#B3Seminar
How a great Creative Strategy
can boost your SEOAndrew Machin – Head of Creative
The current
Seo Landscape
CITATIONS
BUILD
CONVERSATIONS
NEWS
On-site
Off-site
Sentiment
SOCIAL
Authority Relevance
Freshness
is listening to…
DESIGN
CONTENT
BLOG
Engagement
Satisfaction
Structure
Quality
How can you use design to improve
your SEO?
The right mindset
STEP 1
The fundamental paradigm of engagement online
Sentiment
Authority
Relevance
Freshness
Engagement
Satisfaction
Structure
Qualityis looking for
‘human’ signals
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Sentiment
Authority
Relevance
Freshness
Engagement
Satisfaction
Structure
Quality
can express all of this
Great Design
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What should we be creating to get people interested in your
brand?#B3Seminar
“We are interested in others when they are interested in us.”Publilius Syrus – 1BC
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“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”Dale Carnegie – 1934
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Emotional Response
Your ‘Brand’ is the
of others towards you.
“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”
Walt Disney
Them!It’s not about you, it’s about
Step 1. Summary
Think less in terms of “About Us”
Listen to your audience
Take a sincere interest in them
Tailor your digital presence to their needs
People will take more interest in you
You’ll feed the ZMOT
Get your house in order
STEP 2
Designing your website
The most important place creativity can
affect your SEO is your website
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CONVERSION
ENGAGEMENT
USABILITY
STRUCTURE
TRUST
AUTHORITY
Web design affects…
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First, it is important to understand how people read web pages…
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First, it is important to understand how people read web pages…
THEY DON’T
Jacob Nielson – useit.com
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How long do you have to engage a user?
Jacob Nielson – useit.com
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How long do you have to engage a user?
3.8 secondsJacob Nielson – useit.com
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Why is this?• We all can suffer from Analysis Paralysis
• This is why we stereotype – we create mental shortcuts
• The same rules apply to your site
• This is why we find visualisations (such as info-graphics) so engaging
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Your design 3.8 seconds to establish…
Relevance• Are you right for me?• Have you answered
my question?
Trust• Do you look credible?• Can I trust you with my
money?
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Or else…
The user returned to search. You did not satisfy their objectives.
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How do we establish
Relevance?
Relevance
• Have a clear, succinct opening proposition
• Relevant, quality imagery that backs up the proposition
• Visually outline Benefits/ USPs/Features
• Ask/Give the user what they are looking for
• Large amounts of text
• Sell hard
• Be ambiguous
• Unclear CTAs
• Focus content around “you”
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Relevance
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Relevance
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How do we establish
Trust?
Trust
• A great looking site
• Social/professional proofing
• Feature authoritative content
• Accreditations/Awards
• Case studies
• Real photography
• Responsive/Mobile friendly
• Stick with an old, dated looking site
• Poor content (inc. photography)
• Unsupported technology
• “Under construction”
• No mobile support
• No security assurance
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Trust
We engaged the user…
What next…?Jacob Nielson – useit.com
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Drive Conversion
GOAL
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£Traffic % achieve
an objective
YOUR SITE
GOAL
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£Traffic % achieve
an objective
YOUR SITE
GOAL
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Satisfaction?
GOAL
Remember; Google wants the full picture…
Search Conversion Experience
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Ensure your web design is
Usable
Why is this important?
If a website is difficult to use…
If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and/what users can do on the site…
If users get lost on a website…
If a website's information is hard to read or doesn't answer users’ key questions…
…they leave
Usability
• Is your site design easy to navigate?
• Does the design conform to best interface usability practice?• Checkouts• Forms• IA• Etc.
• Bring user-goal content to the fore
• Test, test, test!
• Unsupported technology
• Unnecessary obstructions
• Cluttered design that obscure objectives for the user
• Only show, or make salient, relevant content to the user at that time
• Pop-ups
• And of course… #B3Seminar
Ensure your web design is
Responsive
Responsive Design
Responsive Design
Responsive Design
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Poor experience on mobile…
…they leave
Google has issued clear recommendations on what it expects to see from mobile optimised websiteshttps://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/details
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You have 3 options…
Fully responsive Dynamically served HTML & CSS
Mobile version
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It will massively affect your performance
+100%
MOBILE CONVERSION
+20%CLICK
THROUGH RATE
+51%
MOBILE CONVERSION
+28%
TRAFFIC INCREASE
#B3Seminar
BewareEach require very specific and different methods of technical
implementation. Getting it wrong could put you in the firing line for
Panda.
A quick
Example
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Web Design Summary
Make your site as good as it can be, both in terms of
Design
Experience & Usability
Streamline your primary pages to be
Engaging
Relevant
Make it responsive
The current
SEO Landscape
CITATIONS
BUILD
CONVERSATIONS
NEWS
On-site
Off-site
Sentiment
SOCIAL
Authority Relevance
Freshness
is listening to…
DESIGN
CONTENT
BLOG
Engagement
Satisfaction
Structure
Quality
Join the conversation
STEP 3
Taking an interest in others
Where do we
Start?
…it takes people to make the dream a reality.
AudienceKnow your target
Understanding your audience• Most brands will have an idea of the audience they want to target
• Some go into advanced demographics
• If you don’t, then just get out there and ask…
• Use your social channels
• Conduct surveys
• Etc.
• Listen
• Above and beyond, the key is to discover What are they interested in?
#B3Seminar
What can you contribute?
• Take an interest
• Look for connections - What do we have in common?
• Use what you have
• Data• Technology/tools• Information
• Conduct research
• Surveys• Use existing data sources
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USEFUL
ENTERTAINING
NEWS WORTH
Y
ORIGINAL Time to
Brainstorm
PROVOCATIVE
APPEALING
What can we
Create?
Info/interactive graphics
On-site tools, games & hubs
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The right
Tools
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A final example
Example
• No data to work with
• Very broad target audience
• Little conversation around the industry in target audience
• Negative sentiment around the industry
• Needed to be relevant
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Overall Summary Listen
Take an interest in your audience
Answer their questions
Streamline your primary pages to be
Engaging
Relevant
Responsive
Get out there and enjoy it
#B3Seminar@Branded_3
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