Search 2012 for small businesses

Search: 2012
for Small Businesses

Richard Masters

1 Richard Masters 2012. www.rjmasters.co.uk 10/07/2012

Why is Search Important?
 Search is all about looking for something you
want. In this context on the Internet.
 People search for all kinds of things on the
internet amongst the most important are goods
and services to buy.
 One of the most common reasons for small
businesses to have websites, is for their goods
and services to be found by people searching for
them.
 Getting found by easily and readily by search is
therefore important for a large number of small
2
businesses
Richard Masters 2012. www.rjmasters.co.uk 10/07/2012

Small Business Search
Strategies
Search is important for a large proportion of small
businesses but not all. It is important to establish if
search, and what type of search, is likely to be
important before investing resources in it.


Types of Search Strategy
 The next 2 slides (5&6) presents a flowline for
small businesses by type to determine if a search
strategy is likely to be important and, if so, what
approach is likely to be best.
 Two basic types of search strategies are
identified: Paid search and Organic search.
These are not mutually exclusive but strategies
usually favour one or the other.
 The subsequent 2 slides (7&8) further
distinguishes Organic Strategies, known
collectively as SEO strategies, into unpaid
approaches (DIY SEO) and commercial
Richard Masters 2012. www.rjmasters.co.uk
4 10/07/2012
approaches (SEO Services). Also Pot luck

Is Search Important?


Types and Importance
Type Importance
Traditional marketing •Existing and target customers not online
•Search unimportant. Directories maybe.
Nameplate/ Business card •Tend to be personal branding sites
sites •Exact name search used
Electronic Brochure sites •Well defined customer base
•Small numbers of B2B customers
•Complex and high value transactions
Paid Search (advertising) •Large and medium sized companies
•Commodity/undifferentiated type products
•Monetiseable business models and
predictable RoI
•Simple transactions often high volume
Organic search •Small and medium businesses
•Differentiable products
•Unpredictable RoI

Search Strategies


Search Strategies
Category Characteristics
“Pot Luck” •By far the most common approach!
•Website design/commissioning: No thought given to
search
PPC •Links displayed for selected search terms
•Payments triggered for every click
•Can be effective. Adwords.
Display advertising •Contextual Banner adverts placed on selected websites
•Pop –up, pop-under or roll over etc. Adsense.
•Revenue opportunity for popular websites
SEO Services •Third party services provided to improve organic SERPs
positioning
•Increase in GM covers the cost. Proven RoI
•Decreasing effectiveness and popularity
DIY SEO •Uncertain RoI makes costs unjustifiable
•Incorporate SEO principles into DM strategy and Web
8 Richard Masters 2012. www.rjmasters.co.uk
design 10/07/2012
•Increasing popularity

Search Engines
The core to all search strategies is a basic
understanding of search engines. These are particularly
important for organic SEO strategies.


Introduction to Search Engines
 Way back in Web 1.0 times, it was assumed
people used their Browsers address bar to
navigate the web!
 In reality, most people use search engines to
find information they require. The traffic to these
is the largest traffic category on the internet
 Users request information from search engines,
increasingly using their own natural language and
expressions rather than simple lists of search
terms.
 The search engine returns a list of information it
10 Richard Masters 2012. www.rjmasters.co.uk search. This is known as
thinks is relevant to the 10/07/2012
the Search Engine Results Page or SERP for

The Anatomy of a SERP
 The returned SERP
has paid links at the
top and down the right
hand side.
 The organic search
results are listed in
the order of
relevance as
perceived by the
search engine
concerned
 The nearer the top of
11 10/07/2012
the SERP listing you

Search Engine Market: June
2012
 Google dominates
search on a global
basis
 Bing is growing in
importance especially
in the US
 Other search engines
can be regionally
important


Google is synonymous with the concept of Search Engines
as it dominates the marketplace. It is important to understand
how search engines work in general terms as a basis for
understanding SEO strategies aimed improving an individual
businesses search performance.


