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Website Traffic Volunteer Guide

This is a reference of the various things that a website traffic volunteer might do.  These are starting points for the position; you will undoubtedly think of other search terms, protocols, etc. that will be helpful.  We are open to suggestions. 

Basic Tasks:

- Perform online searches from the perspective of homeschoolers and verify page ranks of AVKO websites/webpages.
- Verify Meta tags (keywords and descriptions) of sites and propose suggestions of additional keywords to increase page ranks.

Use the back-end sitemap of the AVKO website.

Baseline Study

  • Examine current website statistics for numbers of page views, referring websites, search terms used to land on AVKO
  • Research the page rankings of common search terms and phrases in various search engines
  • Most popular search engines:
  • Common Search Terms
    • AVKO; dyslexia; spelling; homeschool; help my daughter; help my son; curriculum; add; adhd; sequential spelling; latin and greek roots; syllabication rules; whole language; phonics; free; tutoring; english patterns; don mccabe; teaching
    • Remember to try variations on these (homeschooling, etc.) and misspellings (dylexia, dislexia, etc.)

Verifying Keywords

  • Examine AVKO webpages to verify that a) they have keywords, b) they apply to the page, and c) there are not other keywords that could point to that page. 
    • Thinking of the information present on each page, the benefits and features of the contents, etc., what words would you use to describe it? 
    • What typos do you make when you type those words? 
    • What abbreviations are common to the educational field or homeschooling? 
    • What slang terms or phrases might someone use to describe the same thing? 
  • Verify the description of the pages as well.  Are they accurate, succinct, and descriptive?
  • Many different types of people use the information and resources on our websites.  Pretend to be each of the following people; think about what their considerations are, whom they are serving, and what resources they need:
    • Homeschooling parents
    • K-12 teachers
    • Principals
    • Resource room teachers and tutors
    • Educational and linguistics researchers
    • Disability specialists
    • Dyslexics
    • Relatives of illiterates
    • Job training professionals
  • To look at the keywords, view the "source" of the page.  In Firefox, right-click on the page and click "View Page Source."  In Internet Explorer, right-click on the page and click "View Source."
    • These will always be toward the top. Here's an example from the Volunteer page:

      <meta name="description" content="Volunteer with the AVKO Foundation. Help eradicate problems associated with dyslexia and illiteracy while earning valuable experience.">
      <meta name="keywords" content="dyslexia volunteer non-profit volunteerism volunteering dylexia reading tutor tutoring help others opportunity opportunities organization 501(c)3 501c3 help support resources aid aide disability children illiteracy education illiterate student students literacy phonics instruction intern internship">

      Make sure that the description of the page matches the content of the page (describes it well) and that the keywords actually apply to the content -- not just that there are keywords. Let me know which pages have nothing at all, or are inaccurate, or could use more (give me your suggestions).

      These tags are what search engines like Google use to search for content and it's very important that they are accurate and descriptive. Sometimes there are intentional misspellings in the keywords because people misspell / mistype things frequently, and including them improves search quality. E.g., both "dyslexia" and "dylexia" are listed above because, for some reason, it's easy to mistype "dyslexia." (This is also the case for hard to spell words -- so "dislexia" is used on some pages).

  • Surf to other resource, homeschooling, disabilities, and educational supply sites to view their keywords.  Compare to AVKO's.

Securing More In-bound links

  • While performing your searches, take note of the sites that continue to crop up. 

    • Are they a paid service or a non-profit organization (or a hybrid)?  If they sell, what is their price point?

    • Do they cater to the same clientele as AVKO? 

    • What are the free resources that they offer?

    • Are the resources (free or paid) they provide complementary (and complimentary) to AVKO?  Do they follow the same or similar philosophies of AVKO?

  • Take note of directory sites as well. 

  • Contact and submit directory information to these sites.  Ask for links to our sites, detailing the services and resources that we provide.  It may also be prudent at this time to ask if they are interested in some type of more formal partnership. 

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