"SEO 101" for Georgia Tech Digital Marketing Class
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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION: TALES FROM A PRACTITIONER Presented to: GA Tech College of Management September 11, 2012
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Basic overview of search engine optimization, including why college students should consider it for a career, what the goals and costs of SEO are, and the fundamentals of performing SEO. Also briefly covers how social media can be leveraged for SEO purposes, and how to measure search engine marketing efforts. Usability, phone call tracking and mini case studies are featured.
Transcript of "SEO 101" for Georgia Tech Digital Marketing Class
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION: TALES
FROM A PRACTITIONER
Presented to:
GA Tech College of
Management
September 11, 2012
ABOUT ME & PPI
Degrees in Business/Marketing and Communications Management Marketing = 25 years Search engine marketing = 14 years President of SEMPO Atlanta – event at Google’s office this Thursday evening: http://bit.ly/NWW5wI Full-service, award-winning search engine marketing agency based in Atlanta since 2001 Provide search engine optimization (SEO) & pay-per-click (PPC) services to clients nationwide
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT SEM?
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT SEM?
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
(SEO)
Organic, editorial,
natural, algorithmic
results (SEO - Search Engine Optimization)
Paid listings, sponsored links,
pay-per-click (PPC) ads, cost per click (CPC)
SEO GOALS
ECOMMERCE VS. LEAD GENERATION
Goal is to make an immediate sale
Usually less expensive, more simple products
Short sales cycle, impulse buys
Goal is to capture a prospect’s data for lead nurturing
Usually more expensive or complicated products & services
Longer sales cycle, decision by committee
Often B2C Often B2B
SEO COSTS
HOW SEARCH ENGINES WORK(THE ORGANIC – SEO – SIDE)
Step 1: Find, crawl & index web content
Step 2: Receive query, rank & display content
THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP
Keyword Research!
SEARCH TERM RESEARCH: CRITICAL
Use the verbiage your target audience uses – not what your industry or internal experts use
“search marketing” or “web optimization”? “healthcare” or “health care”?
“financial solutions” or “financial software”?
KEYWORD RESEARCH
Search volume Competitiveness Stage in buying cycle
serversused
serversused
as/400 servers
used ibm as/400 servers
Search volume
Competitiveness
Probability of buying
Likelihood of high rankings
AVOID EDITORIAL RESULTS WITH SEARCH TERM SELECTION
80% editorial
AVOID EDITORIAL RESULTS WITH SEARCH TERM SELECTION
80% commercial
ON-PAGE FACTORS
Source: Search Engine Land
BUT WAIT… Search engines don’t just look at the web page itself when determining how to rank it They also look at the quantity and quality of links pointing to that web page Links are an implied endorsement
Source: SEO Solution Blog
LINK-BUILDING: CRITICAL & MUST BE DONE RIGHT
YES: high quantity of quality links, relevant sites, hand-selected sites, diversified link types, content/campaign creation (“link bait”), social media, leveraging other marketing tactics
NO: link farms, irrelevant sites, automated submissions, too many links from the same type of site, reciprocal links, paid links, content farms
THE CRIMES OF SEOSource: eZanga.com
Source: Reload Media
OFF-PAGE FACTORSSource: Search Engine Land
ALL SEO FACTORSSource: Search Engine Land
SOCIAL MEDIA
SOCIAL MEDIA CAN BE LEVERAGED FOR SEO PURPOSES
Content
GOAL: TAKE UP AS MUCH ROOM IN THE SERPS AS POSSIBLE
Website
Twitter profile
Facebook profile
LinkedIn profile
BusinessWeek profile
(not us)
Optimized press release
Video (not us)
Website
Website
MONITOR YOUR COMPANY & BRAND NAME(S)
SOCIAL MEDIA CAN BE LEVERAGED FOR SEO PURPOSES
Votes
SOCIAL MEDIA CAN BE LEVERAGED FOR SEO PURPOSES
Links
MEASURING RESULTS(How do we know this is working?)
HOW DO YOU MEASURE SEO?
MEASURING RESULTS
RankingsVisitors /
Site Traffic
Conversions / Revenue /
ROI
WHY DO RANKINGS MATTER?
Source: eZanga.com
PERSONALIZED SEARCH MEANS RESULTS VARY FOR EVERYONE
USABILITY: MORE IMPORTANT THAN SEO EVEN? (YES!)
USABILITY: MORE IMPORTANT THAN SEO EVEN? (YES!)
USABILITY: MORE IMPORTANT THAN SEO EVEN? (YES!)
Site Visitors•100,000
Good Site•1% conversion rate
Conversions•1,000
Site Visitors after SEO•200,000
Good Site•1% conversion rate
Conversions•2,000 Site Visitors
•100,000
Great Site•2% conversion rate
Conversions•2,000
Site Visitors after SEO•200,000
Great Site•2% conversion rate
Conversions•4,000
Starting point
SEO only
Usability only
SEO + Usability
HOW PHONE CALL TRACKING WORKS
Type in URL directly & see this:
Click on a Google organic listing & see this:
Click on a Google paid listing & see this:
CALL TRACKING ENSURES YOU’RE MEASURING ALL RESULTS
66%
33%
CALL TRACKING ENSURES YOU’RE MEASURING ALL RESULTS
Mini Case Study:-71% of leads came in by phone-Increased PPC bids-Doubled the number of PPC leads generated
CASE STUDIES
INCREASE IN RANKINGS
INCREASE IN ORGANIC SITE TRAFFIC
INCREASE IN ORGANIC CONVERSIONS
PAID SEARCH HAS ADDITIONAL METRICS
LANDING PAGES CAN MAKE OR BREAK
3.4
% co
nversio
n ra
te - B
EFO
RE
4.8
% co
nversio
n ra
te – A
FTER
(>4
0%
in
crease
SEO & PAID SEARCH TOGETHER ARE EVEN MORE POWERFUL
WANT MORE?
Subscribe to our newsletter: www.prominentplacement.com
Subscribe to our blog (email or RSS): www.searchadvisory.net
“Like” us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ProminentPlacement
Follow us on Twitter: @ProminentPlcmnt or @StacyWms
Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/prominent-placement-inc.
View other presentation on Slideshare: www.slideshare.net/stacywms We are always looking for good interns – email me your
resume at [email protected] if you are interested!
