Search Engine MarketingA 40-minute primer on using search

engines to grow your business

Get Your MBO / December 7, 2007

• What is SEM?– SEM = SEO + PPC– What isn’t SEM?– Why you need SEM

• Tactics and strategies– Most important part of SEM– PPC– SEO

• Putting it all together– Case studies– Balancing SEO vs. PPC– Action items

Three main sections

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• Stands for Search Engine Marketing

• Combination of SEO and PPC

• SEM = SEO + PPC

Section 1: What is SEM?

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• Search Engine Optimization– AKA, natural search– AKA, organic search

What is SEO?

• Market share as of October– Google at 65%– Yahoo at 21%– MSN at 7%– Ask at 5%

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Where the SEO results appear

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• Pay Per Click– AKA, paid search– AKA, sponsored links

What is PPC?

• Market share as of October– Google AdWords at 75%– Yahoo Search

Marketing at 19%– Microsoft adCenter at 5%

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Where the PPC results appear

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• Any tactics that don’t follow “Webmaster Guidelines”– AKA, black hat tactics– AKA, search engine spam

• Example: What is cloaking?

• Company: Germany BMW

What isn’t search engine marketing?

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What search engines would see

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What users would see

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• Google is a verb!• 6.7 billion monthly searches• Search is #1 online activity (tied with

email)• 91% of all users use search and email• 210+ million users in US• It makes sense! Be where customers

are looking!

Why you need SEM

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– By far, the most important part of SEM is

KEYWORDS!!!

Section 2: Tactics and strategies

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Toddlers aren’t interested in physics

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• Keywords can be single words or phrases

• ‘marketing’ and ‘online marketing’ and ‘online marketing firm’ – each of the three are keywords

Keywords 101

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• Phase 1: Get ideas– What do you call your services?– Look at competitors’ sites– Read industry magazines– Ask customers– Interview employees– Ask your spouse

Where to start

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– Use free tools• http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/• http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/• Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing

– Use paid tools• http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/• http://www.wordtracker.com/

Phase 2: Conduct research

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• Look at search counts

• Go after the “low hanging fruit”

• Which ones have fewer competitors?

• Which ones are less popular but more targeted?

Phase 3: Keyword selection

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• Buying cycle

• Three main parts– Interest – 1-2 word keywords– Research – 2-3 word keywords

• May use “review” or “compare”

– Purchase – 3-5 word keywords• May use “buy” or “purchase” or “order”

Keyword selection – cont’d

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• NOT just meta tags

• NOT just being search engine friendly

• It’s not just about higher rankings, it’s about more traffic

• Two main aspects of SEO– Content– Links

SEO

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• How do you balance writing for the search engines with writing for your visitors?

• Visitors are #1, search engines are #2

• Keyword research should be in alignment with what your users want to read

SEO: Content

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• Since 1997, AuthorHouse, the leading self-publishing company in the world, has helped more than 30,000 authors reach their book publishing goals and self publish more than 40,000 books. Publishing your book with AuthorHouse means you’ll have all the services and support you need to publish, promote and sell your book.

Good example

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• Since 1997, AuthorHouse, an Indiana book publisher and the leading self-publishing book publisher in the world, has helped more than 30,000 authors reach their book publishing goals and self publish more than 40,000 self published books. Publishing your book with AuthorHouse, an Indiana book publisher and the leading self-publishing book publisher, means you’ll have all the book publishing services and book publishing support you need to publish, promote and sell your self published book.

Bad example

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• The three things you need to know about links

• Incoming links count as votes

• Quality over quantity

• Internal links tell the search engines which pages are most important

SEO: Links

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Internal links

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• Do they all “belong” together?– Are poetry publisher keywords separate

from romance publisher keywords?

• Smaller groups are better

• Easier to match ads

Grouping keywords

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• Only have 95 characters on Google• Only have 110 characters on Yahoo• Make a list of the benefits and features

– Feature is the what; benefit is the how– 25,000 bookstores vs. more potential books sales

• Prioritize the list• Write multiple ads, each with a theme• TEST!!

Writing ads

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• Should match the wording of the ad• Should “fulfill” the promise of the ad• Should expand on the ad• Checklist

– Benefits oriented headline– Supporting copy that explains features– Why choose you (optional)– What do you want the visitor to do?

Writing landing pages

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Good example

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• Case studies

• Balancing SEO vs. PPC

• Action items

Section 3: Putting it all together

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• Self-publishing firm• Built business completely on direct mail• Started PPC in 2001• Chose a single keyword – ‘publisher’• Generated 5x as many leads in first month• More leads for less cost = more revenue and

more profit• Lesson learned: Work with what you have!

Case study - AuthorHouse

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Case study – Nova Hydraulics

• Repairs and remanufactures hydraulic pumps• Spent $100 on PPC in first month• Generated enough revenue to pay for website

and 1 year of pay per click• Spends $4K/month now• Will generate $1.5M+ from PPC/SEO• 7 employees• Lesson learned: Just try it and get started!

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Balancing SEO and PPC

• SEO– More sweat equity but less $$– Longer to see results– Less control

• PPC– Quicker results– More control– More expensive

• Which should you do first?

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Action Items

• Keyword research– Talk to one employee– Use online tool (slide 16)

• SEO– Incorporate keywords onto home page– Does it read smoothly? Not sound stilted.

• PPC– Open Google AdWords account– Search for ‘google adwords promotional code’

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Thank you!

Pat Eastpatrick.east@hanapinmarketing.com

812.330.3134 x106