Google Analytics

SEO

Martin Dinham

Why am I here ?

• 11 years of online marketing experience

• Worked with some of the UK’s largest brandsArgos, The Post Office, JP Morgan, Laura Ashley

• Joined Channel in December

About Channel Digital

• Specialist online marketing agency

• 12 strong

• Local and national clients

• Upstairs

An introduction to Analytics

• http://www.google.co.uk/analytics/

• Self service, FREE OF CHARGE website analytics

• Complete visibility of website traffic and behaviour

Officially…

“Google Analytics not only lets you measure sales and conversions, but also gives you fresh insights into how visitors use your site, how they arrived on your site and how you can keep them coming back.”

Unofficially…

”Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.”

John Wanamaker (1838 – 1922)

For example• How much traffic do I get ?

• Where does it come from?- direct- search engines- partner websites- email campaigns- all the stuff I put on Facebook

• What do visitors do on my site ?- popular pages – in and out- time spent on pages- conversions and sales

So, when should I use it ?

• For everything !

• Monitoring the effectiveness of your website and every activity associated with it

• Making decisions based on hard evidence, not gut feelings

For example…• How much traffic do I get from search engines ?

• What are my most popular pages ?

• What are my social networks doing for my website ?

• What countries are my visitors coming from ?

So, I can tell….• What the impact of my marketing activity is;

- Adwords- Social media- Email

• If you’re selling, this can be in pound notes

• What the impact of my changes are;- on website pages- with new content

• Where my visitors come from;- Geography- Browser- Operating system

Sounds great, how do I get it ?

• Easy – sign up for an account at http://www.google.co.uk/analytics/

• Free !

• Needs 1 line of code installed on your site

Copyright ©2011 Channel Computing Limited

Questions ?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

What is it ?

Copyright ©2011 Channel Computing Limited

Why do you care ?• 61% of global Internet users research products online. (Interconnected World: Shopping and

Personal Finance, 2012)

• 44% of online shoppers begin by using a search engine. (Interconnected World: Shopping and Personal Finance, 2012)

• Worldwide, we conduct 131 billion searches per month on the web. (Comscore, January 2010)

• 70% of the links search users click on are organic, not paid. (Marketing Sherpa, February 2007)

• 60% of all organic clicks go to the top three organic search results. (MarketingSherpa, February 2007)

• 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results. (MarketShareHitsLink.com, October 2010)

• 70% of search engine traffic is from organic search (not AdWords)

• Its free ! (Well, kind of….)

• But, it takes effort

• And, it takes time

What does it entail?• Helping Google make sense of your website and your

marketplace

• Its not about gaming Search Engines any more

• Its about giving Google users the right results

• Using a number of steps…

1. Crawling

• The ability of search engine spiders to navigate and index your content

• If they can’t get it into their index, its never going to rank…

• So, are there any fundamental TECHNICAL problems that prevent your site being indexed

• Easy way to check ?

• Have you got (the right number of) pages indexed ?

• If not, why not ?

2. Keyphrase selection

• There’s no point ranking for keyphrases if no one searches for them

• There’s equally little point targeting unrealistic keyphrases

The Google Keyphrase Tool is your friend…

Remain sensible and pragmatic

• Don’t bother with terms that are irrelevant – you might get traffic, it won’t convert

• Be mindful of the competition level – don’t try to compete with Tesco…

Copyright ©2011 Channel Computing Limited

So, how do I do that ?

• Market & Keywords

• What is a niche?– Identify– Genuine demand– Provide solutions– “Sensible” competition

Then

• Select a short number of realistically available search terms that will drive a real business benefit

3. Targeting

Two ways

• ON site – content

• OFF site - linkbuilding

Integrate your keyphrases into your content

• Titles• Meta

Copyright ©2011 Channel Computing Limited

Write your content around these phrases

• Naturally

• For users, not for search engines

• Think like a publisher, not like an SEO…

Google says

 “Just because somebody dots every I and crosses every T and gets all their HTML structure right, doesn’t mean that it’s good content. Even if you do brain-dead stupid things and shoot yourself in the foot, but have good content, we still want to return it.”

