How to increase the visibility of your business online through paid search, search engine optimisation and local business listings. This is a recent talk I gave to members of the Bord Gais Energy Book Club.
2. Agenda
• Intro
• Search Marketing in Ireland
• Overview of Paid Search
• Local Business Listings
• Overview of SEO
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
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3. Vanessa Vallejo, Head of Search GroupM
Over 4 years working for digital specialist and media
buying agencies in Ireland
Working on:
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
5. 2012 Irish Digital vs Total Media Spend
Classified
21% Search
45%
€146m
Display
34%
*Social media
4%
Sources: IAB & PWC – 2012 *projected totals based on H1
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
6. Search is King, Google is Search
Site
Monthly
Uniques
Yahoo Ask
(000s)
2% 1%
Bing
Google.ie
2,345
2%
Facebook
1,745
YouTube
1,447
Google.com
1,424
RTE
1,245
Yahoo.com
1,163
Yahoo.co.uk
941
Wikipedia
932
MSN.ie
907
Google
95%
Live.com
776
Source: Comscore May 2012
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
7. Why Should I Care?
• In 2012, 80% of the Irish population is online vs the EU average of 65%–
that’s 3.6 million people
• 74% of Irish consumers use Search on a regular basis – that’s 2.7 million
people
• 95% use Google to search – that’s 2.6 million people
• Can you afford to ignore this many people?
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
8. Mobile Search Increase Year on Year
180% Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
9. Mobile Search Increase Year on Year
• Mobile search is local
in nature with 50% of
all mobile queries
having local intent
• As a result, 70% of all
mobile searches
convert within 1 hour
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
10. Search Engine Marketing is comprised of 2 parts
1) Search engine optimisation (SEO)
2) Pay per Click Advertising (PPC)
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
11. The Search Engine Results Page
Paid per Click
Advertising (PPC)
Non-Paid, e.g.
Organic Search
Listings (SEO)
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
14. Paid Search (PPC)
Benefits of Paid Search
• Customers are searching for info on your site, and reach is high
• PPC is 100% measurable, easy to amend and easy to control
• You only pay when someone clicks with the intention of going to
your website, so impressions are free
• PPC can stand in where it is difficult to get organic visibility
• Drawbacks - PPC can be expensive if not managed properly
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
15. Paid Search (PPC)
Paid Search Drives Incremental Clicks
Based on Google’s analysis of 390 cases…
50%
of ad clicks are incremental if
your natural search result
ranks 1
82%
of ad clicks are incremental if
your natural search result
ranks 2-4
96%
of ad clicks are incremental if
your natural search result
ranks 5 or lower
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
16. Quality score is Google’s algorithm for
the Adwords auction.
It impacts directly on cost and ad
position.
A good quality score (6 or above) will improve your ad position
& decrease your cost per click.
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
17. Paid Search (PPC)
Quality Score is Influenced By
1. Keyword relevance to search query 4. Landing Page Relevance
2. Ad relevance to search query
5. Historical Performance
3. CTR: number of ad clicks/number
of impressions x 100 6. Other relevancy factors
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
18. Paid Search (PPC)
Sample Adwords Account
Account Settings
• Monthly budget and billing info
• User access and preferences
• Conversions
Campaign Settings
• Set daily budgets
• Country/location, language
and device targeting
• Network: Search or Display
• Start and End dates
Ad Group Settings
• Set max cost per click limits
• Ad copy or ad creative
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
19. Paid Search (PPC)
Paid Search Targeting Options
• Network: Search or Display
• Location and location targeting
• Ad scheduling/day parts
• Device – desktop, tablet or mobile
• Target by device network (Meteor/
Vodafone/O2)
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
20. Define success before you start
KPIs can include:
• Site visits
• Online registrations
• Online sales
• Callbacks
• Downloads
• Time on site
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
21. Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course Photo by Rajiv Patel on Flickr
23. Non-Paid Option
Local is Key for Small Businesses
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
24. Register a Google Places Listing for Free
www.google.com/placesforbusiness
Optimise your description
with relevant, descriptive
keywords and region-
specific keywords
Upload images: store shop
images, images of your
products and encourage
customers to write reviews
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
25. Importance of Google Places
This way to organic
site listings
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
26. Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course Photo by Rajiv Patel on Flickr
29. SEO vs. PPC
Myth #1
Advertising on paid
search can improve
my organic rankings Paid Advertising
PPC
Myth #2
The number of clicks
on a website will
increase my ranking
Non-Paid “Natural”
Listings SEO
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
30. Organic (SEO)
Search Engine Optimisation is…
The process of improving the visibility of a website, page, image
or video with the aim of increasing search engine traffic.
