Search engine strategies - introduction
- 1. SEARCH ENGINE STRATEGY INTRODUCTION Tuesday, 25th May 2010
- 3. h eng ine 1. What site is th e second largest searc behind Google? YouTube d many searches are performed daily aroun 2. How the world? ute) 4,000 ,000,000 (29,000,000 per min 009? o pular search term in 2 3. What is the most p ael Jackson (Twitter was #2 ) Mich
- 4. 4. When did Google float? 19th August, 2004 ing pri ce ? 5. What was the start U S$ 8 5 price? 6. Wh at is the current stock ) 472.67 (Friday, 21 May 2010 st US$
- 5. What is this session about? Search: A definition 10 mins Search: Five things to remember 20 mins Search: Closing thought 10 mins Discussion 5 mins
- 6. Why I love search? Data + Insights
- 8. What does a search engine do? From a user’s perspective: From a search engine • Ask a question perspective: • Receive an answer • Get asked a question • Find all the answers • Give you the best ones…RANKED • Measure the human interaction with it’s logic If you (or your client) are not the answer, someone else is
- 9. What is search? Paid Natural/ Search = (PPC*) + Organic *PPC = pay per click OR = SEM + SEO Search Engine Marketing Search Engine Optimisation
- 10. Visited Google & searched for digital cameras
- 11. Paid placements outlined in green: top & right
- 12. Natural placements outlined in green: centre
- 13. Visited Google in December 2009 & look at the changes
- 14. May 2010 March 2010
- 15. WHAT IS SEM? SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (PAID)
- 16. What are the different types of SEM? Paid Per Click - PPC Contextual placements (Paid for performance - P4P) • Benefits • Benefits • High level of control & security • Few… • Low level of click fraud • Highly accountable • Disadvantages • Great ROI • Lack of control • Expensive • Disadvantages • Most exposed to click-fraud • Poor venue for some industries • Not suitable for branding campaigns • Increasingly competitive with inflating CPC’s
- 17. PPC Contextual
- 18. WHAT IS SEO? SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION (NATURAL)
- 19. Search Engine Optimisation “On page” optimisation “Off page” optimisation • Site technology & accessibility • Link popularity • Site content • Link reputation
- 20. Best Practice SEO: Design • Several on page elements are taken into account by Spiders (not limited to): • Page Titles • Meta Description & Keywords • Page Copy (Body Content) • Image Alt Text • Internal Link Anchor Text • File names • Search Friendly Navigation • Site Map • Heading Tags • A clearly distinguishable site architecture & navigation structure can help with inclusion & improving rankings.
- 21. What is happening in search? • In December 2009, there were >131 billion searches conducted by people age 15 or older from home & work 46% increase from December 2008. • USA is the largest search market with 22.7 billion searches (17%). China with 13.3 billion searches Japan with 9.2 billion U.K. with 6.2 billion. • Russia grew 92% to 3.3 billion. Source: comScore, 22 January 2010: http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/ Press_Releases/2010/1/Global_Search_Market_Grows_46_Percent_in_2009
- 22. All segments search on generic terms It doesn’t matter what the age, gender of socioeconomic profile of consumers, they all search on generic terms & keywords (eg camera, mobile, insurance)
- 23. jargon time-out
- 24. SEARCH: FIVE THINGS TO REMEMBER
- 25. #1: SEARCH IS MORE THAN WORDS
- 26. QUICK POLL: How many people think about more than a website (destination) for a campaign? Online advertising Emails Search
- 27. QUICK POLL: Thinking about search, how many people only think about the key words? Do you ever think about: - articles? - images? - video? - maps (retailers)? - blogs?
- 28. Content is king!
- 29. You need to be thinking about all of these things & how they can be included for your clients. The more you think like a consumer, the more the client will trust you & the more they will invest with you. All of these areas are extra opportunities for you to add value.
- 30. What does that mean for you? • When you get a brief, think about all the extra elements that will be created as part of the job: Images Videos Articles • Think about how you could use them & include them as part of a campaign Does the client have a flickr account, an image gallery on their site, videos, YouTube channel?
