Search Marketing Basics - OMI 2012

Online Marketing Institute Get Smarter. Get Certified.

www.omicertified.com

Search Engine Marketing Basics Adam Proehl

Managing Partner, NordicClick Interactive

@adamproehl

Pinch Hitter

2 @adamproehl

• In Online Marketing since 1997; specialize in complex & multi-

channel sales

• Principle at NordicClick Interactive – a full service Digital

Marketing Agency based in Minneapolis

• Spoken at Pubcon, SEMPO, eMetrics, B2B, OMS, SES, MDMA,

and others

• Instructor at the Online Marketing Institute

• Long Suffering Minnesota Sports Fan

3

About Me

@adamproehl

Is: • An Intro – a get started

• Stuff you can do today

• 101 level stuff

• Cram session

Is Not: • Advanced level stuff

• Chart overload

4

About this Session

@adamproehl

Notes Before We Begin

@adamproehl

Agenda

Overview: State of Search & a History Lesson

Getting Started & Keyword Research

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Cost Per Click (CPC)

Tools & Tricks

@adamproehl

7 @adamproehl

8

Then………1998

@adamproehl

Then………1998

@adamproehl

10

Now……. 2012

@adamproehl

Now – 2012

Instant

Location

@adamproehl

Now – 2012

@adamproehl

Now – 2012

Logged Into Google

Search plus your world

@adamproehl

BG (Before Google)

1998

1999

2000

2001

Google: Major Change

History

First Paid Advertising Launch

@adamproehl

15

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Google: Major Change History

Supplimental Update

False Alarm

NoFollow Allegra Bourbon XML Sitemaps Personalized Search Gilligan Google Local / Maps Jagger Big Daddy

Austin Brandy IPO

Boston Cassandra Dominic Esmeralda Fritz Supplemental Index

Florida

1st Documented Update

(No Name Given)

@adamproehl

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Overstock.com Penalty Attribution Update Panda / Farmer The +1 Button Panda 2.0 Panda 2.1 Schema.org Panda 2.2 Google + Panda 2.3 Panda 2.4 (Global) Expanded SiteLinks Pagination Elements 516 Algo Updates Panda 2.5 Panda “Flux” Query Encryption Freshness Update 10 Pack of Updates Panda 3.1 December 10 Pack

Google: Major Change History

Buffy

Universal Search

Google Suggest Dewey

Real Time Caffeine “Rel-Canonical Tag” Vince

Search + Your World January 30 Pack

Social Signals Negative Reviews Instant Previews Google Instant Brand Update Caffeine (Rollout) MayDay Google Places

@adamproehl

18

Search 2012

@adamproehl

19

Search 2012 – Market Share

@adamproehl

Success in Three Phases

I. Pre Click

@adamproehl

21


II. Post Click

@adamproehl


III. Post Visit

Close the Loop – Especially in B2B!

@adamproehl

Mindset for Search

@adamproehl

Benchmark

• Determine success metrics

• Document goals

• Measure & Track – Referring keywords

– Overall site traffic

– Organic search metrics

– Link popularity

– Google Page Rank

– Quality of Traffic

– Conversions

Benchmarking

@adamproehl

Competitive Analysis • Determine your top 3-5 competitors and benchmark

• Analyze how they’re doing from an SEO standpoint

• Which keywords are they optimizing for & how do they rank?

• How many pages do they have indexed.

• Do they aggressively utilize Social Media, Blogs, etc.

• What’s their link popularity and Google Page Rank?

Benchmarking

@adamproehl

Benchmarking

Easy Tool: www.marketinggrader.com

26

http://www.marketinggrader.com/

Benchmarking

Easy Tool: www.woorank.com

27

Benchmarking

See anything missing?

28

“Ranking Reports – like a mood ring”

@adamproehl

Keyword Research

@adamproehl

Keyword Research

Picking:

- How does your audience

think?

- Do they know your jargon?

Maybe

- How do they think? - Problem Statements

- Product Focused

- Industry terms?

