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The Skinflint’s Guide to Generating Free Search Traffic Mike Moran

The Skinflint’s Guide to Generating Free Search Traffic Mike Moran. Imagine a catalog marketer who said to the boss…. I shipped February’s catalog on time And under budget Customers like it And it looks beautiful Wanna see it?. But that’s all we say about our Web sites—where are the sales?.

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The Skinflint’s Guide to Generating Free Search Traffic Mike Moran

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  1. The Skinflint’s Guide toGenerating Free Search Traffic Mike Moran

  2. Imagine a catalog marketer who said to the boss… • I shipped February’s catalog on time • And under budget • Customers like it • And it looks beautiful • Wanna see it? But that’s all we say about our Web sites—where are the sales?

  3. Yes, we want free traffic, but only the right traffic • If your traffic does not lead to higher sales, it’s worthless • How do you know iftraffic leads to sales?

  4. Download a white paper Fill out a contact form Start with what you want customers to do • Online sales • Find a store • Find a dealer • Find a partner • Phone call • Affiliate link

  5. How can you drive demand for your products?

  6. How can you drive demand for your products? Increase your conversion rate

  7. How can you drive demand for your products? Increase your conversion rate Increase your traffic

  8. How can you drive demand for your products? Increase your conversion rate Increase your traffic Or both

  9. How do you count your Web conversions? • Google Analytics is free • It’s easy • It works

  10. How do you track offline conversions to the Web? • The easiest way is for you to contact the customer • If the customer switches channels, entice the customer to: • Print the product’s specificationsto bring to the dealer • Print a couponto present at the retailer • Call aspecial phonenumber

  11. How do you improve your conversion rate? Should the shopping cart be on the left or right? A/B testing decides

  12. Beyond A/B testing: multivariate testing • Yes, it’s free • Create differentversions of yourpages • Google tests them with live visitors and reports back on which variations did the best • Then you permanently change the page to the best version

  13. Search Learn Use Shop Get Buy Using search marketing to drive conversions • How many search visitors come to buy? • The right search result puts the visitor in the “Learn” stage to view a product page. • How many customers that view a product page put items in their carts? • And how many check out? • Multiply by your average revenue and you have the impact of search on revenue. Increasing the success rate at any stage increases the overall conversion rate

  14. How does a page get to be #1? • Page ranking factors: Affect the ranking of a page regardless of the query term • Query ranking factors: Affect the ranking of a page for a particularquery term

  15. Step 1: Get your site’s pages into search indexes • It’s the first step to take • After most of your pages are indexed, you can look at the keywords your customers use, at your content, and at attracting links • Most Web sites are found by the spiders with no work at all, but others require costly changes Get Pages Indexed Choose Keywords Optimize Content AttractLinks

  16. How do you know how many pages are indexed? • Site: operator • Yahoo! Site Explorer • Marketleap 28,500 pages

  17. Calculate your inclusion ratio • Less than 70% usually indicates a significant problem • Some sites find they have almost no pages indexed Number of pages indexed Total number of pages

  18. Remove the spider traps that prevent indexing • Improper redirects of URLs • Incorrect robots coding • JavaScript and DHTML navigation • Flash or other rich media content • Dynamic variables in your URL

  19. Step 2: Choose your keywords • Once your pages are indexed, it’s time to choose your keywords • Do you know what words your customers use? • If you don’t, how will you help them find you? Get Pages Indexed Choose Keywords Optimize Content AttractLinks

  20. Your keywords are your market segments • What’s the difference between people searching for “hotel” as opposed to “lodging”? • Someone looking for “lodging” clearly does not want a hotel, so chooses a less common word Lodging Hotel

  21. And, the phase of the buying cycle is a segment • Learn–looking at and becoming familiar with offerings • Shop–comparing products or placing items in the shopping cart • Buy–entering and completing the purchase or checkout process Learners Learn Shoppers Shop Buyers Buy Customers

  22. Choose keywords that are “just right” • Don’t target keywords that are “too hot” (they multiple meanings or are poor matches for your site) • Avoid keywords that are “too cold”—too few searchers look for them

  23. Too hot keywords: overheated subjects • Suppose you make personal color copiers? • Why target the word copier? • You’re not Xerox or Canon

  24. Too hot keywords: Overheated meanings • Multiple audiences: Yes, security, but for what audience? • Singular and plural: No, cosmetic and cosmetics aren’t the same thing. Neither is sale and sales. • Acronyms: Is a CD a compact disc or a certificate of deposit?

