The document discusses the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) for marketing efforts. It provides an overview of SEO best practices, including conducting keyword research, optimizing content and site architecture, and focusing on both on-page and off-page optimization factors. The goal of SEO is to understand how search engines work and evaluate keywords to create relevant content that search engines can easily access and understand.

1. “How to elevate and maintain your search engine ranking results.” Wisconsin Strategic Web Marketing LLC. Concordia College PR SeminarProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Mkting. Please do not distribute

2. Definitions(SEM) Search Engine Marketing is a form of Internet marketing that promotes websites by increasing their visibility

3. (SERPs) Search Engine Result Pages methods include:

4. Paid Placement (PPC) and Paid Inclusion

5. Social Media Optimization

6. (SEO) Search Engine OptimizationProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

7. 17,576 TLA choicesWe will only focus on one:SEO(Search Engine Optimization)Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

8. SEO – One of easiest and most cost efficient ways to aise AwarenessAnytime something can be searched on it = There is an optimization opportunity!

9. Making information easier to find is what it is all about and that info can be good or bad for you and your company. SEO can play a very strategic role in media relations. What if as a PR firm you would systematically find out what people searching on and create a company glossary and develop content around it?The idea is you optimize according to what people looking for!For instance you should be creating search optimized press releasesProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

10. Easy does not necessarily mean simple! But it is Essential. Take a look at this Best Practices Checklist for a Press Releases!Clearly define the goal and target audience of the release

11. Research keyword phrases (1-2 per release)

12. Add phrases to the title, sub heading and body copy

13. Use keyword phrases when linking to landing pages– not “click here”

14. Add media to the release (images, video, audio)

15. Add alternative formats of the release (MS Word, PDF)

16. Count conversions -Implement tracking codes in the URLs

17. Make certain tracking codes point from the press release to landing pages

18. Post the release to the company online newsroom

19. Write a blog post version of the announcement link to the press release

20. Distribute the release via a wire service such as; PRWeb, Marketwire, PRNewswire or Business Wire

21. Optional: create and distribute a social media version of the press release

22. Encourage bookmarking of press release pickups

23. Monitor release rankings, social mentions, traffic & outcomesProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

24. How essential is SEO to your marketing efforts ?You Decide…Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

25. Think about this…Americans conducted 18.4 billion total core search queries in October 2010Overall US search volume increased almost 4 % over last monthCurrently about 28.7% of world uses Internet as of June 2010 and growing daily(www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm)80% of all online transactions start with search enginesProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

26. …and did you know…Google Sites led the U.S in October 2010 with 66.3 percent market share, followed by Yahoo with 16.5 percent and Microsoft sites with 11.5 percent. Ask Network captured 3.6 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL LLC Network with 2.1 percent (comScore)Search marketing continues to dominate the online advertising space with a sustained growth of about 40% yearly since 2004.To put 40% share into context, no other online ad format (display ads, classifieds, rich media/video, lead generation, email and sponsorships) contributes much more than half that amount. (eMarketer)Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

27. Stats point to needed actionThe bar is moving UP in most industries but there is still time to gain a competitive advantage with SEO.SEO investment is the fastest growing segment and for good reason!Only $1.05 billion of the $6.75 billion dollars spent on search engine marketing last year was spent on organic SEO.Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

28. Fundamentals of Good SEOHow Search Engines Work 101First things First = Keyword/Phrase Analysis is essential and criticalSEO – Implementing Best PracticesOn-page SEO factorsOff-page SEO factorsSEO – Avoiding Worst PracticesResults you can count onProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

29. How Search Engines WorkTwo ways to get foundPaid Results = PPC (Pay per Click)Organic or Natural Results = SEOProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

30. Paid or PPCSearch patterns reveal that fewer search engine users visit PPC (pay per click) advertising sites than visit SEO (organic) sites.In fact 4 out of 5 search engine users report that they never click on PPC results.Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

31. Organic Results = ROIMore than 70% of search engine users report visiting organic listings daily (Forester Research)72% of search engine users report feeling that Google’s organic listings are more relevant than their paid listings. Only 20% of search engine users will view a paid listing. (Forester Research)3 out of 4 advertisers are victims of click fraudEye tracking study showed that 70% of search engine users choose to visit websites that appear in the top 10 organic results.Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

32. Eye Tracking StudiesA recent study by Think Eyetracking shows that visitors are less likely to look down the SERPs than they were 3 years ago. They are significantly more concentrated on the top of the results than ever beforeSearchers have become so confident in Google to answer their query that they no longer place the burden of proof on the search engine to come up with the right answer.Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

33. The Golden TriangleProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

34. Eye Study ResultsSide Paid/Sponsored Visibility(% of participants looking at a listing in this location) 1 – 50%2 – 40%3 – 30%4 – 20%5 – 10%6 – 10%7 – 10%8 – 10%Organic Ranking Visibility (% of participants looking at a listing in this location) Rank 1 – 100%Rank 2 – 100%Rank 3 – 100%Rank 4 – 85%Rank 5 – 60%Rank 6 – 50%Rank 7 – 50%Rank 8 – 30%Rank 9 – 30%Rank 10 – 20%Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

