Successful Search Engine OptimisationNeil Stickells, Head of Search & Media

Agenda

• Why you need Search Engine Optimisation• How to use SEO to drive more business• Tools to help• Tips to get started

Introduction

• Neil Stickells– Ten years experience in search

and online– Head of Search & Media– Developing and running search

campaigns around the world

• Steak– Full service digital agency– Offices in London, New York

and Melbourne

1. THE IMPORTANCE OF SEO

It's tough to cut through the marketing clutter

Search is the primary path to online content

Source: Forrester Research

“From which tactics do you see the best ROI?”

Source: MarketingSherpa, “Ad:Tech Year-End Survey”, December 2006

49% 47% 45%

13% 11%

52%47%

33%

16%10%

Paid search

ads

E-mail:house lists

SEO Sponsorede-mail

E-mail:rented

lists

20062005

…and a valuable part of your marketing strategy

How valuable?

• UK search market was worth an estimated £2.22billion in 2007 up from £1.41bn in 2006*• Value of SEO market was £250m, up 68% from 2006• SEO spending grew faster than paid search last year• SEO services represent around 11% of the overall search market

• 36% of searchers believe that the companies whose websites are at the top of the search results are the top brands in their field**

*Source: eConsultancy**Source: JupiterResearch/iProspect, Search Engine User Behavior Study

Some more numbers…

• 256m people visited a search engine in December 2006 – this represents 81% of global internet users. [Source: Nielsen/NetRatings via Search Engine Watch, March 2007]

• The global search audience has grown by 10% over the last year, while the total Internet audience grew 8%.

• Search is most popular in the UK (85%), France (83%) and Spain (83%).

Mastering search results is getting harder

Buy

Buy

Submit

Optimise and Earn

12

Especially as we go from search as we've known it…

13

To "blended" results from multiple sources…

Including video assets, news and functionality

WHY SEO?

PAID

NATURAL

30%

70%

42.3%

11.9%

8.4%

6.0%

4.9%

4.0%

3.4%

3.0%

2.8%

2.9%

Click through by position

Page 1 accounts for 89.6% of all clicks

2. HOW TO USE SEO TO DRIVE MORE BUSINESS

SEO can be used to…

Keyword research – get it right

Create keyword buckets

• Select keywords through the research cycle

• Map the keywords to the site

• Identify content gaps• Benchmark performance

EXAMPLE KEYWORD BUCKETS

Company brand

Product brand

Competitor brands

Top level generic

Product specific

Content specific

Miss-spellings

Drive high volumes of traffic

• Target the generics • It takes time

Pre-qualified sales leads

• Longer tail keywords• More targeted• Easier to rank

• Don’t forget local searches

Increase brand-awareness

Search marketing is crucial in building brand awareness and driving offline sales for Consumer Packaged Goods Companies.

Source: comScore/SEMPO, October 2007

71% of users expect leading brands to be on top of the search results page

Source: comScore, US, CPG study, October 2007Jupiter Research

Natural & Paid Search Together

Source: Enquirio/Ipos Interactive Services

Brand traffic is usually the largest traffic driving keyword in search

Co-ordinate the natural and paid brand campaigns

Ensure brand protection

"Google is not a search engine. Google is a reputation-

management system."

• Use web properties to dominate the 1st page

• Structured correctly and the first page will be controlled

• Use SEO to reduce visibility of any negative material ranking on your brand terms

Improve public relations

• Understand the search results

• Monitor the buzz around your brand, products, services

• Use online PR to lessen the impact

Increase website-usability

• Usability and crawlability go together

• Make it easy for spiders to:– crawl the site– access the content– find all the pages

Increase website-usability• By considering:

– Site structure– Code base– Technology

• The benefits can be:– Spider crawlability– Improved accessibility– Stronger user experience

• All of which can contribute to the conversion rate

3. TOOLS

Tools

Recommended Tools

4. TIPS TO GET STARTED

> Conduct keyword research> Include HTML and XML sitemaps> Add a robots.txt file> Optimise your title tags> Insert meta-tags for high level pages> Write high quality, unique content

> Don’t ignore the internal link structure> Get more from analytics> Prioritise which pages you want to rank> Submit to the main directories> Emphasise internal education

AND FINALLY…

• SEO is a long term project• There are no guarantees or miracle fixes• It is also an ongoing project – there is no end date

Thank you! Any questions?

www.steakdigital.co.uk

Your global search partner