Search Marketing Strategies for 2011

January 7th, 2011 by Sarah Shakour

It’s a New Year and businesses are revamping their marketing efforts. In case you missed this week’s webinar on Search Marketing Strategies for 2011, here’s a recap to help your business reach your online marketing goals!

There were three Online Marketing Objectives discussed:

Goal 1: Increase Visibility on Search Engines

Goal 2: Build Traffic to Site

Goal 3: Maximize the Revenue Opportunity

Increase Visibility on Search Engines:

Studies show that 68% of search engine users only look at the first page of results. In addition, if you’re ranked number one on the first SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), you’re ten times more likely to get a click than someone who is ranked number ten (42 vs. 3% click through rate, respectively).

The first step to getting the most possible sales from SEO is optimizing for the right keywords. That means narrowing down a short list of ideal key phrases that your sales prospects and customers use to find your product.

•        Keyword Expansion Tools: Wordtracker, Wordze, Keywordiscovery, Google’s SK tool

•         Competitive Analysis : Scour competitors sites for missed keyword opportunities

•         Customer Terminology : Talk to your sales team. What terminology do customers actually use?

•         Analyze paid search data: Analytics data, internal site search, web logs

Which keywords bring the best (most qualified) visitors?

•         Stages of Sales Cycle: Evaluate keywords by stage of sales cycle

•         Keyword leverage analysis to determine which keywords are at a critical inflection point

in your rankings

The number of, and competitiveness of your keywords will then help you determine the optimal SEO strategy for your site.

Build Traffic to Site:

Once keywords are selected, they need to be targeted in the site content. Site content is very important because not only do search crawlers read it to index your site, but it is what customers see when they get to your site. For visitors, site content must be informative, engaging and compelling. For search engines, different aspects of site content must signal relevance.

You need to have keyword-rich content on each of your site’s pages, especially your homepage. Keep in mind; if you don’t write about it, you’re not going to rank for it–include essential keywords, keep your message simple and relevant. Most importantly, make sure it makes grammatical sense. Search engines can identify gratuitous keyword placement.

There is a simple way you can see what Google can read on your webpage. The easiest way is to go to the text only version of your cached page. This will bring up all the content that Google can read. You will notice that although your site may be visually appealing, Google can’t read pictures or fancy flash animations. That is why it is so important to have text, targeting your specific keywords in a fashion that makes sense.

Maximize the Revenue Opportunity:

If you have the bandwidth, then this is the ongoing analysis you need to do SEO correctly.

•        Benchmarking in Place

•        Track Spider Crawls

•        Move up in Ranks

•        You should see consistent upward movement on SERPS

•        Tweak the site

•        If you are not seeing that upward movement, then you need to adjust the key areas that we’ve discussed in the “5 pillars”

When measuring the impact of Search Marketing, look at:

•        Organic (Non-Paid) Traffic

Non-paid best represents SEO efforts as all visitors arrive at your site through organic search

•        Non-Branded Traffic
Brings you new customers who do not yet know about your company, but are looking for the products and services you offer

When measuring ROI of your Search Marketing efforts, first define what you consider a conversion. Is it filling out a form, downloading a whitepaper or completing a transaction on your shopping page? Analyze which keywords are leading to the most conversions–utilize those keywords and stop using the ones that are not driving qualified traffic. Also, determine where visitors abandon your site and improve the functionality of that area. By maintain, analyzing and reporting on your customers and qualified leads- you can make an immensely positive impact on your company’s bottom line.

-@SarahShakour

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Webinar Recap: Dominate Google with Social Media Campaigns

November 8th, 2010 by Sarah Shakour

Last week, Barbara Dizon (@BarbaraDizon, Social Media Account Manager) and Travis Low (@TravisLowSEO, Director of Search) discussed the importance of Social Media to B2B marketing, in our webinar titled Dominate Google with Social Media Campaigns. So if you missed it, here’s a recap–and if you want to download the slides, FOLLOW this link!

Some Key Takeaways:

  • 70% of Social Media websites affect purchasing decision in the buying cycle.
  • 50% of social network users, factor information shared on their networks into their purchasing decision.
  • Social Media users are 3 times more likely to trust their peers’ opinions over advertisements.

The Importance of Social Media Today:

Social Media marketing is not about talking to different generations–it’s about creating a community based on common interest that thrives on user support.

Social Media for B2B Companies is about:

  • Building loyalty and trust for your brand.
  • Increasing community following and brand awareness as well as increasing traffic to your site.

Social Media is becoming increasingly integrated with customer service and influence on purchasing decisions. However, direct sales are difficult to track with Social Media. Social Media can offer direct sale opportunities, but without a defined metric for success, it will be difficult to determine its rate of return.