The power of

 Data:
 1 Billion searches per day
 Circa 90% of search engine traffic
 Signposts 40% of all worlds web traffic
 Controls 50% of all world ecommerce transactions
 Google effectively controls searching the web
 If you want to understand how search works you
have to understand how Google works


Where is coming from?
 Mission (2012) is: “to organize the world„s
information and make it universally accessible
and useful”.
 To do this it classifies all of the pages on the web
from which it derives a rank for all web sites.
 Googles index is index called Page Rank
Index(PRI) which summarises it‟s view of the
importance of web sites.
 As with all classificatory systems it is based on a
view of what is important and what it believes
users are looking for.
15  To understand search and manage how you10/07/2012are

Page Rank Index
 Page rank is calculated by an Algorithm:
 The “ reducible and transportation matrices of the
Google vector”
 In Plain English
 PRI= Visibility * Relevance * Reputation
 You need to maximise each of these to achieve a
high scoring
 Each is examined in more depth below


1.Visibility
 If Google cannot see you it cannot classify you!
 Google does not see what you see; it only sees
naked HTML!
 It cannot see: Flash, Javascript, Images, non-HTML
navigation etc.
 Google visibility should be a key requirement in any
website specification
 This is largely a technical issue not a visual design
issue.
 A key requirement in website design, if search is of
17
paramount2012. www.rjmasters.co.uk to design for the “Google
Richard Masters
importance ,is 10/07/2012
eye” first and foremost.

Google‟s View of a Web Page


2.Relevance
 Attempt to measure usefulness to users of the
content
 It scans page content and deduces key words
 It assesses the uniqueness and originality of
the content (sometimes called authenticity)
 Another key is “citations” which is a measure for
reputation:-
 Measured by Links and their trustworthiness
 It recognises cheats and marks you down and, in
some cases, it now penalises you!


3.Reputation
 Measured by visitor traffic numbers and the
quality of the visitors.
 This is, in turn, driven by the quality and originality
of your content and credibility of your links
 This is further informed by its perceived needs of
its clients (searchers)
 i.e. what are they looking for ( the proxy being
Google searches).


The PRI Algorithm evolves
 To make the whole business more complex the
PRI algorithm is not static but changes over
time(see next slide)
 The pace has picked up recently with firstly the
incorporation of “Social Signals” from social
media and..
 In 2011 and 2012 it introduced two major
updates known as the Panda and Penguin
updates (see later for details) which radically
changed the ground rules by stressing the
importance of content quality and natural links.

Google Algorithm Changes
 1996-1999: On-page keyword usage + meta data
 1999 - 2002: +PageRank -meta data
 2002 - 2005: +Anchor text + Domain name
 2005 - 2009: +Domain authority + Diversity of
linking domains + Topic modelling
 2010 :+ Social media stream+ Original content-
duplicate content
 2011:- Content farms (Panda updates)
 2012:- Link Spam (Penguin update)


Recent Changes: Good News!
2011 Panda Update 2012 Penguin Update


Panda and Penguin Updates
 Since 2010 Google have made fundamental
changes to its search algorithms know collectively
as the Panda and Penguin updates
 The net result of these updates have been to
increase the importance of original content and
natural links and to decease some of the so
called “black hat” techniques adopted by some
commercial SEO suppliers
 These are of fundamental importance to SME‟s
because they largely remove the need to
employ specialist SEO services to get listed in
search and explains the recent rise in DIY SEO.

Recent Matt Cutts (Google)
quotes
“Even if you do brain-dead stupid things and shoot yourself in
the foot, but have good content, we (Google) still want to
return it," says Cutts. In fact, Cutts says that Google tries to
make it so that sites "don't have to do SEO."
“We are trying to level the playing field a bit....
All those people doing, for lack of a better word, over-
optimization or overly SEO – versus those making great
content and great site. We are trying to make Google Bot
smarter, make our relevance better, and we are also looking
for those who abuse it, like too many keywords on a page,
or exchange way too many links or go well beyond what you
normally expect”
http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2011/12/googles-matt-cutts-good-
conten.php>


Search Engine Optimisation
SEO is the process of getting your site listed favourably
in SERP listings. It is useful basics to understand the
basics, whether writing a specification to evaluate
potential suppliers aginst, or defining the objectives of
your own DIY strategy.


Search Engine Optimisation
“SEO”
 SEO can be defined as:
“SEO is the process of increasing the amount
of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-
ranking placement in the search results page
of a search engine (SERP). The higher a
website ranks in the results of a search, the
greater the chance that that site will be visited
by a user.” Wikipedia 2012
 Therefore in order to maximise visitors
(potential customers) to it‟s website a
business must apply the basic principles of
SEO.

