Search Engine Marketing

A Critical Component to

Your Internet Marketing

Angela D’Auria Stanton, Ph.D.

A Georgia Tech survey found that people primarily find web sitesusing the following methods:

Links from other sites – 88% Search engines – 85% Friends – 65% Printed media – 63% Directories – 58%

Signature files – 36% Television – 32% Usenet – 30% Other – 29% Books – 28%

In September 2008, 8.1 billion searches were conducted, according to data from Nielson Online.

The 8.1 billion searches conducted in September account for a 9.4 percent increase over September 2007.

Bottom Line If you have a website you need to do search engine

optimization. There are basically two ways to accomplish this:

1. Do it yourself Learn everything you can about search engine marketing, and

do it yourself. There's a lot to learn, but this stuff isn't difficult. Whatever your

search engine marketing strategy may be, you can always do it yourself. This is what this course is all about.

2. Pay a professional Let those who've "done it all before" do the work. Let them

perform the tasks of optimizing your site, or selecting your profitable keywords. Let them work with the engines to get your site submitted and ranked well. All the while, you can relax, focus on your business and deal with the traffic they send you. Keep in mind that many optimization services charge from $100 to $2000 per month for their services and not all of them are effective.

How search engines work

Search engines help people find relevant information on the Internet. Major search engines maintain huge databases of web sites that users can search by typing in some text.

To compile their databases, search engines rely on computer programs called "robots" or, more specifically, "spiders." These programs "crawl" across the web by following links from site to site and indexing each site they visit. Each search engine uses its own set of criteria to decide what to include in its database. For example, some search engines index each page in a web site, while others index only the main page.

See for yourself try this free utility to spider you own site:

http://tools.seobook.com/general/spider-test/index.php

Search Engine Spiders

(1)

Follow a link to a web address (URL)

(2)

Request the URL from your web server. Your web server gives the search engine the web page

Web Page

________

________

(3)

Record a list of words and phrases found on that URL

Search Engine Index

(4)

Determine a word or phrase’s “weight” or relevancy on the URL. Integrate the results into the search engine index.

When people perform a search, they are searching the index the search engine has built. The index is updated on a regular basis (every 4 to 6 weeks).

How Search Engines Organize Info

Some list the results of a user's search according to which sites have the most links from other sites -- a system known as link popularity.

Other search engines prioritize results according to the summary information contained in sites' meta tags.

Still others look for common themes used throughout a site.

There are many other ways to organize results, and most search engines use a combination of several of them.

Ranking Results – What Affects It

Location of keywords and phrases on a web page (e.g. the higher the word appears on the page, the higher the rank might be)

Frequency with which the search term appears on the page may also affect how a page is ranked in search results

Links – the type and number of links (relevant links are the key)

Clickthroughs from search results

U.S. Search Engine Rankings*

U.S. Online Searches by Engine, January 2009 and January 2008 (%)

January 2009 January 2008 Change

Total Search 100 100 N/A

Google 63.0 58.5 +4.5

Yahoo 21.0 22.2 -1.2

Microsoft 8.5 9.6 -1.1

AOL 3.7 4.9 -1.2

Ask Network 3.9 4.6 -0.7

Source: comScore Networks, 2009

Source: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2750

Directories

Directories are often confused with search engines, but actually they're completely different. Instead of using spiders to crawl the web, directories such as Yahoo! and Open Directory Project have real people who review and index their links. They also require web sites to adhere to rigid guidelines in order to be included in their indexes.

The factors that influence search engine rankings simply don't apply to directory rankings. Instead, directory editors look at the quality of a site: its functionality, content and design. That means that webmasters hoping to see their sites listed on directories have to use very different strategies than for search engine placement.

Search Engines vs Directories

Search Engine DirectoryCrawled by a robot 'spider'

Meta and title tags are considered

HTML code very important

Easier to change listings

Few allow paid submission

Quality of site not as important

Edited by a human reviewer

Meta tags are not considered

HTML code not as important

Difficult to change once listed

Most allow paid submission

Quality of site very important

Top Search Engines & Directories

Search Engines Directories

Google(http: www.google.com)

Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com)

Microsoft Live Search – formerly MSN (http://www.live.com)

Ask (http://ask.com)

AOL (http://search.aol.com)

Yahoo! (http://dir.yahoo.com/)

Open Directory(http://www.dmoz.org)

What People Are Searching For

Top 10 Search Terms in 10 Categories, February 2009 http://searchenginewatch.com/3633050

Google: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html

Yahoo!: http://buzz.yahoo.com/

Ask.com: http://about.ask.com/en/docs/iq/iq.shtml

Lycos: http://50.lycos.com/

AOL: http://hotsearches.aol.com/

There are many interrelationships in Search Engine Marketing that are

important to understand for effective site optimization and positioning

http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginerelationshipchart.htm

http://www.search-this.com/search-engine-decoder/

Manipulating Search Engines

You Can’t Trick search engines by imbedding hidden keywords on your

site Artificially generate links to your site from unrelated sites Artificially generate traffic to your site so it appears more

popular than it is Force your web site to appear in search engine rankings by

submitting it repeatedly for inclusion in rankings (rule of thumb: submit once and hen wait at least six weeks before doing it again)

Expect search engines to automatically rank you at the top of your topic/category/keyword as soon as the site is picked up.

