Adam Proehl's presentation from OMI Bootcamp 2012 on Search Marketing Basics.

1. Online Marketing Institute
Get Smarter. Get Certified.
www.omicertified.com
Search Engine Marketing Basics
Adam Proehl
Managing Partner, NordicClick Interactive
@adamproehl

2. Pinch Hitter
@adamproehl 2

3. About Me
• In Online Marketing since 1997; specialize in complex & multi-
channel sales
• Principle at NordicClick Interactive – a full service Digital
Marketing Agency based in Minneapolis
• Spoken at Pubcon, SEMPO, eMetrics, B2B, OMS, SES, MDMA,
and others
• Instructor at the Online Marketing Institute
• Long Suffering Minnesota Sports Fan
@adamproehl 3

4. About this Session
Is:
• An Intro – a get started
• Stuff you can do today
• 101 level stuff
• Cram session
Is Not:
• Advanced level stuff
• Chart overload
@adamproehl 4

5. Notes Before We Begin
@adamproehl

6. Agenda
Overview: State of Search & a History Lesson
Getting Started & Keyword Research
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Cost Per Click (CPC)
Tools & Tricks
@adamproehl

7. @adamproehl
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8. Then………1998
@adamproehl
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9. Then………1998
@adamproehl

10. Now……. 2012
@adamproehl
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11. Now – 2012
Instant
Location
@adamproehl

12. Now – 2012
@adamproehl

13. Logged Into Google
Now – 2012
Search plus your world
@adamproehl

14. Google: Major Change
History
BG
(Before
Google) Launch 1999 First Paid Advertising 2001
1998 2000
@adamproehl

15. Google: Major Change History
NoFollow
Boston
Allegra
Cassandra
Bourbon
Dominic
XML Sitemaps
Esmeralda
Personalized Search
Fritz
Gilligan
Supplemental Index
Google Local / Maps
2002 Florida
2004 Jagger
Big Daddy
2006
1st Documented Austin
Update Brandy
(No Name Given) 2003 IPO 2005 Supplimental Update
False Alarm
@adamproehl
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16. Google: Major Change History
Social Signals
Negative Reviews
Instant Previews
Google Instant
Brand Update
Google Suggest Caffeine (Rollout) Search + Your World
Dewey MayDay January 30 Pack
Google Places
2007 2009 2011
Overstock.com Penalty
Attribution Update
Panda / Farmer
Buffy The +1 Button
Panda 2.0
Universal
Search
2008 2010 Panda 2.1
Schema.org
2012
Panda 2.2
Google +
Real Time Panda 2.3
Caffeine Panda 2.4 (Global)
“Rel-Canonical Tag” Expanded SiteLinks
Vince Pagination Elements
516 Algo Updates
Panda 2.5
Panda “Flux”
Query Encryption
Freshness Update
@adamproehl 10 Pack of Updates
Panda 3.1

18. Search 2012
@adamproehl
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19. Search 2012 – Market Share
@adamproehl
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20. Success in Three Phases
I. Pre Click
@adamproehl

21. Success in Three Phases
II. Post Click
@adamproehl
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22. Success in Three Phases
III. Post Visit
Close the Loop – Especially in B2B!
@adamproehl

23. Mindset for Search
@adamproehl

24. Benchmarking
Benchmark
• Determine success metrics
• Document goals
• Measure & Track
– Referring keywords
– Overall site traffic
– Organic search metrics
– Link popularity
– Google Page Rank
– Quality of Traffic
– Conversions
@adamproehl

25. Benchmarking
Competitive Analysis
• Determine your top 3-5 competitors and benchmark
• Analyze how they’re doing from an SEO standpoint
• Which keywords are they optimizing for & how do they
rank?
• How many pages do they have indexed.
• Do they aggressively utilize Social Media, Blogs, etc.
• What’s their link popularity and Google Page Rank?
@adamproehl

