mn ama search101
TRANSCRIPT
MN AMA & MIMA—Search Engine Marketing 101 Raise Visibility & Drive Traffic
May 5, 2009
We Will Cover
» Background on Search Engines
+ How, Why and Who
» Search Engine Marketing
+ Organic Search Engine Optimization
+ Search Advertising
+ Case Study
+ Future of Search
Placement Test
Do You Know Your Acronyms?
Placement Test: Do You Know Your Acronyms ?
» SEO+ Search Engine Optimization – Practice of optimizing a website or web
presence to achieve high organic rankings in search engines
» PPC+ Pay Per Click – The placement of advertisements within search results. You
only pay for those ads when they’re clicked
» SEM+ Search Engine Marketing – Umbrella term for the practice of SEO and PPC
search advertising
» CPC+ Cost per Click – What you are paying each time someone clicks from your
PPC ad to your landing page or site
» CTR+ Click Through Rate – Percentage of people who are exposed to your PPC
that are clicking through to your landing page or site
» KPI+ Key Performance Indicator – web analytics measurements
Brief History of Search Engines
Search 101
What is a search engine?
» A software program that searches a data set (such as the Web) and gathers and reports information that contains or is related to specified terms
Global Search Volume
» Global Percentage of Volume+ Google: 77.4%+ Yahoo: 12.5%+ Live Search (formerly MSN): 5.9%+ AOL: 2.1%
» Over 400 Million U.S. Internet Searches Per Day
The Players
The Web Dominated by Two Engines
» Google:+ Powers nearly 57% of all U.S. Internet Searches+ The Google Network includes:
» AOL» Ask» Netscape» Lycos» Excite
» Yahoo:+ Powers nearly 40% of all U.S. Internet Searches+ The Yahoo Network includes:
» Yahoo Properties» Alta Vista» Alltheweb.com
Search Growth
Search is quickly approaching email as #1 Internet activity
» 41% (60 million) of Internet users search every day+ 90% of all internet users use search
» 52% (76 million) of Internet users email every day+ 91% of all Internet users use email
Source: Forrester Research
Online Spending Comparison
Universal Search
» "The ultimate goal of universal search is to break down the silos of
information that exist on the web and provide the very best answer
every time a user enters a query."
Search Engine 101
Understanding a Search Results Page
Organic Listings “Free”
Pay-Per-Click Listings “Paid Advertising”
Google - Organic Rankings
#1 Organic Ranking
#2 Organic Ranking
#3 Organic Ranking
Google - Paid Rankings
#1 Paid Ranking
#2 Paid Ranking
#3 Paid Ranking
#4 Paid Ranking
#5 Paid Ranking
Search Engine Listings
+ Have seen stats saying 80 to 90% of all
users are clicking through on organic listings,
but this varies by topic and relevance to
what the searcher is looking for.
How Users See a Listings Screen
Search Engine Optimization
Search 101
Organic Search - How it works
» Starts with Search Engine “Spiders” (aka: Robots, Crawlers)
+ Spiders follow links to searchable web pages (Crawling)
+ Spiders identify content, and put it in context based on the other information
around it. (e.g., apple vs Apple)
+ Spiders store “relevant” pages in database (Index)
» Rank by relevance
Organic Search - How it works
Once indexed, a page’s relevance is determined by the engine’s algorithm
» Metadata (Page title, keywords and descriptions)+ Does this matter? + Search engine “Road Map”+ The “main themes” of a website or page+ Control content displayed on search results page
» Content+ Where on page, where within site, surrounding words, clarity+ Aligned with page title, keywords, and descriptions
Metadata
Content Alignment
Organic Search - How it works
A page’s relevance is also determined by…
» Inbound Links+ Links from 3rd party websites to your website+ How many and from which sites
» URL - what is your website address?
» Frequency of page refresh - are you publishing content often?
» Website code - does the code prevent search engines from spidering your content?
