Driving Visitors to Your Website

1. Driving Visitors to Your Website Presented to: Donegal County Enterprise Board Presented by: Fergal O’Byrne, CEO, IIA Date: 6 March 2007

2. About the Irish Internet Association • Formed in 1997 to promote usage of internet as a business tool • We represent suppliers, users, retailers, government and anyone who conducts business online • Our goal is to connect, inform and promote the interests of our membership • We are a non-profit business organisation www.iia.ie

3. Channels to your Business • Online and Offline Marketing • Search Engine Optimisation • Search Engine Marketing • New Channels: Blogging and Podcasting www.iia.ie

4. $20Bn $20Bn This internet thing will never catch on www.iia.ie

5. Online Marketing • Definition: Promoting your website and its content using online promotion, advertising and engagement. • Promotional • Informational • Online Selling • Cost Effective www.iia.ie

6. The market is big, really big • Google and Yahoo now claim to have over 20 billion items in its index! • Over 90% internet users use Search to find sites • North America = 250 million internet users • Europe = 313 million users www.iia.ie

7. Ireland as a market • Over 2 million internet users • 450,000 broadband users • Over 70,000 .ie domains registered • 318,000 people bought travel and accommodation online in 2005 (CSO) • Between 3-6 billion euro transacted online in Ireland www.iia.ie

8. %of searches by US web surfers at home, work and at universities: www.iia.ie

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10. How search engines work • Crawling the web • Building an index • Ranking • Serving results - SERPs – Search Engine Result Pages www.iia.ie

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12. Keywords – defining your site • Search Engine spiders determine site relevancy based on keyword analysis • What are keywords? • These can be in URL, Title, Meta Tags, Body Content, Headers, Comments, Graphic File Names, Bold Text etc. www.iia.ie

13. Keyword Generators www.iia.ie

14. Content Writing • Content is King! • For users AND search engines • 300-500 words per relevant page • Keep keywords together • Avoid overuse of phrase of keywords • Review by someone outside business • Avoid jargon and abbreviations www.iia.ie

15. Meta Tags • Meta Tags include the Title, Description and Content tag • All engines read the Title Tag • Tags have been abused in the past • Should you bother putting time and effort into the tags? • How do you generate the code once you have decided what you want • Meta Tags Generators for free www.iia.ie

16. Title Tag: Your Secret Weapon • Every page should have a unique title • Title is built around target term for that page • This will be a two or three word term • “Holidays in Ireland, Golfing holidays” • Keep it short, attractive and enticing www.iia.ie

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18. Links • Inbound links important for Search Engines to determine your websites usefulness – why? • Generating links difficult and time consuming • How to check your own inbound links • Type link:www.yourwebsite.com in Google www.iia.ie

19. Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Paying For Leads • Search engines can deliver quality visitors • Requires constant attention to ensure the maximum return for your spend • Planning campaign deliverables and budget spend www.iia.ie

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21. Setting Up Your Account The Demo is very useful and worth a visit www.iia.ie

22. CPC: £1.00 CTR: 1% CPC * CTR CPC: £0.30 CTR: 4% CPC * CTR Ad position • An ad’s position is determined by performance and price: • CPC * Quality Score = Position Rank • Two ways to improve your ad’s ranking on AdWords • Increase your maximum CPC • Increase your CTR www.iia.ie

23. Setting Up Your Account • Country/ Language Targeting www.iia.ie

24. Setting Up Your Account • Creating Ads and Selecting Keywords • Create your ad by writing • A headline • Two lines of ad text • A display URL • A destination URL www.iia.ie

25. Setting Up Your Account • Ads Appear Immediately www.iia.ie

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27. Google Adwords - text • Create targeted ads, not branding slogans • What’s the product benefit? • Use a specific call to action • “order here”, “download white paper”, “register now”, “book online” • Set the right expectations upfront • don’t say “huge savings” unless you mean it www.iia.ie

28. Choose Relevant Keywords Guns & Roses Music The Internet’s #1 Site Buy Guns & Roses Today! www.cdworld.com Keyword: roses www.iia.ie

29. Choose Relevant Keywords Send flowers for $29.99 Shipped overnight from the grower. Overnight delivery to anywhere in the 50 states www.proflowers.com Keyword: roses delivery www.iia.ie

30. Optimising Your Ads: Testing Creatives Ireland Holiday Cheap Holidays in the Emerald Isle www.golf-holidays-cork.com What do you think the Click Through Rate (CTR) would be for the sample ads shown – and why? Golfing in Ireland We can organise a golfing holiday in Ireland www.golf-holidays-cork.com Golf Holidays Ireland Luxury golf holidays in Cork area. Special online prices. www.golf-holidays-cork.com www.iia.ie

31. Optimising Your Ads: CTR Results … ? % CTR Ireland Holiday Cheap Holidays in the Emerald Isle www.golf-holidays-cork.com Golfing in Ireland We can organise a golfing holiday in Ireland www.golf-holidays-cork.com ? % CTR ? % CTR Golf Holidays Ireland Luxury golf holidays in Cork area. Special online prices. www.golf-holidays-cork.com www.iia.ie

32. Optimising Your Ads: CTR Results … 0.7 % CTR Ireland Holiday Cheap Holidays in the Emerald Isle www.golf-holidays-cork.com Golfing in Ireland We can organise a golfing holiday in Ireland www.golf-holidays-cork.com 2.0 % CTR 4.5 % CTR Golf Holidays Ireland Luxury golf holidays in Cork area. Special online prices. www.golf-holidays-cork.com www.iia.ie

33. Google Adwords - Budget Control • Select a maximum Cost Per Click (CPC) for your keywords • You are guaranteed to never pay more per click than your Max CPC • Ad Position = CPC x Quality Score • Manage your spending by setting a Daily Budget • AdWords will control how frequently your ad appears to keep you at or below your desired budget www.iia.ie

34. To outsource • Online Marketing Agencies • Full List on www.iia.ie • What to expect • Contracts, deliverables and Statement of Work • Avoid the cowboys – promising too much www.iia.ie

35. Future Areas of Interest • Blogs • Personal Web Log • Citizen Journalism • Commercial Applications, RSS • Podcasting • Publishing Audio and Video • Consume content when YOU want to www.iia.ie

36. RSS Really Simple Syndication Used by news sites, blogs and search sites Online RSS Reader Included in browser or web client PODCASTING Another form of media advertising Useful for audio and video Use with meta tags YouTube RSS and Podcasting www.iia.ie

37. Blogging • Setting it up is easy • Managing is not • So why? • Almost all searches delivers a blog • Dynamic and up-to-date • Bloggers have visibility and influence • Has to be content rich and search engine friendly www.iia.ie

38. Set Up Your Own Blog • Try to set up your own blog • Go to blogger.com • Follow the steps and … • … start blogging! www.iia.ie

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43. Some useful reference sites • IIA Blog (blog.iia.ie) • Search Engine Watch (searchenginewatch.com) • IIA website (iia.ie) • Irish Webmaster Forum (irishwebmasterforum.com) www.iia.ie

44. You decide if IIA Membership is right for your business • To join online go to www.iia.ie • Email lynda@iia.ie for more information or, fill out an application form • Or contact us – 01 542 4154 www.iia.ie