Getting found on the Web used to be easy. You'd put up a website, fill it with keyword-rich content, cajole a few links out of your friends and partners, and there you were. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) was a relatively easy and profitable exercise. Those days are over. Online marketing is now more important than ever, and the rules have changed. The old tricks not only don't work, they can be worse than doing nothing. Today, the total number of active websites worldwide is approaching 1 Billion. That’s websites, not pages. The odds are against you and getting worse, and not just because of the numbers. Search engines have been sending free customers to your website for years, and they’re not going to give it away anymore. In SEO and Online Marketing, we're going to take a look at this rapidly evolving landscape. You'll learn what's happening, why it's happening, and what your business needs to do now to compete and win.

1. SEO and Online Marketing
The New Rules For Business

2. 2
Topics
 How do your business objectives relate to those of
the Search Engines?
 How to tell if your website has been penalized by
Google
 Converting more website visitors into leads
 The overlap between SEO and PR
 Strategies and pitfalls in Pay-Per-Click advertising,
including some amusing case studies
 The role of Marketing Automation in your business

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Your Online Marketing Objectives
In a nutshell:
 Drive more prospects to your website
 Convert a higher percentage of website visitors
into leads
 Convert a higher percentage of leads into sales

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Your Online Marketing Objectives

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Actualizing Your Objectives
 More prospects to your website
– Better search ranking for strategic keywords
– More referral traffic from other sites
– Efficient on-line advertising / low CPC
– Fewer “missed opportunities”

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Actualizing Your Objectives
 Higher percentage of website visitors
converting into leads
– Improve website user experience
– Attractive offers geared to the right audience
– Reduce “friction”

7. 7
Actualizing Your Objectives
 Higher percentage of leads converting into
sales
– Compelling use cases / business justification
– Prompt follow-up
– Effective lead nurturing

8. 8

9. 9
6,332
10,625
14,413 15,723
19,443
26,145
31,221
37,453
4,160
5,788
6,714
7,167
8,793
10,386
12,465
13,125
$0
$10,000
$20,000
$30,000
$40,000
$50,000
$60,000
$70,000
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Other / Motorola Display Network Google.com
Yearly Revenue

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In a nutshell:
 More advertisers
 More people clicking on ads
 Charge a higher CPC
Google’s Business Objectives

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 Satisfy two stakeholders:
 Search users
– Provide the most “relevant” results
 Investors
– Generate more revenue from ads
 Not: “Push lots of traffic to your site so can
make lots of money”
Google’s Business Objectives

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What Search Engines Do

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Website Content
Inbound Links
User Behavior
Ranking Factors Techniques
Keyword quantity / placement
Web 2.0, “brute force”
Great content,
interactive features
Online Engagement
& Quality Rating
G+, LinkedIn, Twitter,
BBB, Yelp, etc.
Evolution of organic search rank

14. Trends...
14

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Evolution of the SERP
(2009 model)

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(2012 model)

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(2014 model)

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 Reciprocal links
 Link wheels
 Blog networks
 Article repositories
 Blog comments
 Auto-blogs
 Spun content
SEO “tricks” make Google’s job harder

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Payday Loan
Hummingbird
Panda
Penguin
Venice
Caffeine
Vince
Dewey
Buffy
Big Daddy
Jagger
Gilligan
Bourbon . . .
2013
2012
2010
2008
2006
2004
So Google keeps tweaking

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Big brands favored vs. specialists

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 Logged-in?
 Previous Search behavior
 Location
 Platform / browser
Personalized search results

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 Phones & Tablets represent a
growing share of search and
browsing platforms
– 25% of Americans only access the Internet via
mobile devices (Forbes, 11/12/2013)
– Mobile clicks outperform desktop clicks in
terms of sales by as much as 3x (Wordstream)
…and speaking of platforms…

23.  Mobile-Ready:
– Mobile = now 28% of website visits, + 67% Y/Y
– Examples:
– http://www.getskeleton.com/
– http://electricpulp.com/
– http://www.impactdialing.com/
– http://www.salesforce.com/
Responsive website design

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Responsive Website Design

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How
would you
like to
complete
this form
on your
smart
phone to
request
info on a
graduate
degree
program?

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 Website audit
– Technical / Structure / Content
– Link profile
– Reputation profile
 Keyword research & page assignments
 On-page SEO
– Titles, Descriptions, internal links, alt-tags, etc.
 In-bound link building
 Content development – website, blog
 Social / market engagement
A professional SEO process

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 An effective website is a “portal” for its visitors
– Increase conversions and engagement offsets drop in
pages/visit and time-on-site
– Self-service, site search, clear call-to-action, etc.
– Examples:
 http://www.redtailsolutions.com
 http://www.freshbooks.com/
 http://systemexperts.com/
 https://www.surveymonkey.com/
Website best practices

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The value of organic search rankings

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What drives search rankings?
 Website content and structure
 Usage and placement of keywords
 Inbound links
 Social media engagement
 Website visitor engagement

