The Power of Keywords - getting started with SEO, PPC and Analytics
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Transcript of The Power of Keywords - getting started with SEO, PPC and Analytics
The Power of Keywords – SEO, PPC and Analy8cs
Elyse Merriman
Freelance Digital Marketer
What is a keyword? Wordstream says it best:
“Your SEO keywords are the key words and phrases in your web content that make it possible for people to find your site via search engines. A website that is well op8mized for search engines ‘speaks the same language’ as its poten8al visitor base with keywords for SEO that help connect searchers to your site.”
A keyword phrase is a keyword made up of more than one word (i.e. blue socks, black composite decking, red high heel shoes) but is s8ll a phrase people would type into a search engine to find your website.
SEO What is SEO (Search Engine Op2misa2on)?
“SEO is the prac8ce of improving and promo8ng a website to increase the number of visitors the site receives from search engines.” (Source: hSp://moz.com/beginners-‐guide-‐to-‐seo)
It’s not only about making your site beSer for search engines but also for the visitors to your site.
Why you need SEO? You need SEO because the majority of traffic to websites comes from search engines. About 80% of this is from Google, with Yahoo and Bing being the next two largest search engines. (Source: hSp://moz.com/beginners-‐guide-‐to-‐seo)
How can I improve my SEO? Through:
*Content *Meta 8tle, descrip8on and alt tags *Backlinks
SEO -‐ Content Search engines want to answer the ques8ons that searchers have. Google rankings are based on merit – they want to give searchers the best match for their ques8on.
When op2mizing your website for keywords you should focus on having your keyword in: • The 8tle of your content • The first sentence of your first paragraph • At least one heading within the content • The page’s URL
Other factors that boost SEO is content that: • Is at least 300 words in length • Contains outbound links • Has a rela8vely short URL • Is easy to read, with concise sentences
Make content shareable! Add in a social media widget that allows people to share on Facebook, TwiSer, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Stumbleupon. Google takes into considera8on how many 8mes your content is shared and how many people link to your content
SEO – Content -‐ Crea8on It is important to con8nue to create content for your website to keep it current and gives people something to share on your website.
You can do this through: *A blog *Case studies *NewsleSer archive *Gallery *Catalogue/lookbook *How to guide or whitepaper
Content is about being generous to your customers/poten8al customers.
Good quality content is important because it will drive visitors to your website and in turn, help to boost your search engine rankings.
SEO – Meta data Meta data contains both: • The page’s meta 8tle and descrip8on • The alternate text field of any images you’ve included Meta data gives a “preview” to the searchers of what the page is about
Meta 2tle: 55 characters in length Meta descrip2on: 115 characters in length Alt tags: 125 characters but the more concise the beSer.
Alt tags lets Google know what a picture is a picture of
If meta data is lej blank, Google will determine what to display in its search engine rankings for you – which may not be what you want it to be!
Use a character counter (hSp://www.typetools.co.uk/google-‐tool) to help get lengths right.
SEO – Meta data examples Examples of meta 2tle and descrip2on for “gardening equipment” on Google
Examples of alt tags for “gardening equipment” on Google
SEO -‐ Backlinks What is a backlink? A backlink is a direct link to your website from another website.
Quality over quan2ty It is more important to get good quality backlinks instead of a high quan8ty of lower quality backlinks.
Google tends to penalize website with a high number of low quality backlinks as it looks like spam.
Good Quality Backlinks • Local business directories • News sites • Industry websites • Social media • Review sites • Industry blogs and community “watering holes”
SEO – Helpful Tools Moz (www.moz.com) What it does: *Allows you to track keyword rankings on all major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing) *Research keywords (gives an indica8on of search volume on the Internet) *Find broken links on web pages *Helps build backlinks *Monitors men8ons of your brand online
Yoast (hSps://yoast.com) -‐ WordPress users It’s a plugin for WordPress that allows users to op8mize their website for SEO purposes What it does: *Allows you to easily change meta 8tles, descrip8on and alt tags and makes sure there’s no overlap in focus keywords *Grades each page’s SEO strength based on content, images and meta informa8on
PPC PPC stands for Pay Per Click adver8sing. -‐Available on Google, Bing and Yahoo search engines -‐Also adver8se on Facebook, TwiSer, LinkedIn and Stumbleupon
Keywords Three different types of keywords (how they are displayed in Adwords) Exact match = [ ] Phrase match = “ “ Broad match = (characterized by using no brackets)
Which to use? Exact match: This will catch people searching for that exact phrase i.e. [black men’s shoes]
Phrase match: This will catch people searching for a phrase, but may also contain other words as part of the phrase i.e. “black shoes” would catch people searching under “black shoes for kids”, “black shoes uk”, “nike black shoes”
Broad match: This will catch people searching for any phrase that has black and shoes in it. Such as {nike black workout mens size 10 shoes}
PPC – Dos *Harmonize your PPC with your SEO efforts to get the most benefit -‐Do this by using the same keywords for both
*Start with a small budget to see where the search volume is and then focus on those terms/ad groups/campaigns
*Set up 3 different ads per ad group, each using different ad copy
*Link your Adwords account with your Analy8cs account to get the best tracking for your customers from Adwords
*Set up a campaign that focuses on your brand – otherwise your compe8tors may start adver8sing on it!
