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Search Engine Optimization

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Mark 430WEEK 6

Objectives:

• Distinguish between the two elements of Search Marketing– search engine optimization (SEO)– search engine advertising (SEA)

• Understand and use some of the organic methods of optimizing a page for search (SEO)

Web characteristics…

• Web users are looking for information all the time – so traditional promotional “campaigns” (in short bursts) are not sufficient– Continuous representation is also needed –

especially in search engines

Search Engines and marketing• Search engines are a narrowcast medium– Drive quality traffic• those who are ALREADY interested in your

product or service – but may not even know that your firm exists

• ROMI is high and can be directly measured– Low cost relative to traditional media– Relatively good results in terms of traffic, sales,

and branding– Good for SMEs and locally targeted search

The importance of search – some research findings• 92% of online adults use search engines to find information on the Web,

and this is the most popular online activity (along with email) (Pew Internet: Most popular online activities)

• 58% of Americans perform online research using search engines before they buy product (Pew Internet: Online Product Research Sept. 2010)

• More recent research suggests that click-through rates are dropping, and that position #1 is very important– CRT for the #1 position in the organic rankings at Google is 18.2% and the #2 position

gets 10.05 CTR

• Organic vs. Paid Search Results: Organic Wins 94% of Time

• But research from Google seems to suggest that ad clicks increase where there are also organic results on the SERP

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

Search engine marketing – 2 major methods

TWO MAJOR METHODS - OBJECTIVE IS TO BE IN THE TOP FEW SEARCH RESULTS

1. Search engine optimization (SEO) - built into the design of web pages / inbound link quality (organic positioning) - TODAY

2. Search engine advertising: Pay-per-Click (Week 9)

Trust in search engine providers relies on the fact that organic search is not tainted by payment…

Paid listings

SEO -Organic listings

Search engine optimization (for organic listings)

• Objective: top position in search engine results pages (SERPS) - without paying the search engine for the position by bidding on key words

• A way to reach those who are ALREADY interested in your product or service – but may not even know that your firm exists

• What we are optimizing for are RELEVANCE and IMPORTANCE– Optimizing the web page CONTENT (and code) for search

engine indexing– Link strategy

Search engine optimization• Focuses on:

1. ON-PAGE optimization• designing web pages that are friendly to search

engine spiders and are optimized for your keywords/phrases

• making sure that the elements that are indexed by search engines are all optimal for your page goals

2. OFF-PAGE optimization• Having high-quality in-bound links

Chaffey, D. et al. Internet Marketing. 2007

How search engines work

• Search engine indexing – GoogleBot and its sister spiders– How do search engines work? (Google video 3 minutes)

– Relevancy ranking algorithms – Google PageRank and other factors• Google Tutorial on Ranking: relevance and importance

• Remember, they all search engines use different ranking algorithms and methods• Google has around 65% market share– Target some engines and do your research

• SearchEngineWatch.com and SearchEngineLand.com

Changes in Google’s relevancy ranking algorithm that impact SEO• Some pundits say that “SEO is dead”• It isn’t, but is has changed and become even

more challenging: Search metrics rank correlation factors report

• Looser keyword matching • Social signals becoming increasingly important

• The fundamentals don’t change much – we will focus on those

Steps involved in SEO

1. Create a content-rich site that real people will find valuable (but remember, each page is in competition)

2. Use clean, simple code3. Research competition and keywords / phrases.

Identify and select keywords and phrases for optimization, then validate them for popularity

4. Add your keywords to the content (do not spam)5. Get inbound links from other reputable sites6. Submit to search engines7. Repeat – this is NOT a one-off effort – the playing-

field changes continually

1. Create a content-rich site that real people will find valuable

• Search engines reward sites with good content – this is the most important element of all

• Create high quality, relevant content– create content your target audience is genuinely

interested in– Search engines reward sites that have valuable

information– Do some test searches and note that it is not

always the best looking sites that are at the top…it is the ones with the best CONTENT• Eg. Digital camera review site versus digital camera eCommerce site• Wikipedia

– Think about how this works for image and video search..

2. Use clean, simple code

• What you see…..

• What GoogleBot sees…..

• XHTML and CSS – separation of structure and content from presentation elements helps (make sure that your developer is following current web standards from the W3C)

• Google is now downgrading sites in mobile search that are not mobile-friendly

• Make sure that any firm that you hire to build a website understands how SEO works

3. Select your Keywords/keyphrases

• This is the most important concept to grasp in search marketing

• What are members of your target market actually typing into search engines?

– Those are the keywords/keyphrases that you must optimize for

Identify and select keywords and phrases then validate them for popularity

• “Keywords” or “key phrases” are the search terms people type into search engines– Brainstorm and research– Do test searches– Try out keywords from generators– eg. Google’s Keyword Planner (lots of data about

traffic and trends)– or download the Bing Ads Intelligence tool– Keyword Generator: Wordtracker (no longer free)– Google search trends might be interesting

Long-tail keywords (based on power law concept)

• Distinguish “long-tail” keywords from “head” keywords– running shoes = “head term”– compare grip new balance and nike trail running =

“long-tail term”• These search terms have good ROI because

they are less competitive and give higher user satisfaction (lower bounce rates?)

