Transcript Search Engine Optimization

INTERACTIVE PROFITABILITY
Guillaume Bouchard, CEO, NVI
www.nvisolutions.com
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Parallels – Optimized ComputingTM
INTERACTIVE TACTICS
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HOW TO LEVERAGE THE BEST ONLINE CHANNELS
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Niche keyword research
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Paid search and obsessive campaign optimization
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Medium to long tail organic SEO
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Smart social media optimization
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Affiliate program
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Online budget for small, medium, and large companies
SMART SEO TOOLS FOR ADDED VALUE THROUGH RESELL
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Revolutionary tool in the SEO industry: LinkScape from SEOmoz.org
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RankSense analytics software
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NICHE KEYWORD RESEARCH
EXPLORATION OF TARGET MARKETS
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Create an initial keyword list (based on industry, competitors, etc)
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Use keyword generation tools and any available analytics to add depth
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Free/paid tools: Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, Google Keyword Tool
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Useful analytics: Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Central, CrazyEgg
DETERMINATION OF TARGET MARKETS
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Testing volume / relevance / conversions of listed keywords
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Assessing attainability based on existing competition
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Analysis and filtering of results to identify critical keywords to target
KEYWORD ONSITE OPTIMIZATION
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Competition tests on search requests
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Mapping of keywords to appropriate pages / content
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KEYWORD RESEARCH TIPS
EMBRACE THE LONG TAIL
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Heavy competition on short tail
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Volume on long tail too important to pass up
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Develop a big list and associate them with optimized conversion pages
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Negative keywords: you never have enough (best tool: www.epiar.com)
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PAID SEARCH ADS (PPC)
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PAID SEARCH ADS (PPC)
USE
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Test for relevance, volume, competition of search requests
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Targeted traffic for niche terms
ADVANTAGES
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Immediate results (for site launch, event-driven campaign, etc)
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Useful for visibility / profitability on a site not yet ranking
DISADVANTAGES
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Increased costs since 2004
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Increase in fraud on competitive terms
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Very expensive in the hosting industry (top10 most expensive industry)
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Low volumes on specific niche services or geographical areas
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Penny competition on offers: the industry is at “commodity” level
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HOW IT’S DONE (PPC)
KEYWORD RESEARCH
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Uncovering most relevant, available, and cheapest keywords
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Organizing keywords by theme
LANDING PAGE CREATION
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Created based on keyword research combined with on users personas
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Google Website Optimizer to do A/B + Multivariate testing
AD CREATION
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Creation of ad groups by theme
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Writing effective ad copy
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Revise / change ads regularly
MAINTENANCE
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Optimizing ad copy, landing pages, bids, new keywords / new negative keywords
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ORGANIC SEO
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ORGANIC SEO
INDEXATION
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Opting for a technological solution following SEO best practices
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Site architecture and URLs mapped in accordance with semantic verticals
RELEVANCE
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Optimization of keywords mapped into a silo site architecture
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Internal linking strategy to intelligently distribute SEO page ranking value
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Nofollowing pages that we don’t want to rank
POPULARITY
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Quantity / Quality / Age / Regularity / Semantic relevance of links obtained
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Diversification of entry points for links toward your site
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Strategic interlinking with partners or any external sites
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HOW IT’S DONE (ORGANIC SEO)
ONSITE TIPS
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Ensure keyword targets are optimally represented
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Craft new content to demonstrate authority
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Make references to old articles when needed (wikipedia style – smart scripts can be made)
OFFSITE TIPS
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Backlinks = core “online” fuel of 50% of Web traffic
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Trade information / content / anything for backlinks
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Develop a widget / badge and offer incentives to your clients to install them
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Embed a text link into widget for medium to long tail keywords tailored to your products
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Ensure you develop some expertise in house to assimilate and energize your efforts
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Get ongoing coaching from a visionary SEO company to stay updated with new tactics
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Best tool: SEOmoz tools suite (explained next slide)
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WHY DO IT? (ORGANIC SEO)
INTERESTING FIGURES
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Roughly 1 visitor out of 2 on the Web came through a Search Engine, controlled at 70%
by one player (i.e. 1/3 of worldwide traffic goes through Google before hitting your site)
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~25-40% of search users click the top-ranking link. 8-20% click the 2nd result, and the
click through rate (CTR) continues to drop steadily thereafter
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The variation of the CTR click through split is linked to the fact that the keyword
searched is a generic word or a branded keywords. Branded keywords like “Parallels” get
a higher spike for #1, where the distribution curve is smoother for generic terms like
“Web hosting”.
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77% of search users choose organic over paid listings when searching, 67% choose
organic search when purchasing. This means that if you are investing 80-90% of your
search marketing budget in PPC with conversion pages, you are not on the right path to
build equity for your company
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40% of SEO campaigns aware of their ROI achieved returns in excess of 500%, while only
22% of PPC campaigns were able to achieve this value.
