An introduction to the premise of inbound marketing for small businesses and startups.

1. Get Found!
Content
&
Op*miza*on
Strategies
for
Startups
Devin
Concannon

2. What’s Inbound
You Ask?
Inbound
Marke*ng
is
concept
originated
by
the
marke*ng
so?ware
company
Hubspot
Focuses
on
earning
your
customers
aCen*on,
in
contrast
to
“outbound”
marke*ng,
where
you
“beg,
buy,
or
borrow
your
way
in”
Inbound
marke*ng
focused
organiza*ons
experience
a
cost
per
lead
61%
lower
than
outbound
marke*ng-­‐
dominated
organiza*ons
More
on
Inbound
Marke*ng's
growing
prevalence:
hCp://www.seomoz.org/blog/inbound-­‐marke*ng-­‐is-­‐taking-­‐off

3. The Way People Buy Things is Changing
Realiza*on
of
a
Make
a
Purchase!
Need
Look
at
all
Possible
Inves*gate
Op*ons
Informa*on
Get
Read
Reviews
Recommenda*ons

4. Before we dive into Inbound, lets talk Design
Where
are
you
sending
your
visitors
and
poten*al
customers?
Does
your
site
design
ins*ll
trust,
convey
your
message,
and
ul*mately
push
people
towards
your
desired
business
outcome
(ie
conversion)?

5. Good Design is a Barrier to Entry
Why invest time and resources in
promoting a site that’s not doing it’s job?

6. Conversion Optimization Fundamentals
Image
via
Oli
Gardner
of
Unbounce:
hCp://unbounce.com/landing-­‐pages/landing-­‐page-­‐rehab/
• Videos
• Strong
direc*onal
cues
• Strong
calls
to
ac*on
• Complimentary
imagery
• Social
proof
(ie
reviews,
tes*monials,
social
media)
• Ad
message
matches
upstream
source

7. A Page Built to Convert
Descrip*ve
headline
Prominent,
Images,
Above
the
Fold
Social
Conversion
Form
Proof
Strong
Call
to
Ac*on
Social
Sharing

8. The Bottom Line:
Make Things Easy On Your Customers
The
golden
rule
to
web
design
is
the
simpler
you
make
things
to
understand
and
use,
the
more
likely
people
are
to
do
them
A
fantas*c
resource
for
common
sense
web
design
and
usability:
www.amazon.com/Dont-­‐Make-­‐Me-­‐
Think-­‐Usability/dp/0321344758

9. A/B Testing: Always Be Testing!
• Something
in
your
design
can
always
be
improved
• A/B
tes*ng,
also
known
as
split
tes*ng,
is
a
simple
way
to
test
changes
to
your
page
against
the
current
design
and
determine
which
ones
produce
posi*ve
results

10. Google’s Free A/B Testing Tool
Google’s
Website
Op*mizer
is
a
free
A/B
tes*ng
tool
that
will
allow
you
to
test
different
design
changes
via
the
addi*on
of
html
tags
to
your
targeted
test
pages
• Determine
a
scalable
schedule
of
tes*ng
and
s*ck
to
it
• You
should
have
at
least
one
test
going
at
all
*mes
• There’s
no
such
thing
as
a
bad
result;
constant
learning
• Read
the
Unbounce
Blog
for
great
CRO
*ps

11. We’re almost to the good stuff, but first…
There
are
a
mul*tude
of
free
tools
and
services
provided
by
search
engines
that
EVERY
site
should
be
using
Google
Webmaster
Google
Webmaster
Tools
-­‐
Verified
site
owners
Tools
can
see
informa*on
about
how
Google
crawls,
indexes
and
ranks
your
site
Bing
Webmaster
Bing
Webmaster
Tools
–
Similar
to
Google’s
Tools
tool
with
slight
difference
in
depth
and
quality
of
informa*on
Google
Analy*cs
Google
Analy*cs
–
A
free
enterprise
class
analy*cs
plaoorm.
Will
tell
you
almost
everything
you
need
to
know
about
site
traffic
and
user
engagement
Let’s
do
some
work