• Example of a long-tail keyword generator

The impact of changes in Google’s search interface and algorithm

• The impact of Google Instant on the SERPs and on search behaviour?– How Google Instant affects SEO (Bruce Clay)

• The other thing to take into account is that Google personalizes search results according to search / web history– A competing search engine explains the impact

• Google changes its algorithm quite frequently (algorithm change history) – most recently to favour sites optimized for mobile

3. Research your competition

• Use your target search engines and perform analysis of top results for your keywords

• Track and analyze what your competitors are doing– See how they rank for keywords / phrases– Look at their code to see what keywords they use

and how they use them

4. Add your keywords to the content (do not spam!)

• Page body text: content / page copy• Title tag• Heading tags• Graphics: alt tags• Hypertext links• Meta tags• How to Look at Your Website the Way Goog

le Does

Page body text: content / page copy

• Page copy - make sure your keywords are well represented– Higher in the page the better (definitely in the first 25

words)– Use your customer’s language: not all marketing copy

uses the words that your customers use

• Relationship of a keyword phrase to the total number of words on a page = keyword density– Keyword density is a good indication of relevancy– But remember balance: higher is not always better

(boring for users and penalized as spam!)

Title tag• Probably the most important page element tag• Should always contain your most important keywords

or key terms• Each page of your site should have a different title tag• Example of a good TITLE tag that will generate traffic

from people searching for “Leonardo da Vinci” the renaissance artist: – <TITLE>Leonardo da Vinci. Art of the renaissance</TITLE>

(absolute relevance)• This example is less relevant (but contains other

useful info – remember to balance marketing needs)– <TITLE>Artefacts: Leonardo da Vinci. High quality prints and

framing</TITLE> • This one will put you out of business:

– <TITLE>Welcome to your Number One Online Resource for Wall Art Solutions!!!</TITLE>

Heading tags• <H1>, <H2>, <H3> etc• Used to indicate importance: ie. page

heading or paragraph headings• Should therefore be a good indicator of

content - these should indicate the theme of the page or section

• Use your keywords in heading tags• Use heading tags when coding - Never just

make the text bigger using font size

Graphics: alt tags• Spiders can’t see or read graphics• Make sure all graphics have relevant and

descriptive ALT tags (not photo34643)• Use your keywords – especially in places like the

alt tags for your logo• Especially important for navigation graphics (you

don’t want a spider to get stuck on a page)

• Also….think about how image search works…

Hypertext links to other parts of your site

– use your keywords in hypertext links

– Never use “click here”! – does that look like relevant or interesting content to a spider?

–make it easy for spiders to follow links

– Include text links for navigation in addition to javascript jump or hierarchical menus

Meta tags (description and keyword tags)

• No longer useful as sole tactic to influence rankings

• keywords used in meta tags should match those in the visible body text

• BUT search engines often use title and description in the listings themselves– Example of a VIU listing on Google

5. Get inbound links from other reputable sites

• What gives your site “authority”?• Link popularity strongly influences relevance ranking (it

signals importance)• Number and quality of other sites that link to yours

(inbound links)– must be content relevant (don’t spam!)– request links from relevant high-ranking sites– get a listing in a directory

• Google moves against “link farms, content farms, and spam sites” – the losers and JC Penney

• Find out who links to you now– link:www.nanaimo.ca

• Think about the “landing page” – remember individual pages are competing - not your entire site

• Google’s new Link Disavowal tool

URL strategy and landing pages

• If we are going to drive traffic to our site one of the most important pieces of marketing real estate is the URL

• Not just a question of selecting the right domain name

• URL strategy relates to placement of landing page in folder so web address itself is meaningful (Google now uses this explicitly)

• Campaign URLs (CURLS)

6. Submit to search engines

• If you don’t play, you can’t win• Check which pages are already indexed –

inurl:viu.ca or Google’s Site Status Wizard• Decide which search engines to target, and read all the

information for submission and ranking eg. Google for webmasters

• Google Tutorial on how to get pages into Google

– Then submit your URL to Bing– And to Google– And to Yahoo

7. Repeat all steps again

• Search engines change their algorithms constantly

• Search engines constantly on guard against spam

• There are no guarantees of position with SEO

• Good SEO involves constant monitoring, analysis and tweaking

• The Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors (from Search Engine Watch)

Don’t try to SPAM search engines!

• Google’s Guide for Webmasters

• Deceptive and manipulative behaviour - Black hat SEO and search engine SPAM– An example: bmw.de

Enhance a search listing with Google Places for Business

• A free tool from Google to help you bring your business to prominence when people are searching: Google My Business

• Add extra features to your business listing– Photos– Reviews of your business– Indoor business photos (sometimes)Example: Modern Café Nanaimo

Other changes in the search scene• Google “cards” and the Knowledge Graph – “answers

not links”• Search shifting from search engines to social

networking sites, and that content is also increasingly being indexed by search engines (where they can get access)

• Real-time search (Google Instant)• Personalized / customized search– Social search

• Bing now using Facebook data to personalize search (WSJ video)