Thanks for your feedback Paul and Nelson!
Nelson:
To answer your question, yes, this does make sense, I actually have already done research on this and have created some spreadsheets:
Basically, we will see the most success by optimizing each page for one keyword or key phrase, presently, I highly recommend we stick with Linux for the homepage, and focus on other interior pages for other terms. With that said, I also think it will be easier to focus on one page at a time right now, and measure results incrementally rather than changing a bunch of pages all together.
Also, in the SOP document I intentionally did not cover linkage since it is a different area of SEO work, falling under Link Building (as I'm sure you're already aware). I do not think we should mix it with the Keyword Optimization SOP as it would require a multi-tiered effort that would as you mentioned, require assistance from bloggers among other parties. That's awesome that you've been to a workshop on this! Would you be interested in preparing a Link Building SOP in the Wiki? I think this is the next logical step once we get our core pages optimized with keywords. I'd be more than happy to help - I have a lot of experience with Link Building and am also a full-time SEO/SEM/SMM consultant. By the way, I'd also be very interested in hearing more about what you learned and how we can utilize new strategies to make our link building campaigns more effective! Please let me know!
On the topic of Webmaster Tools, this would be very helpful, however, I brought up using this along with Google Analytics, however, some people objected because it is not FOSS. On the Analytics end, however, Sijis has found an application called Piwik which is Open Source, this should definitely help us out! FYI, there are some queries you can use on the search engines to get the same information that is found in Webmaster Tools. Let me know if there is a specific feature and information you want and I'll let you know what query you can use if applicable!
Paul:
Awesome! I definitely plan on tracking and measuring the progress - I put together a table at the bottom of the Keyword Optimization SOP where everyone can see and monitor this:
******
Sincerely,
Garland
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 1:53 PM,
<marketing-request@lists.fedoraproject.org> wrote:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
To: For discussions about marketing and expanding the Fedora user base <marketing@lists.fedoraproject.org>
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:58:21 +0100
Subject: Re: SEO / Homepage Keyword Optimization
Garland,
Just as an idea, wouldn't it also be wise to check what are the top words that are refering the users to our website and also abuse on keyword density around those and not only around 'Linux'? I would recon that this would also be effective. I would probably recommend to introduce 'distribution' and 'operative system' into the keyword density realm.
Another thing that your document doesn't seem to cover is the number of links available which is also a factor that determines the ranking of the webpage in google (according to Steve Masters, UK google website optimization consultant), and in this case we have 2580 links to Fedora Project on the internet.
This last part would actually be something we could ask our community to improve, specially those who use blogger and to abuse the links for the project. As the number of links to fedoraproject.org increases through the internet, it will also increase our ranking on google.
This is maybe a good thing to support also the keyword density efforts you propose.
Still related to this, have you or anyone associated fedoraproject.org on Google webmasters platform? If so, could you please provide some screenshots of the data gathered by google? Based on this we can actually get a more objective perspective to work around this.
Two weeks ago I've attended a workship/seminary by Steve Masters regarding Website SE Optimization (mainly google), I'm waiting for some documentation to arrive (http://pt.linkedin.com/in/stevemastersporto), I will share it with you once it pops on my mailbox off-list. This documentation is to be shared freely through the students of my University, but I'm not sure if I can distribute through the list, so, I'll send it on private. That ok? It might help us at some point, though most has been covered already by your work, except a couple of things like the links.
nelson.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Paul W. Frields" <stickster@gmail.com>
To: marketing@lists.fedoraproject.org
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:07:40 -0400
Subject: Re: SEO / Homepage Keyword Optimization
Simply adding the keyword Linux like this sounds acceptable to me.
Garland, are you planning to track the changes in our SEO *results* so
we can see what effect the change has, and whether it's helping? How
does one accomplish that?
