leveraging search engines to drive traffic to your economic development website

Smarter Software for Communities

August 5, 2015

Driving & Measuring Traffic to Your Website

Leveraging Search Engines

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YOUR HOSTS

Lucy Bowman – Director, Creative Services

• Results-driven creative strategist with over 10 years in digital marketing, advertising & brand consulting.

• Economic Development marketing strategy and digital content specialist.

Favorite Website This Year: www.hubspot.com@AtlasAd #AskAtlas

Chris Kidwell – Search Marketing Solutions

www.clixosearch.com

http://www.clixosearch.com/

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In this session you will learn…

• Define a search engine optimization strategy

• Define a pay-per-click strategy

• Review performance

• Adjust pay-per-click campaigns

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Online Advertising

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Online advertising has seen some incredible growth over the

last few years, and for good reason.

Online ads not only allow us to target specific searches and interests but also provide a great deal of data that can be used to calculate the ROI of our campaigns.

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Defining an Search Engine Optimization Strategy

7Search Engine Optimization

A beautiful, engaging website is not much use if people never see it.

To be an effective sales engine, your site needs to rank highly in natural search results.

With a dynamic search optimization strategy, we can build the trust, authority, and quality content scores to boost your site ranking and ultimately your return on investment.

8Search Engine Optimization

SEO is the process of tailoring your website to the algorithms that search engines use to rank websites based on “signals” that the site emits.

Over the past few years, the way customers interact with brands and search for information has drastically changed. In order to remain successful in search, you must understand those changes and adapt your overall search strategy.

9Why SEO Matters

• Search engines like Google and Yahoo are now influencing up to 88% of business purchase decisions*

• Over 80% of internet users are typing search phrases into search engines, and they will either find you, or your competitor*

• At least 75% of users don’t bother looking past page one*

*Source: SEO services, SF

106 Strategies For SEO

1. Create and optimize for mobile traffic2. Optimizing for Bing, Yahoo 3. Focus on ROI metrics, not keywords4. Focus on Social Media5. Earn links!6. Target precise keywords

11Mobile

• Mobile users have different objectives than desktop users.

• They want information in quick, easily digestible bites.

• Make sure your site is responsive!

• Typing on a mobile device, compared to typing on a full-size desktop keyboard, is difficult – use shorter keywords

• Make use of mobile features

12Optimize for Yahoo and Bing- They

Matter!

• According to HubSpot, while Google had around 67% of Internet search engine market share in 2013, Yahoo and Bing combined had just shy of 29% market share.

• Google is much smarter than Bing when it comes to keywords. Google is far more intuitive about the context of a page, while Bing still relies heavily on keywords in page titles, meta tags, and on the page, which means that straightforward, specific keywords are the way to go for Bing SEO.

• Since Yahoo is powered by Bing, the same rules apply there.

13Focus on ROI Metrics, Not Keywords

• Most organizations measure their keyword rankings, their traffic, and they might even measure their conversions….But what really matters?

• Which would you rather hear?

“Congratulations, you are ranking number one for ‘Denver workforce’ but we aren’t sure what that translates into dollar wise.”

Or….

“The workforce infographic that we published last month resulted in earning 67 links and it was also responsible for 45 conversions and 4 leads for the EDO.”

• Utilize Google Analytics to monitor the change!

14Social Media

• Focus on two or three social media platforms and be very active and accommodating

• This will build a very loyal following that will share your content. This can introduce new people to your brand and even present opportunities to earn links from users!

15Earn Links

• Content is KING!

• Write content that offers something to readers, and they will feel compelled to link to it.

• Always create your blog under your own domain so that link credit is applied to your URL.

• Incorporate keyword-rich content into your blogs, social posts and overall site so that it is associated with your overall keyword theme!

• Run it through your filter – Would you share this?

16Target Precise Keywords

• Do keyword research!!! You can’t plan for a campaign unless you know which phrases you are targeting, and you can’t estimate costs and returns from SEO unless you first know who you’re competing against.

• Think like your prospects think!

• Search engines try to be intuitive and return the right results to their users – by targeting keywords that deliver on EXACTLY what they are looking for, we deliver precise results!

17Pay-per-click: An Essential Part of

Digital Strategy

PPC is essentially a way of buying visits to your site, rather than attempting to “earn” those visits organically.

SEO is about optimizing the web property to get better rankings in the search results – think fixing up your house to make it optimal to show potential buyers.