Matt Cutts, Head of Search Quality, Google

Do!

• Aim for 200-300 words per page• Keywords in title, headings, link anchors, text

density, early on, alt tags, meta• Keyword proximity• Vary keywords • Focus on Keywords that Sell vs. Traffic only

Do Not!

• “Keyword Stuff”• Must be human readable• Slow loading pages• Flash sites• Pages 100% images• Too many images• Too many different keywords (dilution)

The Optimisation Process

• You probably won’t get this right first time, unless it is a very un-competitive keyphrase

• Firstly give it your best shot• Then wait to see what Google does with it • If a site is new a few links will give basic

“discovery”

Headline

No. 1 - Craft your Headline• Benefits (not features)• Talk to them (you & your)• Grab attention• Make them want to read on• Serve their need / pain / desire• You’ve got 1 second

Sales Copy

• Immediately draw the reader with benefits• Establish your credibility• Explain why THEY need it• Direct visitors through the sales process• Do this “Above the Fold”• Correct placement of keywords• Clear calls to action

Sales Copy Rules• Write for people first• Believable• Flow well• Relevant to target market• Examples / testimonials• Company information – don’t hide• Your page is a process

• Test & re-test

Impenetrable BlocksSample #1:

Weight loss typically involves the loss of fat, water and muscle. Overweight people, or people suffering from obesity, typically aim to reduce the percentage of body fat. Additionally, as muscle tissue is denser than fat, fat loss results in increased loss of body volume compared with muscle loss. Reducing even 10% body fat can therefore have a dramatic effect on a person's body shape. To determine the proportion of weight loss that is due to decreased fat tissue, various methods of measuring body fat percentage have been developed. Muscle loss during weight loss can be restricted by regularly lifting weights (or doing push-ups and other strength-oriented calisthenics) and by maintaining sufficient protein intake.[citation needed]Those on low-carbohydrate diets, and those doing particularly strenuous exercise, may wish to increase their protein intake. According to the National Academy of Sciences, the Dietary Reference Intake for protein is "0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight for adults.” Excessive protein intake, though not connected to declined kidney functioning in healthy individuals, may be harmful to those with certain kidney diseases. There is no conclusive evidence that moderately high protein diets in healthy individuals are dangerous, it has only been shown that these diets are dangerous in individuals already suffering from kidney and liver problems. The Basal Metabolic Rate, which is the amount of calories the body expends at rest, meaning without performing any physical activity, is influenced by the person's total weight and total amount of muscle. The more muscle, the more calories a person can burn naturally. When the amount of muscle is increased, then more calories can be ingested without gaining weight. On the contrary, if the amount of fat is increased, increasing the number of calories ingested will only add weight. Normally, when people lose weight, they lose a combination of fat and muscle. If the diet plan includes a daily caloric intake greater than the BMR, the person will most likely lose fat. On the contrary, if the person follows a diet that includes a lower caloric intake than the BMR, this person will lose fat but also a higher percentage of muscle. Severe diets may make people lose 50% fat and 50% muscle weight thus affecting their metabolism because by losing muscle the BMR gets affected. For instance, when a person goes on a low carb diet, the initial weight loss results from the glycogen depletion. Glycogen is a mixture of glucose and water mainly stored in the muscles. Therefore, much of the initial weight loss comes from muscle loss which affects the possibility to maintain a sustainable weight control. A study performed at the University of Connecticut also showed that athletes under a low carb diet not only experience a decrease in their performance but also a drop both in muscle power and cardiovascular performance. Maintaining muscle mass while losing fat is therefore a key factor to reach both the ideal weight and body composition. To achieve this goal, experts advise not to reduce carbohydrates aggressively. Fat can be lost by reducing the calorie intake by 20% of daily needs for two days.[citation needed] This reduced calorie intake, even in the presence of 100% carbohydrate consumption, allows for reduction of fat without muscle loss because the glycogen in the muscle is properly replenished. Exercising on days when the highest amount of carbohydrates is consumed, 1.5 to 2 hours after eating, is also helpful to achieve a balanced fat reduction in the absence of muscle loss. Within this window of time, sugar and insulin levels are undergoing a slow decline. When insulin levels start dropping, the pancreas then produces the hormone glucagon while releasing nutrients stored in the fat cells to the blood to be turned into energy. On the contrary, if blood sugar levels suffer a high increase, insulin feeds the muscle cells and deposits excess into fat cells. Furthermore, if insulin levels decrease too much, the muscle cells do not receive the appropriate amount of food they require. There should always be a meal left during the day after exercising to allow the muscles to recover from exercise.

