Are You Invisible

Presentation Title | Geary Interactive | 1

Are You Invisible To Google?

7/27/07

Andrew Rodrigues, SEO Manager


Agenda

• Introduction• Researching and Planning an SEO campaign• SEO Implementation – On Page• SEO Implementation – Off Page• Advanced SEO• Questions• Audience Volunteer Analysis


What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

• SEM– Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet

marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and has a proven ROI (Return on Investment).

– SEO • Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of

improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.

– PPC• Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising model used on

websites, advertising networks, and search engines where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser's website.


What is Search Engine Optimization?

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) improves “organic” rankings of a website in the search engine listings.

• SEO is not a short-term, quick-result tactic, but rather a long-term solution with potentially high returns.

Keywords:

• Limited number of keywords

• Selection based on predicted values and client objectives


What is Paid Search Advertising?

• Paid Search Advertising, or Pay-Per-Click (PPC), places advertisements on the search engines based on the keywords searched.

• PPC is auction-based and prices are set at the keyword level.

• Results are quick, messages can be modified, and results easily tracked.

Keywords:

• Potentially thousands of keywords

• Selection based on value of each click to advertiser


What are the differences?

SEO

• Longer-term results

• Increase credibility

• Limited number of keywords

• Upfront investment

• No per click charges

PPC

• Fast results

• Control message

• “Unlimited” keywords

• Ongoing expense

• Charged for each click

Both methods can provide significant levels of traffic. Optimal results are typically achieved by combining both options.


Why should I worry if I’m “invisible to Google?”

– About 80% of Internet traffic begins at a search engine. (source: Harris Interactive)

– 41% of Web users employ search for simple navigation such as typing known URLs into the search box. (source: DoubleClick)

– 75% of searchers never look further than page one of SERPs. (source: Georgia Institute of Technology)

– The World Wide Web contains more than 2.1 billion documents and is growing at the rate of seven million pages per day (source: http://www.cyveillance.com).

– People who find your site via search engines are typically very qualified targets for your products and services.

– Search engines are becoming integrated into our daily lives.


Agenda



Developing an SEO Strategy

• Cost Considerations– Costs– Tools– Resources

• Time Considerations– Ensure time to see results– Ongoing

• Success Considerations– May require full site redesign– No guarantees – third party dependent, no hard fast rules, just

guidelines


Campaign Goals and KPIs

• Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

• Return On Investment (ROI)

• Gain key stakeholder buy in

• Are expectations realistic?

• How will results be measured?


Geary SEO Philosophy

• Human users come first!– Use common sense – “is this going to improve my users’ experience?”

• Not algorithm chasing– Develop a site that deserves rankings

• Integrate into other marketing efforts

• Ongoing


Search Engine Algorithms

• Three major factors in major search engine algorithms– Site architecture– Content– Link popularity

• Other factors– Time/age– Conversion rates– Size– Domain name

• Art and Science


Search Engines

• Google – 64% of searches (Hitwise, June ‘07)– Off Page focused

• Yahoo– 21%– Both On and Off Page focus

• MSN– 8%, but starting to grow– On Page focused

• Vertical engines• Video, podcasts, other types of content engines


Getting data from the search engines

• Google PageRank• Search Engine Sitemaps• Operators

– Site:– Link:

• differences on engines– Cache:

• Text only version– Allinanchor:


Keyword Selection• Finding potential keywords

– Brainstorm• Branded • Long tail• Geo-targeting• Misspellings• Sales cycle considerations

– Tools– Competitive research– Paid search and analytics data

• Selecting High Priority Keywords– Search counts

• Plurals, synonyms, word order– Searcher’s motivation– Competitiveness


Keyword Assignment

• Keyword “theming”– Learned art– Typically 2-3 keywords per page

• Align with current content or topic of page– This will likely be the page that appears in the search

results for that search

• Use competitive analysis


Agenda



Site Architecture

• Main navigation

• Breadcrumbs

• Footer links

• Content linking

• Sub-domains

• Folder structure


On Page SEO

• URLs– URL consistency– “-” vs. “_”