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SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION
NEWS SITES
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Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Mixx, Propeller, Yahoo! Buzz
COMMUNITY SITES
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To meet people: Facebook, LinkedIn
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To be entertained: YouTube, FlickR, MySpace, Ning
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To discuss with peers: Web hosting forums, blogs, review & news sites
TIPS FOR HOSTING COMPANIES
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Multiple potential uses: PR, SEO, branding, direct marketing, media buys
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Define the goals of the campaign before making any decisions
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Look at it as a ongoing investment to support your major online marketing channels
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Do not get into social media marketing because it is the latest buzz
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HOW IT’S DONE (SOCIAL MEDIA)
SOCIAL PROMOTION
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Create compelling content
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Network within the social site to gain friendly support
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Promote in a focused, realistic way
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Make sure you can handle the load spike ;-)
COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
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Respond quickly, transparently
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Generate discussion
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The right message, at the right place, at the right time
PR / BRANDED CAMPAIGNS
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It is not a traditional PR media – you are building your brand with geeks, not journalists
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Focus on your potential long term ambassadors and the industry influencers
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Get everyone to challenge your product (great example of smart PR: Freshbooks.com)
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WHY DO IT? (SOCIAL MEDIA)
INTERESTING FIGURES
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DIGG: $85k average household income, 87% with college education. Digg consumers are
influential professionals who are active online. 236M UVs / year
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FACEBOOK: #4 site in global minutes spent at 2,6 billion / day, 150M active users
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YOUTUBE: Drew 5 billion U.S. online video views in July 2008, 70M videos, 200k publishers,
413 years to see all YouTube content, 100k+ videos uploaded / day
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TWITTER: ~5-10 thousand new accounts / day, 1 100 000 000 tweets so far, 63% male,
3M tweets / day
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BLOGOSPHERE: 133M blogs, 346M readers, 900 000 posts / day,
55% drink 2 or more coffee, 77% of all Internet users read blogs
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WIKIPEDIA: 75 000 contributors, 2,7M English articles, 700M UV / year
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AFFILIATE MARKETING
OWNED VS RENTED SOFTWARE SOLUTION
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Rented: Less expensive, but not customized for your specific needs at all
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Owned: Fully customizable, expensive, developed in-house or outsourced
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Solution: start with rented, build your own after you are successful
SEO-FRIENDLY VS NON-SEO-FRIENDLY
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Is the software SEO-friendly?
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What impact will SEO-friendly software have on my business?
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How can we improve our existing rented / owned solution?
INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL MANAGEMENT
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Should we manage the affiliate program in-house?
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Who will be our affiliates and how are we going to recruit them?
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Which payout structure is considered competitive in the industry?
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HOW IT’S DONE (AFFILIATE MARKETING)
OPTIMIZE WEBSITE
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Make sure your site can drive sales / conversions
DEVELOP PROMOTIONAL CONTENT
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Provide a variety of fresh, useful sales tools
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Ongoing process
AFFILIATE MANAGEMENT
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Target relevant websites and offer incentive to promote
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Offer incentive to bring in other webmasters (referral)
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Proactively ensure affiliate satisfaction as sales partners, and maintain sales activity
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ONLINE BUDGET SPLIT FOR COMPANIES
SMALL COMPANIES ($2,000 - $5,000 / Month)
PPC: 25%
SEO: 50%
SMO: 25%
Affiliate: 0%
MEDIUM COMPANIES ($5,000 - $50,000 / Month)
PPC: 20%
SEO: 40%
SMO: 20%
Affiliate: 20%
LARGE COMPANIES ($50,000 - $500,000+ / Month)
PPC: 20%
SEO: 30%
SMO: 10%
Affiliate: 40%
OTHER ONLINE STRATEGIES TO CONSIDER
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Banner advertising
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Email & loyalty program
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SMART SEO TOOLS FOR HOSTING CLIENTS
SEOmoz’s Linkscape & premium service
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First tool that is crawling the whole Web like major Search Engines
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Removes a lot of myth related issues with SEO
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Value of links coming to & from any sites, acquired over time
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Unique set of link value attributed with main SEO factors (mozStrength / mozTrust)
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Powerful info for domain buyers/sellers & investors
Partnering with SEOmoz.org?
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Tools, guides, humanly driven private Q&A support, marketplace for RFPs/Jobs/Projects
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Premium accounts can be packaged into web hosting plans for added value
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Get a hold of [email protected] or buzz her on Twitter @SEOmom for more info
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SMART SEO TOOLS FOR HOSTING CLIENTS
RankSense Analytics & SEO tool
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Identify the most powerful keywords to target through 12 SEO tools
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Deliver point & click, step-by-step SEO for beginners
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Detects & fixes search engine roadblocks
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Analyze competitor sites & their key tactics
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Discover and implements high quality links
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Search analytics data mining & SEO progress reports
Partnering with Ranksense?
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Help customers to successfully market their online properties through SEO
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Increased Web hosting needs as more traffic means more money spent to support it
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Get a hold of [email protected] or buzz him on Twitter @SharksFly for more info
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