Keyword optimization

= About Keyword Optimization =

Search engines analyze source code and use text matching algorithms to display pages with the most relevance to a particular keyword or phrase that is used in a search query. Therefore, it is very important that web pages have specific keywords and phrases they are optimized for so that they attract the highest levels of relevant traffic possible. For example, if a user uses the search term "basketball," a web page with that exact text is much more likely to appear in search results compared to another page with similar content that uses the term "orange bouncing sphere."

Keyword Optimization is the process of improving search engine rankings by efficiently utilizing keywords and phrases within web pages so that they match the most commonly used search terms and phrases used by people on the Internet.

= Goals =
 * Enhancing FedoraProject.org's search engine ranking by adding already existing pages to search engine indexes that correlate with popular keywords and phrases.
 * Gaining tons and tons of new users and active contributors.
 * Bloggers, authors, freelance writers, and other members of the media will come across our pages more often thus giving us more press that will aid in increasing our market share.
 * Becoming the distribution with the highest number of page hits according to DistroWatch.com.

= Standard Operating Procedure =
 * Purpose
 * To enhance FedoraProject.org's search engine ranking by optimizing new and existing pages with high traffic keywords and phrases therefore increasing web traffic and more efficiently engaging our target demographic.
 * Scope
 * [mailto:marketing@lists.fedoraproject.org Marketing Team]
 * [mailto:websites@lists.fedoraproject.org Websites Team]
 * Fedora Project Target Demographic
 * Prerequisites
 * Analytics Reporting Tool
 * Major Search Engine (e.g. Bing, Google, Yahoo!)
 * HTML Editor
 * Keyword Suggestion Tool
 * Spreadsheet Application (optional)
 * Responsibilities
 * Garland Binns; maintain, manage, and organize project, schedule tasks, set deadlines and milestones, perform regular quality assurance analysis to ensure goal congruency.
 * [mailto:marketing@lists.fedoraproject.org Marketing Team]; assist in selection of keywords/key phrases, serve as a guide in association of selected keywords/key phrases with existing web pages.
 * [mailto:websites@lists.fedoraproject.org Websites Team]; assist in implementation of keywords/key phrases, serve as guide in association of selected keywords/key phrases with existing web pages as well as pages that are currently in development.

Implementation Protocol

 * A web page should only be optimized for one keyword or key phrase.
 * Once a keyword or key phrase has been chosen to be associated with a page, it should be emailed to the [mailto:marketing@lists.fedoraproject.org Marketing Team]. If the selected keyword or key phrase includes someone else's trademark, also email [mailto:legal@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Legal]. The word "Linux" can be excluded from this rule. If no objection is received within 7 days it may then be implemented, subject to final approval from the [mailto:websites@lists.fedoraproject.org Websites Team] before going live.
 * Keyword Optimizations to web pages should be implemented with in-line comments so that other contributors are aware of their placement and do not inadvertently overwrite or remove the changes.
 * Once a keyword optimization has been implemented it should be added to the Keyword Optimization Chart below, along with the current ranking for the page in association with the term.
 * In order to stay organized, all questions, comments, etc., should be sent to the [mailto:marketing@lists.fedoraproject.org Marketing Team] or [mailto:websites@lists.fedoraproject.org Websites Team] with attention to Garland Binns (gbinns).

Important SEO Tags

 * Title
 * H1, H2, H3, H4...
 * Strong
 * ALT
 * A HREF w/ Keyword or Key Phrase in Anchor Text

= Next Actions =
 * Collect feedback on this keyword optimization page.
 * Select start date
 * This project has commenced as of April 27th, 2010.
 * Prepare Standard Operation Procedure (SOP).
 * Aggregate participants in project.
 * The following are active participants in this project (aggregated alphabetically by IRC nickname).
 * aamirbhutto
 * evilbob
 * gbinns
 * ke4qqq
 * mchua
 * nmarques
 * sijis
 * stickster
 * rbergeron
 * threethirty
 * Create master keyword list.
 * Master Keyword List
 * Select initial keywords.
 * Create master ranking spreadsheet.
 * Associate keywords / key phrases with web pages.
 * Implement changes.

= Recurring Actions = All the aspects of the project that need to be repeatedly processed each week.
 * Monitor results, re-optimize if necessary. (pending)

= Keyword Optimization Chart = Below is a chart for organizing terms and the pages they are associated with. Search engine ranking is how a page compares amongst other results on a given search engine. The numerator and denominator in the fractions below are the before/after rankings for a term on the three major search engines. An asterisk indicates that a page doesn't appearing in the ranks for the selected term. Conversely, a rank of "1" or "5" would mean that the web page is the first or fifth search result overall on a given search engine. The "After" ranking should be monitored and updated regularly each week on Friday.