AN ONLINE MARKETING DISCUSSION

MARCH 2011

SEARCH MARKETING

THE THREE ELEMENTS

OBJECTIVES

Understand the elements critical to having a successful online marketing program in place for your company

Learn about the tools and tactics necessary to ensure your website is found for targeted keywords

Understand more about how search engines view your website

Decide if your efforts can accomplish the goals you have established

WHY IS SEARCH MARKETING SO POWERFUL?

BUSINESS FIRST: OBJECTIVES

What are your online marketing objectives? Are they being adequately accomplished with the current

strategies employed?

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Example Online Marketing Objectives:

1. Generate leads

2. Engage buyers, dealers, prospective buyers and prospective dealers with our Brand online

3. Leverage social media for training Dealers

4. Increase the use of our site as a knowledge portal v. calling in with issues

Paid Search/ Pay Per Click/ PPC

Organic Search/ Search Engine Optimization/ SEO

WHAT IS…

SEO Search Engine Optimization

Organic Search

The active practice of optimizing a website to increase relevant traffic received by the site.

PPCPay Per Click

Paid Search

A method of advertising where the advertiser pays for each click received on the search engine results page (SERP)

Note: SEO and PPC work completely independent of one another. Google does NOT reward organic search placement based on your paid search spend.

SEARCH MARKETING STATS

4 out of every 5 search engine users report

they never click on PPC (paid) results 70% of search engine users choose to visit

websites that appear in the Top 10 organic results Over one billion daily searches are

performed through Google alone Google accounts for 80% of all search volume

Rank 1 = 56% of clicks

Rank 2 = 13% of clicks

Rank 3 = 10% of clicks

Rank 7 = 3% of clicks

Rank 4 = 4% of clicks

Rank 5 = 4% of clicks

Rank 6 = 4% of clicks

ACHIEVING OPTIMAL ORGANIC PAGE RANK

SEO STRATEGIES

The Strategies for any SEO campaign are to:

1. Ensure that your website is coded in a manner that is visible by search engine crawlers

2. Maximize keyword exposure so that your site appears higher in organic rankings

3. Drive more relevant traffic to your website; and secure more conversions (i.e. leads or sales)

Search Engine’s Goal: to give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible

SEO TOOLS

Meta Data: First thing search engine will look for Determines what people will see in the SERP page

On-site Content Optimization Pages should be optimized for one keyword On-page content keyword density goal: 3-7% Indicates to Google on which topics you are an expert

GOOGLE ALGORITHM UPDATE: FEB 24TH, 2011

Google announced a major change to its search algorithm, designed to weed out shallow and low-quality content from its top search results.

This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.

SEO TOOLS (CON’T)

Cross Linking: Helps control page rank Pages with higher ranking priority should have more links

pointing to them internally within your website. Consider anchor text used in cross-linking

In-bound Links & Link Building Search engines see links to your site as a “vote” for the

quality of content on your site. The relative authority of the linking site plays a part in

determining the importance assigned to the links they provide to your pages.

LINK BUILDING: CASE STUDY IN WHAT NOT TO DO

J.C. PenneyFebruary 2011

“ Someone paid to have thousands of links placed on hundreds of sites scattered around the web. All of which lead directly to JCPenney.com”

“The phrase “black dresses” and a Penney link were tacked to the bottom of a site called nuclear.engineeringaddict.com. “Evening dresses” appeared on a site called casino-focus.com. “Cocktail dresses” showed up on bulgariapropertyportal.com. ”Casual dresses” was on a site called elistofbanks.com.”

LINK BUILDING: WHAT NOT TO DO: RESULT

On Wednesday evening, Google began what it calls a “manual action” against Penney, essentially demotions specifically aimed at the company.

At 7 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, J. C. Penney was still the No. 1 result for “Samsonite carry on luggage.”

Two hours later, it was at No. 71.

At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Penney was No. 1 in searches for “living room furniture.”

By 9 p.m., it had sunk to No. 68.

In other words, one moment Penney was the most visible online destination for living room furniture in the country.

The next it was essentially buried.

SEO TOOLS (CON’T)

Google Webmaster: Provides you with detailed reports about your pages’

visibility on Google & Index activity Free tool offered by Google

Social Media Google Caffeine (2010) increased the speed at which

social media sites are indexed. Links back to your site can be a white hat link building

strategy

SEO HOW-TO & TO DO

3-7% keyword density: tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-density/

Keyword research tool: adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Search engine ranking and volume report – we can do this for you (show example)

setup google profiles for you and your businessgoogle.com/profiles

schedule a time to review your local analyticsgoogle.com/places

Get a dynamic website that is not built 100% in flash and is built on a platform you can update yourself (content management system)

PPC STRATEGIES

The strategies for any PPC campaign are to:

1. Very quickly drive relevant traffic to your website

2. Generate geographically targeted traffic to selected landing pages

3. Allow you to capture traffic from a broader set of keywords (outside of what your site is optimized for)

4. Allow you to be visible when competitive keywords are typed in.

PPC CAMPAIGNS

Four major components to PPC effort

1. Keyword selection (what words you bid on)

2. Ad text/ copy (what shows up on the SERP)

3. Landing page (what loads after the user clicks)

4. Conversion/ follow-up (what you do after searchers complete your call-to-action).

ONLINE MARKETING STATS

1/3rd of the United States is participating on Facebook

“This is not a phase… it is more important than ever to

build a brand and engage your target market [on the internet]”

“Empowered consumers today expect a customized, interactive brand experience that goes way beyond a 30 second television spot or two-dimensional print ad.

Forty-two percent of online adults and 55% of online youth want to engage with their favorite brands through social applications”

– Forrester Research

WHERE SHOULD YOU BE?

HOW CAN I USE

To listen! Your competitors, vendors, customers and prospects are talking about you, right now.

To build a presence and expand the influence of your brand To enhance search engine ranking (SEO) To communicate and educate Start connecting with clients, vendors, partners, admirers,

employees, dealers, etc Contests, product previews, service priority, VIP access,

product reviews, product input, marketing input, service input, feedback

Surpassed 500 million global users in July, 2010

HOW YOU CAN USE

Buy a Flip camera Create a library of videos that highlight product and

company distinctions Use .ppt to create and upload online presentations Set up a YouTube Channel Start connecting with and informing partners, prospects,

clients, coworkers and friends Can be a source of content for your social marketing efforts Improve organic search rankings

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO DECIDE

Attendance and discipline are half the game Content is king Dedicate resources to making this work Seek first to understand, then to be understood The conversation is going on right now, the only decision

is if you will be involved Identify what level of involvement is sustainable Consistency, Consistency, Consistency

LET’S CONNECT

www.facebook.com/elementthree

@elementthree

http://blog.discoverelementthree.com

Seminar Series:

March 16th: Leverage your website to generate leads

April 20th: SEO for visibility, Action and Conversion

May 18th: Integrating Social Media

June 22nd: Google Analytics: Measurement Matters

To Register: http://marketingandtheweb.eventbrite.com/