26. Benchmarking
Easy Tool: www.marketinggrader.com
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27. Benchmarking
Easy Tool: www.woorank.com
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28. Benchmarking
See anything missing?
“Ranking Reports – like a mood ring”
@adamproehl 28

29. Keyword Research
@adamproehl

30. Keyword Research
Picking:
- How does your audience
think?
- Do they know your jargon?
Maybe
- How do they think?
- Problem Statements
- Product Focused
- Industry terms?
@adamproehl 30

31. Keyword Research
Example: Medical Devices
• Doctors
• Patients
• Caregivers
• Media
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32. Keyword Research – Getting Started
Before using a Keyword Research Tool:
- Survey Data
- Emails (Support & Inquiries)
- Lead Qualification
- Competitive Analysis
- Your own analytics (if applicable)
- Social Media
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33. Keyword Research
Tool: Soovle
www.soovle.com 33

34. Keyword Research
www.wordle.net
Tool: Wordle
@adamproehl 34

35. Keyword Research
@adamproehl 35

36. Keyword Research
Tool: Google Instant
@adamproehl 36

37. Keyword Research
Tool: Adwords Estimator
@adamproehl

38. Keyword Research
Tool: Social Mention
How Audience Talks
Articles
Experts
@adamproehl 38

39. Keyword Research
Keyword Demand
• Avoid the big dollar / high traffic terms
• Long-tail (3 words are more) will often perform best
• Ask yourself what are the keywords that you can realistically
have success on?
@adamproehl

40. Keyword Research
Tools
• Free
o Google AdWords
o AdCenter – Leverage Bing & MSN
o Soovle (Instant type search)
o Wordle – Create a Keyword Cloud out of anyting
o Social Mention – Social Media
• Paid
o Raven (SEMRush, AdWords & WordTracker)
o KeywordSpy – Research with ROI tools
o SpyFu – Competitive research tool
o WebCEO – Find detail keywords in META data
@adamproehl

41. SEO
What is it?
@adamproehl 41

42. SEO – What is It?
Nope
@adamproehl 42

43. SEO – What is it?
Nope again
Image Credit: TVT Ropes.org
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44. SEO – What is it?
Don’t go there
@adamproehl 44

45. What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
is a common sense way of
organizing and displaying your
Website’s content to be properly
indexed by the Search Engines.
@adamproehl

46. What is SEO?
SEO Effectiveness
• Search Engine Marketing spending on SEO to increase by 250%
from 2008-2013
• SEO viewed as most effecting tactic for generating conversions
@adamproehl

47. SEO Process
Technical Content Local Search
Links
Optimization Development Increasing the Optimization
To identify any Displaying and quantity and most Ensuring that your
issues that will organizing your importantly, location(s) are
prevent search content and quality of in- submitted and
engines from keywords for the bound links to listed on local
indexing your Web search engines to your site. search and
pages. index . mapping sites.
Search Engine Optimization
@adamproehl

48. SEO - Technical
Best Practices
• Sitemaps (XML,
HTML, Video)
• Robots.txt
• Dublin core
• Geo tag
• Page speed
• 301 redirects
Not voodoo, just technobabble!
@adamproehl

49. SEO - Technical
Red Flags
• Canonicalization / www Resolve
• Duplicate content
• URL structure
• Dynamic content
• Flash
• Inline styles
• 302 redirects
• W3C validity
@adamproehl

50. SEO - Technical
Tools
• Google Webmaster Tools
• Yahoo Site Explorer – Comprehensive Web Tools
• SEOMoz (Free & paid tools)
• Raven Tools (Quality, Design and Research Assistant)
• Woorank – SEO and Web site grader
• Metamend – SEO Tools
@adamproehl

51. SEO Process
Technical Content Link Local Search
Optimization Development Building Optimization
To identify any Displaying and Increasing the Ensuring that your
issues that will organizing your quantity and most location(s) are
prevent search content and importantly, submitted and
engines from keywords for the quality of in- listed on local
indexing your Web search engines to bound links to search and
pages. index . your site. mapping sites.
Search Engine Optimization
@adamproehl

