Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Marketing

							   Wellington, 1 – 2 October 2009


 Search Engine Optimisation
and Search Engine Marketing




                                Lawrence Smith
                                Chief Cabbage
IF FACEBOOK WERE A COUNTRY IT WOULD
NOW BE THE 3RD LARGEST
SO, WE’RE HERE TODAY TO DISCUSS SOME
NERDY STUFF
                     http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctabu/291216582
SEO: IT’S NOT ALL HOCUS POCUS

                     http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixel_addict/475384098/
OR BLACK MAGIC

                 http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxtongue/56510106
WE’LL LOOK AT CODE (BRIEFLY), AND TRY NOT
TO MAKE IT TOO GEEKY!
                      http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctabu/291216582
WE’LL FOCUS ON SEARCH TRENDS, SEO, SEM
AND SOME MEASUREMENT.
                      http://www.flickr.com/photos/gerlos/3119891607
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gerlos/3119891607
http://www.flickr.com/photos/myklroventine/2372327933
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/1118807
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the
process of improving the volume or quality of
traffic to a web site from search engines via
“natural” or un-paid (“organic”) search
results
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia
70%
  Search Engine Marketing, Or SEM, is a
    form of internet marketing that seeks to
       promote websites by increasing their
      visibility in search engine result pages
(SERPs) through the use of paid placement,
  contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.
                        From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia
30%
http://eyetools.com/research_google_eyetracking_heatmap.html
SOME SEARCH STATISTICS
Search in August 2009
                 Total Searches              Share of Searches

                 6,986,580                       64.6%


                 1,726,060                           16%



                 1,156,415                       10.7%
                 Source: Nielsen MegaView Search August 2009
64% of travellers depend on search engines
to plan personal trips.
The Traveler's Road to Decision, Google/OTX - http://tinyurl.com/yeqg52w
Strong Brand Awareness ...

(or weak rankings)
Strong Rankings ...

(or weak brand awareness)
SOME TRENDS ...

                  http://www.flickr.com/photos/risager/3644692358
SEARCH IS BECOMING PERSONALISED ...

                     http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejcallow/3762549546/
MY HOME PAGE WILL BE DIFFERENT TO YOURS




                     http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejcallow/3762549546/
AND HIS?

           http://www.flickr.com/photos/ddebold/2145216693
AND SO WILL MY RESULTS PAGE

                    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejcallow/3762549546/
MY SEARCH IS NOT YOUR SEARCH.

                       http://www.flickr.com/photos/wili/205104433/
MY TOP 10 IS NOT
YOUR TOP 10.




                   http://www.flickr.com/photos/cesarastudillo/541356570
REGARDLESS,
SEARCH IS
STILL VITALLY
IMPORTANT.




                http://www.flickr.com/photos/bogenfreund/411453602
    WE ALL WANT TO
    BE #1




http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrs_logic/3799729875/
                    HOW DO WE
                    GET THERE?


http://www.flickr.com/photos/photography_by_steph/419274328
IT STARTS WITH WRITING IN LANGUAGE
APPROPRIATE TO YOUR AUDIENCE
                    http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmab2003/3241891662/
BUT WHO ARE THEY?

                    http://www.flickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/888823443
Step One: Personas

  1. A fictional person representing a major user
     group for your site
  2. Action: Define the top personas accounting for
     the majority of your website visitors
        a. Who are they?
        b. What do they do?
        c. What do they want?
        d. What are their goals and motivations?
        e. What are the outcomes they want?
Step Two: Tasks

  1. People come to your website to complete tasks
  2. There will be a small set of top tasks – focus on
     these
  3. A task might be online booking or finding certain
     information
  4. Action: Choose a persona, pick their top 5 tasks
Step Three: Keywords

  1. The words that your visitors use to describe
     tasks
  2. They are likely to be very different to the words
     you or your industry uses
  3. Action: Determine what 3 keywords or phrases
     a visitor would use to describe for that task
You now have ...

              A persona

              5 top tasks

              3 keywords per task

                    15 sets of customer focussed
                    keywords/phrases

    Then add to these ...
SOME ACTUAL SEARCH KEYWORDS
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
AND, A NEW TOOL FROM GOOGLE
http://www.google.com/sktool
NOW, PUTTING IT TOGETHER ...

                      http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotiron/3440457518
Your Toolbox Includes ...

