SEARCH&SOCIAL101AUGUST2011

DefiningSEM

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Search Engine Marketing (SEM) typically refers to pay-per-click search advertisements ran through Google AdWords or Microsoft AdCenter. In reality, SEM involves all acts

associated with researching, submitting and positioning a website in search engine results, including SEO.

Source: www.orbitalmarketing.ca/services.html

PaidSearchEngineResultsonGoogle

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Paid Search Results Paid Search Results

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WhereCanYouAdverGseWithPaidSearch?

Keyword Targeting Contextual Targeting

The Google Network – 70% Share of the Search Market

Image Sources: www.netbooster-agency.co.uk/ www.quinncom.net/

Sear

ch

Part

ners

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WhereCanYouAdverGseWithPaidSearch?

Bing & Yahoo! – 30% Share of the Search Market

Search and Contextual Targeting

YOUCANEFFECTIVELY…•  IncreaseWebsiteTraffic

•  BuildBrandAwareness

•  Drive&TrackE‐CommerceSales

•  PromoteaFacebookPage

•  MarketaMobileApp

•  PromoteaYouTubeChannelorVideo

•  ManageBrandReputaHon&CrisisSituaHons

•  AndMore!

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REACHSEARCHUSERSTHROUGHTEXT,IMAGE,VIDEO,RICHMEDIAORMOBILEADS

WhyRunaPaidSearchCampaign?

SoThat’sSEM…What’sSEO?

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The process of improving the quality and volume of traffic to a website by employing a series of proven techniques to help the website achieve

a higher “organic” ranking with major search engines.

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OrganicSearchResultsonGoogle

Organic Search Results

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WhyIsSEOImportant?

Sources: * - Chitika, Inc. ** - JupiterResearch

•  Arecentstudyonsearchbehaviorshowed:

  94%ofuserstestedclickedonafirstpagesearchresult.*

  Only6%ofusersclickedtothesecondpageofsearchresults.*

  The#1rankingresultgarneredaround33%ofthetotalclicks.*

•  Aseparatestudyshowedthat39%ofsearchuserslinksearchrankingtocompanyprominence.**

•  So,rankinghighlyinsearchresultshasbecomeveryimportantforbothsitetrafficandbrandreputaHon!

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WhatDeterminesOrganicSearchRanking?

•  ≈200signalsareconsideredwhenGooglerankssearchresults.*

•  Afewofthesignalsmostheavilyweighted:

  InboundLinks(linkstoyourwebpage)

  Quality,QuanHty,OriginalityandFreshnessofContent

  Content’sRelevancytoUser’sSearchQuery

•  Socialmediaisbecomingmoreofafactorinsearchranking.

Sources: SearchEnglineLand.com DailyBlogTips.com

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TheIntegraGonofSearch&Social

•  TwowaysusersfindinformaHononline:Search&SocialNetworks

•  Whenrankingpages,searchenginesnowcountlinkssharedonTwi_er,YouTube,blogs,socialbookmarkingsitesandpublicFacebookpages.

•  Searchenginesarealsotryingtotakesocialauthorityintoaccount.

•  SocialengagementonlineisalsoimportantinrelaHontosearch:

  Socialmediamessagingcontainingkeywordscaninfluencesearchvolumearoundspecificterms.

  Whenthemessagingspreads,userswhosearcharethenledtoapageyouopHmizedforthosekeywords.

Image Source: www.madcheapseo.com

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Sharability,Embeddability&SyndicaGon

•  Alongwithlinks,socialacHons(i.e.“Likes”,retweetsor+1’sofawebpage)arenoweffecHngsearchresults.

•  Tosearchengines:“Likes”,Retweets&Recommenda4ons=Popularity=QualityContent

•  So,it’snowveryimportanttomakeiteasyforuserstoshareorrecommendyourcontent.

  Addbu_onsorwidgetsallowingfor“Likes”,retweets,+1’sandsocialbookmarking.

  ConsidersyndicaHngcontenttoothersitesthroughanRSSfeed(canincreaselinks).

  Provideanembedcodeforanyvideosposted,sootherscanreposttotheirsites.

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Sharability–Bing&Facebook

•  FromsearchenginetorecommendaHonengine?Social’snowinfluencingwheresearcherswillclick!

•  Pages“Liked”byFacebookfriendsaregivenmoreweightonBingandappearfirstinsearchresults.

