search engine marketing 101

[Webinar]Search Engine Marketing 101

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Introductions:

Kyle ChandlerManager, Demand Generation kchandler@hileman.biz | @projectchandler

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Agenda:• What is Search Engine Marketing

• The Anatomy of a Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

• Organic Search Detail

• Paid Search Detail

• Tips and Tricks for SEM in 2015

• Key Takeaways

What is Search Engine Marketing

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What is Search Engine Marketing

Definition: Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in both paid and organic search.

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The Anatomy of aSearch Engine Results Page

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The Anatomy of a Search Engine Results Page

Paid Paid

Organic

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The Anatomy of a Search Engine Results Page

Paid Paid

Organic

~25% of Clicks on a SERP Goes to

Paid

~75% of Clicks on a SERP Goes to

Organic

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The Anatomy of a Search Engine Results Page

Paid Paid

Organic

Immediate Traffic

Sustainable Traffic

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The Anatomy of a Search Engine Results Page

Organic

Of the 75% of organic traffic, the click through rate greatly diminishes the further you move

down the page

18%

10%

7.2%

4.8%

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The Anatomy of a Search Engine Results Page

Paid Search: Depending on the level of competition, this includes three ads above and seven to the right of the organic traffic. These ads can sometimes include products, phone, or site link information.

Organic Search: By default, this includes ten organic listings. Then, depending on the personalization or targeting, this could include local results, news, scholarly articles and maps.

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Organic Search Detail

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Organic Search Detail: How Does it Work?• Constantly changing and evolving (500-600 algorithm changes/year)• Both an art (content) and a science (technical structure)• At its core, there are three main areas to rank higher in organic search

1) The Content Targeting of your Website

2) The User Experience of your Website

3) External Websites that Mention your

Website

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Organic Search Detail: Content Targeting

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Old Way of Content Optimization

New/Effective Way of Content Optimization

Organic Search Detail: Content Targeting

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• Q: If I repeat my keyword enough on my page will I rank?• Q: Are META tags really all that important anymore for SEO?• Q: How do I know if my page is optimized enough?

Organic Search Detail: User Experience

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Organic Search Detail: Authority

The Quantity and Quality of External Websites That Point to You

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Organic Search Detail: Authority

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Organic Search Detail: Authority

• Authority is passed throughout your website the same way it is passed from domain to domain. Having a well structured website helps your authority flow naturally.

• The strongest page on your website is naturally the home page. With that, you want to make sure no web page is no more than three clicks away from the home page and that links are in both the navigation and body content.

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Keyword Research Phase• Think about how your customers find you and the keywords they are searching for• Measure these keywords on the barrier of entry/difficulty, as well as the average traffic

On-Page Optimization Phase• Create unique pages to targeted individual keywords (prevent keyword cannibalization)• Using our tool, we can ensure a page is optimized to its fullest potential

Link Structure Optimization Phase• Search engines rank sites higher based on the amount of reputable external links they

have pointing back to their sites • Our goal is to increase the amount of reputable external links to a client’s site, as well

as create a proper internal link structure to effectively pass the links’ value throughout their website

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The Hileman SEO Process is made of 3 key phases:

Organic Search Detail: Our Approach

Paid Search Detail

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Paid Search Detail: How Does it Work?• Paid search is paid on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis where each keyword

search query is a new live time bidding auction. Your budget can be set on a daily or monthly basis to ensure you never pay more than your target amount.

• To achieve a higher position in the SERP, you either need to increase your max cost-per-click or increase your marketing relevancy through your quality score.

Max CPC x Quality Score = Ad Rank/Position

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Paid Search Detail: Our Approach

• Focus on improving your quality score to increase your ad rank without increasing your max cost per click or budget.

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Paid Search Detail: Our Approach

• You want to make sure your campaign and ad group structure is very targeted and precise; this means staying away from generic topics.

• Make sure your high value keywords are in all three places: ad text, keyword list and landing pages.

• Repeat your “Ad Headline” on your landing page as the “H1”.

• Quality score is assigned at the keyword level and incorporates historical click-through rate in the equation; keep your keyword list fresh and don’t let keywords stagnate.

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Search Engine MarketingTips and Tricks for 2015

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1. Negative Keywords Are Key• When drafting new search engine

campaigns, many marketers focus so much on what keywords to target, they often forget what NOT to target. A comprehensive negative keyword strategy can save you hundreds, and even thousands, in ad spend per month.

• There are obvious terms to use like free, job or salary but you also want to think outside of the box like:

• Closely spelled companies, organizations or public figures

• Geographical terms• “Photos”• “Classes”

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1. Negative Keywords Are Key

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1. Negative Keywords Are Key

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2. Rebuild Campaigns = Quality Score Refresh• Quality Score is a key metric at the

keyword level in paid search. This metric allows you to pay lower costs-per-click while still ranking higher.

• The quality score is calculated by relevancy between all assets in an ad group, historical click-through rate and other key factors.

• If you have a traditionally poor performing campaign, or you take over a “handed down” campaign, by rebuilding brand new, you can get a quick refresh on your quality score by resetting your CTR history.

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3. Remarketing Lists for Search• Remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA) is a

feature that lets you customize your search ads campaign to people who have previously visited your site. It tailors your bids and ads to these visitors when they're searching on Google.

• Since the end user already engaged in your brand, you could customize the search ads for them by:

• Leveraging a build multiplier to increase the visibility of your ads

• Showcasing discounts or promotions for those key users in search engines

• Adding a shopping cart checkout reminder

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4. Link Reclamation• One of the hardest parts of organic

search engine optimization is the practice of building new links to your website, while abiding by Google’s search quality guidelines.

• However, one of the largest missed opportunities is recovering the links you used to have, but have lost through human error, website transitions or just plain bad luck.

• The best place to find these links are in Google Webmaster Tools, as well as Open Sight Explorer. The first step is finding all internal and external 404 errors and redirecting them to the correct new pages on your website.

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4. Link Reclamation

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4. Link Reclamation

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5. Infographic + Submission Site + Social• Another big SEO hurdle is, not only to get

people to link to your content, but also to get people to share or engage in your content.

• With that, another suggestion is what we like to call “kick-start” campaigns for new content releases, such as infographics or data visualizations.

• Once you release your new content piece online, start by submitting the URL to design submission websites like Visual.ly and Infographic of the Day.

• From there, publish a sponsored post on Twitter or LinkedIn to allow paid media get the start on sharing.

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5. Infographic + Submission Site + Social

Key Takeaways

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Key Takeaways:1. To be effective at both organic and paid search, you must first have high

quality content AND continue to publish new content over time.

2. When optimizing for search engines organically, do not forget about the user experience or else it will hurt you in the long run.

3. Paid search is all about relevancy. Keep your campaigns and ad groups reasonably sized and targeted.

4. Combining both tactics allows for a greater saturation of the SERPs, which, in turn, provides you the most traffic on your targeted terms.

5. Before diving into any SEM campaign, do your research on your industry and competitors to see if there are any untapped areas to focus on.

Questions?