Integrating Blogs, Web Pages & Social Media for Optimal Search Results:

As with any form of communication, it’s important to have a plan for integrating your blogs and websites with your social media initiatives:

  • A little planning goes a long way when starting a Social Media campaign.
  • Map out what your marketing goals are – What does your company want to accomplish?
  • Identify and understand your audience – Who are they, what Social Media platforms do you they use?
  • Do not limit yourself to one Social Media platform. Determine which ones your target market use the most then establish your brand accordingly.
  • Utilize/optimize Social Media profiles fully to reach your marketing goals.

Here are the Top 3 Starting Points for Optimizing Social Media & Search–where your company should start and how:

Blogs – Generate fresh, unique Content
Inbound Links – Establish your site as an industry authority

Social Media – Build your brand image with Social Media:

  • Facebook Fan Pages
  • Google Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Yelp
  • LinkedIn
  • Website Resources & Content

How to Measure Your Overall SEO & Social Media Efforts:

When starting Social Media campaigns, there are many ways you can measure your overall success. Here are some tips:

Blogs  = Content:

  • Search engines love content–this is the single most important aspect of Social Media for SEO.
  • Write casually, as though you were speaking to someone.

Inbound Links:

  • Show that your site has good content and is the “real deal”.
  • Also shows that your content is relevant, which is key to being well-optimized for search.

Interconnectedness:

  • Social Media is about connecting and communicating.
  • Social Media will help your brand/company remain transparent—increasing its credibility.
  • Your website should be constantly updated, giving search engines new content to crawl. The more current search spiders determine your site to be, the higher they will rank it in search results.

Key Takeaways Continued:

1.      64% of marketers already integrate social media into their Search Engine Marketing plans today.

2.      Social Media and SEO go hand in hand.

3.      B2B is in fact equally, if not more active on Social Media sites than B2C.

4.      Social Media is more about increasing engagement and building relationships than broadcasting your message.

5.      The role of SEO for Social Media is to directly influence discovery of social communities and content through search, boosting sales and increasing conversions (conversations translate to Share of Voice).

6.      Content is king. Start with great content on your blog to increase inbound links.

-@SarahShakour

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Marketing Sherpa’s Real Truth about Social Media & SEO

October 26th, 2010 by Sarah Shakour

The key to getting your website to rank at the top of a search engine’s results is to implement SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Integrate SEO with SM (Social Media) and you’re sure to see your rankings and website’s popularity increase. In last week’s webinar, MarketingSherpa’s Real Truth About Social Media & SEO, Webmarketing123’s Paul Taylor (@Webmarketing123) and MarketingSherpa’s Todd Lebo (@ToddLebo) discussed how SM and SEO combine to help your business increase sales, lead generations and website rankings on Search Engine Result pages.

At Webmarketing123, we have the 5 Pillars of SEO. By following these tactics, your website will significantly improve its ranking on Search Engine Result pages. These 5 pillars include optimizing your Keywords, site content, Meta content, URLS and inbound links. Among SM users, 64% use keyword research to find what they are looking for vs. 59% of non SM users. Keyword research is one of the most important components of SEO–determining the language people use to describe products/services and what keywords they are using is crucial! In addition, 48% of SM users rely on link building to market their brand vs. only 37% of non SM users. See below:

Marketingsherpa-SM-graph

This chart indicates how all aspects of SEO are enhanced by the integration of SM. This correlation will only become more apparent as SM evolves.

There are many unique marketing benefits that SM provides. Having a SM presence:

  • Increases brand awareness
  • Builds community following
  • Helps establish loyalty and trust behind your brand (one of the most important benefits!)
  • Offers direct sales opportunities
  • Displays your SM results on the first page of Google

SEO has a lot of benefits as well that yield:

  • A higher ROI
  • 3RD Party Validation (Google determining your site’s relevance to search terms)
  • Improved flow of Traffic

Integrating SM with your SEO efforts will have far-reaching benefits for your website’s market presence. Your site will likely experience an increased number of inbound links, improving your current rankings and increasing click through rates on Search Engine Result pages.

Marketingsherpa-respondents-graph

MarketingSherpa research includes a mix of Social and Search data to improve inbound traffic, leads and conversion rates. Here are a few key takeaways to help your site reach its goals:

  • Optimize content for keywords using SM channels
  • SEO and SM work together to create a comprehensive online campaign.
  • The combination yields a stronger customer community, an increase in conversions and a higher ROI
  • SM will become more integrated in organic search results in the near future

-@SarahShakour

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Conversions 101: How to Turn Visitors into Customers

October 5th, 2010 by Sarah Shakour

The top goal for many B2B companies is to close deals and generate more leads. With the new quarter just beginning, companies are scrambling to meet their end of the year goals. So, what is your business doing to achieve that? There are many ways to improve your company’s performance—an excellent way is to evaluate and improve the success of your company’s website on the search engine results page.

Search Marketing is extremely cost-effective for driving traffic to your website.  Last week’s webinar on  How to Turn Visitors into Customers, Travis Low (Director of Search Marketing) focused on how to capitalize on that volume by making your site as user-friendly and improving your conversion rate.

