1. The Magic of Copywriting

2. Agenda Introduction Pay Per Click Best Practices Landing Page Best Practices Organic Search (SEO) 2

3. Relevance - The (Search) Holy Grail Search Engines are only as good as the results they deliver. Users demand relevance in search results, and websites that meet their expectations after theyclick through. 3

4. Where Consumers Search A B Google everyone else Y! Hitwise January 2010 4 Where Consumers Search

5. Anatomy of a SERP (Search Results Page) 5

6. organic Sponsored / PPC Anatomy of a SERP (Search Results Page) 6

7. Sponsored / Pay Per Click listings “Auction” - bid on keywords Quality score - secret sauce PROS: Immediate Results Control of How and Where Displayed Can Test and Change Daily CONS: Costs Money Each Time Someone Clicks Very Competitive Need Knowledge to Avoid Wasted Spending 7

8. Organic listings Google displays most relevant Tie breaker - secret sauce PROS: Clicks are ‘virtually’ free Most people click on top organic links CONS: Takes time to see results Limited control Clicks may be ‘virtually’ free, but SEO efforts are not! 8

9. Users Look & Click on Organic “Heat Map” – Eye and Click Tracking 9

10. 10,000 Foot Perspective Business Customer Perception: We know the customers best, we talk to them and they buy our goods/services. Posture: Look at all the things we do! POV: “Business Unit” Company Metaphor: Yahoo Agencies Customer Perception: We know the customers best – we can measure behavior and improve efficiency metrics in how they engage with the goods/services! Posture: Look at how we are moving the needle. POV: “Distribution Channel” Company Metaphor: Google Customers Customer Perception: We know ourselves best – this is how we want to do it. Posture: Wouldn’t it be cool if I could do it “this way.” POV: “What I Want Now” Company Metaphor: Apple 10

12. Pay Per Click Best Practices

13. Landing Page Best Practices

14. Organic Search (SEO)11

16. Customers are already “in the market.” They basically know what they want.

18. Description Line 1 (Limit: 35 Characters)

19. Description Line 2 (Limit: 35 Characters)

21. Finds the “matched term” from your keyword inventory (so make sure your terms make sense – e.g. ‘Houses in Chicago,’ not ‘in Houses Chicago’)

22. Frequently overused, but helpful for tail terms in larger Ad Groups

23. NOT a substitute for a good account organization and tailored messagingFormat: {KeyWord:DVDs} at Amazon.com Low prices on {keyword:hundreds of DVDs} Qualified orders over $25 ship free Amazon.com

25. Must use proper grammar

26. No excess or strange punctuation: Only one exclamation point allowed

27. No superlatives unless substantiated on landing page by a third party

28. Capitalization may be Title Case or Sentence case… Words cannot be in ALL CAPS (unless Brand name)

29. Watch the price points – only use if you’re sure you can beat the competition

30. Ampersands (&) are all right, but don’t overuse

32. Ads – Best Practices Analyze ads and make changes accordingly Analyze ads in a few high-performing ad groups. Keep the best ad in each group and replace the other ads with two new ads to run in rotation. Test new ads regularly with a small number of ad groups. Only expand successful tests to more groups. Use conversion rate and conversions per 1000 impressions to measure strength of ads. Typically, turn off Google’s Ad Optimizer and evenly rotate ads. 17

33. Ad Copy: Strategies 18

34. “Key Messaging” Strategies for Creative “Key Messages” To Test Clean Very Specific Structured Keyword Use Instead of Keyword Insertion Pointed Questions Value Proposition: Fast Value Proposition: Local Value Proposition: Easy Emotional Appeal: What you want Emotional Appeal: Support Local Value Proposition: Nearest Geo-Focus Validation Tactics: Trademark Attention Grabbing: Using Symbols and Characters Keyword Bolding 19

36. Google, Yahoo and Bing All Have Auto-Optimization, Displaying Creatives with Good CTR More Often

37. Auto-Optimization is Engineered to Make the Search Engines More Money – Focus on Conversions/Conversion Rate/CPA whenever possible

38. For High-Volume Campaigns, Disable Auto-Optimization

39. Begin with 3-4 Creatives per Ad Group, Each Utilizing a Different Creative Strategy

40. After a Sufficient Amount of Impressions/Clicks, Begin Removing Non-Performers, Until Only One Ad is Running

41. Begin Testing Discrete Elements Against the Winner20

42. Ad Testing Remove underperforming ads High CPAs and low conversion rates Recommend limiting number of active ads to 2 - 4 21