• Title tags

• Meta description and meta keyword tags

• Header tags

• Alt, title, span, no-follow


On Page SEO (cont’d)

• Coding– CMS and shopping carts– Externalize JavaScript and

CSS– Avoid frames

• Static site map

• Tracking and analytics code


Text Content Writing

• Keyword density

• “Salesy”

• Typically 2-3 keywords targeted per page

• Proximity– Headline– Near top of page– Links (anchor text)


Text Content Writing (cont’d)

• Watch for duplicate content– URL variations– Printer friendly pages

• Natural-sounding language

• Compare keyword density to successful competitors


Embrace Web 2.0, with common sense

• Flash, Ajax

• UGC

• Video and audio

• Social Networking

• Online Reviews

• Blogs, forums, how-to guides

• Widgets


Agenda



Off Page SEO

• Search Engine Sitemaps• RSS syndication• Robots.txt• 301 redirects• Custom 404 page• W3C Validation• Broken Links• Page Loading Times


External Visibility

• Submissions• Link building

– Reciprocal links– Paid links– Run Of Site (ROS)– Directories– Press releases– Content syndication– Social media

• Rate of link growth


An Ideal Link

• Anchor text

• Page location

• Relevancy

• Page strength

• Permanence


SEO Reporting

• Ranking Reports– Baseline– Monthly– 90% of traffic can come from

“long tail” keywords, which are typically not tracked as closely

• KPI progress Reports– Conversions– Traffic– Branding– phone calls


SEO Reporting (cont’d)

• Other Potential Metrics– Pre-SEO total site traffic vs. post-SEO

• SEO efforts will indirectly drive more visitors to site• increase the return on investment of other marketing efforts by

allowing a viewer to come back and find the site via search engines – Search engine referrals/diversification overall and on a specific

keyword level – Amount and quality of traffic

• increase in page views, time on site, conversions, downloads, etc. – Branded Search Counts– Reduction of necessary PPC spend

• Watch for synergistic effects– The lifetime value of the new business– Increase in links from search engines’ perspective– Increase in number of pages indexed by search engines


Agenda

• Introduction• Researching and Planning an SEO campaign• SEO Implementation – On Page• SEO Implementation – Off Page• Advanced SEO• Questions• Audience volunteer analysis


Resources for More Info

• Search Engine Webmaster Guidelines– http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answ

er=35769– http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/index.html– http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?

t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_REF_GuidelinesforOptimizingSite.htm • http://www.webmasterworld.com/• http://www.sempo.org/home• http://searchenginewatch.com/• http://searchengineland.com/ • http://www.searchenginejournal.com/ • Conferences

– http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/ – http://searchmarketingexpo.com/– http://www.pubcon.com/


Black Hat Techniques to avoid

• Cloaking

• Hidden text

• Keyword stuffing– Off-topic, high traffic keywords

• Automated content


Universal and Personalized Search

• The meaning of rankings is changing

• The meaning of content is changing

• Opportunity!!!


International Search

• Country-specific domains

• Language translation– Regional dialects

• More search engines

• Local hosting

• Links from country-specific domains


Mobile Search

• Screen Size and Device Variations

• Separate mobile sites– .mobi domain– Use CSS to make a site device-specific

• Navigational structure

• Text heavy, image light

• Consumer acceptance


Social Media Optimization (SMO)

• Social Bookmarking– Del.icio.us

• Social networking– Myspace.com– Craigslist.org

• Content aggregation– Digg.com

• Wikipedia• Mash-ups

– http://api.maps.yahoo.com/Maps/V1/annotatedMaps?appid=jeffreymcmanus&xmlsrc=http://mcmanus.typepad.com/sandiegotrolley.xml


Local Search Optimization

• Contact Info

• Areas serviced

• Local Search submission

• Other providers

– Yelp, local.com, Citysearch, kudzu, Service Magic

• Internet Yellowpages


Agenda



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Transcript of Are You Invisible