Event Websites, Part I: Understanding Search Engine Optimization and Web Analytics

Event Websites, Part I: Understanding Search Engine Optimization and Web Analytics John Curtis, Quotient Stephen Nold, ATI Ian Strain-Seymour, Apogee Search

Before we begin…
Entry level session.
Terms and tools will be clearly explained and defined so that anyone can learn the basics.
Turn off Cell Phones http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBl3doFXlIE&feature=related
Q&A at end, but questions are fine during the session

Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing ( SEM)
Improving traffic
paid placement
contextual advertising
sponsored listings
Pay-Per-Click Campaigns
Display campaigns
Content network
Paid Directory Submissions
Tracking and Reporting

Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization ( SEO)
Process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results
The higher a site appears in search results, the more visitors
Different kinds of search including
Web search, Universal (news, images, video, blogs)
Local search
Mobile search

Web Analytics
Core benefits
Source of visitors
Behavior on website (click path)
Lead and sales data
Attribution
Future direction:
Call center/phone sales integration
Advanced segmentation
Attribution

What is Search Engine Marketing?
NA market: Google, Yahoo, Bing (MSN)
Specialized networks: Business.com, local, vertical players
Search engines vs. Content Network
Paying to have ads appear on the engine
Higher the bid, the better your placement
Quality Score is balancing factor

SEM Fundamentals Measurement

Approaches to SEM
In house management
Devote time:
Set tight parameters to prevent over spend
Agency outsourcing
Clear goals
Multiple players
What about bid management tools?

Skills Needed for SEM Success
Organization
Ad writing
Willingness to Experiment
Analytical skill
Web design

SEM Checklist
Focus your Ad Groups
Watch your Quality Score
Align keyword, ad copy, quality score
Daily / Weekly review
Weekly / Biweekly deeper dive
Set aside 5-10% of budget for experiments

What is Search Engine Optimization?
Setting your site up for highest target possible ranking in Google
When done right, least expensive source of high quality traffic
Long term game plan
What is it not?
Not about gaming or tricking Google.
Not something that will be black and white
An industry rife with snake oil salesmen

SEM Tools
SEM Tools: Google AdWords, Yahoo Sponsored Search, Bing Search Advertising
Keyword Research: Google Keyword Tool, Google Trends
Competitive Research: SpyFu, Keyword Discovery
Call tracking: Mongoose Metrics, Marchex

Fundamentals of SEO Measurement

Content
Content of your page.
This should be you major focus.
Get this right before moving on
Content of your tags: title, meta keyword, meta description, H1, alt, and H2
Targeting: max of 2- 5 terms per page
Strategic in your selection of terms
#1 ranking on a low volume keyword does you no good

“ Good content and linking to it is all we are talking about. That is 90% of what we are doing.”
Arran Coole

Links
Incoming links are votes on the relevance of the page (& site) for the term in the link
More links is better, but
Quality matters
Diversity matters
Links to home page, but
deep links for all of your target terms
Future direction: social links & social graph is huge influence

Link Sources
Web Directories
Social Website
Image Sites
Social Bookmarks
Press Releases
Partners
Articles
Blogs
Purchased Links
Rented Links

Press Releases
Great source for links
Get syndicated, so you end up with multiple links
Real strength is
Ability to target specific words
Google treats as news
Creation and Distribution of Press Releases
Optimize releases, look for HTML support
Consider local : can be more cost effective

Site Structure
The organization of the site
The structure of the URLs
Use logical structures
Geo and date are well recognized
Avoid going deeper than 5-6 levels deep

Coding
Tags:
Title, meta keyword, meta description
H1, Alt, H2
Canonical link
Flash
Embed into page, not stand alone
Use separate search engine file
Be careful with redirects
New: code for speed – page load time matters

SEO Checklist
Great content on the page
2-5 terms targeted for each page
Optimized tags
Incoming links to each targeted page
Google Webmaster Account
Worry about traffic, leads, sales, not rankings

Tools & Resources
Google (Yahoo, Bing) Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Tools Blog & videos
Google Keyword Tool
SEOmoz
Competitive data: Compete, Quantcast, Spyfu, Keyword Discovery
Authority Labs: rank checking

Analytics
Variety tools in the market
Google Analytics becoming a standard
Tool cost = $0
People cost (implementation & analysis) can be high
Measure web traffic
Identify high quality sources
Make mid-course adjustments.

Implementation
Add code snippet, “tag”, to each page
When page is loaded in browser, sends data back to Google
Data is anonymous
Many CMS systems include plug-ins for automated tagging
Watch for tag drift as new pages are added
Consider auditing tool

Checklist of Key Web Metrics
Traffic volume (visits, visitors)
Conversions/Goal Completion
Leads, Sales
Email & Blog subscriptions, Twitter, Facebook
Conversion Rates
Traffic source distribution
Top entry & departure pages
Top keywords
Quality of Experience: Bounce Rate, Time on Site

Analytics Tools
Free Web Analytics Tools
Google Analytics, Yahoo Analytics
Paid Web Analytics Tools
Omniture, Webtrends, Coremetrics, FireClick, Hitslink
Audit: ObservePoint

Contact Information
John Curtis, | President
Quotient Solutions
www.quotient.net
[email_address]
@Social_Quotient
Ian Strain-Seymour | Director, Online Strategy
Apogee Search
www.apogee-search.com
[email_address]
@ifss
Stephen Nold | President Advon Technologies www.meetingtechonline.com www.mtosummit.com [email_address] @stepnold

Event Websites, Part I: Understanding Search Engine Optimization and Web Analytics

by Stephen Nold on Dec 14, 2009

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 1

Statistics

Event Websites, Part I: Understanding Search Engine Optimization and Web Analytics — Presentation Transcript