PPC – Don’ts
*Get discouraged too easily – it takes 8me for your ad rankings and SEO to build up over 8me. As you improve your SEO, your ad ranks will improve as well
*Rush through your ad set up. Set aside some 8me to plan your campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ad copy
*Set it and forget it – log into your adwords account at least once a week to see how they’re doing
PPC – Loca8on serngs
-‐If your product is only available in certain countries, change your loca8on serngs to reflect that -‐You can target certain ci8es, regions or postal codes as well for your campaigns
Taken from: www. adwords.google.com
PPC – Ad Extensions
Ad Extensions allow you to publish more content on your ads (Loca8on informa8on, sitelinks and call extensions
Taken from: www.adwords.google.com
Loca2on : Highlights your physical loca8on, office or storefront. Sitelinks: Highlights the most popular pages on your webpage (i.e. popular products/services, contact informa8on, enquiry forms) Call: Allows searchers viewing your ad on mobile to call your directly from the ad (counts as a conversion)
PPC – Set Up -‐ Example
Company: Paperchase
PPC – Ad Copy Made up of:
Headline (25 characters) Descrip8on line 1 (35 characters) Descrip8on line 2 (35 characters) Display URL (35 characters)
Landing page URL (one landing page per Ad group)
Example:
*Use your keywords in your ad copy*
PPC – Terms Max CPC – Maximum Cost Per Click (how much you are willing to pay to get a click)
Clicks – How many people have clicked on your ad ajer searching with that search term
Impressions – How many people have seen your ad ajer using that specific search term. May or may not have clicked on your ad
CTR – Stands for Click Through Rate. Calculated by this formula: Impressions/Clicks=CTR Example: 1000 impressions/200 clicks = 5% CTR *Aim for a CTR of around 2% as a minimum benchmark
Avg. CPC – Average Cost Per Click. How much on average you are paying for a click (the amount you pay for click varies throughout the 8me of day and day of the week and on the amount of search volume and compe88on at this 8me)
PPC – Terms, cont’d Cost – How much you’ve paid overall for that keyword. Calculated by this formula:
Average CPC x Clicks = Cost
Av. Pos. – Average Posi8on. On average, what posi8on your ad is in
Quality Score – A score out of 10 that tells you how relevant Google views your keywords in rela8on to your website. Aim for a quality score of 7/10. The lower your quality score, the more Google will charge as a minimum CPC to show your ad
Est top page bid – How much your max CPC will have to have your ad shown at the top of the page for that keyword
Conversion -‐ The number of people that “convert” (i.e. achieve a goal, make a sale, etc.) on your website. Aim for 2% conversion rate
PPC -‐ Improving Keywords:
*Are your keyword relevant and found in your content on your website? * Could there be a more appropriate landing page for your keywords? *Try adding nega8ve keywords. Nega8ve keywords are words that may be
associated with someone of your key phrases but are not relevant to your website (i.e. if you are selling boxer shorts, then boxer dogs would be a good nega8ve keyword)
*Is your budget being spent on keywords that are not giving a return? Pause them and focus on the keywords that are giving you return.
Ad Copy: *Are your keywords in your ad copy? *Make sure ad copy is current (i.e. dates and offers are s8ll relevant) *Try freshening ad copy and see what works
A lot of PPC and SEO op8miza8on is trial and error – you have to keep trying un8l you find what works!
Analy8cs How to Set a Goal
What should my goal be? A goal on your website should be something you want to measure over 8me. This can be something like 8me on site, the number of people that visit a certain page or a form that people fill out. E-‐commerce sites generally have sales as the goal that they measure.
Google offers the following template goals to make it easier to create a goal: *Revenue *Acquisi8on *Inquiry *Engagement
You can also choose a custom goal if none of the templates fits your needs
How to Set a Goal -‐ Analy8cs Step 1: Log into Analy8cs Step 2: Go to “Admin” on the top naviga8on bar Step 3: Click on Goals (under View – far right hand side)
How to Set a Goal – Cont’d
Step 4: Click on New Goal
How to Set a Goal – Cont’d Step 5: Decide which goal you want
How to Set a Goal – Cont’d Step 6: Select your Type of measurement, then go to Next Step
How To Set a Goal – Cont’d Step 7: Set your parameters and press Create Goal
How To Set a Goal – Cont’d Step 8: And you’re done! Your goal is ready to be measured
Next steps: Monitoring your goal
Monitoring Your Goal
To get to the dashboard where Analy8cs measures the goals Click on “Repor8ng” on the top level naviga8on bar.
Then click on “Conversions” on the lej hand naviga8on bar, then click on “Goals” and then click on “Overview”
Monitoring Your Goal – Cont’d
Monitoring your goals regularly will help you know how well your website is doing. Checking in on a weekly and monthly basis will give short and longer term views of how the goal is performing and over 8me will help you iden8fy slumps and peaks in ac8vity.
Depending on the nature of the goal, it is a good idea to let it run for at least a year, so you can compare data and have a benchmark for performance.
Ques8ons?
If you think of any ques8ons at a later date or if you’d like further consulta8on or informa8on get in touch!
Elyse Merriman [email protected]
07754323727