES • Justan easy way to use a webserver for free! • That is driven from a source-code controlled environment • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiOgz3nKpgk (again, we’ll probably go through this live, but this if you don’t remember what we did here’s a run-through) • Personal and project pages, we’ll mostly use project pages • Use by cloning or forking a project and then turning on github pages. Whatever is in index.html will get served up! • Few extra steps for a custom URL
- 43. HOMEWORK • Paul Graham,the founder of Y Combinator, was lambasted for poor website design http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/worst-websites-of-2014.html • Find the 5 most important things that could be improved about Paul Graham’s website at http://paulgraham.com/ • Base your suggestions on https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/bad-design-vs-good- design-5-examples-we-can-learn-frombad-design-vs-good-design-5-examples-we-can-learn-from- 130706 and the SEO periodic table • Create a github project, from the command line put a newly edited text file into it, and send me a link • Submit homeworks to me by email at [email protected] by the start of next week’s class
- 44. GETTING READY FORNEXT WEEK • Main topic for next week is advertising. We have a guest as well to expand on SEO. • But getting ready for the html classes is going to take a bit of time. • You already have a github account, so try making your first page on github pages https://pages.github.com/ • If you like, start editing html. There are lots of editors, but a nice graphical site is https://html- online.com/ • Finally, not all of you are on the slack channel. Send me email at [email protected] to be added. • Slack is the main place to ask questions and start discussions. You’ll also want to be on there to start finding group members for the project.