PPC Search Advertising
Search 101
PPC Search Advertising
» Advertisers bid for positioning (think online auction)+ In most cases, the higher the bid, the higher the placement+ “Relevance – Click Index” factor is applied to algorithm
» Advertiser pays only when text ad is clicked (PPC)
» Two major distribution methods + Search match - Ex: search directly on Google.com or Yahoo.com+ Content match - Ex: PPC ads displaying on partner sites
PPC: Search Match
#1 Search Match#2 Search Match#3 Search Match
#4 - #7 Search Match Listings
PPC: Content Match
#1 Content Match
Previous #3 Fidelity.com loses placement in Content Match
#2 Content Match
PPC: Content Match
#1 Content Match #2 Content Match #3 Content Match
Search Distribution Networks
» Google: 59% of all search advertisements+ Engines: Google, AOL, ASK, Excite, Lycos+ Publishers: AOL, New York Times, About, Weather Channel, iVillage
» Yahoo: 35% of all search advertisements+ Engines: Yahoo, Alta Vista+ Publishers: Yahoo, CNN, ESPN, National Geographic
How Search Marketing Effects campaign & Website Planning
Sanarus Site Development - BreastLumpInfo.com
Sanarus Example
» Problem
+ Gain awareness for a new non-surgical treatment for Fibroadenomas, patients to clinics
that perform the treatment with Sanarus’ Visica 2
» Goal
+ Intensify awareness of the Visica 2 minimally-invasive procedure among
patients, educate them on its benefits, and accelerate the adoption and
implementation of the procedure
+ Increase the number of patients to six per month at each of eight breast health
centers that are using the Visica 2 system, in two geographic areas (Michigan
and Florida)
Sanarus Example
» Tactics
+ Unbranded, optimized direct-to-patient website
+ Radio advertising
+ Referral marketing
+ Print advertising
Using Search Marketing to Help Planning
Integrating Search in the Marketing Process
» Step 1: Brainstormed and researched keywords target audiences would search
on to find information on Fibroadenomas to determine highest value and
trafficked words
» Step 2: Picked URL (domain name) to align with keywords we felt we could rank
on – www.breastlumpinfo.com
» Step 2: Aligned new website structure and copy to work with keyword alignment
» Step 4: Develop new web site for SEO
» Step 5: Launched PPC campaign to gain visibility earlier than we could with SEO alone
Keywords
KeywordsAdvertiser Competition
Approx Search Volume: July
Approx Avg Search Volume
breast pain 0.93 165000 201000
breast surgery 1 165000 110000www.breastlumpinfo.com/breast-surgery-alternatives/
breast symptoms 0 40500 49500www.breastlumpinfo.com/breast-lump-symptoms/
breast lump 0.86 40500 40500www.breastlumpinfo.com/breast-lumps/
breast biopsy 0.8 33100 40500www.breastlumpinfo.com/breast-biopsy-procedure/
sore breasts 0.66 27100 27100
breast health 0.8 33100 27100
breast cyst 0.66 22200 22200
breast lumps 0.86 22200 22200
lumps breast 0.26 22200 22200
breast lumps 0.73 22200 22200
breast cyst 0.66 22200 22200
breast mri 0.6 22200 22200
breast disease 0.6 22200 22200www.breastlumpinfo.com/breast-disease-treatment/
breast ultrasound 0.73 18100 18100
breast tumor 0.93 12100 14800www.breastlumpinfo.com/breast-tumors/
breast cysts 0.53 14800 14800
<title>Breast Lump Info</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="breast lumps, breast lump, benign breast lump" />
<meta name="description" content="Have you found a Breast Lump? Information is power. BreastLumpInfo.com has the latest information for women whose breast lump has been diagnosed as benign. " />
Results: Ranking No. 3 & 4 in organic results for “Breast Lump Info”
Results: Ranking No. 3 & 4 in organic results for “Breast Lump Info”
Results: Ranking No. 7 in organic results for “Breast Lump Diagnosis”
Results: Ranking No. 7 in organic results for “Breast Lump Diagnosis”
Sanarus PPC Example
Case Study
Using Search Campaigns to Discover New Markets
Search 101
Bellcomb Case Study
» Problem
+ Bellcomb is a manufacturer of lightweight structured panels—They were a leading producer of these
panels with low awareness among key audiences
» Goal
+ Reposition Bellcomb’s brand & improve awareness and visibility with key audiences
» Tactics
+ New brand alignment based on vertical markets
+ Transition from third-party referrals (such as Thomas Registers) to direct organic and PPC search
campaigns
+ New identity
+ New site
+ New marketing materials
Bellcomb
Bellcomb Case Study
Integrating Search in the Marketing Process
» Step 1: Begin keyword research to determine highest value vertical
markets to target
» Step 2: Develop test PPC campaigns to evaluate keywords effectiveness
+ Test for regional differences based on sales feedback
» Step 3: Align new web structure and copy to work with keyword alignment
» Step 4: Develop new web site for SEO
» Step 5: Continually refine website and keywords to respond to changes in the marketplace
Bellcomb
Bellcomb PPC Search Campaign Results
» Traffic to the site increased – 207% increase in visitors since
January, 2007
+ With an ad spend averaging between $3,500 and $5,000 per month
» Organic Rank – 120% increase in total rankings across all search
engines. Rankings include number 1 rankings, top 5, top 10 and
top 20 rankings.