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Sharability–Google+1

•  Similareffect‐Googleisnowshowingresultsthathavebeenfrequently“+1’d”

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SocialMediaOpGmizaGon(SMO)

•  Likenormalwebpages,socialmediaproperHescanalsobeopHmized…

  Facebook–IncludingkeywordsintheURL,“about”box,“info”tab,photo&videocapHons,eventdescripHons,discussionforumandstatusmessages.

  Twi_er–Placingkeywordsinusername,bios,pictures,tweetsand“favorited”tweets.

  YouTube–InserHngkeywordsintovideoHtles,descripHons,tags,capHons,transcriptsandcomments.

•  Anddon’tforgetaboutengagement!

  FacebookpageswithmoreinteracHonandYouTubevideoswithmorecommentsandraHngswillrankhigher.

Image Source: www.optisourceblog.com

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SocialContentOpGmizaGon(SCO)

•  SimilartoSEO&SMO,butopHmizingalldigitalassetsinsteadofjustwebtextorsocialmediaembassies.

•  SCOincludesopHmizing:

  Documents/PDFs

  Images

  Videos

  PressReleases

  Blogs

  Recipes

  AndMore!

•  SCOcaninvolvesimplytaggingimageswithkeywordsorcanbemorecomplex(e.g.RestructuringarecipesecHonsoitemsappearinsearchwithrichsnippets).

•  SeeEdelmanDigital’sSCOplanoutlinedinthefollowingslide.

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ContentOpGmizaGonPlan

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StructuredData

•  Considerstructureddataasawaytoimprovesearchvisibility.

•  Thisisawaytomarkuplanguageontheback‐endofyoursitetomakeiteasierforenginestorecognizewhatyourcontent’saboutandprovidehighqualityresults.

•  Structureddataisrewardedandgivenhigherpriorityinsearchresults.

•  IthasbeenveryimpacmulinimprovingorganicsearchvolumeforcompaniessuchasBestBuy.

•  Products,reviewsandrecipescanallbemarked‐uptocreaterichersearchresultsandincreaseorganictraffic.

Recipe and Product rich snippets taken from Google.

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VideoSEO

•  Videosnowonenappearatthetopofsearchresults.

•  GetaheadofthegamebyopHmizingyourvideos.

•  FindkeywordsusingtheYouTubekeywordtool.

•  Addthekeywordstoyourscripts,videoHtles,descripHonsandtags,anduploadtranscriptsofthedialogue.

•  EngageonthesiteasyouwouldanyothernetworkandencourageraHngs.

•  LinktoothervideosorwebsitesinvideodescripHons.

•  Chooseagreatthumbnailimagethatwilldrawclicks.

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SEOMeetsTradiGonalMedia

•  TryandopHmizepressreleaseswheneverpossible.

•  Don’tuseindustryjargon!

•  Instead,findhighqualitykeywordsandplacethemintheHtleandbodyoftherelease

•  Youcanalsoboldkeywordsorstrategicallyincludetheminlinkanchortext.

•  Butdon’tsacrificeitsqualityorreadability!

•  LinkbacktoyourwebsiteorsocialmediaproperHesintherelease.

•  DrivepeopletosearchforthekeywordsyourpressreleasehasbeenopHmizedforviasocialmedia.

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SEOTips:MakingaSiteSearchEngineFriendly

•  Givesearchenginesplentyoftexttocrawlandnotjustimages.

  FYI–Textembeddedwithinimagesorlogoscan’tbecrawled!

•  AvoidahighadverHsementtocontentraHo.

•  TrytoavoidusingfancyfeatureslikeJavascriptandFlashthatsearchenginescanhavetroublecrawling.

•  Makesureeachpageislinkedtofromatleastoneotherpageifyouwantitindexedbysearchengines.

•  Don’trequireuserstologininordertoaccesscontent.Searchenginescan’tgetpastthatloginpoint,sotheywon’tseethatcontent.

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SEOTips:TakeAdvantageofYourDigitalEcosystem

•  Ifyouhavealargenumberofwebsitesandsocialmediaembassies,thenusethemtoyouradvantage!

•  MoresitesmeansmoreopportuniHestobuildlinkstodifferentbrandpages.

•  Whenappropriate,youcanalsouseallyourdifferentsocialproperHestospreadthemessageaboutaproductorevent.

•  TakeadvantageofopportuniHestoincreasevisibilityonsocialnetworks.