12. So what’s this SEO Optimization stuff I keep
hearing about?
A
brief
overview
of
SEO,
how
search
engines
work,
the
Google
Algorithm,
etc
SEO stands for
Search Engine
Optimization.
Search engine optimization
(SEO) is the process of
improving the visibility of a
web site or a web page in
search engines via the "natural"
or un-paid ("organic" or
"algorithmic") search results.
- Wikipedia.org

13. Organic (SEO) vs. Paid (PPC)
Where
do
people
really
click?
10% of Clicks
90% of Clicks

14. In Pursuit of the Algorithm
What
factors
influence
Google’s
rankings?
Source:
hCp://www.seomoz.org/ar*cle/search-­‐ranking-­‐factors

15. The Perfectly
Optimized Page
For
the
example
phrase
“chocolate
donuts”
• Keyword
leads
the
*tle
tag
• Keyword
use
in
the
meta
descrip*on
• Keyword
use
in
the
H1
tag
• Keyword
use
in
copy
• Use
of
contextually
similar
terms
• Keyword
use
in
image
file
name,
alt
tag
• Short,
keyword
friendly
URL
• Keyword
reflected
in
internal
links
Source:
hCp://www.seomoz.org/blog/perfec*ng
-­‐keyword-­‐targe*ng-­‐on-­‐page-­‐op*miza*on

16. Technical Factors that Affect SEO
Search
Engine
Spiders
look
at
over
40
page
characteris*cs
• Sub
Directories
vs.
Sub
Domains
• URL
Formasng
• Page
Load
Speed
• Dynamic
URLs
• Redirects
• Custom
404
pages
• Page
Updates
• CSS
• Java
Script
• Ajax
• Flash
• Duplicate
Content
• HTTP
Headers
• Robots.txt

17. Some Scalable SEO Strategies

18. Determining Your Core Keywords
Crea*ng
A
Seed
List
• Begin
adding
keywords
rela*ng
to
your
business
to
an
Excel
document
• Look
at
compe*tors
sites
for
addi*onal
keyword
ideas
• Add
core
terms
to
Soovle,
to
get
autocomplete
sugges*ons
from
search
engines
• Add
as
many
relevant
keywords
as
possible
to
your
seed
list

19. Determining Your Core Keywords
• Take
your
seed
list
and
run
it
through
Google
Keyword
Tool
• Set
results
to
exact
match
and
sort
by
local
monthly
searches
• Export
the
results
to
CSV
and
add
them
to
a
new
tab
of
your
Seed
List
• Trim
out
Global
Searches
and
Compe**on,
and
you’ll
end
up
with
a
list
similar
to
right

20. Trimming your Seed List
• Iden*fy
recurring
keywords
that
aren’t
relevant
• Use
the
text
contains…
condi*onal
formasng
to
trim
the
recurring
KWs
from
your
list
• Go
through
and
spot
check
each
remaining
KW
for
relevance

21. Shaping your Content Architecture
• Use
condi*onal
formasng
to
begin
grouping
similar
keywords
together
• Color
code
each
KW
category
and
name
each
according
to
the
unifying
theme
• You’ll
end
up
with
a
rough
outline
of
site
content
as
well
as
gesng
a
sense
of
the
SEO
opportuni*es

22. Shaping your Content Architecture
• For
an
exis*ng
site,
use
your
sitemap
or
the
Screaming
Frog
SEO
Spider
tool
to
list
out
your
pages
• Iden*fy
exis*ng
pages
to
target
with
your
KW
research.
Internal
links
should
reflect
your
targeted
keywords
when
possible
• With
unused
KW
research,
perform
a
content
gap
analysis
• For
a
new
site,
use
your
KW
researchareas
of
business
priority
to
shape
architecture.
I
like
Excel
for
this…

23. Building a Copy Deck
• Using
your
site
architecture
and
keyword
research,
begin
wri*ng
up
your
op*mized
on
page
elements
in
an
easy
to
use
format
• Best
prac*ce
is
between
350-­‐500
words
per
page
• Your
copy
should
be
contextual
and
use
your
targeted
keywords
around
3
*mes
per
page
• Use
internal
links,
bold
and
header
tags,
bulleted
lists,
tables,
images,
etc.
BeCer
user
experience
=
beCer
results
for
SEO
&
conversion