52. SEO - Content
Content Hierarchy
• Site architecture should Black Leather
Shoes
be logical and user Dress Shoes
Brown Leather
friendly Shoes
• Organize content in
Suede Shoes
thematic sets based Men’s Shoes Casual Shoes
around target keywords Two Tone
Shoes
and core offerings
• URL structure should Shoe Polish
match content hierarchy Shoe Care
Accessories
52
@adamproehl

53. SEO - Content
META Data
• META data is used for
indexing by search
engines and are used in
SEO rankings.
- Title tags
- Description tags
- Keywords tag
- ALT tag
- H tags
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@adamproehl 53

54. SEO - Content
Content
Optimization
• 200 – 300 words per
page.
• Focus on 1 – 3 core
phrases per page
• Minimum 2 – 4%
keyword density
• Group content
together in thematic
sets based on
keywords
@adamproehl

55. SEO Process
Technical Content Link Local Search
Optimization Development Building Optimization
To identify any Displaying and Increasing the Ensuring that your
issues that will organizing your quantity and most location(s) are
prevent search content and importantly, submitted and
engines from keywords for the quality of in- listed on local
indexing your Web search engines to bound links to search and
pages. index . your site. mapping sites.
Search Engine Optimization
@adamproehl

56. SEO – Link Building
About Link Popularity
• Link popularity is a very
important factor in search engine
ranking. Search engines view Web
sites with good link popularity as
authorities in their subject
matter.
• Quantity and most importantly,
QUALITY of in-bound links to
your site.
@adamproehl

57. SEO – Link Building
Link Building Process
• Link Analysis
• Benchmark current link popularity & number
of in-links
• Competitive analysis
• Conduct a back link analysis
• Strategy Development
• Ideas for linking partners
• Existing link analysis and optimization
• Creative brainstorming
• Tactical Implementation
• Research
• Contact
• Report
@adamproehl

58. SEO – Link Building
Red Flags
• Link Dilution
• Focus on one domain(WWW)
• Site Migration to New Domain
• 301 redirect old URLs
• Link Farms
• Jeopardize rankings
• Link Volume vs. Relevancy
• Quality and relevancy more
than quantity
@adamproehl

59. SEO – Link Building
Linking Strategies
.
• Low Hanging Fruit
• Back Link Analysis on Competing
Sites
• Optimization of Existing Links
• Missed Opportunities
• Directories
• Coupons, Contests & Freebies
• Google +
• Public Relations
• Editorial
• Press Releases
@adamproehl

60. SEO – Link Building
Linking Strategies
• Strategic Thinking
• Link Research
• Local & Regional
• Product Reviews
• Business Partners
• Social Media
• Blogging
• Digital Asset Optimization
• RSS & Blog Directories
@adamproehl

61. SEO – Link Building
Quick Wins
• LinkedIn (allows you to customize link anchor
text)
• Google Plus
• Pinterest
• DMOZ
• Yahoo Directory & Local
• Best of the Web
• Joe Ant
• Business.com
• Google Maps
• Flickr
• Local Chamber of Commerce
• Better Business Bureau
• Local library
@adamproehl

62. SEO – Link Building
Best Long Term Mindset:
Just create really cool
stuff that people will
want to share and link
to!
@adamproehl

63. SEO – Link Building
Tools & Resources
Link Popularity
• SEOMoz Linkscape - seomoz.org/linkscape
• Yahoo Site Explorer - siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com
• Market Leap - marketleap.com/publinkpop/default.htm
Back Link Analysis
• SEOBook Link Harvester - tools.seobook.com/link-harvester
• Back Link Analyzer - tools.seobook.com/backlink-analyzer
Web site Contacts
• Easy Who Is - easywhois.com
• Go Daddy Who Is - who.godaddy.com/WhoIsCheck.aspx
@adamproehl

