SEO, moble and more

SEO, Mobile and more… University Marketing Summit Iowa State University December 16, 2010

Our SEO goal…
Do what we can to make it easier for people using search engines to find us…
No perfect solution to the puzzle

SEO defined… http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo
“SEO stands for ‘search engine optimization.’
“It is the process of getting traffic from the ‘free,’ ‘organic,’ ‘editorial’ or ‘natural’ listings on search engines.

SEO defined… http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo
“Web pages and other content… are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users.
“Payment isn’t involved, as it is with paid search ads.”

Google dominates search use… http://www.hitwise.com/us/datacenter/main/dashboard-10133.html
Search engine use, 4 weeks ending 12/04
Google……. 70.37%
Yahoo…….. 15.07%
Bing……….. 9.94%
Ask………… 2.54%
AOLSearch. 1.44%

SEO… Starting with the basics…

4 simple steps to success…
“Eternal” SEO success points:
Good title tags on your pages
Good body copy
Great content
No barriers on your website to block the search
No broken links
Links lead to the expected content
Danny Sullivan, editor, SearchEngineLand.com

Write for the person visiting the site, not for search engines…
Use keywords that real people use…
Add content carewords that people want to read

Keywords and Carewords
Keywords: bring people to your site
Carewords: keep people at your site
Keyword example
Online MBA degree
Careword example
Advance your career

Don’t “stuff” keywords…
The page title and description, primary headline, one subhead, twice in the text…
More and the page won’t seem well written

New pages are good…
Search engines visit your site often…
Give them new page titles to find…
Blogs work well for this

News entries create new title tags… http://tamunews.tamu.edu/

Change press release headlines… http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4879230.stm
Print version
“ Tulsa star: The life and career of a much-loved 1960s singer.”
Website version…
"Obituary: Gene Pitney.“
Steve Lohr, "This Boring Headline is Written for Google," The NY Times

F aculty, staff blogs… http://www.mitadmissions.org/ http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/

Case Study… Penn State World Campus MBA
Review of search results
Anatomy of a high-ranked page

Results for “Online MBA degree”…

First page “online MBA degree” results…
Organic Search
UPhoenix
Regis University MBA
Walden University
Penn State World Campus
Drexel University
UScranton
Paid Search
UPhoenix
Penn State
Cal State Monterey
Post University
Grand Canyon Univ
Marylhurst Univ
Norwich University
Capella University

Results for “Online MBA degree program”
Organic Search
Penn State World
UPhoenix
Regis University
Drexel University

Yahoo, Bing: Online MBA degree
Yahoo Organic
Bing Organic
Benedictine Univ

An “Online MBA degree”… http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/iMBA.shtml
Title tag
“ Penn State – Online MBA degree program”
Page heading
“ Penn State’s Online MBA”
First sub-head
“ The Penn State iMBA”
First sentence
“ Penn State’s online MBA degre…”

SEO… Examples from Iowa State…

Keyword combinations…
Think “large to small”
“ Engineering” on home page
“ Software Engineering” on program page
“ Software Engineering faculty”

Search: Scholarships Iowa State

Search: Freshman Scholarships Iowa State

SEO workflow… http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/7367/9-SEO-Insights-You-Must-Follow.aspx
Read your page copy first…
Write down the 2 to 3 key terms used that best reflect the main purpose of the page
If you have more than 2 to 3 key terms…
You might need a new web page
Example: Financial Aid
Loans… and popular individual loan programs
Scholarships… freshmen, transfer, graduate

SEO workflow (1)…
Write the page title tag…
Up to 70 characters
Most popular/important element first
Example:
“Estimator for Automatic Freshman Scholarships : Iowa State University Admissions”

SEO workflow (2)…
Write the meta description (for people)
Up to 150 characters
Include the primary keyword(s)
Think: what do you want people searching to first read about you?
Example: First 75 characters
“Estimator for Automatic Freshman Scholarships . Required fields denoted by…”

SEO workflow (3)…
Include top keyword in the URL…
Example:
Can we change this…
www.admissions.iastate.edu/award_calc.php
To this?
www.admissions.iastate.edu/scholarship
Or to this?
www.admissions.iastate.edu/freshman scholarship

SEO workflow (4)…
Heading tags… first visible words
One tag in H1 size headings
One or two H2 size headings can follow if appropriate
Example:
Automatic Freshman Scholarships (H1)
Estimate Your Award Now (H2)
Up to $7,000 per year possible (H2)

SEO workflow (5)…
Page content
Use keyword(s) approximately 5x per page
Use at or near start of first regular sentence
Use in subheads and/or bullet points, in bold
Example:
“Automatic scholarships of up to $7,000 are available to freshmen with strong academic records.”