30 @adamproehl

Keyword Research

Example: Medical Devices

31

• Doctors

• Patients

• Caregivers

• Media

Keyword Research – Getting Started

Before using a Keyword Research Tool:

- Survey Data

- Emails (Support & Inquiries)

- Lead Qualification

- Competitive Analysis

- Your own analytics (if applicable)

- Social Media

32

Keyword Research

Tool: Soovle

www.soovle.com 33

Keyword Research Tool: Wordle

34

www.wordle.net

@adamproehl

Keyword Research

35 @adamproehl

Keyword Research

Tool: Google Instant

36 @adamproehl

Keyword Research

Tool: Adwords Estimator

@adamproehl

Keyword Research

Tool: Social Mention

38

How Audience Talks

Articles

Experts

@adamproehl

Keyword Demand • Avoid the big dollar / high traffic terms

• Long-tail (3 words are more) will often perform best

• Ask yourself what are the keywords that you can realistically have success on?

Keyword Research

@adamproehl

Tools • Free

o Google AdWords

o AdCenter – Leverage Bing & MSN

o Soovle (Instant type search)

o Wordle – Create a Keyword Cloud out of anyting

o Social Mention – Social Media

• Paid

o Raven (SEMRush, AdWords & WordTracker)

o KeywordSpy – Research with ROI tools

o SpyFu – Competitive research tool

o WebCEO – Find detail keywords in META data

Keyword Research

@adamproehl

https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=1643538787&__c=4503913987&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS


http://adlab.microsoft.com/keyword-Research.aspx

http://adlab.microsoft.com/keyword-Research.aspx

http://soovle.com/

http://www.wordle.net/

http://www.socialmention.com/

http://raventools.com/

http://www.keywordspy.com/

http://www.spyfu.com/

http://www.webceo.com/

SEO

What is it?

41 @adamproehl

SEO – What is It?

Nope

42 @adamproehl

SEO – What is it?

Nope again

43

Image Credit: TVT Ropes.org

SEO – What is it?

Don’t go there

44 @adamproehl

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a common sense way of organizing and displaying your Website’s content to be properly indexed by the Search Engines.

@adamproehl

SEO Effectiveness • Search Engine Marketing spending on SEO to increase by 250%

from 2008-2013

• SEO viewed as most effecting tactic for generating conversions

What is SEO?

@adamproehl

Technical Optimization

To identify any issues that will prevent search engines from

indexing your Web pages.

Content Development

Displaying and organizing your

content and keywords for the search engines to

index .

Links Increasing the

quantity and most importantly, quality of in-

bound links to your site.

Local Search Optimization Ensuring that your

location(s) are submitted and listed on local

search and mapping sites.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO Process

@adamproehl

Best Practices • Sitemaps (XML,

HTML, Video)

• Robots.txt

• Dublin core

• Geo tag

• Page speed

• 301 redirects

SEO - Technical

Not voodoo, just technobabble!

@adamproehl

Red Flags • Canonicalization / www Resolve

• Duplicate content

• URL structure

• Dynamic content

• Flash

• Inline styles

• 302 redirects

• W3C validity

SEO - Technical

@adamproehl

Tools • Google Webmaster Tools

• Yahoo Site Explorer – Comprehensive Web Tools

• SEOMoz (Free & paid tools)

• Raven Tools (Quality, Design and Research Assistant)

• Woorank – SEO and Web site grader

• Metamend – SEO Tools

SEO - Technical

@adamproehl


https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

http://www.seomoz.org/tools

http://raventools.com/

http://www.woorank.com/

http://www.metamend.com/seo-tools/




Content Development



index .

Link Building

Increasing the quantity and most

importantly, quality of in-






SEO Process

@adamproehl

Content Hierarchy • Site architecture should

be logical and user friendly

• Organize content in thematic sets based around target keywords and core offerings

• URL structure should match content hierarchy

52

SEO - Content

Men’s Shoes

Dress Shoes

Black Leather Shoes

Brown Leather Shoes

Casual Shoes

Suede Shoes

Two Tone Shoes

Shoe Care

Shoe Polish

Accessories

@adamproehl

META Data • META data is used for

indexing by search engines and are used in SEO rankings.

- Title tags

- Description tags

- Keywords tag

- ALT tag

- H tags

53

53

SEO - Content

@adamproehl

Content Optimization • 200 – 300 words per

page.

• Focus on 1 – 3 core phrases per page

• Minimum 2 – 4% keyword density

• Group content together in thematic sets based on keywords

SEO - Content

@adamproehl




Content Development



index .

Link Building








SEO Process

@adamproehl

About Link Popularity • Link popularity is a very

important factor in search engine ranking. Search engines view Web sites with good link popularity as authorities in their subject matter.

• Quantity and most importantly,

QUALITY of in-bound links to your site.

