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Search Engine Marketing

Search: The Holy Grail
of online marketing

Search Engines are the best source of targeted traffic to your site

Get your details in front of people at the precise moment they're looking for what you offer

More than 80% of web users rely on search engines to navigate the web

In March 2011 search engines fielded 16.9 billion requests for information

Search: dealing with HUGE numbers

The first Google index in 1998 already had 26 million pages, and by 2000 the Google index reached the one billion mark. Over the last eight years, we've seen a lot of big numbers about how much content is really out there. Recently, even our search engineers stopped in awe about just how big the web is these days -- when our systems that process links on the web to find new content hit a milestone: 1 trillion (as in 1,000,000,000,000) unique URLs on the web at once!Official Google blog post, July 2008

How Search Works

Search engines earn money from advertising

To attract advertisers they need an audience

To attract / retain audience they rely on RELEVANCE

Improved Relevance = Better User Experience= More Users = More Advertisers = More Revenue

Putting users first makes search engines richer!

Search nuts and bolts

Crawler / Spider scours the web and stored data in a massive database called an index

User types a search query search engine retrieves matches from the index

Search engine ranks millions of results for relevance based on complex search algorithm

Organic results presented to the user, along with relevant paid advertising based on the same keywords

Google Explains Search: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNHR6IQJGZs

Avoid Search Road Blocks

Don't make life difficult for search enginesFlash / Ajax: avoid all-flash / all ajax sites they are difficult for spiders to crawl

Script based navigation: can cause problems for spiders. Have a text based workaround

Frames: bad for search, and bad for users

Image based navigation: again, you need a text based alternative if you use image based navigation

Example of a Flash heavy website: www.leoburnett.com

Keywords unlock the power
of search success

Brainstorm seed keywordsWhat would your customer type in the search box? Come up with half-a-dozen terms.

Find out what they are actually searching forUse keyword tools like Google's free adwords tool, Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery

It's not all about volume: focus on keywords specific enough to drive targeted traffic

Long tail versus short tail Keywords

Short Tailshort generic phrases or single words

high volumes of traffic

lots of competition

Long Taillonger descriptive phrases (3, 4 or more words)

much lower search volumes individually

less competition and more likely to convert

Help Search Engines to help you

Effective search engine optimisation (SEO) makes it easier for search engines to find, index and rank your pages

REMEMBER: search engines rank pages, not sites each page gives you a unique opportunity to rank

Optimise each page for your target keywords: 1-3 per page

On Page SEO: Meta Tags

The HTML tagAppears at the top of your browser window

Descriptive, keyword optimised phrase

Will be the clickable link in search results page

Your first chance to grab people's attention

The Description HTML tagDescriptive overview of the page often used as the snippet of text in search results

On Page SEO: Content

Your content bodyWrite naturally and incorporate target keywords organically

Focus on great content for your readers

Use headings ( tags) and lists to structure content logically

Use descriptive anchor text for internal links

Whenever possible have descriptive text alternatives for images and rich media content.

Links: votes for your site

Incoming links from reputable sites boost search rankingsWhen another website links to yours, they're saying this content is worth reading

Not all links are created equal:The weighting of links depends on the perceived authority of the referring site.

Links that don't comply with search guidelines will not count.

Links: how to get them

Ask for themOnline and offline networking, social networks, customers, suppliers, etc.

Create compelling content and encourage people to share

Link bait: content designed specifically to attract linkscontests, coupons, reports, infographics, widgets, plugins... anything that adds value

Social signals and SEO

Social buzz feeding into search algorithmsWho's talking about, retweeting, +1ing and sharing your content can affect ranking

What your online social circle is sharing can impact personalised search results

Activity on social media platforms is now an integral part of your SEO

Pay Per Click Search Advertising

Search ads appear beside and occasionally above organic results

Short, keyword targeted text based adsTypically a clickable headline and two short lines of text

Ad placement based on combination of relevance, bid value, quality score and other factors.

You only pay when your ad is clicked

Effective PPC Ads

Concentrate on highly targeted, conversion focused keywords (you pay for every click)

Benefit focused headline and ad copy: attract attention and encourage click-through

Send people to a dedicated conversion optimised landing page

Monitor campaigns closely, apply budget constraints, measure and refine constantly

Search Marketing Sum-up

Search Engines are a core elements of online marketing

Use keywords unlock the power of search

Organic SEO can drive free targeted traffic to your site, but takes time and sustained effort

PPC Advertising can send instant traffic to your site, but you pay for each click, so conversion is crucial for ROI