  25. Too cold keywords • They’re easy to get #1 rankings for—guess why. • An Italian tour operator targets “milano tours” but Americans say “milan tours” instead • A computer maker thinks“notebook” sounds classierthan “laptop” but customersdon’t • Does anyone know yourbrand name?

  26. Use all your sources to find good keywords • Brainstorm words with your team • Check your search referrals • Check your site search facility • Check your competitors • Use keyword tools

  27. What are the free keyword tools? • Trellian offers a free version of Keyword Discovery • Each paid search engine provides a free tool

  28. Step 3: Audit and optimize your landing pages • Now that you know what keyword your customers search for, how can your pages be found? • For your pages to be found, you need to optimize your content, which we’ll discuss now • After that, you’ll learn how to attract links to your pages Get Pages Indexed Choose Keywords Optimize Content AttractLinks

  29. Follow the same process for each keyword Audit the landing page yes no OK? Start next keyword Choose a landing page for keywords Analyze the landing page’s metrics Improve the landing page’s content Source: Search Engine Marketing, Inc. by Moran and Hunt

  30. Choose a landing page for every keyword • Where does your customer want to be? • Be careful when choosing the same page for multiple keywords: • “Product LifecycleManagement” and“PLM” is OK • “Aerospace PLM”and “AutomotivePLM”—no!

  31. Optimize your title • SnapShot home page • Snap digital cameras for you • Save on Snap digital cameras • Snap Electronics—SnapShot digital cameras • Snap Electronics—SnapShot Digital Cameras—Save on digital cameras • SnapShot Digital Cameras from Snap Electronics—Save on digital cameras • SnapShot Digital Cameras—Save on the best digital cameras from…Snap Electronics • SnapShot Digital Cameras from Snap Electronics—Save on the best…digital cameras • Snap Digital Cameras—Save on a SnapShot digital camera Use keywords and a call to action

  32. Optimize your body text Use keyword in headings to emphasize them Keywords in the early part of the page tell the search engines what your page is about. When a search engine sees keywords used frequently at the top of the page, that makes it more likely that the page is about the subjects related to those keywords. Sub-headings need keywords, too But keywords used throughout the body are also helpful. If it makes sense to emphasize your keywords by using bold, underscored, or italicized text, that gives the search engine further clues about their importance.

  33. It’s more than just text • Blended search(what Google callsUniversal Search)finds images, audio, videos andmore • You must optimizethe text aroundthese items

  34. And add more text • Transcripts • Summaries • Background Google sees only words, so give it some

  35. Step 4: Make your site a link magnet • Thousands, millions, or even billions of Web pages might have the same words on them • How does the search engine know which ones are the best • Links! Get Pages Indexed Choose Keywords Optimize Content AttractLinks

  36. Why do search engines care about links? • They are votes for quality • They mimic citations in scientific research papers • The best papers have the most citations

  37. How do search engines value links? • The most links • From the best sites • With the right anchor text PageRank is Google’s name for its page factor ranking

  38. How do you know how many links you have? • You can ask the search engines: • But Google isfamous for notshowing accurateresults • What else canyou do?

  39. Free link counting tools are less work • Yahoo! Site Explorer • MarketLeap

  40. Great content makes your site a link magnet • Make your content interesting and fresh • Blogs • Podcasts • Provide something unique,such as a useful free tool Attract one-way links with content people want to link to

  41. Remove roadblocks that stop people from linking • Long, weird URLs:http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/dpp.do?vertical=Buying %20Guides&cat=Televisions&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&splash=true&n-state=http://www.live.bguides.webcollage.net/_wc/televisions_1.html~~~G!0B6765CD4C51!XRHzYAguDp1SwH5C~~~~@http://guides.sears.com/server/sears/bguides-televisions-showcase • Forced registrationbefore allowingsomeone to viewyour page

  42. Use social media • Bookmarking content often provides links to your page • Don’t bookmark your own content, but provide buttons for others to do so

  43. Use blog trackbacks • Most blogs accept trackbacks, links to your blog when you write about them • Trackbacks to your blog help its search ranking

  44. Read all about it More skinflint tips: Search for “skinflint search” for the Skinflint Search Marketing Guide The search marketing best seller Named a “best business book” by Miami Herald • Second edition • “The Bible of search marketing”--Chris Sherman, Search Engine Land • “Great book.”--Robert Scoble, Scoblizer blog • Named as Top 100 social media book-- Mellow Billow • “Essential read”-- Website Pro Magazine For more information about the books, and for the free Biznology newsletter and blog: www.mikemoran.com

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