SEO – Link Building

@adamproehl


Link Building Process • Link Analysis

• Benchmark current link popularity & number of in-links

• Competitive analysis • Conduct a back link analysis

• Strategy Development • Ideas for linking partners • Existing link analysis and optimization • Creative brainstorming

• Tactical Implementation • Research • Contact • Report

@adamproehl


Red Flags • Link Dilution

• Focus on one domain(WWW)

• Site Migration to New Domain

• 301 redirect old URLs

• Link Farms

• Jeopardize rankings

• Link Volume vs. Relevancy

• Quality and relevancy more than quantity

@adamproehl

.


Linking Strategies • Low Hanging Fruit

• Back Link Analysis on Competing Sites

• Optimization of Existing Links

• Missed Opportunities

• Directories

• Coupons, Contests & Freebies

• Google +

• Public Relations • Editorial

• Press Releases

@adamproehl


Linking Strategies • Strategic Thinking

• Link Research

• Local & Regional

• Product Reviews

• Business Partners

• Social Media

• Blogging

• Digital Asset Optimization

• RSS & Blog Directories

@adamproehl


Quick Wins • LinkedIn (allows you to customize link anchor

text) • Google Plus • Pinterest • DMOZ • Yahoo Directory & Local • Best of the Web • Joe Ant • Business.com • Google Maps • Flickr • Local Chamber of Commerce • Better Business Bureau • Local library

@adamproehl


Best Long Term Mindset:

Just create really cool

stuff that people will

want to share and link

to!

@adamproehl

Tools & Resources Link Popularity

• SEOMoz Linkscape - seomoz.org/linkscape

• Yahoo Site Explorer - siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com

• Market Leap - marketleap.com/publinkpop/default.htm

Back Link Analysis

• SEOBook Link Harvester - tools.seobook.com/link-harvester

• Back Link Analyzer - tools.seobook.com/backlink-analyzer

Web site Contacts

• Easy Who Is - easywhois.com

• Go Daddy Who Is - who.godaddy.com/WhoIsCheck.aspx


@adamproehl




Content Development



index .

Link Building








SEO Process

@adamproehl

Local & Global Search Are Linked Local Search Core Components • Google Places Optimization • Bing Business Portal • Submission to Trusted Providers • Reviews • Check In’s

SEO – Local Search

@adamproehl

Google Places Google Places is Google’s Local Search Engine o Claim & optimize your

listing

o Upload images and videos

o Obtain reviews

o Add Calls-to-Action


@adamproehl

Bing Business Bing Business Portal is their Local Engine

o Claim & optimize your listing

o Add company specific info and CTA’s

o Build Mobile site with QR code


@adamproehl

Reviews

Reviews Matter Like a lot

SEO – Reviews

@adamproehl

Trusted Providers There are hundreds of other Local Search Sites

• Search Engines

• GPS & Geo navigation

• Online Yellow Pages

• Social Networks

• Portals and Guides

• Cell Phones and Mobile

• 411 Directories


@adamproehl

Tools • Google Places

• Bing Business Portal

• Universal Business Listing

• getListed.org

• Geo Meta Tag Generator

• Geo Sitemap Generator

• FourSquare


@adamproehl

http://www.getlisted.org/

http://www.geo-tag.de/generator/en.html

http://www.geositemapgenerator.com/

http://www.foursquare.com/

Paid Search

71 @adamproehl

About Paid Search A form of

Interactive advertising that

lets you promote your business on search engines.

Build a Campaign

Creating a campaign that

utilizes keywords & ads that new customers will

click.

Bid & Budget Managment Managing your

advertising expenditure to maximize the quality and

quantity of clicks.

Advanced Optimization Maximizing local, e-commerce, re-marketing and

post-click optimization to increase leads.

Paid Search Marketing Process

Paid Search Marketing

@adamproehl

Paid Search Effectiveness • 49% of marketers are continuing to increase

spend

• 68% are paying at least $.20 per click

• Google still king

• Bing effectiveness, still behind Google, but gaining

• Biggest spenders are doing more with Bing

About Paid Search

Source: Internet Retailer July 2011

@adamproehl

74

About Paid Search

What is Paid Search (PPC)

• Search Placement on a Partial* Pay for Performance Model Basis

• Clicks

@adamproehl *Not Conversions or Sales

75

How Does Paid Search (PPC) work • Someone searches

• Your ad shows

• You pay for the click

• Stop & Start when you chose (time of day, day of week, etc.)