64. SEO Process
Technical Content Link Local Search
Optimization Development Building Optimization
To identify any Displaying and Increasing the Ensuring that your
issues that will organizing your quantity and most location(s) are
prevent search content and importantly, submitted and
engines from keywords for the quality of in- listed on local
indexing your Web search engines to bound links to search and
pages. index . your site. mapping sites.
Search Engine Optimization
@adamproehl

65. SEO – Local Search
Local & Global Search Are Linked
Local Search Core Components
• Google Places Optimization
• Bing Business Portal
• Submission to Trusted Providers
• Reviews
• Check In’s
@adamproehl

66. SEO – Local Search
Google Places
Google Places is Google’s
Local Search Engine
o Claim & optimize your
listing
o Upload images and
videos
o Obtain reviews
o Add Calls-to-Action
@adamproehl

67. SEO – Local Search
Bing Business
Bing Business Portal
is their Local Engine
o Claim & optimize your
listing
o Add company specific
info and CTA’s
o Build Mobile site with
QR code
@adamproehl

68. SEO – Reviews
Reviews
Reviews Matter
Like a lot
@adamproehl

69. SEO – Local Search
Trusted Providers
There are hundreds of other Local
Search Sites
• Search Engines
• GPS & Geo navigation
• Online Yellow Pages
• Social Networks
• Portals and Guides
• Cell Phones and Mobile
• 411 Directories
@adamproehl

70. SEO – Local Search
Tools
• Google Places
• Bing Business Portal
• Universal Business Listing
• getListed.org
• Geo Meta Tag Generator
• Geo Sitemap Generator
• FourSquare
@adamproehl

71. Paid Search
@adamproehl 71

72. Paid Search Marketing
About Paid Build a Bid & Budget Advanced
Search Campaign Managment Optimization
A form of Creating a Managing your Maximizing local,
Interactive campaign that advertising e-commerce, re-
advertising that utilizes keywords expenditure to marketing and
lets you promote & ads that new maximize the post-click
your business on customers will quality and optimization to
search engines. click. quantity of clicks. increase leads.
Paid Search Marketing Process
@adamproehl

73. About Paid Search
Paid Search Effectiveness
• 49% of marketers are continuing to increase
spend
• 68% are paying at least $.20 per click
• Google still king
• Bing effectiveness, still behind Google, but
gaining
• Biggest spenders are doing more with Bing
Source: Internet Retailer July 2011
@adamproehl

74. About Paid Search
What is Paid Search (PPC)
• Search Placement on a Partial* Pay for
Performance Model Basis
• Clicks
@adamproehl *Not Conversions or Sales 74

75. About Paid Search
How Does Paid Search (PPC) work
• Someone searches
• Your ad shows
• You pay for the click
• Stop & Start when you chose (time of day, day of week, etc.)
• Control what you promote and which keywords trigger
• Target potential customers by country, state, city or zip code
@adamproehl 75

76. About Paid Search
Paid Search Networks
• Google AdWords
• Microsoft AdCenter (Bing/Yahoo)
• Facebook & LinkedIn
• Comparison Shopping Sites
(Google Merchant Center,
Shopping.com, Shopzilla, NexTag,
BizRate, etc.)
• Hundreds more….
@adamproehl 76

77. About Paid Search
@adamproehl 77

78. Paid Search Marketing
About Paid Build a Bid & Budget Advanced
Search Campaign Management Optimization
A form of Creating a Managing your Maximizing local,
Interactive campaign that advertising e-commerce, re-
advertising that utilizes keywords expenditure to marketing and
lets you promote & ads that new maximize the post-click
your business on customers will quality and optimization to
search engines. click. quantity of clicks. increase leads.
Paid Search Marketing Process
@adamproehl

79. Build a Campaign
Paid Search Setup
• Three levels:
• Account
• Campaign
• Ad Group
• Account = unique e-mail
• Ad Campaigns control the
budget
• Ad Groups contain a set of
ads and a keyword list the
will trigger ads
@adamproehl 79

