Google is 14SO TALK TO IT LIKE A 14 YEAR OLD

James Gaskell – Managing Director – ZUJI Australia

Andrew Hughes – SEO Director – Reprise Media

14th March 2012

#atsyd

Your Speakers

Andrew Hughes

SEO Director – Reprise Media

With 14 years online marketing experience in; web strategy, internet development, content strategy, on-site and offsite SEO , paid search, Ux, search and social marketing.

Andrew leads a 17 strong team of SEO experts for Reprise Media Australia

Twitter: @y0z2a

G+: +Andrew Hughes

Blog: SearchEverywhere

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James Gaskell

Managing Director – ZUJI/Travelocity APAC

14 years in e-commerce, online travel and digital marketing, with especial interest in content delivery, SEO & SEM methodologies, CRM & CDM, digital media, content management system development, online production, online marketing, booking engine technology, airline distribution, hotel aggregation, financial settlement functions and knowledge management.

James leads ZUJI/Travelocity’s retail and trading operations in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong

& New Zealand.

Twitter: @jamesgaskell

What we’ll talk about today …

Innovation in Search

Using Analytics and Data

SEO Tools

Getting Ahead of the Competition

A Grown Up Google

Think Back 14 Years

Search was dominated by:

And then along came:

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1998 also saw the birth of LastMinute.com

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So, at 14 – What is Google?

• It is certain to say that Google is the internet success story

• Google’s core product – search continues to develop and grow on a weekly basis

• New products are evolving on a monthly basis;

Display, Mobile, Analytics, TV and Video, Hosting, Email, Applications, Code, Storage

• And, using Google’s own basis of scoring the web – PageRank; Google continues to grow in authority

6 Google Doodle for 14/03/2012 -

At >14 – What is SEO in 2012?

Search Engine Optimisation is changing – it is accepted as a marketing channel and requires investment and the right people to implement it.

Optimisation in 2012 covers:

• Search market research and consumer trend analysis

• Influencing organic search visibility

• Improving paid search quality scores through on page optimisation

• Content strategy to ensure increased visibility

• Conversion optimisation to maximise ROI

• User experience over multiple platforms

7 Image Credits: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=google&geo=AU&cmpt=q & http://www.majesticSEO.com

How to approach SEO in 2012

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• Considered from the start

• User focused

• Co-ordination of multiple stakeholders

• Robust and flexible strategy

• SEO should not work in isolatation

• Efficiency and savings

• The effects and performance can touch all channels

• Test, learn and action is an ethos to live by…

Gone are the days of keyword stuffing Gone are the days of keyword stuffing Gone are the days of keyword stuffing Gone are the days of keyword stuffing Gone are the days of keyword stuffing Gone are the days of keyword stuffing Gone are the days of keyword stuffing Gone are the days of keyword stuffing Gone are the days of keyword stuffing Gone are the days of keyword stuffing Gone are the days of keyword stuffing Gone are the days of keyword stuffing Image Credit: http://v8tvshow.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,108/topic,8899.0/

So, Where does Google sit in the AU Market?

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Some Search & Google AU Statistics

Search has 92% Reach

in Australia**

Nielsen Australian Landscape review 2011

Google Gets over 25 Vists per

month by its users

Google is the most

sticky site in Australia

Nielsen Australian Landscape review 2011

Google has over 93.5%

market share

Hitwise week ending 03/03/2012

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The Google Experience

“We want diversity of results. This is something we talk about a lot internally, and believe in.

We want there to be variety of sources and opinions in the Google results. We want them in personalized search to be skewed to the user, but we don’t want that to mean the rest of the web is unavailable to them.”

Johanna WrightProduct Manager, Google Search

So what do businesses get from the 13 year old?

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Search Engine Traffic Contribution

Some Examples From Our Clients:

• Search Engines are contributing more traffic than all other sources

• These may include significant numbers of brand searches

• Referals include other Google properties – YouTube, Places, Shopping

Where is the consumer going to look for your brand? Search

13Reprise Media clients using GA in the last 31 days.

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Google Results Vary

Paid Search Results

Driving direct response with tailored

messaging and up to date offers

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Organic Video Search Results

Social growth results in more relevant

videos.

Organic Image Search Results

Active communities lead to higher

coverage

Latest (Google) News Articles

Digital PR

Organic Search Results

Increasingly active fresh content and

social communities lead to higher

SEO rankings

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And how does the user interact?

5 sec. 10 sec.

20 sec. 15 sec.