• Control what you promote and which keywords trigger

• Target potential customers by country, state, city or zip code

About Paid Search

@adamproehl

76

Paid Search Networks • Google AdWords • Microsoft AdCenter (Bing/Yahoo) • Facebook & LinkedIn • Comparison Shopping Sites

(Google Merchant Center, Shopping.com, Shopzilla, NexTag, BizRate, etc.)

• Hundreds more….

About Paid Search

@adamproehl

77

About Paid Search

@adamproehl




Build a Campaign



click.

Bid & Budget Management

Managing your advertising

expenditure to maximize the quality and

quantity of clicks.





@adamproehl

79

Paid Search Setup • Three levels:

• Account • Campaign • Ad Group

• Account = unique e-mail

• Ad Campaigns control the

budget

• Ad Groups contain a set of ads and a keyword list the will trigger ads

Build a Campaign

@adamproehl

80

Build a Campaign

Campaign Ad Group Keywords

@adamproehl

81

Example Ad

Build a Campaign

Text Ad Basics

• Headline – The first line that links to your Web site (25 characters)

• Copy Text – Two lines that describe your text or service

• Display URL – Your Web site

• Destination URL – The URL that will click through to your landing page.

@adamproehl

82

Build a Campaign

Keywords • Research is king. Remember

the earlier slides?

• Categorize keywords into different ad groups by similar core words

• Ads and Landing Pages must

contain keywords highly relevant to searched term

@adamproehl

83

Build a Campaign

Positioning • You cannot buy your way into

the top spot

• Relevance - the usefulness of information (such as an ad, keyword, or landing page) to a user.

• Quality Score - measure how relevant your keyword, ad group, and webpage is to a user's search.

@adamproehl

84

Build a Campaign

Click Objective • E-Commerce – Direct clicks with the goal of driving customer

to purchase your products or services

• Leads- Click through to a “Action Oriented” page that provides general sales copy along with a form

• Branding – Goal of a high number of ad impressions with clicks driving to the home page to promote your brand

• Tracking – Ensure that you have Web Analytics Properly installed on your site in order to track results

@adamproehl




Build a Campaign



click.




quantity of clicks.





@adamproehl

86

Budget & Bid Mgmt.

Budget

• Setting a higher budget will result in more ad impressions and clicks

• Your ads will appear as frequently as possible for your keywords.

• Increased budget does NOT guarantee top position

@adamproehl

87

Budget & Bid Mgmt.

Bids (CPC)

• Higher CPCs help your ads appear among top positions in Google search results

• Bidding for top positions will yield higher click-through rates (CTR)

• Top positions do NOT guarantee higher conversion rates

@adamproehl

88

Budget & Bid Mgmt.

Return on Investment (ROI or ROAS)

• The main goal of every campaign should be to maximize ROI / Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

• The components of PPC ROI are: • Cost Per Click (CPC) • Conversion Rate (CR) • Average Order Value (AOV)

• Free calculators online

@adamproehl




Build a Campaign



click.




quantity of clicks.





@adamproehl

90

Advanced Optimization

Location Extensions

• Your ad will appear with a location extension and drop down menu to display your map and information

• Google Places needs to be linked to your account

@adamproehl

91


Ad Site Links • Include up to 4 additional

links to deeper content on your site beyond the main landing page

Phone Extensions • Enables your customer to

click and call your business from your text ad on their mobile phone

@adamproehl

92


Product Extensions • Allows you to leverage your existing Google Merchant Center

account to highlight your products directly within your ads.

@adamproehl

Product Ads – Merchant Center Link In order to participate in Product Ads there needs to a link from the AdWords account to a Google Merchant Center accounts which has been completed.


@adamproehl

2

Max CPC

Enhanced CPC: • An automatic bidding feature that modifies your max CPC bid for each click

based on the predicted likelihood that your ad will convert.

• Increase in conversions and conversion % leads to increased revenue


@adamproehl

9

5

Users who have visited your web site

Content Network:

• 80%+ Internet User Reach

• 4.3B Daily Page-Views

• 705M Monthly Visitors

• Hundreds of thousands

of sites

Serve ads on the Google Display Network to users who previously visited your Web site.

