The A-Z of Search Optimisation for Retailers

The A-Z of Search for Retailers Stephen Pratley MD - Shine Marketing

The A-Z of Search
The importance of search marketing for upmarket brands
A Four Part Approach for Long Term Search Success
Keywords
Structure
Content
Links
Case Examples

The importance of search marketing for upmarket brands
Over 75% of the UK population now online at home
72% use the internet to research high value purchases regardless of where they buy them
42% of respondents cited search engine listings as the most common way they search for products and vendors (Jupiter Media Matrix)
Put briefly, everyone in the UK who has a credit card can now find out about your brand online, and will do so, at your site or elsewhere

How do you achieve good search rankings?
Keywords
Structure
Content
Links

Keywords

What phrases do you want to rank for? Browsers Shoppers

Keywords Generic terms Eye Cream High Volume Low conversion Long term SEO Goal Brand Names Elemis Medium Volume Medium conversion Mid Term SEO PPC to test Brand + Generic Elemis Eye Cream Low Volume High conversion Short Term SEO PPC to test Product Names Buy Elemis Pro Collagen Eye Renewal Cream 15ml Lowest Volume Very High conversion Site structure and overall link profile PPC to test

Keyword Research Tools
adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Wordtracker.com for alternative terms (e.g. handbag/tote/purse)
SpyFu.com (competitor terms - free)
Hitwise (competitor terms – expensive!)

Keyword Research

Keywords
Choose keywords that will drive buyers not browsers
Check your assumptions using Google’s tools
Accept that you can only optimise one page per term
Home page
Category pages
Product Pages
Content Pages

Structure

Site Structure

How Google Uses Your Text

What You See

What Google Sees
Does your website make any sense when all that is left is text and links?

Getting Google to Every Page
Method 1
Google Starts at the top
Works down through links
Leaves a little ‘juice’ at each step

Method 2 – Index files

Indexing Tools
XML Sitemaps
Google Webmaster Tools
RSS Feeds
New products
Blogs & News
Feedburner

Content

How do you achieve good search rankings?
Content on your site that relates to the search terms you want to appear on Google for.
Content which is either useful to others or shows you as an authority
Content which is newsworthy and likely to attract attention

Editorial
Show your expertise
Text = Search terms

Blogs
Allows more feedback
Cheap and quick to set up
Put it at: yoursite.com/blog

Stores
Local Search Terms
Combine with Google Maps
&
Google Local

Content that Gets Editors Talking
In order to get other people to talk about you, you need something worth talking about
Interviews
Opinions
New products
Celebrity endorsement
Event appearances

Content
Google is still essentially a TEXT search engine
Use copy and other editorial to be found
Interesting editorial is more likely to attract attention than sales landing pages

Good Links
High traffic site
Page dedicated to one site
Few other links on the page
Some unique editorial

Bad Links
Several sites
Overall site has little relevance
Same text repeated on many directories

Links – Press Releases

Links – Forums

Link Building
Building Links is an Exchange of Value
Reciprocal Links
Content & Copy
Breaking News
Product Samples
Hard Cash

Link Quality
Bad
Submit your own links
Lots of links per page
Site is relevant to you
New sites with little traffic
Good
Editorial Checks
Pages dedicated to you
Site has no relation to you
Established ‘authority’ sites

“ I’m doing it for SEO”
Forget about Google
Where would you want visitors from if Google didn’t exist?
Google follows popular sites It doesn’t create them

Finding sites that will link to you
Google Alerts : email alerts when your brand is mentioned (or competitors)
Yahoo Site Explorer: sites that link to you or your competitors
Technorati: Blogs talking about your sector
Hitwise: detailed analysis of UK traffic patterns (paid for service)

Case Studies

On site optimisation only
Good structure
Sitemaps submitted to Google
Product feeds sent to Google Base
4,000 pages indexed in approx 2 weeks

Buy Beauty Brands

Lanson Running

Lanson Running
Same on site principles used
Standards compliant HTML code
Google sitemaps
Google base
Fewer products – only 600 pages

Lanson Running
Over 600 relevant links built into the site over 9 months
Forums
Events
Local directories
Regular new content in the noticeboard area

Lanson Running

Summary Your checklist for SEO Success
Decide on 3-4 phrases to target which will bring large volumes of buyers to your site
Test Conversion rates using PPC
Accommodate these phrases in page titles and content
Create content about that subject either on product pages or on a more editorial section of your site
Tell other websites about yours

Questions?

http://blog.timeuniversal.vn	3646
http://econsultancy.com	79
http://blog.ikeda.com.br	39
http://shinemarketing.com	29
http://www.shine-marketing.co.uk	20
http://blog.rakuten.com.br	12
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	4
http://bloglojavirtual.ikeda.com.br	3

The A-Z of Search Optimisation for Retailers

by Stephen Pratley on Mar 04, 2009

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The A-Z of Search Optimisation for Retailers — Presentation Transcript