- 32. How most businesses approach search? Campaign activity Most clients view search as being very on/off, but consumers don’t just search because our clients have a campaign in market. It is a key driver, but not when they are out of market
- 33. How businesses should approach it? Base line activity (consistency & presence in market 365 days) Campaign activity Search must be on 365 days a year. With insurance, consumers search on average for two weeks a year, but not all consumers are searching at the same time. This means insurance companies need to be there 365 days a year.
- 34. How do most clients approach search? Conscious Unconscious
- 35. What does that mean for Baileys? Recipe TV shows After dinner TV programming Desert Conscious Unconscious DVD release Relaxing In-home experience Celebrity chefs Interior design
- 36. What can you do for your clients? Help them create a keyword bible
- 37. What is a keyword bible? Baseline activity Brand terms (Canon, IXUS, PIXMA, EOS, sub-brands) Generic terms (Camera, digital still camera, DSLR, video, etc) Campaign 2 IXUS Campaign Tell your story Campaign 4 Campaign 5 Campaign 3 Campaign 1 Photo5 MDS A keyword bible should be developed for all clients. It should cover a range of their specific brand & sub-brand terms, as well as generic terms. The campaign activity will come in & out dependent on the offers & T&Cs attached.
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- 39. #3: THINK ABOUT THE DETAIL WHEN YOU BUILD
- 43. Keyword in title Keyword in directory Content tab Keyword in H1 Keyword body spread Hyperlinked text Keyword meta tags
- 44. What can you do for your clients? • Work with your digital team to let them know what is important Keywords & terms to be associated with the campaign ‘What does the client want to be known for?’ • Work with your creative team to prepare copy for the site Headings, description text, keywords Start asking for this & working together
- 45. #4: SEARCH IS INVOLVED, BUT QUICK TO SET UP
- 46. What do you need to set up a search campaign? 1. Refine customer goals 8. Organic site 2. Select methods review & (P4P, SEO) recommendations 7. Landing page 3. Keyword strategy Research 6. Creative 4. Tracking set-up rotation & optimisation 5. Rules based bid-management
- 47. What does a campaign look like? Advertiser Campaigns Ad Groups Keywords Creative (campaign) (brand, campaign) (copy) (brand, campaign) (test 1, test 2) Competitors Travel News syd General KWs lhr Destinations Travel Airport Codes gtw Airport Names jfk Reward names etc Rewards Travel News programs Provider General terms Car Rental Cos Transport Bus / Train Cos Cheap flight General terms Discount flights Hostels Train to Accommodation Hotels Car hire General terms Travel guide Airline names Airlines Classes, tickets
- 48. What is involved in developing a SEM campaign? landing keywords bid price ad copy page sourcing position headline product specific categorising CPA keyword insertion general tactics matching ROI brand integration education testing volume offer navigation purging testing call to action relevance conversion tracking combine, test & learn optimal rule implementation
- 49. #5: GOOGLE IS MORE THAN JUST A SEARCH ENGINE
- 50. Google teleporting is also called ‘search in search’ & this is dictated by the site map & the structure of the site.
- 51. Google bomb = practices intended to influence the ranking of particular pages in results returned by the Google search engine.
- 52. Google flights allows users to search for flights within a specific time frame & check the travel sites for prices – everything is updated automatically.
- 53. Google US ‘digital camera’ search results
- 54. Google US ‘digital camera’ search results > Canon brand results
- 55. Google US ‘digital camera’ search results > Canon brand results > Shopping
- 56. Google US ‘digital camera’ search results > Canon brand results > Shopping > Over $1,000
- 57. Google US ‘digital camera’ search results > Canon brand results > Shopping > Over $1,000 > Add to Shopping List
- 58. jargon time-out
- 59. What you need to remember? 1. Search is more than words Content, images, video, words 2. Search must be constant Search isn’t just a campaign, it must be on 100% 3. Think about the detail when you build Every detail helps push results 4. Constantly, review, refine & learn Search can be optimised real-time, campaigns can be tested & learnings taken out immediately 5. Google is more than a search engine Constantly explore & learn about what else Google are doing
- 60. CLOSING REQUEST
- 61. Homework – when you are back at work? • Pick one of your clients: Think about 5 keywords that might be important to them. Go to Google, Bing & Yahoo! & do a search on all five words. Note where your client appears & any observations about competitors or the client’s search engine activity (paid vs natural) (brand vs keyword) • Click on the ads & look at the pages each keyword takes you to, is it relevant for what you have typed in?
