driving volunteers to your website: online marketing 101
TRANSCRIPT
Driving Volunteers to your Website:Online Marketing 101
Katherine Watier, 1-800-Volunteer.org
5/1/2007 2
Learning Objectives
After this training you will: Understand why you need to be listed on
search engines Know how search engines work, and how
user friendly content can help your rankings Be able to start brainstorming and selecting
keywords Understand why inbound links are
important and have the tools to start a link campaign (including links from social media)
5/1/2007 3
Lesson OverviewStep 1: Make sure volunteers and search engines can find your
site. Keyword Research & Selection Modifying content for SE and visitors
Step 2: Let SE spiders and visitors know your on the web
Registering on directories Establishing a link campaign strategy Using social media to build links
Step 3: Measure results & refine
5/1/2007 4
Why SEO or SEM? More than 86% of all people arrive at websites
through search engines. HUGE cost for volunteers to find you solely
through brand recognition/remembering your URL/web address
Without SEO/SEM you will not be found in search engines
Space on search engines is getting competitive. Your competitors are engaged in SEO/SEM, and you should to.
5/1/2007 5
Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com create their listings automatically. They "crawl" or "spider" the web and add those websites to their index.
When a human visitor to the engine puts in a keyword phrase, the engine serves up relevant, fresh content based on the pages in their index who have those keywords, or are link to from other sites based on those keywords.
How Search Engines Work
Keyword Phrases
5/1/2007 6
Tips for User Friendly Websites
Tips: People scan online. Make sure content is
bulleted and short. Make use of underline and bold for key
points Make sure “above the fold content is clear
& gives instructions Use Alt Text to make your site friendly to
all users
5/1/2007 7
Tips for Search Engine Friendly Sites Fresh, relevant content that uses
keywords Use of “meta tags” Keywords sprinkled throughout text All images have alt text Registered in Search
engines/directories Links from other sites
5/1/2007 8
Step 1: Keyword Research
BrainstormBrainstormphrasesphrases
volunteersvolunteersmay use tomay use to
find youfind you
BrainstormBrainstormphrasesphrases
volunteersvolunteersmay use tomay use to
find youfind you
How?1. Brainstorm with staff, use thesaurus
2. Look at VC literature, competitor literature
3. Ask your volunteers
4. http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/
5. Add variations: volunteer, volunteers, volunteering, Texas, TX
5/1/2007 9
Remember:
It’s not about the keywords You want to be found on.
It’s about the keywords the Volunteer uses to find you.
5/1/2007 10
Diversity of Keyword Phrases The Long Tail of Search:
3% of Excite’s search traffic was 3 keywords – 97% of the rest was in the “long tail”
Amazon.com makes 57% of sales from keywords outside of the “popular” terms.
5/1/2007 11
Selecting Keywords Step 1: Brainstorm keywords and phrases
Home page should feature the most universal keywords, such as “volunteer” or “volunteering” plus location based keywords.
Step 2: Visit Wordtracker, to learn: how times people used that keyword in their
searches how many other sites contain that keyword, and the Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI), a ratio
between how many other sites contain that keyword, and how many searches were performed with that keyword. (a free trial is available.) Higher KEI is better
5/1/2007 12
Other Keyword Research Tools Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Google AdWords Keyword Toolhttps://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
5/1/2007 13
What sections should have keywords? Meta tags: Title, description
Page text Alt text for all images Links Opportunity titles Footer Contact us section
5/1/2007 14
Step 2: Registering in Search Engines & Directories It is important to get your site linked on the major and minor
directories. Submission for non-profits/non-commercial are free.
Your site should be submitted to the following major directories: Yahoo! (http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/): free for non-
commercial sites The Open Directory (http://dmoz.org/add.html): free Other directories, both paid and free, can be found at or
Directory Archives
5/1/2007 15
Step 2:Creating a link campaign Who would place a link to your site?
Newspapers you currently work with Schools, community sites, professional associations,
chamber of commerce, businesses Just ask the webmaster and follow up! SE like links from .edu and .gov more
What should think links look like? Make sure the text around the link is relevant, and not all
sites are using the same phrase
How can you place your own links? Search engine friendly press releases Postings on online boards, listserves Write articles for enewsletters
DON’T BUY LINKS!!!
5/1/2007 16
Step 2:Using Social Media to build links
Post on craigslist.org Create Wikipedia account, or add to article
with link to site Create accounts in Local search engines
(local.google.com, local.yahoo.com, askcity.com)
Create Flickr account, post pictures with links
Post news on Reddit Optimize press releases, and use pr.com,
prleap.com to distribute releases
5/1/2007 17
Why Read Web Traffic Reports? It will highlight if visitors are actually USING
your website Helps you monitor success of your website Allows you to troubleshoot technical or
usability issues with your website Can provide you insight into what kind of
service your community actually wants to be engaged in
Without reading web traffic reports, you don’t know if your online marketing is working.
5/1/2007 18
Keep in Mind when Reading Web Traffic Reports You are seeing a computer program
translating a report from a computer (server) and presenting it to you a HUMAN. There will be translation required
Web tracking is a TREND tracking process. It’s like solving a crossword puzzle. Will give
you insight into marketing successes, and technical or usability issues with your website.
Free Tool!!: Google Analytics
5/1/2007 19
Problem: Site Not Listed At AllProblem:
Your branded website is not listed at all in Search Engines
Things to check: Did you register the site in the different search
engines? Are your web traffic reports showing that you
spiders have visited your site? If not, check 1. type of redirection, robot.txt file
Are you using your meta tags? (title, description) Does your page content match your meta tags? Does your page have real text or is it mostly
images/Flash (SE can not spider graphics or text)
5/1/2007 20
What things should you track? How many visitors are coming to your
website? Where are they coming from? What do you want them to do on the
website? What are they actually doing?
5/1/2007 21
Glossary of Terms
Hits – measures spider PLUS human visitor traffic (don’t use this)
Visits (number of anonymous visitors who viewed your page)
Conversions – the # of visitors that did what you wanted them to do when they were on your website (signed up for an opportunity, filled out a contact form, viewed particular content, downloaded a .pdf)
5/1/2007 22
Tracking Business Goals on the WebBusiness Goals are tracked by “conversions”
1. Visitor clicks “express interest” on opportunity (converts from visitor to volunteer, etc.)
2. Visitor clicks submit on “create a volunteer account”
3. Visitor clicks submit on “create an organization account”
4. Visitor clicks on particular page or .pdf with content or searches using related keywords
5. Visitor clicks on “holiday volunteering event”, or visitors search using words “holiday volunteering”
**These are all called Key Performance Indicators for your website**
5/1/2007 23
Learn More 1-800-Volunteer.org SEO blog:
http://www.1800volunteer.org.blogspot.com
How Search Engines work: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2168031
The expert on linking strategies: http://www.ericward.com/
SEO Chat http://www.seochat.com/
Web Marketing Today http://www.wilsonweb.com/
Local listings AskCity http://about.ask.com/en/docs/about/askcity_help.shtml#15
Google maps http://www.google.com/lochp?q= Yahoo local: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/