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
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31. Basic Differences Between SEO & PPC
SEO:
• Organic results are determined by the algorithm’s view of the relevance of a website to
the search performed by the user.
• We can influence these rankings by investing in our SEO efforts but our level of control
over how this process works is somewhat limited.
• Clicks from organic rankings are free… however investment into SEO requires time,
expertise, and perseverance
Best Practice: combine SEO and PPC to Maximise Visibility
PPC:
• We pay for the clicks we get from paid listings and paid search visibility is entirely under
our control. The main limiting factor is budget.
• We can immediately gain top positions across a variety of searches at the “flick of a
switch”… by turning on our PPC campaign. The correlation between cause and effect
is very clear.
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
32. Organic (SEO)
Key Benefits of SEO
Visibility Increased potential to drive
brand recall
Increased visitor numbers
Credibility and market Requires no advertising
leadership online budget – clicks are free
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
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33. SEO Challenges
• Competition is high and there are usually 10 max results per page
• Clicks are free, but costs and labor are front loaded and benefits are not
immediately visible
• SEO takes time to work… months and years. It is a long term investment
that can be frustrating for some.
• To be sustainable, SEO requires buy-in and integration from different areas
of a business – marketing, social media, and Web/Analytics.
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
34. An SEO Campaign is made up of 2 parts:
1) On-site: Website optimisation
Encompasses everything within our control; your website’s code, architecture, page content
(copy, layout, navigation, keywords etc).
2) Off-site: Domain Authority
Offsite factors have to do with how your website is indexed by Google. Increasing your
domain authority requires developing quality and relevant inbound links to your website,
from meaningful ‘sticky’ content, social media (Google+), directory registrations and blogger
outreach.
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
35. On-Site: Search Engine Considerations
1. Domain name – keywords targeted
2. Page title tags and metadata – keyword targeted
3. Keywords in headers
4. Inter-page linking (keyword contained in links from one page to another)
5. Navigation
6. Site architecture
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
36. 1. Keywords in Domain Name
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
37. 2. Keywords in Page Title tags and Metadata
Page title
More history and links
Meta data
More relevant domain
and page title tag
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
38. What are Page Title Tags and Metadata?
• Page title tags tell users and search
engines the topic of a particular page
• Title tags are displayed in search
engine results pages
• You can find page titles in the upper
left corner of your browser
Max Recommended length: 70 characters
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
39. Description Tags
• A compelling summary value proposition
for this page including keywords,
geolocators (if appropriate) and may
include synonyms.
• Written to be read - very important for
people as they can influence a person’s
decision to visit a website.
• Best practice to include both keywords
and descriptive text, along with a call to
action. Think of your description tag as
e.g. Call today! Or Book Now!
ad for your website
Max Recommended length: 155 characters
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
40. Best Practice Title and Meta Description Tags
• Meta tags are important factors which we can control
• Create keyword rich title tags (max 70 characters)
e.g. Surf Lessons Kerry, Surf School Ireland, Board Rentals, Tralee
• Create unique page title and description tags for every page
• Monitor how these appear within search engines
1. Home page tag – encompasses all services and location 2. Kids Surf Camps Page – specific to camps/lessons
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
42. No More Search without Social
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
43. Recap: Google Ranking Factors
• Use and frequency of words/phrases
• Website’s internal linking structure
• Inbound links
300+ • Content freshness
• User’s location
Factors • Device used to access the web
• Page load times
• Social signals
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
44. Questions?
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
45. Thank
You!
Daviddecastrob
Vanessa Vallejo, Mindshare Ireland t: @vanvallejo
on Flickr
vanessa.vallejo@mindshareworld.com Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
Bord Gáis
f: facebook.com/vantresca
46. Google Adwords Resources
Google Adwords Learning Centre
http://support.google.com/adwords/certification/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=examstudy.cs
Google Keyword Tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Google Insights for Search
http://www.google.com/insights/search/
Google Analytics IQ Lessons
http://www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/iq.html?
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course
47. SEO Resources
• Seomoz.com - http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo
• Google Analytics - http://www.google.com/analytics
• Google Keyword Tool- www.googlekeywordtool.com
• Google Insights for Search - www.google.com/insights/search
• Google Webmaster Tools www.google.com/webmasters/tools
SEO Publications
http://www.seomoz.org
http://searchengineland.com
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog
Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Digital Marketing and Social Media Course