Manipulating Search Engines

You Can Create a web site that contains meta tags, content, graphics

and keywords that help improve your site ranking Use keywords liberally on your site – make sure they are

used in the correct context of your site and topic Include reciprocal links to your site from others as long as

the links are legitimate and relevant Encourage web site traffic through many venues, including

keyword advertising, reciprocal links, and marketing campaigns

Submit your web site to search engines manually, rather than waiting for them to pick up your site in the natural course of cataloging web sites.

Understanding Search Referrals and Traffic

The whole point of search engine positioning and optimization is to increase traffic to a site Qualified users who are seeking content or a

product or service your site can provide

It’s the top 30 or nothing! Studies have shown that most searchers do

not click past the third page (or 30 results)

Choosing the Right Keywords

You must choose not only keywords that match your site, but also keywords that are used by actual searchers to find sites with content like yours.

You should also review the terms your competitors are targeting.

One is the Loneliest Number

Be wary of single keywords as they may be difficult to obtain rankings for and may not provide qualified traffic to your web site.

Think "specific keyword phrases" not "keywords". Due to the extreme amount of competition for general

terms in the search engines, if your keyword phrases are too general it is very unlikely you will rank well in the search engines.

You stand a far better chance to rank well for specific phrases where there is less competition.

The resulting traffic, since it is more highly targeted, should also be much higher quality too!

Example for Selling Shoes

Much Too General: shoes men's shoes women's shoes

Much Better: imported italian shoes men's leather penny loafers women's aerobic sneakers

Developing Your Keyword Strategy

1. What’s your theme?2. Brainstorm the right keywords

WordTracker http://www.wordtracker.com/

Google’s Keyword Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal Online Thesaurus: http://thesaurus.reference.com/

Other Tools: http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/ 3. Develop your title and description4. Now, misspell your words (http://www.searchspell.com/typo/ or

http://tools.seobook.com/spelling/keywords-typos.cgi)

5. Think globally, act locally6. Make word stemming work for you7. Avoid “stop words” – words so common they are left

out of the database http://webteam.waikato.ac.nz/guidelines/stop_words.shtml

Keyword Quiz

Which is the more popular of these two search terms?

a. marketing strategyb. marketing strategies

marketing strategies

Keyword Quiz

Which of these two search terms is more popular?

a. marketing strategiesb. Marketing Strategies

marketing strategies

Keyword Quiz

Which of these two search terms is more popular?

a. marketing strategyb. Marketing Strategy

Marketing Strategy

WordTracker vs Overture Here are the search counts according to WordTracker:

Marketing Strategy - 446 searchesmarketing strategies - 347 searchesmarketing strategy - 268 searchesMarketing Strategies - 22 searches

Notice the different variations of all lowercase and first letter of each word capitalized?

Here are the search counts according to Overture: marketing strategy - 28030 searches

Overture search term suggestion tool disadvantages: Compiles singular, plurals, upper and lowercase keywords as one search

term. Only returns search terms that include the keyword/s you searched for -

WordTracker returns many more keyword combinations that bears any relation to your business or service.

But why is this important? Well, if you wanted to target searchers looking for marketing strategies,

you would want to know which search term is more popular. Imagine targeting "marketing strategies," without realizing that "Marketing Strategy" is a more popular search term.

Key Words are of KEY IMPORTANCE Use descriptive words that may be associated with benefits of

your products.

Always use the plural (rather than singular) version when forming your keywords. “running shoes” instead of “running shoe” Don’t use both versions because many search engines consider

that to be spamming. However, it is acceptable if the plural is significantly different from the singular (e.g., dairy versus dairies).

Use lowercase letters in formulating keywords. “running shoes” instead of “Running Shoes”

Be careful about using competitors’ keywords! Don’t use “Nike” if you are not Nike. However, you should check what the competition is doing

Tools

Search Engine Tracker – shows your position on 4 key search engines: http://www.netmechanic.com/products/Tracker_FreeSample.shtml

Keyword Count – this site will let you see the keywords used in your site and compare them to a competitor’s site: http://www.designerwiz.com/test/keyword_density_check.htm/

SEO Book – a wide variety of tools to help you optimize your site http://tools.seobook.com/

Wording Methods for SuccessThe “30/100 Rule”

A strategy to get triple bang for the buck.

The “30/100 Rule”

(Note: This technique works best with 100 note cards or small pieces of paper.)

List each keywords or phrases on each card (100) to be used as keywords meta tag.

Write a page description that will grab the web surfer’s attention using 30 or fewer words

Use the business name and your best words (5-7) from the 100 in an attention-getting title meta tag.