(e.g.CompanyXhasFacebookpagesforbrandsA,B&C.BrandAaddsthepagesofBrandBandCtoitspubliclistoffavoritesandviceversa)

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SEOTips:IntegrateSEOEffortsWithPaidSearch

•  NeitherapaidsearchnoranSEOapproachisbe_erthantheother.Anintegratedapproachisbest!

•  ApaststudydonebyNielsenResearchshoweda32%increaseinclick‐through‐ratewhenabrandappearedhighlyinbothpaidandorganicresults.

•  Paidsearchhasmanycomplimentaryadvantages:

  Itgivesyouanimmediatepresenceinsearchresults(incaseanewproductlaunchesorthere’sasuddenPRcrisis).

  Itletsyoudirectuserstothepageofyourchoice.

  DataandkeylearningscanbetakenfrompaidcampaignsandhelpyouprioriHzewheretofocusyourSEO.

Source: www.blizzardinternet.com

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HelpfulSearchTools:GoogleKeywordTool

Find keywords and search volume for brand-related queries

www.adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

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HelpfulSearchTools:YouTubeKeywordTool

https://ads.youtube.com/keyword_tool

Find keywords for video SEO and ideas for new content

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HelpfulSearchTools:OpenSiteExplorer

www.opensiteexplorer.org

Quickly see how many links you have to your site and who is

linking to you

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SEOChecklist

  Isyourcontentindexable?(i.e.IsitinHTMLformatandiseverypagelinkedto?)

  Isthereplentyoftextforsearchenginestocrawlandfigureoutifyourpageisrelevant?

  ArekeywordsusedinpageHtles,URLsorinthefirst250wordsofeachpage’scontent?

  AreallpossiblelinkingopportuniHesbeingtakenadvantageof?

  Doawwwandnon‐wwwversionofyoursitebothexist?(Checkforduplicatecontent)

  Areyourassets(videos,imagesorpressreleases)opHmizedforsearchandaretheysharable?

  Areyoukeepingsearchinmindwhenengagingonsocialnetworks?AreyourembassiesopHmized?

  Cancontentbefurtherdefinedthroughuseofstructureddata?

  Haveyouconsideredhowpaidsearchcanhelpyouachieveyourbusinessgoals?

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Glossary

SearchEngineOpGmizaGon(SEO):Theprocessofimprovingthequalityandvolumeoftraffictoawebsitebyemployingaseriesofproventechniquestohelpthewebsiteachieveahigher“organic”rankingwithmajorsearchengines.

SearchEngineMarkeGng(SEM):SearchengineopHmizaHonisjustapartofsearchenginemarkeHngwithinvolvedallactsassociatedwithresearching,submitngandposiHoningawebsiteinsearchengineresults.TypicallySEMreferstopaid,cost‐per‐clicksearchadverHsementslikeGoogleAdWordsads.

OrganicSearchResults:TheunpaidlisHngsinsearchengineresults.ResultsarerankedaccordingtoalargecombinaHonofrelevancyfactorsincludinglinkagedata,originalpagecontent,keywordusageandmanymorefactors.

Crawling:Whensearchenginessearchforpagestoincludeintheirindex.Whenasearchisperformed,searchenginesthencrawlindexedpagesforrelevantcontentandthendeliversearchresults.

Indexing:Anersearchenginescrawlyoursite,theywillindexorstoreyourcontentsotheycanrecallitatalaterHmeandreturnitasasearchresult.Somethingscankeepyourcontentfrombeingindexedsuchasapoorlinkingstructure,non‐HTMLtextthatisinvisibletosearchengineorarequireloginthatenginescannotsurpass.

Keywords:Awordorphrasewhichimpliesacertainmindsetordemandthattargetedprospectsarelikelytosearchfor.

InboundLinks:Linkscomingintoawebsitefromotheronlinesources(powerfulindeterminingwhereapageranksinsearch).

SocialAuthority:Searchenginesnowtakeintoaccountlinkscomingtoasiteviasocialmedia.Theyalsolookattheuser’ssocialauthoritywhichcanincludethingslikenumberoffollowersornumberoftweets.

StructuredData:Structuringyourdatainaspecificwayinordertobe_erexplaintheobjectsonyoursiteinmoredetailtosearchengines.SearchengineshavebandedtogethertocreateSchema.org,asitethatprovideslanguageonhowtomarkupyourwebcontenttomeettheircriteriaandmakeiteasierforthemtoprovidehighqualityresults.