- 64. SUPPORTING INFORMATION Additional information that might help
- 66. Check, then submit your site
- 67. What to focus on for a client? • Search needs to focus on all aspects of a client: their products, offerings & brand. SEO SEM Products Accessories Offers Retailers
- 68. Google’s Golden Triangle Prior to Google introducing Universal search, eye tracking studies suggested that the users eyes always went up to the top left. Meaning that it was extremely important to try to get the top position. Note: Google Eyetracking study prior to recent updates & the introduction of Google Universal
- 69. Google’s Universal Eye Tracker After Google Universal was introduced, the eye tracking studies suggested that the users eyes went to the images first & then the copy next to those images & above then below. Note: Google Eyetracking study showing that most people focus on the image before looking at text.
- 70. Do you buy your brand name? • Benefits: Integrated Marketing messages - Tag lines - Price or offer changes Control over top placement Search Volume grows with brand awareness • Disadvantages: Cost when you have “built” that term eg Nike. Engine doing a good job then you should be the most relevant right? Key times to buy: Competitor terms Strong offline brand campaigns. New product launch or offering. While SEO is poor
- 71. Tracking Paid Search What to look for from the Media Company? • From Search Tool: Actual term clicked Click count audit (click fraud filter) Site side conversion event (count, dollar value, id) Search portal (ninemsn or Yahoo?) • What does this tell you? The conversion rate of the term, creative & landing page The ROI on the term, group of terms, Search Engine or campaign Audit trail to check search engine costs • What can you do? Optimise bids, creative & buy type Compare Search Engines
- 72. Tracking Paid Search What is the end result of this tracking? • Useful & meaningful reports • Campaign strategies can be informed by the data & optimisation strategies implemented • Bid management can be automated for so that the ROI of individual terms can be maximised
- 73. Tracking Search What to look for with organic listings? • No data from Search Engines (in most cases) • All tracking is site side (log files) or SEO tags • Manual log file tracking ok for very low traffic sites • 80%+ of the time a tracking tool will capture: Search portal Search term that led to the visit.
- 74. “On page” optimisation - Site accessibility • Make the site accessible to search engine crawlers HTML is better than Flash • Multiple files rather than one large file • The absolute minimum: Robots.txt file Correct HTML coding Meta tags with relevant information “use text” visible information should be in text (html) not embedded in graphics such as .jpg or flash Site navigation that the crawler can follow i.e. site map • For dynamic (database driven or Flash sites): Ensure the URL structure is crawlable by the engine Have a browse function as well as a search function Consider static pages for key content (terms)
- 75. “On page” optimisation - Site content • Start with researching which terms that you want to get found for. • Build genuinely useful content relevant to someone searching for that topic. • Make that content accessible & readable. • Meta tags i.e. keyword = car insurance are important but the search engines check for “visible” text that is relevant, not just the html source code. • Consider offering additional content other than that which is strictly required to sell your product i.e. mortgage calculator, hotel information & facilities, whitepaper’s on industry etc. • The more useful your content & the more that consumers appreciate it, then the more that the search engines will want your site to rank well for relevant terms.
- 76. “Off page” optimisation • In order to provide more relevant results, the search engines look further than the content of a particular page/ site. • Google led the trend, they measured “link popularity” If lots of other sites have links to a site then the site must have some value to consumers • The more recent extension of this is “link reputation” If sites link with a tag that includes terms, then the page is more likely to be relevant for those terms: • For example, “click here if you want information on car insurance” • Beware artificially boosting link popularity is now being monitored by the engines & will be penalised. Use a genuine strategy of contacting relevant sites and request appropriate reciprocal links.
- 77. What you need to remember? 1. Constant Search isn’t just a campaign, it must be on 100% 2. Nurture Search must be nurtured, whether it is paid or organic 3. Integration Search must be integrated into campaigns. Only 2% of people remember URLs shown in TVCs or other activity. 4. Optimisation Search can be optimised real-time, campaigns can be tested & learnings taken out immediately 5. Measurement What does success look like? What were the take outs from the campaign (ATL elements)?