+ Key terms are pushing organic search listings higher on each engine
Bellcomb PPC Search Campaign Results
» 48% increase in keyword distribution
+ Week 1 of the campaign searchers used 79 different phrases to click to Bellcomb. In week
37, 130 phrases resulted in a click-through to the site. We are finding the missing
searchers we weren’t getting before.
+ Measure of visibility and distribution – the long tail effect.
» 187.5% increase is site conversions
+ Conversion in this case = Filling out the contact form, which is a lead
+ Organic traffic increased 12.4%. in 13 weeks following site launch and has stayed steady
Testimonial
» Moved from $1 million in the sales pipeline to $100 million in one
year
+ This (new) positioning has helped us gain recognition as the world’s largest
provider of composite panels for all types of applications. We’ve seen incredible
growth in potential sales and a significant increase in website traffic and search
visibility.
» Mark Phillion, Bellcomb Director of Sales and Marketing
Ongoing
» Increase in competition with keyword buys
» Decreasing spending
» Improving CTR and lead generation
» More click-throughs don’t always mean more leads
» Improve organic visibility
Future Development
Search 101
What’s Next
» Day Parting+ Focusing search on times of day when people are
searching for your information
» Local Search+ Regionally focused search
» Personalized Search+ Results based on your personal search and click
through history+ View and actively manage your historical searches
What’s Next
» Google SMS+ Text search query to 46645 “GOOGL”, receive
answer via phone text message
» Click to Call+ Search results will include a phone icon+ Google will pay for users to be connected by
phone to call center
» Video Search+ Youtube, Metacafe, Blinx
» Mobile Search+ iPhone, PDAs
» Better tie in to Google Analytics+ Cross-channel marketing
POP QUIZ
Search 101
Pop Quiz
» True or False
+ Getting to number one on Google
should be one of your goals in any
search engine marketing initiative.
» False
+ Just getting to number one might mean
that you are spending more than you
need to on your campaigns. Number one
may not be the best position for a PPC
campaign if it means you are spending a
lot more on CTR than your competitors
+ For SEO you don’t need to be number
one for everything, but you want to focus
spending on ranking high for those terms
and phrases that convert.
Pop Quiz
» True or False
+ Search Engine Optimization is done
primarily when building or redesigning
a website.
» False
+ SEO is an ongoing practice that
needs ongoing attention to be
effective.
Pop Quiz
» True or False
+ SEM can be effective for small
companies and small budgets.
» True
+ Search can be an effective tool for
any size organization with any
budget. It always needs to be
aligned with other marketing or
communication objectives to be
effective. Don’t ever work with a
SEM consultant who isn’t talking
about your bigger objectives.
Thank You!
Lisa Helminiak
Principal | Strategist
Twitter: helmin7
Email: [email protected]
» View a copy of this presentation at www.azul7.com/blog
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Thanks for Listening
Questions?