Search Engine Marketing for Beginners

April 2013Sila Sahverdi

Agenda

1. What is Search Engine Marketing?2. Why should I use Search Engine Marketing?3. Best Practices

3.1. Getting Started3.2. Organic Search3.3. Pay per Click 3.4 Vertical Search

4. How to select a Third Party Vendor

1. What is Search Engine Marketing?

Marketing a website through search engines including efforts to improve organic listings, running Pay per Click (PPC)ads and getting listed in vertical search placements Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a form of internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) through optimization and advertising. SEM may use Search Engine Optimization (SEO), that adjusts or rewrites website content to achieve a higher ranking in search engine result pages use pay per click listings

2. Why should I use Search Engine Marketing?

Increase brand awareness & visibility Lead generation & customer acquisition

Remain competitive

Increase website traffic

Increase sales revenue

3. Best Practices

Company Name

Website

Products & Services

SEM Goals

Target customer & geographic

location

Competitors

Traffic stats?

Referring sources & keywords

Conversion rate

etc.

3.1. Getting Started

Gather information about SEM Project/Client

Assess current situation Take action

3. Best Practices3.1. Getting Started

Measure website traffic

-Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/-Internet World Stats http://www.internetworldstats.com/-Alexa http://www.alexa.com/-Mozrank http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/mozrank-Hubspot’s Marketing Grader http://marketing.grader.com/

3. Best Practices 3.2. Organic Search

Improve organic search engine results by employing Search Engine Optimization Practices

Organic Search (natural search) results are a trusted source due to their lack of connection to paid sponsorship -> They appear as results because of their relevance to the search term

3. Best Practices 3.2. Organic Search

- Ensure there are no misspellings

- Create easy to find vanity URL’s

- Create sitemap-> submit sitemap to search engines

e.g. www.yourcompany.com/about

-Use page name, title, description, keywords meta tags-> keep description tag to 160 characters to make sure Google will not truncate it

-Limit number of flash and graphics -> search engines can’t find them, instead key content should appear in text format

-Use alt tag on pictures-> tag pictures with key phrases

- Ensure content is relevant, easy to understand and updated regularly

SEO Practices

3. Best Practices 3.2. Organic Search

-Links-> incorporate links to other pages on website-> use links & anchor text with keywords & -phrases-> use outbound links to direct users to other relevant websites on the same topic -> create partnerships to exchange links

- Incorporate blog to website -> use keywords and update content regularly

- Focus content of website on problem solving ability of product/service -> define keywords & -phrases for optimization efforts- What are the current referring Keywords ? What are competitors referring keywords? -> use Google Keyword lookup tool to look up own/competitors keywords https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal -> incorporate top keywords that are relevant to website and users to site

SEO Practices

3. Best Practices 3.2. Organic Search

-Compare search results to competition, use competitors name in SEO-> Your Website might show up in competitors search results- Create alliances with organizations that are supportive or complimentary to product/service offered -Submit website to online directories -> might improve search engine ranking-> e.g. Dmoz (www.dmoz.org), Best of the Web (http://botw.org/), Yahoo Directory (http://dir.yahoo.com/)

-Search Engine Optimization is an ongoing effort -> update and maintain Website and SEO practices regularly -Stay up to date on new developments and best practices in Search Engine Marketing -monitor

SEO Practices

3. Best Practices 3.3. Pay per Click Pay per Click (PPC) allows companies to buy placement on search engine terms that they may not be indexed or have high visibility on. PPC can be purchased on sites like Google or Yahoo. The Cost per Click (CPC) bid rate, landing page and Click Through Rate (CTR) will dictate placement. payment for ads on a per-click basis to drive traffic to website Auction-style System through which whoever bids the most for a targeted keyword receives the most exposure Specify amount you are willing to pay on PPC platform (Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn etc.) for each visitor who clicks through to your site

3. Best Practices 3.3. Pay per Click Effectively target PPC campaign

Choose the right keyword setting to avoid attracting irrelevant traffic that costs money -> don’t set all keywords as broad match (ad will appear not just for your chosen keyword phrase, but also for any similar phrases or relevant variations), choose specific keyword match types

specify geographical region Time of dayEnsure ad is relevant and catches users attention Match landing page to ad Test ad copy (A/B Testing)Track conversions

Maximize PPC campaigns Return on Investment

3. Best Practices 3.3. Pay per Click

Bidding

-find the optimal CPC bid for your ad based upon the cost-per-acquisition (CPA) parameters you set for your campaign-Set target CPA

Maximum CPA Bidding – set a maximum amount willing to pay for a conversion, your average will likely be lower than the bid set.

Target CPA Bidding – set average amount willing to pay for a conversion

- AdWords calculates a recommended CPA bid for campaign based on bidding method, either choose this bid or start with a custom CPA bid

3. Best Practices 3.4. Vertical Search

- Vertical Search help users find what they need via a smaller search topic universe = more concentrated results -> Focus on a specific segment

Get listed on vertical search engines if applicable

4. How to select a Third Party Vendor

Compare potential vendors based on criteria that is important to you

• Services offered: Keyword Analysis Content Analysis/OptimizationLink Research/Reputation/OptimizationEtc.

• Expertise/References

• Staff

• Price