Internet Marketing for Hosting Companies | NVI (February 4th 2009)

Parallels – Optimized ComputingTM1

INTERACTIVE PROFITABILITYGuillaume Bouchard, CEO, NVIwww.nvisolutions.com


INTERACTIVE TACTICS

1. HOW TO LEVERAGE THE BEST ONLINE CHANNELS1. Niche keyword research2. Paid search and obsessive campaign optimization3. Medium to long tail organic SEO4. Smart social media optimization5. Affiliate program6. Online budget for small, medium, and large companies

2. SMART SEO TOOLS FOR ADDED VALUE THROUGH RESELL1. Revolutionary tool in the SEO industry: LinkScape from SEOmoz.org2. RankSense analytics software


NICHE KEYWORD RESEARCH

EXPLORATION OF TARGET MARKETS • Create an initial keyword list (based on industry, competitors, etc)• Use keyword generation tools and any available analytics to add depth• Free/paid tools: Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, Google Keyword Tool• Useful analytics: Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Central, CrazyEgg

DETERMINATION OF TARGET MARKETS• Testing volume / relevance / conversions of listed keywords• Assessing attainability based on existing competition• Analysis and filtering of results to identify critical keywords to target

KEYWORD ONSITE OPTIMIZATION• Competition tests on search requests• Mapping of keywords to appropriate pages / content


KEYWORD RESEARCH TIPS

EMBRACE THE LONG TAIL• Heavy competition on short tail• Volume on long tail too important to pass up• Develop a big list and associate them with optimized conversion pages• Negative keywords: you never have enough (best tool: www.epiar.com)

http://www.epiar.com/


PAID SEARCH ADS (PPC)


PAID SEARCH ADS (PPC)

USE• Test for relevance, volume, competition of search requests• Targeted traffic for niche terms

ADVANTAGES• Immediate results (for site launch, event-driven campaign, etc)• Useful for visibility / profitability on a site not yet ranking

DISADVANTAGES• Increased costs since 2004• Increase in fraud on competitive terms• Very expensive in the hosting industry (top10 most expensive industry)• Low volumes on specific niche services or geographical areas• Penny competition on offers: the industry is at “commodity” level


HOW IT’S DONE (PPC)

KEYWORD RESEARCH• Uncovering most relevant, available, and cheapest keywords• Organizing keywords by theme

LANDING PAGE CREATION• Created based on keyword research combined with on users personas• Google Website Optimizer to do A/B + Multivariate testing

AD CREATION• Creation of ad groups by theme• Writing effective ad copy• Revise / change ads regularly

MAINTENANCE• Optimizing ad copy, landing pages, bids, new keywords / new negative keywords


ORGANIC SEO


ORGANIC SEO

INDEXATION• Opting for a technological solution following SEO best practices• Site architecture and URLs mapped in accordance with semantic verticals

RELEVANCE• Optimization of keywords mapped into a silo site architecture• Internal linking strategy to intelligently distribute SEO page ranking value• Nofollowing pages that we don’t want to rank

POPULARITY• Quantity / Quality / Age / Regularity / Semantic relevance of links obtained• Diversification of entry points for links toward your site• Strategic interlinking with partners or any external sites


HOW IT’S DONE (ORGANIC SEO)

ONSITE TIPS• Ensure keyword targets are optimally represented• Craft new content to demonstrate authority• Make references to old articles when needed (wikipedia style – smart scripts can be made)

OFFSITE TIPS• Backlinks = core “online” fuel of 50% of Web traffic • Trade information / content / anything for backlinks• Develop a widget / badge and offer incentives to your clients to install them• Embed a text link into widget for medium to long tail keywords tailored to your products• Ensure you develop some expertise in house to assimilate and energize your efforts• Get ongoing coaching from a visionary SEO company to stay updated with new tactics• Best tool: SEOmoz tools suite (explained next slide)


WHY DO IT? (ORGANIC SEO)

INTERESTING FIGURES• Roughly 1 visitor out of 2 on the Web came through a Search Engine, controlled at 70%

by one player (i.e. 1/3 of worldwide traffic goes through Google before hitting your site)• ~25-40% of search users click the top-ranking link. 8-20% click the 2nd result, and the click

through rate (CTR) continues to drop steadily thereafter • The variation of the CTR click through split is linked to the fact that the keyword searched

is a generic word or a branded keywords. Branded keywords like “Parallels” get a higher spike for #1, where the distribution curve is smoother for generic terms like “Web hosting”.

• 77% of search users choose organic over paid listings when searching, 67% choose organic search when purchasing. This means that if you are investing 80-90% of your search marketing budget in PPC with conversion pages, you are not on the right path to build equity for your company

• 40% of SEO campaigns aware of their ROI achieved returns in excess of 500%, while only 22% of PPC campaigns were able to achieve this value.


SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION

NEWS SITES• Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Mixx, Propeller, Yahoo! Buzz

COMMUNITY SITES• To meet people: Facebook, LinkedIn• To be entertained: YouTube, FlickR, MySpace, Ning• To discuss with peers: Web hosting forums, blogs, review & news sites

TIPS FOR HOSTING COMPANIES• Multiple potential uses: PR, SEO, branding, direct marketing, media buys• Define the goals of the campaign before making any decisions• Look at it as a ongoing investment to support your major online marketing channels• Do not get into social media marketing because it is the latest buzz


HOW IT’S DONE (SOCIAL MEDIA)

SOCIAL PROMOTION• Create compelling content• Network within the social site to gain friendly support• Promote in a focused, realistic way• Make sure you can handle the load spike ;-)

COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT • Respond quickly, transparently• Generate discussion• The right message, at the right place, at the right time

PR / BRANDED CAMPAIGNS• It is not a traditional PR media – you are building your brand with geeks, not journalists• Focus on your potential long term ambassadors and the industry influencers• Get everyone to challenge your product (great example of smart PR: Freshbooks.com)


WHY DO IT? (SOCIAL MEDIA)

INTERESTING FIGURES• DIGG: $85k average household income, 87% with college education. Digg consumers are

influential professionals who are active online. 236M UVs / year• FACEBOOK: #4 site in global minutes spent at 2,6 billion / day, 150M active users• YOUTUBE: Drew 5 billion U.S. online video views in July 2008, 70M videos, 200k publishers,

413 years to see all YouTube content, 100k+ videos uploaded / day• TWITTER: ~5-10 thousand new accounts / day, 1 100 000 000 tweets so far, 63% male,

3M tweets / day• BLOGOSPHERE: 133M blogs, 346M readers, 900 000 posts / day,

55% drink 2 or more coffee, 77% of all Internet users read blogs• WIKIPEDIA: 75 000 contributors, 2,7M English articles, 700M UV / year


AFFILIATE MARKETING

OWNED VS RENTED SOFTWARE SOLUTION• Rented: Less expensive, but not customized for your specific needs at all• Owned: Fully customizable, expensive, developed in-house or outsourced• Solution: start with rented, build your own after you are successful

SEO-FRIENDLY VS NON-SEO-FRIENDLY• Is the software SEO-friendly?• What impact will SEO-friendly software have on my business?• How can we improve our existing rented / owned solution?

INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL MANAGEMENT• Should we manage the affiliate program in-house?• Who will be our affiliates and how are we going to recruit them?• Which payout structure is considered competitive in the industry?


HOW IT’S DONE (AFFILIATE MARKETING)

OPTIMIZE WEBSITE• Make sure your site can drive sales / conversions

DEVELOP PROMOTIONAL CONTENT• Provide a variety of fresh, useful sales tools• Ongoing process

AFFILIATE MANAGEMENT• Target relevant websites and offer incentive to promote• Offer incentive to bring in other webmasters (referral)• Proactively ensure affiliate satisfaction as sales partners, and maintain sales activity


ONLINE BUDGET SPLIT FOR COMPANIES

SMALL COMPANIES ($2,000 - $5,000 / Month)PPC: 25% SEO: 50% SMO: 25% Affiliate: 0%

MEDIUM COMPANIES ($5,000 - $50,000 / Month)PPC: 20% SEO: 40% SMO: 20% Affiliate: 20%

LARGE COMPANIES ($50,000 - $500,000+ / Month)PPC: 20% SEO: 30% SMO: 10% Affiliate: 40%

OTHER ONLINE STRATEGIES TO CONSIDER• Banner advertising• Email & loyalty program


SMART SEO TOOLS FOR HOSTING CLIENTS

SEOmoz’s Linkscape & premium service• First tool that is crawling the whole Web like major Search Engines• Removes a lot of myth related issues with SEO• Value of links coming to & from any sites, acquired over time• Unique set of link value attributed with main SEO factors (mozStrength / mozTrust)• Powerful info for domain buyers/sellers & investors

Partnering with SEOmoz.org?• Tools, guides, humanly driven private Q&A support, marketplace for RFPs/Jobs/Projects• Premium accounts can be packaged into web hosting plans for added value• Get a hold of [email protected] or buzz her on Twitter @SEOmom for more info

mailto:[email protected]


SMART SEO TOOLS FOR HOSTING CLIENTS

RankSense Analytics & SEO tool• Identify the most powerful keywords to target through 12 SEO tools• Deliver point & click, step-by-step SEO for beginners• Detects & fixes search engine roadblocks• Analyze competitor sites & their key tactics• Discover and implements high quality links• Search analytics data mining & SEO progress reports

Partnering with Ranksense?• Help customers to successfully market their online properties through SEO• Increased Web hosting needs as more traffic means more money spent to support it• Get a hold of [email protected] or buzz him on Twitter @SharksFly for more info

mailto:[email protected]

Internet Marketing for Hosting Companies | NVI (February 4th 2009)

Technology

Transcript of Internet Marketing for Hosting Companies | NVI (February 4th 2009)