Online Marketing School - SEO

Seth Dotterer, Senior Director of Marketing

Paid vs. Natural

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Natural

PPC

What percentage of all search clicks are in the natural space?

2

%

Organic92%

Paid8%

*comScore - 2010 4

22.3 Billion Searches

16% YOY Growth

Importance of Natural Search

Untapped Potential in Natural Search

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Think about your Non-Traditional Competition

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Content Sites rank well because their content is structured to encourage deep links.

CategoryPage

ArticlePage

Blogs, News Social Media

Pollution Sites eliminate the need for deep links by making entire domain home pages around single keywords. This siphons users from their desired destination and arbitrages the traffic.

Searchers

Affiliate & Adsense Sites

Product or

Services

Natural Search is Most Under Spent Channel in Web Marketing

Only 8% of allsearch engine clicks

Natural Paid

92% of allsearch engine clicks

8%92%

Traffic

11.8 billion monthly searchesacross major engines

(growing by 25% per year)

Sources: Forrester, ComScoreSeth Besmertnik, CEO - Twitter: @Besmertnik seth@conductor.com

CMOs are excited by the potential of SEO but extremely frustrated by the lack of accountability and ability to measure ROI

11%of search spend

11% 89%of search spend

Spend

89%11%

The Evolution of SEO

1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010

SEO is Getting More Complicated

www.conductor.com

Cornerstones of Driving Traffic via Natural Search

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Site Architecture

External Link Profile

Performance Metrics

Content

Content

Start with Keyword Research

CONFIDENTIAL11

Site Architecture

Link ProfilePerformance Metrics

Content

Your Success Hinges on Keywords

•What Would Users Search For to Find Your Content?– Monitor your individual site search

engines. These logs provide instant visibility into the minds of your users.

– Use a thesaurus to brainstorm additional keywords.

– Pay attention to customer-authored blog comments. Work to understand their vernacular.

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Google AdWords Tool

Google Trends

www.google.com/trends

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Where to find Keywords

•Your Site Search

•Paid Search Data

•Categorization of Content is Key– Build your categorization scheme like an outline. Deeper levels of the

outline will inherent relevance criteria from higher levels. Create new content when keywords split

Keyword Selection

.

Converts well in paid

Relatively high traffic

volume

Striking distance of first page

Site Architecture

CONFIDENTIAL17

Site Architecture

Link ProfilePerformance Metrics

Content

An Example of Good, Consistent SEO

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Title

H1 (Header)

Clean URL

Keyword in Copy

Relevant Links toRelated Information

Each tag tells the same story.

Meta Keywords:<meta name="keywords" content="Reed Business Information,Broadcasting,Broadcasting &amp; Cable,Computer Weekly,EDN (magazine),Electronic News,Farmers Weekly,Flight International,Industrial Distribution,Kellysearch,Kemps Film and TV Production Services Handbook" />

Good Onsite Architecture Tips

•Content at the Top of your page– First paragraph contains the keywords that will get picked up

•Meta Descriptions– Will not help your rankings – but may help with your snippet optimization

to improve click-through rates

•Image-Only Based Sites and Flash– Trouble for the Spiders

Organized Site Architecture

•Optimize Internal Links– Every page of your site should

be accessible from within three clicks from the homepage.

– Do so without excessive linking. Guide the user down a path.

– Fewer ‘hops’ between the homepage and each other page helps the flow of internal link popularity.

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About Us

AG Tire History Testimonials Privileged Partners AG Facilities Michelin AG

History

Products

Testimonials Advantages WarrantiesView By

Machine Type And Usage

Bias Vs. RadialStandard

Against Large Volume

Michelin Vs. Competitors

Tire Selector

How To Best Use Your

Tires

Control Power Hop

Reduce Soil Compaction

Mounting & Storage

Ballast Management

Pressure Calculator

Dealer Locator

News And Info

Press Releases Press Release Archive Events/ Shows

Contact Us

Home

Link Profile

CONFIDENTIAL21

Site Architecture

Link ProfilePerformance Metrics

Content

What does a Search Engine Look for?

CRITICAL MASSOF EXTERNAL LINKS

Relevant 3rd Party

Pages

Relevant 3rd Party

Pages

Home Page

CategoryPage

CategoryPage

CategoryPage

Search Engines Expect to See:

1. Good on-site optimization2. Critical mass of domain links3. Deep links to landing pages4. Relevant, refreshed content

Relevant 3rd Party Pages

Relevant 3rd Party

Pages

Improving your back link profile

•Teach your PR Team about Links

•Embed Links in Your Contracts

•Give Testimonials

•Examine Competitor Backlinks

•Link Internally –Don’t compete with yourself

•Learn to 301

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Performance Metrics

CONFIDENTIAL24

Site Architecture

Link ProfilePerformance Metrics

Content

Measuring SEO Success / Performance Metrics

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Define the Opportunity

Set YourGame Plan

Measure Like a

Madman

Keyword

Metrics

Rankings

Traffic

Attribution

Bookings

Overall ROI

Campaign

Level ROI

What is SEO Worth to Your Organization?

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Total Realized Opportunity28.5k Visitors

Total Unrealized Opportunity173k Visitors

Track against Competitors

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Investment: Organic vs. Paid

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Paid Search Organic Search

Investment

Tra

ffic

Stepping Stone SEO Metrics

Keyword Metrics

Recos Made

Average Page

Scoring

# of Indexed, backlinks

Etc…

Rankings

Traffic

Overall ROI

Create a timeline on maturing your metrics

Q1 Q2 Q4Q3 Q1 Q2

PRE-TRAFFIC POST TRAFFIC

Conversions

Attribution Campaign Level ROI

GOALSMILESTONES

Keep urgency alive with Share of Search updates

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SEO Maturity Cycle

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Try

Education &evangelism

Small/sharedresources

No formal mgmtprocess

Invest

Internal /agency

investment

Tactical focus

No auditing

No scale

No ROI

Measure

Move from SEO metrics to business

metrics

Regular and systemic ROI

reporting

Shift from tactical to strategic

Scale

Opportunitydiscovery

Specialistresources

Real SEO prioritization

Attribution modeling

around SEO

Compete

Share of search calculations

Monitoring & alerts of important SEO changes

External validation & auditing

Lost opportunity cost identification

SEO Maturity Cycle Worksheet

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Questions?sdotterer@conductor.com

Twitter: @dotterer

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Seth DottererSenior Director, Marketing

230 Park Avenue South, 12th Floor | New York, NY 10003P 212.542.5147 | F 212.213.6275sdotterer@conductor.com | www.conductor.com