A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Pages Optimization

A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Pages Optimization Marc Uhlig

Agenda

SEO introduction

Factors in SEO

In detail: Code, keywords, link building

Social media

Some SEM metrics

Branding

Landing pages introduction

Got there - And now?

The 4 steps of the conversion process

The 6 steps of landing page design

The 5 Big mistakes in landing page design

Eyetracking landing page study

Conversion rates - Landing page tweaks

Suggested readings

06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

SEO is all about communication

Usability is key, search engines are not

Need for a more holistic approach

High importance factors in SEO 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

SEO: Positive keyword factors

Title tag

Body tag

Keyword density

H1 tag

Domain name

Page URL

H2, H3... tags

Alt and image Title tags

Bold/Strong tags

Meta Description/Keyword tag

SEO: Positive page/site attributes

Global link popularity

Quality/relevancy of inbound links

Rate of new inbound links

Internal link popularity

Quality/relevancy of outgoing links

Quality of content

Organization/hierarchy of navigation

Age of page/domain

Frequency of updates

SEO: Positive page/site attributes

Amount of indexible content

Spelling and grammar

HTML validation

Historical performance

Relevancy to query

Number of queries

TLD extension

Google PageRank of page

SEO: Positive inbound link attributes

Anchor text

Surrounding text

Global link popularity of linking site

Internal link popularity of linking site

Topical relevancy of linking site

TLD extension of linking site

Google PageRank of linking page

SEO: Negative factors

Server is down/very slow

Duplicate content

Low quality outbound links

Duplicate Title/Meta tags

Keyword stuffing

Participation in link schemes

Code: Separate main/sub navigation 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Code: Integrated main/sub navigation 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Keyword research tactics 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Keyword research tools

Google

Wordtracker

Trellian keyword discovery

Greater specificity means more words 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Keyword research: Clustering 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Example: Keyword cluster 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Keyword clusters

Content

Anchor text of site navigation

URL architecture

Link building using media outlets

Industry specific/trade magazines

Check Yahoo directory or DMOZ

Classifieds

Direct visitors to resource area on your site

Specialty directories

Submit your site

Link building using media outlets

Discussion forums

Identify top contributors and establish relationship

Electronic newsletters

Are usually archived

Link building using press releases

Paid

Prnewswire.com

Marketwire.com

Richcontent.com

Free

Prurgent.com

Live-pr.com

Pr-inside.com

Pressbox.co.uk

Clickpress.com

Ukprwire.com

Usprwire.com

Link building: One last tip

Find pages or sites which used to offer a service and no longer do

Social media

Link baiting: Cloaking?

Digg.com

Reddit.com

Stumbleupon.com

…

Communication

Twitter.com

Facebook.com

…

SEM campaign tests ROI 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Indexed ROI of big 3 search engines 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Natural search conversion rates vs. paid 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Conversion rates by conversion type 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Brand most important consideration among clickers 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Combined brand effect of search and display 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Searchers focus on page 1 of the SERP 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Clicks vs. page rank 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Landing Pages

Website entry point for outbound marketing campaign

Outbound campaigns

Don’t do the heavy lifting

Goal (microscopically unimportant): Convince prospect to

Enter a website

Got there - And now?

Do bunch of reading (90% of population doesn’t like reading)

Fill out forms (only geeks use auto form fill)

Submit phone number (hello telemarketers)

Submit email address (hello spammers)

Submit credit card (hello fraudsters)

Pay for something

The 4 Steps of the conversion process: How a visitor experiences your landing page 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

The 6 steps of landing page design - Step 1

Conversion definition

Sale

Lead

Time

Relationship

Membership

Viral outreach

The 6 steps of landing page design – Step 2

Selecting URLs

company.com/sale/product

company.com/specialoffers/product

company.com/event/product

company.com/category/product

company.com/brand/product

Demographic research

Create profile of perfect converter

Probably more than one

Target converter with biggest market potential

Copy won’t work for multiple demographics

Graphic elements, layout, and form design

List of all necessary elements

Determine size and placement

Copywriting in three steps

Headline

Reference to referring page

Call to action

Test against headline

Body copy

subheads, bulleted lists, guarantees, testimonials, explanations and descriptions, etc.

"Can this be said more concisely, yet as effectively?"

Testing, measuring, and tweaking

Conversion rate

Customer lifetime

The 5 big mistakes in landing page design – Mistake 1

Hard-to-read type

Navigation bar from your regular Web site

“Click here to start the conversion process”

Every hurdle will decrease conversion rate

Scary forms

Copy and graphics unrelated to the offer

The 5 big mistakes in landing page design - Bonus mistake

Landing pages that don't match campaign creative

Eyetracking landing page study – Lesson 1

Visitors briefly scan - not read - pages

The average American reads 50 words in 20 seconds, but not in order

Visitors' eyes are a lot like hummingbirds flickering through a garden

The upper left corner is always looked at

Glance at spot where logo usually is

Slight downward drift

Screen real estate directly below logo is high value property

People look at people

Eyes are drawn to human faces

Keep hero shot on the left side

People read captions — but not all of the regular copy

Duplicate your conversion offer

Navigation bars waste valuable visitor attention

Hotlink wording can affect page-readership and conversions

Treated less as a thing for clicking and more as an informational tool

Pages without hyperlinked text get much closer examination

Yes or no depends on demographics

Gender etc.

Conversion rates – Landing page tweaks 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

MarketingSherpa's Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

MarketingSherpa's Landing Page Handbook 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition by Steve Krug 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

E-Commerce User Experience High-Level Strategy by NN/g 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy by Nick Usborne 06/05/09 A User Centric Approach to SEO & Landing Page Optimization - Marc Uhlig

Thank you very much Marc Uhlig [email_address] Twitter.com/marcuhlig