43. Ad Copy: Testing When testing is completed, may generalize findings to entire account for bump in CTR. Keep in mind the number of variables involved, however: Ad position Types of Keywords Changing Bids Seasonal Shifts 22

44. Ad Copy: Testing Bad Reasons to Test: Haven’t done anything in a while Tired of the same old messaging (it is always new to the user) Don’t know what else to do New site functionality/layout Want to undercut the competition ASAP 23

45. Creative Optimization Tools 24

46. Ad Enhancements Use brand name and registered trademark symbol in ads to highlight authority Test capitalization and variations in display URL Can be used to reinforce search phrases and to convey relevance of landing page to searcher query www.mypersonalapartmentquestassistant.com www.MyPersonalApartmentQuestAssistant.com www.mypersonalapartmentquestassistant.com/Boston www.mypersonalapartmentquestassistant.com/Promotion mypersonalapartmentquestassistant.com 25

47. Beware Ad Optimizers “Show better performing ads more often” Ad Option is ON Recommendation Enable ad rotation option Pick winning ads with emphasis on conversion rate (if possible) 26

48. Sample Ad Copy – “Apartments in Huntington Beach” 27

49. Sample Ad Copy – “3 Bedroom Apartments” 28

50. Sample Ad Copy – “Pet Friendly Apartments” 29

52. Put the keyword in the ad copy to show relevance and attract the user’s eye. When the keyword appears in the ad copy, it is bolded. If the account organization is solid, this need not be done through Keyword Insertion.

53. Emphasize the unique aspects of your product or service that set you apart from other websites – otherwise you’re lost in the jumble.

54. Include a strong call to action so the users know what to do on your site once they get there – not “Click here,” but “Call Today!”

55. Test multiple creatives for each ad group. BUT . . .

58. Qualified via keyword query and your Search Results text

59. A clearly defined Value proposition on your landing page

60. Headlines that instantly state the benefit

61. The least friction possible (page layout, color, ineffective copy, etc.)

62. Balanced with an incentive (free whitepaper, risk free trial, special offers, etc.)

63. The least amount of anxiety possible(filling out a form name, call to action buttons)* © Marketing Experiments 32

64. Conversion Funnel Best Practices Map “who” and “why from keyword to: Ad: Keyword used within ad Headline of ad Implied in value proposition Landing Page: Headline of landing page Text of landing page Benefits statement of landing page Keyword: Viking River Cruises China 33

66. Ex: KWs like web conferencing, collaborate, and remote access solutions should be reiterated in the headline.

67. Add credibility to the brand/product:

68. Follow best practices – and provide appropriate real estate for toll free numbers.

69. Message the unique value proposition clearly on the page.

70. Why should a visitor choose WebEx over the competition?

71. Consider testing specific call-to-action messages:

72. Ex: Get Free Trial, Start 14-Day FREE Trial, Try it FREE Now34

73. Sample Best Practice LP 35

74. Sample Best Practice LP 36 Objective: Take one existing landing page and optimize it based upon best practice principles. Revisions include: Clearly mapping over motivation from ad text to headline. Provide proper real estate to the customer service phone number. Use arrow for forced eye path to CTA. Message “no credit card required” clearly on the page. Use a value added CTA message. Add credibility by associating testimonials with company logos and/or images. Value added content for this page should include what is included in the free trial. A. B. C. D. E. G. F.

75. Sample Conversion Paths 37 Promise Made, Promise Kept?

76. Sample Conversion Paths 38 Promise Made, Promise Kept?

77. Sample Conversion Paths 39 Promise Made, Promise Kept?

78. Sample Conversion Paths 40 Promise Made, Promise Kept?

79. Google Browser Size Snapshot 41

80. Google Browser Size Snapshot Google Browser Size is a visualization of browser window sizes for people who visit Google. For example, the "90%" contour means that 90% of people visiting Google have their browser window open to at least this size or larger. The data is generated based on the browser size of users who visit Google.com. Google says that it found that the install rate for Google Earth increased by a whopping 10% simply by moving it 100 pixels higher on the page. 42

