Marketing Your User Group Using Search Engines

1. by Ash Nallawalla Marketing Your User Group Using Search Engines

2. About the Presenter • Ash Nallawalla • BCom (Hons), GradDipComp • Certified Google Advertising Professional • 26+ years in marketing, sales, product management, writing and editing, mainly in multinational Web-economy companies • Consulting and training delivery to small and big business on search marketing topics – http://www.trainsem.com • Blog: http://www.netmagellan.com

3. Why Use Search Engines? • Easier for new members to find you – they already use search engines to find answers to computing problems. • Staying ahead of the competition (if any) – your competitors are usually online forums, not user groups. • Increasing the number of visitors

4. Main Search Engines • Google • The Rest: • Yahoo • Live Search (was MSN) • Altavista (Yahoo) • AOL (powered by Google) • Alltheweb (Yahoo)

5. Main Directories • Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org) • Yahoo Directory(dir.yahoo.com) • Specialist Directoriese.g. APCUG list of usergroups, Ash’s List

6. A ranking system based on popularity: Popularity = links: More links are good Links from topical pages are better, e.g. Ash’s list of PC User Groups, from APCUG, from vendor pages Reciprocal links as not as good as one-way links, esp. From off-topic sites – don’t bother. Links to “bad” sites are very bad Use Google Toolbar to view PR Don’t read too much into the rank # e.g. PR5 Google PageRank (PR)

7. Google Toolbar • Download free from http://toolbar.google.com and Add-Ons exist for Firefox

8. How Search Engines Work: Spiders • Three stages of search engine visibility: • Get crawled by spider • Get indexed into the search index • Get positioned for a specific phrase (lots of phrases, in fact) – you must know what phrases a searcher will use to find you, even if they have never heard of the concept of a user group – e.g. “help with excel”. • Above takes 1-3 months if you do everything “right” • Search engines deploy spiders (crawlers) to jump from link to link and index the Web. • Frequently changing pages are visited more often.

9. Blogs • Easiest way to set up a “web site” – you can build your first within minutes! • Encourage each SIG to set up their own blog! • Link to one another. • Invite members to subscribe. • Encourage members to promote URLs responsibly.

10. Press Releases • Prepare regular press releases • Always have a human story angle: • Not “Podunk User Group Meeting” as a heading for the press release • “Local computer group saves the hospital!” • “12-year old genius wins scholarship” • “Never too old to learn, says 99-year-old Tulsa resident” • Include quotes from various people • Mention contact number and photo opportunity

11. Press Releases (mostly free) • 1888 PressRelease.com: http://www.1888pressrelease.com/ • 24-7PressRelease.com: http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/ • EcommWire: http://ecommwire.com/ • Express Press Release: http://express-press-release.com/submit-press-release.php • Free News Release: http://www.free-news-release.com/ • Free Press Release Center: http://www.free-press-release-center.info/ • FreePressRelease: http://www.free-press-release.com/ • I-Newswire.com: http://i-newswire.com/ • Malebits: http://www.malebits.com/ • Media Press Release: http://www.media-press-release.com/ • MediaSyndicate: http://www.mediasyndicate.com/ • PowerHomeBiz: http://www.powerhomebiz.com/BizNews/pressrelease.htm • PR.com: http://www.pr.com/ • PR Leap: http://www.prleap.com/ • PR Newswire: http://www.prnewswire.com/ • PR9: http://www.pr9.net/ • PressExposure: http://pressexposure.com/ • Pressmethod: http://www.pressmethod.com • PRLog: http://www.prlog.org/ • PRweb: http://www.prweb.com/ • PRZoom: http://www.przoom.com/ • The Open Press: http://theopenpress.com/ • Xtvworld.Com: http://press.xtvworld.com/

12. APCUG Toolbar • Free promotion tool • Get it from http://apcug.ourtoolbar.com (not mytoolbar.com) • Get your own UG toolbar from www.conduit.com • Add your group’s RSSfeed to the APCUGtoolbar

13. …getting to the heart of SEO Optimization of the Site

14. SEO “Factors” • On-Page Factors: • Invisible (HTML, headers) • Visible (readable content) – the key is to have unique content. • Off-Page Factors • Backlinks (PR) from best (most relevant) sites, e.g. APCUG, ODP, Yahoo • Anchor text (actual words used to link to you) • Choice of web host – fast connection to the web, not too many others on shared server, more RAM, etc

15. Best On-Page Factors • <TITLE> - Keyword at starte.g. <title>Kentucky Macintosh User Group, Louisville, KY</title> • Anchor Text in linkse.g. <a href=“http://www.atlantapcug.org/”>Atlanta PC User Group</a>better than <a href=“http://www.atlantapcug.org/”>Click Here</a> • H1 tag – only one per page – use relevant texte.g. <h1>New Jersey PC User Group</h1> • Path/File namese.g. /training/excel-training-in-Dayton.html • Keyword prominenceJudicious use of important keywords at the top of the page, at the start of a sentence or heading, as long as it reads natural. Vary the words a little.

16. Less Important Factors • Keywords at start of sentences • Bold/Italic text • Keywords in body text • Alt tags • Meta Description • Meta Keywords

17. Keyword Research • Study log files • Try keywords on search engines to see who comes up on top and why • Keyword suggestion tools, e.g. • Wordtracker (paid) • Adwords tool (free) • Overture tool (free)

18. Directories = Easy Links • You submit to a category, e.g. Business > Computers > Organizations > User Groups • Link to only one of your pages, usually the home page • No crawling of whole site (other than to confirm that link is still alive) • Some are free e.g. ODP, Yahoo (free for noncommercial) • Some are specialist directories, e.g. APCUG, Ash’s List • Avoid “free for all” directories (test = no editorial control; all welcome)

19. Linking Strategy • Choose directories wisely – must be same niche, e.g. computers, user groups, else very little benefit • Give others keyword-rich, cut-and-paste HTML for their link to you e.g. <a href=“http://www.cpcug.org”>Cleveland PC User Group</a> • Don’t offer a link back to them unless you have to. Only do it if both of you are in the same niche.

20. Page Architecture • Use clean, valid (W3C standards compliant) HTML • Keep page size down • Use CSS in an external file • Move JS to external files • Use text, not graphical text for headings • Spiders cannot easily index framed sites and those using JS links. • Don’t link every page to every other page.

21. Site Architecture • Themed “pyramid” (inverted tree) design Home Page About Us Meetings Training Newsletter Forum Course 1 Course 2 Archives Main Meeting SIGs Board of Directors Directions PIG SIG Hardware SIG Other SIGs

22. Results • Melb PC ranks #1 when someone searches for a user group in Melbourne.

23. Results 2 • Melb PC’s training courses needed more visibility. • Optimised pages made this happen.

24. Results 3 – Local Search • Submit to Google Local Search.http://local.google.com/ • You get a map reference.

25. …now the web visitor is on your doorstep members Converting browsers to buyers

26. Make Them Stay • Once someone arrives at your user group website, grab their attention within the first five seconds! • They must know what the site is about – a user group • They must see something that will arouse their interest to explore the site. No stale info! • Display a call to action prominently – Join Now button

27. Melb PC Home Page

28. New Melb PC Website

29. URLs for links: http://www.sem911.com/seo-articles (article on Google SEO) http://easyrsvp.com/ugotw(Ash’s UG list) http://crm911.com/ugnotw(UG Newsletters) http://cdb.apcug.org/loclist.asp (APCUG List of UGs) Thank You