24. No Copywriter? Automate Your Copy Writing
• For
large
sites,
unique
copy
crea*on
presents
a
problem
• This
post
from
BreC
Snyder
on
SEER
Interac*ve’s
blog
describes
how
to
automate
the
process
• Using
Excel
formulas
you
can
write
bits
of
copy,
add
KWs,
and
generate
“uniquish”
copy
at
scale
Source:
hCp://www.seerinterac*ve.com/blog/how-­‐i-­‐wrote-­‐500000-­‐unique-­‐googlebase-­‐descrip*ons-­‐in-­‐2-­‐hours

25. Sizing up the competition
• Iden*fy
3-­‐5
compe*tors
in
your
• Take
your
paid
search
and
organic
ver*cal
to
glean
compe**ve
rankings
data
and
perform
a
intelligence
content
gap
analysis.
This
will
show
areas
for
you
to
focus
your
ini*al
• Look
at
SEMRush
for
an
idea
of
paid
efforts
on.
search
presence.
Check
rankings
of
your
compe*tors
sites
for
your
• Look
at
social
presence
and
record
targeted
keywords
via
the
amount
of
followers,
types
of
Rank
Checker
content
posted.
Also
any
blog
they
happen
to
run.
All
of
this
data
can
• Check
backlink
profiles
via
help
inform
your
efforts.
SEOMoz
Open
Site
Explorer.
Use
this
data
to
help
develop
your
linking
strategy
and
iden*fy
link
sources

26. Be Innovative
• Wrap
your
HTML
in
Schema
markup
for
nice
rich
snippets
• Create
and
embed
videos
on
page
on
a
video
plaoorm
like
Wis*a
for
the
most
SEO
benefit
• Add
reviews
and
user
generated
content
to
pages
for
SEO
benefit
and
the
stars
in
your
snippet
• Add
Rel=Author
verifica*on
to
your
blog
for
a
picture
in
SERPs

27. Tracking Your SEO Campaign

28. Establishing KPIs

29. Reporting
• A?er
establishing
KPIs,
establish
repor*ng
to
track
progress
on
a
weekly/monthly
basis
• Create
your
own
report
rather
than
relying
just
on
a
report
automa*cally
generated
• This
will
allow
you
to
observe
trends
and
changes
over
*me,
year
over
year
data,
and
the
KPIs
cri*cal
to
your
site
• My
reports
typically
feature
traffic,
site
performance,
ecommerce
(where
applicable),
and
link
acquisi*on
data

30. Free Tools to Track your Campaign
• Use
GWT
to
see
impressions,
submit
an
XML
sitemap,
inbound
link
reports,
page
speed,
html
errors
• Use
Google
Analy*cs
to
track
visits,
keywords,
referral
sources,
demographic
info,
etc
• Firefox
Rank
Checker
addon
to
get
an
idea
of
where
your
keywords
are
ranking
• Use
the
SEOMoz
Toolbar
for
instant
SEO
aCributes
for
any
page

31. SEO Campaign Tracking Software
• SEOMoz
and
Raven
Tools
provide
the
most
cost
effec*ve
SEO
campaign
tracking
so?ware
@
$99
monthly
for
a
Pro
acct
• SEOMoz
has
great
link
data,
on-­‐
page
analysis,
and
compe**ve
VS
research.
It
tracks
300
KW
rankings
• Raven
Tools
has
excellent
social
monitoring,
integrates
with
lots
of
partner
data
(Moz,
SEMRush,
GA)
and
tracks
1000
rankings.

32. Ongoing Optimizations
Use
metrics
like
keyword
traffic,
rankings,
bounce
rate,
conversion
rate,
and
onsite
search
keywords
to
determine
opportuni*es
for
ongoing
op*miza*ons

33. And I haven’t even touched link building yet…

34. Questions? More
Information?
Devin.concannon@gmail.com
@devin_concannon
Linkedin
Profile
Thanks for Listening!