CCT356: Online Advertising and Marketing Class 5: SEO/SEM

Search Engine Marketing Organic search – full-text search results Paid search – PPC advertising model – guarantees a level of placement, but isn’t organic Searches are goal-oriented – your placement should match user goals Still the dominant means of finding things – even finding things you already know of Search engines often first point of contact for Internet – many have search in toolbar or as home page

Search considerations Users want consistent quality relevant information Web sites want to be top of the list to drive relevant traffic Search engines want to make money – but also provide a relevant service Conflicts possible among these goals

SEM=SEO+PPC=Keywords Search engine marketing a mix of paid and organic Both are driven by picking (and in PPC, paying for) the right keywords Keyword selection part art, part science – not only involves knowing your product/service well, but what users conceptualize your product/service to be when searching

The never-ending SEO game Search engines concerned with quality results – they are the “sticky” factor that causes people to come back (and see/click through ads) Web sites want to be #1 in search lists – and some try to do this by all means necessary, including less than ethical techniques – examples? Google and others keep nuts and bolts of algorithm secret and dynamic to avoid being exploited

Steps to SEO Easily accessible website for engine spiders Well-researched key phrases Creating content relevant to key phrases Link popularity New directions

Designing for spiders Spiders only eat certain things – what kind of content can’t be indexed? Use of robots.txt files – why would you want to disallow spider access? Design implications for web sites (Spider: http://www.27bslash6.com/overdue.html)

Keywords/Phrases Search volume – e.g., “hotel” vs. specific location/features More volume not necessarily better – if everyone uses “hotel” you’re going to get lost in the shuffle Conversion rates and value of conversion

Choosing Keywords Brainstorming – what words represent your product/service? (Or, more truthfully, what words does the searching audience think represent you?) Common spelling mistakes and synonyms Examining referral links – how are people finding your site right now? Keyword search tools – data mines regular searching for information, allows you to place your site in competition/relevance/value

Optimization of Content Content must match keywords – and be relevant to those using those words Places where keywords pop – Title, major headings, body content, bold, alt tags, URLs, meta descriptions/tags, link text, domain names Updating content for fresh spidering

Link popularity Links as signals of trust – but only if links are themselves trustworthy! Comment spam, link farms, etc – they’re seen as less trustworthy spaces, and spamming the Internet with bad links might hurt your relevance Good content = good karma – relevant, fun, engaging content better than ad copy e.g.,Oatmeal’s tips on getting 5 million views -

Localization Localization– if searching for a restaurant, you probably want something local – searches delivering an Indian restaurant in San Francisco is not relevant when you’re in Toronto On mobile devices, increasingly tied to GPS – otherwise, just filtering on IP addresses is a good guess

Personalization Use of personal demographics and use behaviors stored in cookies or within context of site can lead to more immediately relevant ads If that information is correct, of course – e.g., public computer, likely less so The as-yet-untapped value of Facebook ads – there’s more information there than we care to admit

Usage stats Lots of statistical information exists in our use patterns Tracking and using this information increasing essential Vivian Ip from QMI will talk more about this in a few weeks

Avoiding bad practice Hidden links Overuse of redirect Irrelevant keywords Multiple duplicate content Overuse of splash screens and doorway content Why? Trickery not appreciated by users and abused tricks are filtered out by engines, lowering profile

Next week Social Media Marketing with Julie Tyios