Types of SEO Activities
A useful working classification of SEO activities is
to divide them into “On page” and “Off page”
activities. These can be defined as follows:
On Page
On-page SEO encompasses all the techniques used in the
overall design and development of a website to make the
website transparent and easily indexed by Internet search
engines.
Off Page
Off-page SEO encompasses the many techniques used for
creating inbound links to a website page to increase the
perceived popularity of the pages with regard to search engine
algorithms.
29 10/07/2012

On Page SEO
 Keywords and their usage
 Meta data ( title tags, meta tags, descriptions, site
maps etc.)
 Heading Structures
 Domain name and URL structure
 Navigation (simple and self evident)
 Image labels (image “alt text”)
 Content (quantity, variety and freshness)


Off Page SEO
 Inbound links ( numbers, authority, anchor text)
 Social Integration
 Email integration

Fortunately there are some excellent basic free
guides available which provide advice on both
on-page and off-page SEO!

See SEO Resources Paper for detailed information
and free guides on the next slide.


More Information
 Most important thing is that basic SEO is not rocket
science and recent changes have made it even
easier ( see below)
 Good starting point is these two downloadable free
guides:

http://www.hubspot.com/marketing- http://www.google.com/en//webmasters/docs/search-
ebook/intro-to-seo engine-optimization-start


Essentials for getting SEO right
Clearly for search to be successful marketing strategy
there are a large number of factors that are important
and the devil is, indeed, in the detail. However, it is
possible to suggest three things that must be got right to
be successful.


Three fundamental things to get
right
1. Metadata
2. Content
3. Social Integration

These are all covered in more detail below


1. Metadata
 This is one of the key on page elements.
Simple to get right but often missed!( see
Resources Paper)
 It is amazing how many websites completely
ignore Metadata.
 For existing sites this can be checked easily
using either:
-Browser extensions/add-ons (such as the SEOmoz
toolbar)
-Hubspots‟ Marketing Grader tool http://marketing.grader.com/
 For new sites, plan to get these elements right
from the start and plan your site around them.

2. Content
 The last section discussed the importance of a
“Content Rich Website” in the context of the
need to create dynamic websites where fresh
content can be continually added
 High quality, fresh and relevant content is vital to
any organic search based strategy. That is why
the section on websites above, stressed the
importance of CMS and Website Builders in
generating user content. Static websites simply
do not hack organic search.
 In fact, having a content strategy is of such
importance, the next section is totally
dedicated to the role of content and strategies to
36 develop it.

3.Social Integration
 The increased importance of Social Signals in the
Google search algorithm was outlined above. Every
indication is that this will increase in importance in the
future!
 The previous section on “websites” also
emphasised the view of a website as a “hub” or the
centre of a content “ecosystem” with links to content
generated on Social Media sites.
 As well as helping with the PRI of a site they also
drive traffic directly via links and referrals
looks at
 As with content a whole subsequent section
Social Media and it’s key role in Digital
37 Marketing.

Using External Resources
As with all aspects of Digital Marketing there are
significant resource costs involved. Recent changes to
the search algorithms have made the chances of DIY
SEO much more likely to succeed. However, using
external resources is still a viable option under some
circumstances.


Using External SEO Resources
 Huge oversupply in the marketplace! Some good
but some very suspect. So choose carefully.
 Two options: Outsource the work as whole to an
Agency or take on freelancers and mange them
yourself.
 Small business SEO is very different from Big
Brand SEO. Check experience and references.
 Acid test is will agency guarantee increased GM
to cover costs or work on a pay for results basis.
 Don‟t assume your web company can will, or can
do it!
39  Write a clear specification and always go to 10/07/2012

Further Downloadable Resources
Document Title View/Download from Box.net

Google: Resources Document https://www.box.com/s/93e7df7dee66a50a1894

SEO: Resources Document https://www.box.com/s/533c1b89df0a29eda84b

External Suppliers: Resources Document https://www.box.com/s/4fe75ba0eec8e6dee53c

Content: Resources Document Not yet available

Social Media Integration: Resources Document Not yet available

Are Web Design and SEO companies https://www.box.com/s/dbfe31fa216fcd4b7ab1

reaching the end of their lifecycle?

40 Richard Masters www.rjmasters.co.uk 10/07/2012

More/Contact
Email: richard@rjmasters.co.uk
Website: www.rjmasters.co.uk
Linked In:http://uk.linkedin.com/in/richardmastersj
http://www.linkedin.com/company/masters-associates-
limited
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Richard-
Masters/170520949660575
Twitter: @mastersassoc
G+:http://www.google.com/profiles/richardmasters.richard

41 Richard Masters www.rjmasters.co.uk 10/07/2012

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