SEO workflow (6)… internal links
Search engines will explore further into your site
People will follow if interested
Links should use words that also are key to the pages they lead to.
Majors Bullet points w/ links

SEO workflow… (7) & (8)
For images on your page…
Use a keyword in the alt text for the image
Internal links to your page
Where possible, create or negotiate 2 to 3 links back to your page from other related pages on the Iowa State website
If you have options: pick pages with highest traffic

Easy to scan links… http://web.usfca.edu/about/why/

Try this to help with keywords… http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
Check these results:
Distance Learning
5,404
Online degrees
2,471
Online accredited degrees
1,404
Online college degrees
1,097

Or this one from Google… http://bit.ly/dAdAD4

Resources for SEO…

Google’s “Starter Guide” PDF http://bit.ly/e7oE3n

“Beginners Guide”… Online or PDF http://bit.ly/gsBRk5

Search engine land & Danny Sullivan http://searchengineland.com/

SEO an hour a day… http://www.yourseoplan.com/blog/

Time for a break…

Exploring the “mobile” world…

Mobile App vs. Mobile Website
Mobile App
Different apps for different devices
How will people find your app?
Not easy to update
Higher performance possible/Easier use
Mobile Website
Access from any mobile device
Can find using “search”
Easy to update
Will perform as well as you build it/Not great right now

Mobile browser use is growing… http://www.netmarketshare.com/
Percent of website visits from mobile…
January 2010…. 1.60%
July 2010…. 2.43%
November 2010…. 2.96%
Percent of website visits from desktop…
January 2010…. 98.19%
July 2010…. 97.33%
November 2010…. 96.79%

Apple & Android both growing…
Percent of website visits from iOS…
January 2010…. 0.59%
July 2010…. 1.06%
November 2010… 1.36%
Percent of website visits from Android
January 2010… 0.06%
July 2010…. 0.18%
November 2010…. 0.31%

Key design points for mobile…

Start at a “mobile friendly” page…
Question:
“How are you detecting a mobile device and directing the user to a mobile version?”
Right answer to start mobile friendly:
“You will need to put a re-direction script in the head of your home page. This script will identify if the browser is coming from a mobile device.”
Steve LaBadie, East Stroudsburg University

Simple, immediate impact…

The not-so-nice alternative… the iPhone “we can do it” trap

Making things easy in mobile…
“ As you go to site XYZ it will automatically create a single-column, mobile-friendly view that has navigation scaled to produce videos or slideshows so users won’t have to pinch or scan or scroll or download an app for everything.”
Robert Z. Samuels, director of mobile product development, New York Times

The NY Times on mobile…

Long links = easier navigation…
3 to 5 word links are easier to touch
Avoid one word links
And especially a series of single word links placed one after another

Case Study… UVA Alumni Relations
Find your class
Read the class notes
Send your new information

UVA magazine: easy to read mobile like the NY Times

Following the class notes link… easy to scroll to your class

Sending a class note… ready for smart phone usability

Easy to type on a touch screen…

Case Study: University of Evansville Academics
Academics on the home page
Scan the alpha list
Find your major
Connect with faculty

The home page… “Areas of Study”

Easy to scroll alpha list…

No finger flicks to read “History”…

Get to know the History faculty…

Case Study… St. Mary’s University Recruitment Texting
Permission to text
High value participants
Text language

High interest students said “OK”…
% of inquiries opting for text updates…
1,416 of 35,606… 4%
% of applicants opting for text updates…
1,140 of 3,720… 42%
% of deposits opting for text updates…
269 of 578… 47%

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC Percent who applied Yield: Inquiry to Applicant Overall inquiries Inquiries who opted-in for text updates

Percent who deposited Overall inquiries Inquiries who opted-in for text updates Yield: Inquiry to Deposit

Post-inquiry contact to increase conversion…
Text messaging each month as the recruitment cycle unfolds
Using “text” writing style

Not yet applied for admission…
“ Be early, catch the worm. Submit ur admission application by Jan 15 for priority consideration. Get info at www.stmarytx.edu/admission.”

Join our online community…
“ Cre8 a profile on the St Marys online community at www.BeARattler.com by Feb 1 to be entered to get ur $200 enrollment deposit waived!”

FAFSA priority deadline…
“ This is last weekend 2 finish priority FAFSA. Go 2 www.fafsa.ed.gov to submit b4 Mon Feb 15 to make sure we get results in time. StMary code is 003623”

Merit scholarship award…
“ Bob, UR hard work has paid off! Congrats on getting a merit scholarship! Learn more about financial aid at www.stmarytx.edu/finaid.”

Register for Orientation…
“ Bob, R u ready 4 Orientation? Sign-up is now open. Go to https://gateway.stmarytx.edu. We R lookin 4ward to seeing u on campus!”

Resources for mobile…

Mobile Marketing Association http://mmaglobal.com/main

Mobile Marketer http://www.mobilemarketer.com/

Thank You Iowa State! Bob Johnson, Ph.D. President Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 226 Chauncey Court Marshall, MI 49068 248.766.6425 [email_address] Customer Carewords Research for Online Marketing Success: http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/customercarewords.html

SEO, moble and more

by Bob Johnson on Dec 20, 2010

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SEO, moble and more — Presentation Transcript