Internet Marketing Essentials Part 1: FIX THE FOUNDATION

Website OptimizationeBook

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eBook Goals Is your current website optimized for getting found? Welcome to the first eBook in the 4-part “Internet Marketing Essentials” series. The purpose is to help get you started on the path of turning your website into an optimized, lead generating tool that gets your company found by qualified prospects. Here’s what we’ll accomplish in Part 1:

Minimize some confusion around Search Engine Optimization (SEO). How to quickly turn your website into an optimized, lead generating tool that gets your

company found by qualified prospects. Implement effective natural (organic) SEO tactics in a few easy steps. If your site isn’t

receiving enough traffic, it might not be properly optimized.

NOTE: Subsequent eBooks will address the below topics so be sure to check my blog for updates: http://www.scholesmarketing.com/scholes-knows-marketing-blog/

• Part 2 - Capture & Convert: building offer landing pages that are optimized for generating more leads - converting traffic to leads and customers.

• Part 3 - Spread the Word: the basics for why B2B companies need to use social media, how to get social media traffic and specific examples on how to set up your campaigns to help your business.

• Part 4 – Analyze, Measure, Test & Pivot: using the best analytics and tracking tools to measure the effectiveness of your efforts so you can confidently do more of what works, and less of what doesn’t.

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Marketing Continuously EvolvesThe truth is, that while more traditional marketing tactics and outbound-type campaigns still do have a place in the B2B marketing mix, it’s to a much lesser degree. Email marketing done right, for example, is still an effective way to nurture existing leads and contacts that have already opted in to receive your content. But, as far as getting new prospects, there’s been a massive shift toward inbound marketing (getting found by customers). David Meerman Scott says it best and recommends that marketers "publish their way in" (via blogs, social media, etc.) in contrast to outbound marketing where marketers used to have to "buy their way in" (via paid advertisements, direct mail, list rentals, etc.).

Traditional Marketing(Outbound)

Direct Mail & Telemarketing

Shows & Events

Print Ads

Marketing Today (Inbound)

Interruptive: spin your wheels and hope for the best!

• Web-based lead gen• SEO & SEM (Organic & Paid)• Social and Viral• Blogs and RSS• Offers and Free Trials Traditional still has its place in the

mix, though lesser role Analytics much more of a marketing

requisite

Permission-based!

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Organic Search and Optimizing Your WebsiteA Tidbit: The Google Search Golden Triangle

The following Google results page shows an eye tracking heat map of where on the page people look and click on search ‐results. What you see here is the phenomenon called the Google Search Golden Triangle – people focus on the top organic results that fall into a triangle at the top left corner of the screen.

• The “Golden Triangle” is a distinct area of intense eye scan activity shown below. It's important to point out that the Golden Triangle pattern is seen in first time visits to a results page.

• The point? This is where you want to fall in the organic results.• You can learn more about this research.

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Organic Search and Optimizing Your Website

• Google dominates the SEO landscape• Of business users surveyed, 82.9% prefer

Google: Marketing Sherpa Survey• Google has over 4 times the search traffic than

Yahoo!• Conclusion: Optimize for Google!

If your listing is not in or around the Golden Triangle, your odds of being seen by a searcher are dramatically reduced

You want to get as close to the Golden Triangle as possible (top left corner of screen)

Top organic results means more web traffic

Today’s Top Search Engines (according to 2009, August 08 figures from Hitwise (Top Search Engines by Volume).

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Organic Search and Paid Search: two kinds of search results

• Listings that require a fee for the search engines to list the link for particular keywords

• Most widely used is pay-per-click (PPC) - pay each time ad link is clicked

• Ad price increases with competitiveness of the keywords• Google AdWords is one popular form• Affiliate Programs for B2C and e-commerce is another form

Paid: in briefPaid

Organic

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Organic (Natural) Search

• Organic search results are listings on search engine results pages that appear because of their relevance to the search terms, as opposed to their being ads

• Results gathered by engines’ web crawlers and ranked according to relevance to the search terms

• Relevance calculated by criteria such as extent of keyword match and # sites linking to that website

• More valuable to be listed highly in organic results, because…

What exactly is it?

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Organic (Natural) Search

• Paid (PPC) results account for 25% of clicks• Organic results account for 75%*, so you need to

evaluate and improve them because: – It’s FREE: there’s no cost – More Traffic: most people click natural results– Longer Lasting: maintain your rank longer

• Note: This is not to say that PPC advertising is not effective, it certainly can be when done correctly and as far as conversions are concerned! It’s just not the focus of this eBook.

* source: Enquiro Research and Marketing Sherpa

Benefits

Organic (Natural) Search: The Basics

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On Page SEO: Visible (easily optimized and controlled by you)

URL can have keywords that will be picked up

Page text is also important

Headings with H1, H2, H3 tags further describe the content on the page for engines and should contain keywords

Page Title (top part of browser) tells engines what your site is about

PS

This is me

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Organic (Natural) Search

• Your site may look awesome but search engines rule• Feed them the right clues to help them understand what

your site is about and what types of people should find you• Use the right keywords in the page content• Keep your page titles short and use the right keywords• Use the same keywords in the H1-H3 tags as on the rest of

the page and in url where appropriate

On Page Takeaways

Organic (Natural) Search

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Title tags centered around 1 important keyword phrase Page heading should contain most important keywords

or keyword phrases Keywords in Headings - H1, H2, H3 tags Keywords in links and URLs Use different keywords for different pages Only use keywords that are relevant to your site Keywords in the “anchor text” – the text within your

hyperlinks Keywords in the “alt tags” – the phrases used to

describe your images

About Keywords: Best Practices

Organic (Natural) Search: The Basics

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Off Page SEO: Invisible (that you can’t see but search engines can)

Description

• Description: brief description of what your site is about– Mostly for reader’s benefit

• Keywords: keywords and content component tells the search engines what your web pages are about

Keywords

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Organic (Natural) Search

• A huge portion of the battle of getting high search engine rankings is acquiring quality and relevant links pointing to your website (getting other sites to link to your site).

• Each link into your site is a sort of “vote” that tells the search engine that your site is important.

You want more links but from trustworthy websites and sources. Try to avoid link exchanges, engines getting better at detecting and

then likely discount them. Avoid directories that accept everything and don’t reject at least

some • And here’s what to do with the information…

Off Page SEO: Link Popularity: Why So Important?

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Organic (Natural) Search

Build more inbound links from other sites into your site. Each link serves as a recommendation or a reference to tell the search engines

that your site is a quality site. Build more links within context: those with valuable keywords in the link anchor

text (the text that is hyperlinked to your site). Link anchor text provides context for the search engines to understand what your site is about.

Build more links from trusted websites. Just as references from well-respected friends and experts offer more value, so do links from trusted and well-respected websites.

Communicate with others in your industry through blogs and other social media. Create compelling content (through blogging, etc.) and tools (useful and

interesting offers). Note: more on blogging for business and offer creation coming in upcoming Internet Marketing Essentials eBooks.

Off Page SEO - Linking Best PracticesAgain, one of the most effective ways to get more targeted traffic from search engines is to get more links into your website.

Thank You! And now for the shameless plug…

If you would like to discuss your specific website and Internet marketing challenges, or you’re ready to take action but need some help planning and implementing, please contact me:

Jeff Scholes, Founder & Marketing Consultant Scholes Marketing

p: 978.884.9319mailto:jeff@scholesmarketing.com

www.scholesmarketing.com

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