81. Agenda Introduction Pay Per Click Best Practices Landing Page Best Practices Organic Search (SEO) 43

82. SEO Best Practices - Content Unique content (authority) Creating a depth & breadth of well-tagged, unique content around areas of expertise in logical silos,helps Google identifya site as a subjectmatter authority. 44

83. SEO Site Architecture – Flash / Java Script Site: Visit Long Beach http://www.visitlongbeach.com/ Content is 99% in flash 45

84. SEO Site Architecture – Flash / Java Script 46

85. Which site wins? Site One – 5 Pages Site Two – 30 Pages Beatles Beatles Take Away: Build topic expertise by increasing the depth of content on your topics 47 Site Content

86. Source: Hubspot 2008 More pages = More Links Creating more, great content inspires more linking! 48

88. Relevance

89. Keyword(s) included

90. Domain familiarity

91. Differentiation

92. Call to action

93. You have somecontrol!49

95. Each page should be focused around one primary keyword or phase

96. Primary keyword selection should be based on keyword search volume research

97. Keyword Usage

98. Primary keyword should be used within all page elements and significantly within body copy

99. Keyword usage should be based on average usage within top search engines

100. Content Depth

101. Each page should have a significant depth of body copy content in relation to the topical focus (approx. 200 – 600 words)

102. Title Tag

103. 6 to 12 words long

104. Keyword focused

105. Keyword used at beginning of tag

106. Meta Description

107. 12 to 24 words long

108. Keyword focused

109. Keyword used towards the beginning of tag

110. Meta Keywords

111. 24 to 48 words long

112. Keyword focused

113. Keywords should be grouped in related clusters

114. H1 Tags

115. Only one H1 Tag per page

116. Keyword focused

117. Should not be duplicate of Title Tag50

118. Body Content - Best Practices Pages should generally have a minimum of 200 words - ideal = 400-600. Body Content includes web site navigational menus, so, menus should be minimized and use relevant topic terms as much as possible. Body Content should not overly repeat keywords but should use topically related words e.g. Creating a music page without a mention of CD, MP3, Album, or Tape may point out that you are not as much of an expert as someone else. A ‘Beatles’ page without the associate words Ringo, Volkswagen, or Bugs, leaves a search engine to guess what you are talking about. Competitive analysis & keyword research is ‘key’ 51

119. Content Analysis for Apartmenthunterz.com 52

120. “Apartments in Huntington Beach” 53

121. SEO Content Development Best Practices Two audiences: Humans (hi-fi) Spiders (lo-fi) Keyword research Tools SEO Best Practices state that each page should be structured around one particular keyword Keyword frequency Tools are available to help determine this frequency Care should be taken to distribute the content according to specific subject areas This SEO content “siloing” should mirror an inverted pyramid which moves from general to specific For example, “Apartments in California” >> “Apartments in Southern California” >> “Apartments in Hollywood”, etc Continual content creation In fact, the search engines will adjust their frequency of crawling a site according to content freshness 54

122. User-Generated Content Providing a platform for user generated content allows you to exponentially increase Content on your site Page count of your site Blogs, forums, wikis and other Web 2.0 functionality not only allows consumers to actually create content for you but gives them a way to establish a relationship with you which builds confidence and trust Blogs are well regarded by search engines because of the ‘freshness’ of their content 55

123. Photo Optimization Page 56 Alt tags help search engines determine the content of an image. Google also uses alt tags to add images to their image search gallery. Images that lack an alt tag can possibly be categorized using surrounding text, but an alt tag prevents the search engine spider from making its own decisions about images. In addition to alt tags, images should also be given descriptive file names to enhance categorization and optimization. Alt Tag Recommendations Create a descriptive keyword-focused alt tag for each image. Image File Name Recommendations Include the keyword in the image file name. Image Caption Recommendations Add descriptive, keyword-focused captions to enhance other on-page optimization efforts and image categorization.

124. Video Optimization Videos are increasingly driving traffic and being incorporated into universal search results. They should have optimized title tags and meta data as well as keyword-focused surrounding body content to ensure proper indexing. Video Optimization Recommendations Create unique meta data and tags for any video pages added to the site. Create unique content on the pages that will reinforce the keyword focus and categorization of the video.

125. Questions? Brooke Temple brooke@thesearchagency.com 310-582-5726