Sample #2:

Break it up a bit (including bullets and lists would be better).Still need plenty of words – but draw the eye to the most important bits......

Readable FormatSample #2: Are you sick of trying diet after diet -- and painfully denying yourself all your favorite foods -- but never seeing any lasting results?

Or joining the latest supposedly "healthy" eating craze, only to discover a few months down the road that most health experts say that following that eating plan is actually BAD for you?

I know exactly how you feel...

... For decades I was a "yo-yo" dieter. I would try out the latest celebrity diet trend and lose maybe 5 - 15 pounds, but then gain it all back as soon as I started eating "normally" again.

In fact, usually I'd end up gaining even more weigh -- which is why I got on the scales one day and discovered to my horror that I now weighed over 200 pounds.

Not exactly a healthy weight for someone who's only 5' 2"!

In my desperation to get back to a "normal" weight, I tried every single diet plan I could. I ate nothing but pre-packaged calorie-reduced diet meals... I took pills... I drank diet shakes for breakfast and lunch, and forced myself to ignore my growling stomach all day long.

Call to Action• Click here to buy – re-state the reasons why

• Call us (phone number everywhere)• Follow us• Capture Email address– sign up for info– get your free report– What can you offer to make them part with it?

Avoid• Too much imagery• Insufficient text• Large images / slow loading pages• Flash sites• Same meta on each page• Too few pages• Coloured or patterned backgrounds• Difficult to read fonts• Excessive banners & outgoing links

Off site - linkbuilding• The keystone of Googles ranking algorithm, “Page Rank”

“We assume page A has pages T1...Tn which point to it (i.e., are citations). The parameter d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1. We usually set d to 0.85. There are more details about d in the next section. Also C(A) is defined as the number of links going out of page A. The PageRank of a page A is given as follows:

PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

Note that the PageRanks form a probability distribution over web pages, so the sum of all web pages' PageRanks will be one.”

In plain English….

• A “reference” based system

• Google judges your website by the company it keeps…

How do I tell ?

• Google Webmaster tools

• Specialist tools if you want to get clever;- Majestic SEO (www.majesticseo.com)- SEO Moz (www.seomoz.org)

Webmaster tools – your site only

But, its not a game of numbers….

Panda and Penguin updates

• Penalise both low quality content and links

• So…

What can I do;

• Directories• Press releases• Forum / blog commentary• Press releases• CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT

What not to do

• Bad neighbourhoods

• People overtly selling links

• Networks

This is what you can do• If its not interesting for your users, its no use for

Google

• Get your content on site (perhaps on a blog)

• Numerous free blogging tools available, most notably Wordpress

• But also get it OFFSITE

How do I do that ?• Publish it on social media. Not just Twitter and Facebook, also

things like Digg and Reddit, Google+, Pinterest

• Make sure you keep things fresh

• Form relationships with REAL PEOPLE and get them to place your content

• If you’re an authority in your field, Google will treat you accordingly

• Keep this stuff going

• An iterative process

• Builds a “natural” link profile – too much of one thing can be bad…

• Anything you do, think about a link

Keeping an eye on progress

• Back to the analytics…-are you getting more traffic and sales from search

• Rankings are just a guide

• Look at trends

What else ?

• Local search

• Increasingly prevalent in search results

• Perfectly targeted

• FREE (for now)

So, in summary

• Measure everything. With analytics

• Think about SEO

• But also think about the users…

• Measure everything. With analytics