--
Paul W. Frields http://paul.frields.org/
gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
http://redhat.com/ - - - - http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
Where open source multiplies: http://opensource.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: nelson marques <nmo.marques@gmail.com>
To: For discussions about marketing and expanding the Fedora user base <marketing@lists.fedoraproject.org>
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:04:28 +0100
Subject: Re: SEO / Homepage Keyword Optimization
http://www.google.com/webmasters/
That is one way.
2010/6/15 Paul W. Frields
<stickster@gmail.com>
On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 03:39:37PM -0500, Garland Binns wrote:
> Hi All,
> Now that F13 has been released, I'd like to rehash the subject of SEO on
> the homepage.
> As previously stated, the homepage is currently efficiently optimized for
> the term Fedora and Fedora Project, but no keywords beyond this. The
> keyword "Linux" is used on average�55.6 Million in keyword searches
> globally on Google each month.�We could increase our exposure by also
> optimizing the homepage for this term. One of the core changes I would
> recommend in order to take advantage of this is to add the word "Linux" to
> the Title tag of the homepage. Currently, it is "Fedora Project" - does
> any object to changing the title tag to "Fedora Project | Linux" in an
> effort to increase our page ranking and exposure to the larger Linux
> demographic?
> Here is more information on Keyword Optimization and why it is important:
> [1]https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Keyword_optimization
Simply adding the keyword Linux like this sounds acceptable to me.
Garland, are you planning to track the changes in our SEO *results* so
we can see what effect the change has, and whether it's helping? How
does one accomplish that?
--
Paul W. Frields http://paul.frields.org/
gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
http://redhat.com/ - - - - http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
Where open source multiplies: http://opensource.com
--
--
nelson marques
nmo.marques@gmail.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robyn Bergeron <robyn.bergeron@gmail.com>
To: For discussions about marketing and expanding the Fedora user base <marketing@lists.fedoraproject.org>
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:06:08 -0700
Subject: Brainstorming - A more representative name for Fedora Summer of Code
While at SELF over the weekend i caught a bit of text from quaid on
IRC in #fedora-mktg - talking about coming up with a more logical name
for Fedora Summer of code.
12:04 < quaid> ooh
12:04 < quaid> have we tried our hand at branding fun yet?
12:04 < quaid> i.e. ...
12:04 < quaid> I have a summer program for students to contribute to Fedora
12:04 < quaid> what should I call it?
12:04 < quaid> :)
12:05 * quaid just realized that he has this group to brainstorm with
12:05 < quaid> I think this calls for Email
12:30 < rbergeron> quaid: that kind of thing - i absolutely love thinking up
clever - and unique - names for things
12:30 < quaid> sweet
12:31 < quaid> yeah, we've already broken the name with the reality this
summer, and then what do we do in the winter that is really summer
somewhere else?
12:31 < quaid> summer coding has one student who is ... writing a guide.
12:32 < quaid> so real content (finally!) as a student program :)
And so - I got busy thinking, haven't come up with much yet, but had a
few things...
FLIP - Fedora Learning Immersion Program (or project?)
Fedora Open Source Student Immersion
Yeah, so it's not that great of a list. Usually I do better... usually
I have a few more hours of sleep under my belt.
I think two things are key here: 1 - We want to try and get rid of the
"summer" aspect - as it's not always summer for people. 2 - I think
removing "code" is wise as well - students doing documentation and so
forth are certainly not excluded.
I like to cluster together words though when I'm doing this type of
thing. Here's a list of what I came up with - does anyone else have
anything to add?
Fedora
Open source
open source way
Freedom
leaders of tomorrow
students
pupil
scholar
immersion
learning
knowledge
-Robyn
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Poelstra <poelstra@redhat.com>
To: For discussions about marketing and expanding the Fedora user base <marketing@lists.fedoraproject.org>
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:53:04 -0700
Subject: Fedora 13 Schedule Tasks
Start End Name
Tue 27-Apr Mon 21-Jun Monitor news sites to provide corrections & info
Tue 25-May Tue 08-Jun Marketing Retrospective
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