#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

#B3Seminar

Sentiment

Authority

Relevance

Freshness

Engagement

Satisfaction

Structure

Quality

can express all of this

Great Design

#B3Seminar

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

#B3Seminar

“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

#B3Seminar

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

#B3Seminar

CONVERSION

ENGAGEMENT

USABILITY

STRUCTURE

TRUST

AUTHORITY

Web design affects…

#B3Seminar

First, it is important to understand how people read web pages…

#B3Seminar

First, it is important to understand how people read web pages…

THEY DON’T

Jacob Nielson – useit.com

#B3Seminar

How long do you have to engage a user?

Jacob Nielson – useit.com

#B3Seminar

How long do you have to engage a user?

3.8 secondsJacob Nielson – useit.com

#B3Seminar

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

#B3Seminar

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?

#B3Seminar

Or else…

The user returned to search. You did not satisfy their objectives.

#B3Seminar

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”

#B3Seminar

Relevance

#B3Seminar

Relevance

#B3Seminar

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

#B3Seminar

Trust

We engaged the user…

What next…?Jacob Nielson – useit.com

#B3Seminar

Drive Conversion

GOAL

#B3Seminar

£Traffic % achieve

an objective

YOUR SITE

GOAL

#B3Seminar

£Traffic % achieve

an objective

YOUR SITE

GOAL

#B3Seminar

Satisfaction?

GOAL

Remember; Google wants the full picture…

Search Conversion Experience

#B3Seminar

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

#B3Seminar

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

#B3Seminar

You have 3 options…

Fully responsive Dynamically served HTML & CSS

Mobile version

#B3Seminar

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

#B3Seminar

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

#B3Seminar

USEFUL

ENTERTAINING

NEWS WORTH

Y

ORIGINAL Time to

Brainstorm

PROVOCATIVE

APPEALING

What can we

Create?

Info/interactive graphics

On-site tools, games & hubs

#B3Seminar

The right

Tools

#B3Seminar

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

#B3Seminar

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

Andrew.Machin@branded3.com@The_Machin

Thank You

#B3Seminar@Branded_3