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Social Engagement & Content
 Your website is your marketing hub.
 Social engagement drives website traffic and
conversions
email

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Content Strategy
 All assets should be based on:
– Thought leadership for execs
– Demos, case studies and 3rd party validation (e.g.
testimonials) for decision makers
– Tips and resources for customers

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Content assets that work
 Blog posts
 Webinars – live and on-demand
 E-books
 White papers
 Video
 Case studies and best practices
 Presentations – Slideshare and Brainshark

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 YMYL – Your Money or Your Life
– Potential impact on future health, wealth or happiness of users
 Financial info
 Medical info
 Legal info
 E-A-T – Expertise / Authoritativeness / Trustworthiness
– Positive vs Negative reputation
 Site reviews
 News articles
 BBB ratings
Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines
Forbes.com – July 18, 2014

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 Press releases generate in-bound links
– But don’t boost search rankings like before
 Website Content – crisp, engaging
 Third-Party Web 2.0 Content / Reputation
– Online industry publications
– Review sites
– Bloggers
– Forums
SEO and PR

35.  Traffic
 This: instead of This:
 site:www.yoursite.com comes up empty
 Google Webmaster Tools
35
How to tell if your site got nuked

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Penalty or Algorithm Change?

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Penalty or Algorithm Change?

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Establish a marketing rhythm

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Pay-Per-Click Advertising
 AdWords, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn
 Challenges:
– Complex management platforms
– High cost per click
– Conversion rates
 Most common failures:
– Low-quality clicks
– Low conversion rates

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The Pitch

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Run an
ad

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Why?

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How?

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The
details

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Give it a
go

46.  Two real-life Do-It-Yourself examples:
– Keyword Soup
– The Hallmark Shuffle
How to Lose Money on Pay-Per-Click

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 Regional pest exterminator
 Average spend of $8,000 per month on
Google AdWords clicks
 AdWords account managed by the business
owner with help from Google until we took
over in January, 2012
Keyword Soup

48. Before and After
Before After
% Spent on totally bogus keywords 24.7% 4.1%
48
 About $2,000 per month wasted on totally
bogus keywords

49. Keyword Soup Examples
 ants in my pants game
 how do ants move on those tiny legs
 alvin and the chipmunks
 swot analysis (about $8 per click!)
 squirrel meat
 1997 maxima power ant
 bed bath and beyond
49
(Pests you didn’t know existed)

50. More Keyword Soup Examples
 mortar and pestle
 powerpoint terminates suddenly
 where can I buy german roach
 how to get taller
 homeless man ant got no rent
 i ant got no iphon
50
(So many needs, so little time)

51. Even More Keyword Soup
 do squirrels sleep
 what is the name for a female raccoon
 worlds biggest rat
 pictures of bedbugs
 pictures of bedbug bites
 are bedbugs asexual
 aesop’s ants working all day long
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(Pests for the intellectually curious)

52. But it gets worse…
Before After
Click-Through-Rate 1.03% 3.55%
52
 Poor keyword choices lowers CTR
 Lower CTR reduces your Quality Score
 Reduced Quality Score increases cost per click

53.  The Backstory:
– B2B client provides Internet “plumbing”
– A competitor exits the business (later acquired)
– Client runs ads for product name “Contendo”,
offering a migration path
Example #2 – The Hallmark Shuffle

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imageneshermosas.com

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estuimagen.com

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 Adwords, Bing and LinkedIn PPC can attract
highly targeted traffic BUT platforms are tricky
– Competition is fierce, so clicks are expensive
– Adwords default settings optimize Google’s income
 Devote internal resources to develop great
offers and assets to convert paid traffic into
leads. Conversion is key!
Online advertising recommendations

59. Business development challenge
59
• Find the
good ones
• Close the
hot ones
• Tell the
story
• Craft the
message
Content Media
Marketing
Automation
Sales CRM

60.  Marketing Says:
– Sales isn’t following up on the leads we give them
– Sales won’t provide feedback on lead quality
– How can I calculate the ROI of marketing programs?
– I know we’re leaking prospects out of the funnel
 Sales Says:
– I waste a lot of time calling people who will never buy from me
– Most of the “leads” I get from marketing are junk
– I can’t afford to spend my time cold-calling marketing’s list, let alone
record the results in the CRM!
– Too many distractions, I’m struggling to focus my time on closing
sales
Marketing vs Sales

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 Manages the lead-to-sale process
 Complementary to CRM
 One-to-One marketing on a large scale
Marketing Automation Software

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Source:
Gartner, Inc.
Gartner Magic Quadrant

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 Web analytics at the individual level
 Business database integration
 Lead scoring
 List segmentation
 Drip email campaigns
 Create sequences via drag and drop
 Create and host instrumented landing pages
 CRM integration via connectors / API
 Social media integration
Key features to look for

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Price – Functionality / Scale
$$
Functionality / Scale

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Hans Riemer
hjr@market-vantage.com
978-482-0131