   1. Page <title> and <meta description>
   2. <H1> headings
   3. Content and keywords
   4. Fresh content
   5. Keywords in links
   6. Links to your site
Meta “Title” & “Description Tags

   1. Google uses both the <title> and
      <meta name=“description” ...> in their results
   2. Title - 70 characters or less, Description – 155 or
      less
   3. Different pages, different keywords
   4. High performance title tags
      http://tinyurl.com/ltzv37
<H1> and Content
  1. Feature keywords in the headings, opening
     paragraphs, linked words
  2. If it reads well for people, it works for Search
     Engines
SEARCH ENGINES LOVE FRESH CONTENT!

                    http://www.flickr.com/photos/minidriver/3334732459
Fresh Content

  Content that changes regularly helps Google know your
  site is alive, and relevant. It’s not a PR exercise.
  Consider:
     1. Regular news and events
     2. Blogs
     3. Specials and offers
     4. User generated content
     5. Feeds/information from other sites
LINKS: YOUR MOST POWERFUL TOOL!

                    http://www.flickr.com/photos/minidriver/3334732459
Links

   1. One of the key drivers of your SE ranking
   2. Linking to and from other sites is vital
   3. Get linked from tourism directories, associations,
      partners & associates, suppliers, etc
   4. Make requests politely via email, some may require
      you to advertise.
   5. Use social media to generate links. Blogs etc
ONLINE ADVERTISING & DOES IT WORK?
                    /http://www.flickr.com/photos/yodelanecdotal/3944972104
2008 Total Revenue            $21 795 550 000

Ad Revenues                   $21,128,514 000

Presumably yes!
Or there are a lot of stupid people out there ...
Google is an advertising machine!
Online Advertising.

   Ideal for ...
   1. Short term campaigns to
      fill gaps
   2. Until SEO efforts kick in
   3. If there are proven sales
      and conversions off
      campaigns
   https://adwords.google.com
Online Advertising?

   1. Google Adwords and Adsense
   2. PPC (Pay per click), SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
   3. Set a budget, bid for terms/keywords
   4. Target your chosen keywords
   5. You only pay if someone clicks
   6. Adwords (SEM) vs SEO? SEO (organic) is lasting ...
   7. Focus on conversions, not numbers
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=139367
Tourisme Montréal once again innovates this
spring with a shift to 100% Web-based
advertising to reach leisure markets.
http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/Press/Press/Press-Releases
MEASUREMENT

              http://www.flickr.com/photos/heavyweightgeek/2334939683
THERE IS ONLY ONE
Analytics
   1. Analysis is critically important
   2. Add Google Analytics to your site
   3. Check frequently; trends are more important than
      numbers
   4. Try to interpret WHY things are happening
   http://www.google.com/analytics/
Analytics

   1. Stats are one sided
   2. They only tell you what is working.
   3. You have to try and figure out what isn‘t ...
   4. And that is more important!
THESE WORDS WORKED. BUT MORE
IMPORTANTLY, WHICH ONES DIDN’T?
BUT, IS IT ALL ABOUT NUMBERS?

                     http://www.flickr.com/photos/lrargerich/3029485203
FOR ME, IT’S ABOUT SALES.

                   http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachaelvoorhees/2521106411/
Google Ecommerce
WILL SEO BE IMPORTANT IN THE FUTURE?
MORE THAN 50% OF “WEB” TRAFFIC IS CARRIED ON
MOBILES IN JAPAN

                                 Photo by Joi Ito on Flickr
Five Things ...

    1. Search plays a vital role, most sites aren‘t
       optimised. Luckily!
    2. Quality search is centred around quality content.
    3. People search, not robots. Use keywords that
       people use.
    4. Advertising has it’s place, however organic
       search is longer lasting.
    5. Analyse your results ruthlessly. Focus on
       conversions or sales, not visitors.
            Lawrence Smith
            Chief Cabbage
Learn More.
Subscribe to our Blog
http://blog.cabbagetree.co.nz
Follow us on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/cabbagetree
Or maybe even visit our website!
http://www.cabbagetree.co.nz