What needs to be defined first is: “What is a Conversion?” Simply put, a conversion is a visitor performing some type of action on a page. This can be someone who is filling out a form, signing up for a Newsletter, or registering on your site. Where conversions happen really depends on your website. They can take place on your home page or a landing page; anywhere you would set a goal or a desired use of action. For us at Webmarketing123, we like to ask to our clients a few simple questions:

1.       How does your site make money?

2.       What do you want users to do when they get there?

The initial factor you need to focus on is to make your site aesthetically pleasing with color, design and graphics. You need to design the website to get visitors to become customers.

Another great way to turn visitors into customers is to test your website. If your site is user friendly, you are more likely to gain more customers. Some usability best practices include:

  • Assign Visual Priority- Size and weight should represent relative importance when it comes to the actual page. If you’re looking to show someone something that is important to you or them it should be large or heavy.
  • Consider Visitor’s Eye Path- What will users notice and in what order? If you were to take 10 people out of your company and do a focus group, what would they see first on your site? Where do their eyes go? A quick and easy way to analyze how users see your website.
  • Clear Call to Action- Clearly announce what you want users to do. Example: Sign up for our Email Newsletter! (Should be very prominent)
  • Make Steps Clear- Identify what the user is going to do next and where they should go

In addition, a majority of companies use Google Analytics but most don’t know how to use the advanced features. Google Analytics is a great way to test your website and see how your site is converting customers. Here are a few ways to measure your site and see if it is reaching your goals:

  • Funnel Visualization – Where do people exit your goal path? For example, if your goal path is to get a visitor to fill out a form, how many are going all the way to clicking the submit button?
  • Reverse Goal Path- What path do visitors take to complete a goal? npAre they coming from anywhere else?
  • Assign Goal Value- Which pages provide the most value? If someone is filling out a form, what is that form fill-out worth to you? Assign a type of value.
  • Site Overlay- Where on the page do users click?

This is a lot of information to digest, so I’ll leave you with a few key takeaways:

  • Home pages and landing pages should reflect usability best practices to emphasize conversion elements and ensure users perform desired actions.
  • Google Analytics provides data that will help to determine what has the greatest effect is on conversions.
  • A well-managed: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign can widen your sales funnel while decreasing your sales cycle by bringing highly qualified leads.

-@SarahShakour

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Linking Tips for Ranking #1

September 9th, 2010 by Sarah Shakour

Linking is one of the most misunderstood concepts in Search Engine Optimization, but is very significant to your business. If you don’t have a good linking program in place, your site won’t rank well. On last Thursday’s webinar, held by Paul Taylor and Travis Low, they focused on key points and tips on why building a good linking campaign is crucial for your site, especially those top 10 spots on page 1 of search engines site. To start off, let’s go over some need-to-know facts.

  • Research shows if you are not on the first page, most visitors won’t go beyond page one.
  • If you’re ranked number one on the first page of search engine sites, you will have 10 times more of a chance to get clicked on than someone who is ranked number ten (42% vs. 3% click-through-rate, respectively).
  • Inbound linking is the most cost-effective way to improve rankings (we’ll get into definitions later).
  • Nowadays, the top 3 positions on the 1st page are normally considered “above the fold.”
  • Organic searches, overall, still get majority of clicks compared to Paid searches (but we’re currently working on a case study, so stay tuned!).
  • The importance of ranking high will translate to more revenue, and business growth!

There are a few ways to link your site in order to get a better ranking. One way is through inbound links, which are hyperlinks on external sites that you don’t own which link back to your site. These sites should be relevant to your business and regarded high by search engines, so that the inbound links serve as “votes” that tell search engines your site is useful and relevant. It is also important to diversify your links, and not just add a whole bunch to navigate to just one page. Directories are the quickest and easiest way to build up your search rankings and press releases help optimize your keywords. However, one tool that does not help with ranking is social media. All social media sites that you are accustomed to—like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn—have no follow tags. They tell search engine spiders to not follow the text outside of their website, so your site can’t link any of the “juice.” (For more information on the diversity of inbound links, check below on how to get a copy of the slides!)

In addition, internal links are links within your site for Google spiders to know what your site is about, and to see a “content silo” of inter-linked pages. It is imperative to keep the theme distinctive, which will strengthen your website and rank.

One thing that should be known about linking is that it is a gradual process. You want it to be a diverse group you’re ranking from, and the gradual buildup will allow your rankings to look like a natural evolution. Not all links are created equal, so you want to create one that will have a lot of domain authority as well as making sure Google sees that it is relevant.

Every site benefits from linking; e.g. if you don’t have the budget for a full SEO campaign but need to boost search engine rankings, if your site is optimized but not ranking well, and/or if your site needs to be optimized but faces technical limitations. Be sure to proceed with caution, and build a timeline for implementing this process! If you have any questions, or need evaluation and analysis, Webmarketing123 can assist you. Contact Mark Powers at (800) 619-1570 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (800) 619-1570 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or Mark.P@webmarketing123.com–and don’t forget to ask for a copy of the slides!

-Sarah

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