LEVERAGING THE WEBWith

SEARCH AND ONLINE MARKETING

AGENDA

1. Introductions

2. Online Marketing - Why Should You Care

3. Strategy #1 – Get Found (SEO)

4. 10 Low Budget Marketing Ideas

We love being connected…in fact we are addicted to it!

The Last 60 Seconds

• 694,445 searches on Google• 695,000 Facebook updates• 370,00 minutes of calls on Skype• 98,000 tweets• 12,000 new ads on Craigslist• 1,500 new blog posts• 600 new YouTube videos• 320 new Twitter accounts• 100 new LinkedIn accounts• 60 new blogs were created• 168 million emails sent

SEO

What the heck is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization [surch] [en-juhn] [op-tuh-muh-zey-shuhn]:

The process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural," or un-paid search results.

IN PLAIN ENGLISH: GETTING YOUR WEBSITE FOUND ON GOOGLE

Why Should I Care?

• Every Day – One Billion Google Searches

• 85% of Searchers Click Organic Results

• Organic search is the #1 lead conversion tactic outranking email marketing and paid search.

HOW MUCH IS IT WORTH TO RANK ON GOOGLE?Something to Think About

STEP ISetting Your Site Up for Success

1. Keywords

2. Content

3. Navigation & Usability

Research

Keyword Research

1. Identifying niches without significant competition

2. Look for the low-hanging fruit of micro niches

3. Look for long-tail keywords

4. Reverse engineer your competition’s websites

Research Tools

• Google Suggest

• Google Adwords Tool

• SEO Quake

• SEMRush

Google Suggest

Google Adwords Tool

What Can You WinGo After the Longtail

Watch Out for Keywords withWell-Established, High Ranking Sites

Create Quality, Engaging Content

Content• Interesting • Easily consumable • Easily shareable• Optimized to be found • Focused on evergreen - long shelf Life• Write on search terms you can win

Content:

Titles & Meta Descriptions

Keyword Breakdown

• Use the keyword in the page title at least once. Keep the keyword as close to the beginning of the page title as possible.

• Once in a H1 header tag.

• At least 3 times in the body copy.

• At least once in the URL.

STEP IIWebsite Optimization

The Basics

SEO Friendly Website• Easy to use navigation and simple site

structure.

• Professional website design

• Accessibility to modern browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome etc.).

• High quality and credible content.

• Site Map

SEO IS NOT A SIT IT AND FORGET IT PROCESS

Use Images, Videos, and InfographicsPeople love to share these.

Image OptimizationRemember -search engines can’t read images

• Use Keywords in File names (mexican-catering.jpg or fajita- taco-bar.jpg)

• Create Descriptive Alt Text

• Make Your Images Match Your Content

Image Resources• Flickr –Make sure to use the “creative

commons search” and credit the author by linking their name back to the photo.

• Stock.xchng – This site provides royalty-free stock images for use on your site.

• iStockPhoto – This company sells high quality stock images, and can be a good choice when you need to find something specific.

Measure#4 Measure

THIS IS THE HARD PART!!

What You Can Learn

• How someone found your site• What keywords result in the highest sales conversions• Which pieces of your content are the least and most

popular• The demographics of users• How many people you influence• Compare your Facebook/Twitter presence virus your

competitors• Which of your “tweets” are the most popular

Google Analytics

PHONE TRACKING

10 Marketing IdeasFOR SMALL MARKETING BUDGETS

Focus on the DataStart with the Low Hanging Fruit

#1

Claim & Optimize Your Google Maps & + Places Page

#2

Local SEO

Geographic Targeting#3

Think ConversionsWHAT DO YOU WANT VISITORS TO DO

#4

Be Sure to Capture Leads

Leverage#5

Start A Blog#6

Leverage Social Media#7

Social Networks: A Few Steps

• Create profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, & Google +

• Share good content that you find on the web• Create Value• Be patient (it can take 6 months to a year

before your social profiles really become popular.)

HOW DO YOU ENGAGE PEOPLE ONLINE?

Created by Michael Port, author of “The Think Big Manifesto”

Answer Questions• Find Potential Customers on Forums Like

Yahoo Answers

• Answer questions related to the products and services your company provides

• Dedicate time by offering free advice

#8

Guest Blog#9

Offer Discounts• Utilize Google, Yahoo, FourSquare, Yelp and

others to offer discounts for your services.• Strategically place discounts on your site• Offer discounts via email campaigns and ads• Offer discounts offline (but drive them online

to get the discount)• Think about Groupon or Living Social

#10

LEVERAGE THE WEB

Questions?

Stacie@proofseo.com

Slides Available at www.Proofseo.com/apsp

TECHNICAL SEO TIPS

ON PAGE SEO

Content on Your Site• HTML text format – images, Flash files, Java applets, and

other non-text content items are invisible to search engine spiders and won’t help your site get ranked for your chosen keywords

• The first sentence in the body text and the first few words of each sentence are the most important for advanced SEO necessities. Consider using your target keywords here for maximum benefit

• Heading 1 (H1) and Heading 2 (H2) texts show the search engines the main subjects for content to be indexed. Make H1 and H2 texts keyword friendly and reflective of your page title.

• Meta descriptions are also important. The meta description is the short description of a page’s content that appears directly under the page title in a search engine query.

Page Titles

• Search results only display 70 characters – any page titles exceeding this will be cut off

• It’s better to place your keywords at the beginning of the page title and try to leverage branding by ending every page title with your company name.

• Don’t forget to consider the user experience when coming up with you page titles. This means, don’t force the keyword usage since the page title is the first impression of your site to new users.

Linking• In-Text Links

• Shallow Navigation - where information on any page can be accessed within a few clicks

• Breadcrumb Links - navigation that tells users where they are.

• Consulting > Services > Implementation > Service A

• Consulting > Services > Optimization > Service A

• Consulting > Services > Upgrade > Service A

Examples: Off Page Linking

• Guest Blogging• Online Press Releases• Business Listings/Directories• Social Bookmarketing• Video’s• Sharable Content

WATCH YOUR LINK QUALITY

Link Structureensure the search engines interpret your links correctly.

• Choose the Right Anchor Text- the text used to form a hyperlink. (Avoid “click here”)

• Watch Your Link Quality -appear to be written by experts, have good design, load quickly, and seem trustworthy

Don’t Be A Cheater

• Trade or Buy Links• Set up Several Social Sites for Linking only• Don’t Use Linking Farms• Don’t post Spam via Comments on Blogs

Technical Website IssuesEnsure the search engines can crawl your site correctly.

• Site Speed• Canonicalization of Links• Duplicate Content• Redirects• Code Errors• Site Maps