SEO
SEO @Mozilla
SEO@mozilla.com is a cross-functional group of people interested in improving SEO across the Mozilla Web Universe. We're here to advocate and advise on how to make Mozilla products and activities better accessible through search. We follow the loose "Taskforce" model ('cause we're organic like that). Here's our group's trailer.
This wiki page is a place for Mozilla SEO resources to be documented. Search engine optimization is made up of two parts: natural search, and paid search (SEM). This wiki focuses on natural search. Paid search efforts are used to support engagement campaigns. A SEM overview can be found here.
Contents
Join us
Mozilla community members are encouraged to join and contribute to the SEO @Mozilla group. A lot of us are on IRC quite often:
Join our email alias at seo@mozilla.com by filing a IT bug.
Events
Next Mozilla SEO Check-In:
- 2012-04-03 Tuesday:
- 9:30am - 10:30am Pacific Time
- Call-in info: ext 316.
- SFO room 7-H
subscribe to this event in your calendar
iCal, Evolution:
- Subscribe: http://h2vx.com/ics/sub/wiki.mozilla.org/SEO
- Clicking that link will open your local calendar program (e.g. MacOSX iCal, Evolution, etc.)
- Set it to update (i.e. "[x] Refresh" or "Auto-refresh: Every day") and new events will appear automatically.
Zimbra:
- Choose the "Calendar" tab
- in the far left column, click the new calendar icon (little mini green calendar with a plus sign, top right corner of the column header)
- a "Create New Calendar" dialog box appears
- enter something like "Mozilla SEO Events" into the Name field
- check the 2nd checkbox: [x] Synchronize appointments from remote calendar
- copy this URL:
http://h2vx.com/ics/wiki.mozilla.org/SEO - paste it into the URL field
- click [ OK ]
SEO Resources
Internal SEO Alias: seo@mozilla.com (File an IT Bug to join)
IRC Channel: #SEO
Writing for SEO:
Using web standards for better SEO:
Early Keyword Research:
- Top 20 Referring keywords to Mozilla.com, screenshot here http://bit.ly/iz1tpe[1]
- Google Keyword Tool Data: http://bit.ly/lItIdz
Keyword Goals:
- Move certain keywords to the top 10 search results, focusing on:
- Generic Browser terms
- Mobile-centric terms
- Aurora/Rapid Release Channel terms
Tracking software:
We track SERP rankings using SEOmoz.org*. It also has an a amzing knowledge base and does a fantastic job tracking SERP rankings over time.
- Sign in email: seo@mozilla.com
- Password: firefox4
(*)www.seomoz.org account details: We get their non-profit rate and are currently on a annual subscription through Mary Colvig's credit card. Not sure if it auto-renews or not.
Goals
2012 Q1
- Do a Etsy Guide to SEO for Mozilla sites - write this within Q1, publish out to others in Q2 (Laura and Chrissie)
- l10n page titles onto top 5 locales, for top 5 pages (Laura)
- Another email @Team letting them know we exist: what can we do for you? here's what we've been doing, etc. (Laura)
- Make sure we're levaraging our Affiliate program to help us create backlinks (Rik)
- Migrate content onto Bedrock platform using Anurag's server hit data to prioritize (Anurag)
- Apply Content Silo principles to /firefox site: for Q1 focus on a single silo - let's start with the Technology Silo, making it more robust (Chrissie)
2011 Q4
- Grow group
- Centralize standards within this wiki
- Create a consistent presence within #SEO
2011 Q3
- Spread awareness of this group internally and externally - identify other interested contributors and assess Mozilla SEO needs on a larger scale
- Provide entry level info regarding keyword ranking within this wiki
- Create a consistent presence within #SEO
2011 Q2
Take the first steps to Increase accesability by getting a lot better at providing a better experience for natural searchers.
That said, in the immediate future lets take the first baby steps and tackle:
In this order:
- Decreasing 404 errors
[Bug649813]
- Refresh 404 page
[Bug640688] Add a Site Map(note: we decided not to do this after researching it's current value)
- Title tag/Meta Descriptions
[Bug657387]- this was split off into a couple of other bugs too:[Bug642432](mobile) and H1 H2 tags[Bug663925]
- Created seo@mozilla.com alias
- Created bi-monthly meeting schedule amongst internal group of people interested in SEO
Meeting Notes
MDN and W3Schools
Everyone at Mozilla is well aware of the search rankings of W3Schools vs Mozilla. They continue to beat us, even though most people consider MDN a better resource. We need to change that and we will. It's just not as easy as a lot of people that have brought it up think it might be. Still... we have already made some progress and have goals in place to do better.
W3Schools has been around for a long time and has focused their attention on SEO to get as much linking and optimal content together to show up high on search results. They have done this by adding keywords all over the place, creating huge link indexes, and writing content that isn't always optimal, accurate, or relevant. Mozilla cannot really do a lot of the "traditional" SEO tricks or resort to the same strategy as W3Schools... so we need to find other ways to improve SEO.
I am currently evaluating consultants that will be able to help us take a closer look at our competition and provide recommendations to improve SEO with our current content on MDN, as well the best way to develop Kuma with best practices in mind so that the next generation of MDN Docs will perform better for search.
There are many reasons we have fallen behind W3Schools, but mostly it has just been a lack of focus on SEO as we have grown our documentation over the years and the limitation of the wiki platform we have been using during that time. We hope to change that as we get ready to launch Kuma later this year or early 2012 and hope to make changes to the current MDN site over the next few months and monitor how we're doing.
My initial research earlier this year showed improvements already with just the new content we have added to the front-end of MDN (Learning, Demos, etc)... so hopefully with more expert recommendations and changes to the structure of our pages, as well as more SEO-friendly writing/content, we'll start doing better vs W3Schools.
I hope the SEO team will help me and the MDN team get better.