At Google scale


Re-marketing /

Re-targeting

@adamproehl

96 96

1 + 1 = 3! Paid ads supplement performance of organic search

% New Visitors to Site Example:

Organic Search 52%

Sponsored Links 64%

12% Increase

Buying your Brand Terms

@adamproehl

97 97

New Mobile Ad Formats now available to help

strengthen your mobile ad campaigns

• Automatic App Icons – on click-to-

download ads

• +1 on Ads

• Auto-enhanced Click-To-Call – automatically creates phone extensions on mobile when detecting a phone number within ad text

• Instant Preview Ads

• Store Locator Format

• Bid by Distance – BETA – allows

you to bid more for users who are nearby your location

• Mobile App Extension - BETA

Paid Search Advanced - Mobile

@adamproehl

98

You’re now able to have more

granular control by selecting

specific operating systems to

target

Paid Search – Tablet Targeting

Take advantage of the rapidly growing amount of tablet users by targeting the Exact Kind of Tablets you want with new and advanced options in your AdWords account

@adamproehl

99

Paid Search – Videos

Promoted Videos • Now eligible to appear

on search results for: • Google.com • Google Video • m.youtube.com in

the US

@adamproehl

Defensive SEM

• Utilize Paid Search, SEO and Social Media to create a “Wallpaper Effect” that dominates the front page of a Search Engine

• By dominating and controlling the front page you push down negative comments and bad press from other Web sites

The Wallpaper Effect Paid

Local

Organic

Blog

Linkedin

Case Study

Careers

Facebook

@adamproehl

Tools • Competitive and Keyword

o Google AdWords - Tools & Editor

o KeywordSpy – Research with ROI tools

o SpyFu – Competitive research tool

o SEOBook Tools

o AdWords Wrapper

• Paid Search Management Software

o Kenshoo

o Marin

Paid Search

@adamproehl

https://adwords.google.com/

http://www.keywordspy.com/

http://www.spyfu.com/

http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/

http://www.adwordswrapper.com/

http://www.kenshoo.com/Search/

http://www.marinsoftware.com/

Measure & Improve

Constantly do this. Don’t ever Stop!

102 @adamproehl

Summary Time

• Think “Success in Three Phases” (pre-click,

post-click, post visit)

• Keywords are about how your audience thinks

• SEO not Magic or Voodoo, just sound marketing

& a little technobabble

• PPC Continues to Grow – Opportunities

abound

• Constantly measure & improve

103 @adamproehl

Questions?

104 @adamproehl

Appendix

105

106

Paid Search Advanced -

Mobile

Mobile Statistics • By 2014 Mobile usage will overtake desktop internet usage

• 1.08 Billion smartphones leading the way

• iPad and other Tablets along with apps are changing the way people surf

Trends in 2012

• Facebook shares and comments are more important than likes

• Google+ Becoming a big factor

• Use of Google +1 changes results

• Web Page Authority Vs. Human Authority

• PageRank, Meet Social Rank? • Who You Are On Twitter

Counts

SEO & Social Authority – Trends

108

Facebook & SEO • Social Metrics are Well

Correlated with Higher Rankings

• Pages that earn tweets + Facebook shares also correlate well with earning links, and send direct traffic

• Facebook Shares are more Valuable than Likes

• Likes are still important as they convey great signals of quality

SEO & Social Authority – Facebook

109

Targeting: • Location • Language • Demographic (Age, Gender) • Interest Targeting

- Precise Targeting (shown): Likes/Interests /Occupations (keywords most common to your target)

- Broad Targeting: General category

• Connection targeting - Targeting connections

(informative) - Excluding connections - Friends of connections

• Relationship Status • Education & Workplace targeting

SEO & Social Authority – Facebook Ads

110

Google +1 Button • +1 Helps discover relevant content • Content recommended by friends

is more relevant • When a +1 button is added Google

assumes you want your page publically available and visible in Google Search results

• CarSoup does not have +1 results

SEO & Social Authority – Google +1

* http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1140194

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1140194

111

Google+ Impact on SEO • Google+ pages have begin to show

up in primary search results • Direct Connect (beta) lets people

enter '+' followed by the name of your page in Google search to get directly to your Google+ page.

• Use the +1 button to have others recommend your brand

• Be prepared for full rollout

SEO & Social Authority – Google+

* http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1140194

http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&p=direct_connect&answer=1711199

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1140194

112

Google+ SEO • Profile – Fill out completely • Tagline – Keep your tagline to

about 30 characters. • Posts – Allow publicly visible. • Influence – Participate in the

Google+ community across as many networks as possible

• AdWords – Linking your page will give you credit for any +1’s that you receive on ads.

• Link your website to your Page – Also link your other Social profiles such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.

• Activity – Social Authority relies on activity and profile completeness

SEO & Social Authority – Google+