35. The Goal of Search Engines“Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.”How? By providing high quality, authoritative and RELEVANT content to their searchersNot to:Sell your products or services, increase your brand exposure, or generate leads for you.Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

36. How Do They Work? Four Easy StepsCrawling the Web Search engines run automated programs, called "bots" or "spiders", that use the hyperlink structure of the web to "crawl" the pages and documents that make up the World Wide Web. Estimates are that of the approximately 30 billion existing pages, search engines have crawled between 12 and 15 billion.Indexing Documents Once a page has been crawled, its contents can be "indexed" - stored in a giant database of documents that makes up a search engine's "index.” This index needs to be tightly managed so that requests which must search and sort billions of documents can be completed in fractions of a second.Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

37. How Do They Work? Four Easy Steps Cont’Processing Queries When a request for information comes into the search engine (hundreds of millions do each day), the engine retrieves from its index all the documents that match the query. A match is determined if the terms or phrase is found on the page in the manner specified by the user.Ranking Results Once the search engine has determined which results are a match for the query, the engine's algorithm (a mathematical equation commonly used for sorting) runs calculations on each of the results to determine which is most relevant to the given query. They sort these on the SERPS in the order of most relevant to least relevant so that users can make a choice about which to select.Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

38. What do the Search Engines see and what don’t they see?Lets take a lookhttp://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.phpwww.willmaster.com/library/tools/What_Search_Engine_Spiders_See.php?dlperryLook at Source and see what the spiders seeProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

39. What don’t spiders see?Frames, Flash, JavaScript, images, and other popular web design elements can cause problems for rankings if they aren’t used correctly.Splash pages, sites done completely in images, framed sites with a single URL for multiple page versions, and navigation hidden in Flash are all common examples of bad design for SEO.Thus, creating a site with “visible content” is critical for good rankings.Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

40. The Search AlgorithmsThe Secret FormulaEach SE has different algorithmsGoogle alone uses 200+ algorithmsAll Algorithms are focused on 2 key results:RelevancePopularityProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

41. GBMeasuring Relevance Relevance - the degree to which the content of the documents returned in a search matched the user's query intention and terms.The relevance of a document increases if the terms or phrase queried by the user occurs multiple times and shows up in the copy, title of the work or in important headlines or sub headers. Meta data!Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

42. Measuring PopularityPopularity - the relative importance, measured via citation (the act of one work referencing another, as often occurs in academic and business documents) of a given document that matches the user's query.The popularity of a given document increases with every other document that references it.Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

43. Implications Are…Spiders must find your site and crawl through it deeplyImportance of Links (internal and external)Design and Construct your pages to get as many pages into the index as possibleWith SEO the pieces are always in motionImplement best practices and be aware when creating content

44. Stay current with Algorithm changesProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

45. Best Practices – First things FirstKeyword/Phrase Analysis and ImplementationHow do you determine the important Keywords and Phrases?Use keyword analysis tools:

46. Google Search-based Keyword Tool

47. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

48. Proprietary tools and services = WordTrackerProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

49. Understanding KeywordsTypically users will type 2-5 wordphrases into the search box to research a topicSingle words are too generic and too competitiveKeywords should define your product or idea#1 Mistake - avoid internal or company-speak (keywords are not about what you call your stuff but what your users call your stuff)Proprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

50. The LONGGG TailOne of the most effective traffic building approachesPicture a graph of your search terms in relation to traffic providedPerhaps focus on the least trafficked termsProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

51. LONGGG Tail StrategyFirst, determine which terms you already rank well forSecond, which terms already have a page of content ready to optimizeFinally, which terms you will need to create content forProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

52. Build a hierarchy of terms your audience cares aboutKnow your priority keywords and TARGET your web pagesOrganize priority keywords into groupsThink of unique “themed” content and target your keywords around each pageChoose 3-5 synergistic target phrases that flow “naturally” into the contentProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

53. Once Keyword Foundation work is laid, begin utilizing those keywords…Key On-Page SEO FactorsContent

54. Architecture

55. TechnicalKey Off-Page SEO FactorsLinkingProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

56. Content is KINGThere is no shortcut to lots of good, practical, relevant content.Good content:Engages the reader

57. Increases search engine rankings and traffic

58. Promotes the likelihood of quality links from other sitesProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute

59. Establish Keyword Targets for each Content PageThink of content themed around target keywordsChoose 3-5 synergistic target phrases you can use in the copyYou want around 250 words per pageIncorporate Keywords into headings and subheadingsSpiders place more emphasis on these

60. More readable for skimmers and scannersProprietary & confidential to WI Strategic Web Marketing Please do not distribute