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Focus is on the top 3

Organic CTR improves by an average of 100% for every two positions gained

41%

30%

22%

16%

12%

9%

7%5%

4%3%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Org

anic

Tra

ffic

-C

lick-

Thro

ugh

-Rat

e

Keyword Position

100% 100% 100% 100%

On-Site Vs Off-site

What affects the Australian rankings:

• 30% On Site, 70% Offsite

• Offsite has historically been more effective

What affects the Global rankings:

• Over 500 individual ranking factors

• Over 220 that Reprise consider to be important

• Global SEOMoz research of SEO professionals indicated that ~60% of ranking factors were perceived to be offsite

Quality content should be present in all locations – on site and offsite

17 Image Credit: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

ZUJI Search Investment

The media investment for ZUJI in 2011 was a revelation for the Australian business.

• The entire team were brought together at a planning stage

• Activation of each individual channel and its contribution was centre focus

• Relationships of each marketing channel was identified and then planned

• Search supported both brand and category media activties

• EDM, affiliate and display underpinned the media executions

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CPC

Organic

Content

Analytics and Data

Turn on the lights to understand

your audience

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COMPLEMENT TECHNOLOGY WITH THE HUMAN TOUCH

MULTIPLE GOALS

COMPETITION

EXTERNAL FACTORS

Where to start – Your Site

• Ownership of reporting

• Create reporting framework

• Measure effectively

• Use the right tools

• Establish a baseline

21 Image Credit: http://www.foreverparenting.com/date/2008/06/page/2/

Some of the processes in between

• Consider: Ux, content interaction, conversion process, form completion, Ecommerce

• Comparisons: Historic vs Current, New Vs Returning, Good/Poor Conversion

• Test and learn: Take your best converting pages – analyse and update

• Identify keyword groups that you don’t rank organically for that convert well

• Analyse what traffic you generate organically from these top performing keywords with Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools

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x

Where to end

• Optimisation should be a constant ongoing commitment

• Every new iteration of a website should be an improvement

• Focusing on impacting on your bottom line

• Don’t wait for a penalty from Google or your users

• Learn, action, improve, build, start again

23 Image Credit: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2010/09/09/changing-tracks-monza-pictures/juanmanuelfangio_pierotaruffi_monza_mercedes_1955/

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How ZUJI Approach ThisOmniture Site Catalyst Agency Dashboard

How do I Get my Content Visible

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What is “content”

• Anything that a user can or could discover

• What can you gain visibility in

• Who are the influential websites (not brands) in your category

• What content on these websites makes them successful

• Is there branded or unbranded content that you can source to differentiate yourself

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What content to create

• Be led by the user

• Test and learn with paid search

• Segment and understand what works

• Prioritise where you need to be visible

• Identify your competitors

• Identify your key partners

• Understand what channels your competitors and partners are active in

• Understand what content these individual websites are creating and which channels they are publishing it on

• Create something new – become the industry authority

27 Image Credit: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/146542/flings-fantasy-and-flirting-on-holiday

Enable Your Content

• Don’t rely on users coming to you

• Enable users to +1, Share, Like and Tweet your content

• RSS / XML and feeds will drive your business

• Consider creative commons

• Reach out to influencers in your category

• Consider curating content from other sources

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ZUJI’s Successful ApproachTailored Landing Pages – Hotels and Locations

What tools do I need?

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Someone who gets it…

The most valuable tool – someone who understands search who can communicate to the business, be they an internal resource or an external consultant

Skills that they may have:

• Online Marketing

• Understanding of analytics

• Ability to research online

• Some web development experience

• Creativity – Copy writing, creative flair

• Paid search experience

• And a touch of quirkyness about digital and search…

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ConceptFunction

The SEO Tool Kit

• Analytics and Reporting

• Google/Bing WMT

• Your competitive insight in Australia

• Be creative if they apply to your category: Google AdPlanner, Hitwise and any other internal source of trends

• Create a yearly calendar of SEO and marketing events

• Internal project management tools

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Is Google and search still changing?

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Mobile Search

• Growth has been significant – 10% of daily Google searches are on a mobile phone compared to 4% 12 months ago

• In December 2011 - Reprise clients hit 10% mobile traffic

• Mobile made up 31% of shopping searches in Dec ’10

• Organic search alone saw 4% of total visitors on mobile in 2011

• User experience must be tailored for the device

• Ensure that you optimise for mobile

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Personalised Search

• Personalised search is now live

• You can see the impact on these two searches that my personal sphere of influence has on my search for “cheap flights”

• Integration of people, places and +1’s

• Underlying this, there is still a base index

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What do I need to take away?

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Key Takeouts• Google is mature, and it is not easy to rank!

• SEO’s involvement should be intrinsic in all marketing activity and planning

• Reporting should be the foundation stone of all digital activity

• Content creation should be centered around the user

• Your SEO project no longer sits with just the web development team

• To win long term in the search space do not invest $199 for 30 day success

Andrew Hughes

SEO Director – Reprise Media

Twitter: @y0z2a

G+: +Andrew Hughes

Blog: SearchEverywhere

James Gaskell

Managing Director – ZUJI/Travelocity APAC

Twitter: @jamesgaskell