Both processes aim to increase visibility in search engines.

PPC goes beyond SEO. It involves other methods as well which can get you more search engine visitors!

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Defining a Google AdWords Strategy

19Why Google AdWords?

• Easy and immediate way to reach your audience• Endless data• Great for reach and performance

20Getting Started

• Create PPC strategy

• Determine budget

• Choose goals and KPI’s

• Measurement Strategy

21What are your campaign goals?

• Reach Target Audience

• Drive Engagement

• Create Conversations

22Determining your Budget

• Define sustainable cost per goal

• Create a media plan for search and display

• 70% reach

• 30% direct response

23How Will You Measure Results?

Establish Tracking Methods:

• Google Analytics

• Event Tracking KPI’s

• Conversion Tracking

24Defining Your Target Audience

• Specific personas vs. general categories

• Define specific demographic profiles

• Choose behavioral targets such as topical interests, visits of certain sites, etc.

25Persona Development

• What job does this person do?• What industry is this person working for?• What are there interests?• How old on average?• Male or female?• Where do they live?• What publications do they frequent?• What is their pain point?

26Persona Development

• John D. – Site Selector• Industry: Oil and Gas • Typically interested in golf, fishing,

economic news• Age: 35-45• Mostly male• Target locations: Texas, Colorado,

Oklahoma• Specific targeted sites:

Siteselection.info, Golf.com, economist.com

27Search or Display

• Choose to do search, display or both

• Understand the differences

• Define unique goals for each

28Search

Example Search AdOur State Named #1 for Business by

Site Selection Magazine. Learn More

example.com

• Highly targeted• Uses keywords centered around search intent• Low reach due to targeted nature

29Choose Keywords

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site selection datasite selectionbusiness site selectionsite selection consultantcolorado economic developmentcolorado office of economic developmenteconomic development council of coloradocolorado department of economic development

Choose keywords likely to be searched by your targeted personas

Google Keyword Planner Sample

30Display

• Reach a much larger audience• Target based on behavior• Top of funnel, good for building awareness• Especially good for targeted campaigns• Also include Remarketing

31Building a Display Plan

SAMPLE

32Launch and Optimize

• Once you have your media plan created, you are ready to advertise

• Enable campaigns and watch your traffic closely

• Once you have reached your target spend levels, begin optimizing

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Optimizing your Search Campaign

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• Click Through Rate

• Bounce Rate

• Average Time on Site

• Page Views per Visit

• Engagements

These KPI’s will help you evaluate the different elements of the campaigns

Identify your KPI’s

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• Make sure all of your ads are approved

• Make sure you have at least 2-3 ads per ad group

• Are any clear winners emerging?

Ad Review

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• Are all of your keywords approved?

• Are all of your keywords on the first page?

• What is the average position?

• Keywords with “low search volume”?

• Keywords vs. search queries

Keyword Review

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• Did you meet or exceed your budget?

• Are you underspent?

• Would you get better performance by shifting budget between campaigns?

Budget Review

38Targeting Review

• Google Display Network targets

• Review site placements

• Review traffic split between topics / audiences / keywords

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What Comes Next?

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Digital Economic DevelopmentUniversity Course #12

Topic: Using LinkedIn to Drive Prospect and Stakeholder Engagement• Overview of LinkedIn• Create a profile that gets viewed• Create LinkedIn company pages• Use LinkedIn for prospecting• LinkedIn for targeted advertising

Date: Wednesday, August 19, 2015 from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM (MDT)

If you haven’t registered for the course, or for a certification track, visit this link to enroll:

http://communitysys.com/Webinar/Digital-ED-University-Registration.aspx




41Access to Recordings

To access this webinar, or any others in this series, please visit: http://communitysys.com/Restricted-Webinars/Webinars.aspx

If you are already a CS customer/user, provide the same credentials you use to login to the CMS desk.

For non-customers/users, your username is your first and last name with no spaces (e.g. LucyBowman), and your password (for everyone) is DigitalEDU.

For questions or any issues please contact: [email protected]

http://communitysys.com/Restricted-Webinars/Webinars.aspx



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Guillermo Mazier303.292.3300 [email protected]

Ben Wright720.420.3800 [email protected]

929 BroadwayDenver, CO 80203www.communitysys.com

Thank you and stay in touch!


mailto:[email protected]



http://www.Communitysys.com/