80. Build a Campaign
Campaign Ad Group Keywords
@adamproehl 80

81. Build a Campaign
Text Ad Basics
Example Ad
• Headline – The first line that links
to your Web site (25 characters)
• Copy Text – Two lines that
describe your text or service
• Display URL – Your Web site
• Destination URL – The URL that
will click through to your landing
page.
@adamproehl 81

82. Build a Campaign
Keywords
• Research is king. Remember
the earlier slides?
• Categorize keywords into
different ad groups by
similar core words
• Ads and Landing Pages must
contain keywords highly
relevant to searched term
@adamproehl 82

83. Build a Campaign
Positioning
• You cannot buy your way into
the top spot
• Relevance - the usefulness of
information (such as an ad,
keyword, or landing page) to a
user.
• Quality Score - measure how
relevant your keyword, ad
group, and webpage is to a
user's search.
@adamproehl 83

84. Build a Campaign
Click Objective
• E-Commerce – Direct clicks with the goal of driving customer
to purchase your products or services
• Leads- Click through to a “Action Oriented” page that
provides general sales copy along with a form
• Branding – Goal of a high number of ad impressions with
clicks driving to the home page to promote your brand
• Tracking – Ensure that you have Web Analytics Properly
installed on your site in order to track results
@adamproehl 84

85. Paid Search Marketing
About Paid Build a Bid & Budget Advanced
Search Campaign Management Optimization
A form of Creating a Managing your Maximizing local,
Interactive campaign that advertising e-commerce, re-
advertising that utilizes keywords expenditure to marketing and
lets you promote & ads that new maximize the post-click
your business on customers will quality and optimization to
search engines. click. quantity of clicks. increase leads.
Paid Search Marketing Process
@adamproehl

86. Budget & Bid Mgmt.
Budget
• Setting a higher budget
will result in more ad
impressions and clicks
• Your ads will appear as
frequently as possible
for your keywords.
• Increased budget does
NOT guarantee top
position
@adamproehl 86

87. Budget & Bid Mgmt.
Bids (CPC)
• Higher CPCs help your ads
appear among top positions
in Google search results
• Bidding for top positions will
yield higher click-through
rates (CTR)
• Top positions do NOT
guarantee higher conversion
rates
@adamproehl 87

88. Budget & Bid Mgmt.
Return on Investment
(ROI or ROAS)
• The main goal of every campaign
should be to maximize ROI /
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
• The components of PPC ROI are:
• Cost Per Click (CPC)
• Conversion Rate (CR)
• Average Order Value (AOV)
• Free calculators online
@adamproehl 88

89. Paid Search Marketing
About Paid Build a Bid & Budget Advanced
Search Campaign Management Optimization
A form of Creating a Managing your Maximizing local,
Interactive campaign that advertising e-commerce, re-
advertising that utilizes keywords expenditure to marketing and
lets you promote & ads that new maximize the post-click
your business on customers will quality and optimization to
search engines. click. quantity of clicks. increase leads.
Paid Search Marketing Process
@adamproehl

90. Advanced Optimization
Location
Extensions
• Your ad will appear
with a location
extension and drop
down menu to display
your map and
information
• Google Places needs
to be linked to your
account
@adamproehl 90

91. Advanced Optimization
Ad Site Links
• Include up to 4 additional
links to deeper content on
your site beyond the main
landing page
Phone Extensions
• Enables your customer to
click and call your business
from your text ad on their
mobile phone
@adamproehl 91

92. Advanced Optimization
Product Extensions
• Allows you to leverage your existing Google Merchant Center
account to highlight your products directly within your ads.
@adamproehl 92

93. Advanced Optimization
Product Ads – Merchant Center Link
In order to participate in Product Ads there needs to a link from the AdWords
account to a Google Merchant Center accounts which has been completed.
@adamproehl

94. Advanced Optimization
Enhanced CPC:
• An automatic bidding feature that modifies your max CPC bid for each click
based on the predicted likelihood that your ad will convert.
• Increase in conversions and conversion % leads to increased revenue
Max CPC
@adamproehl
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95. Advanced Optimization
At Google scale
Re-marketing / Content Network:
Re-targeting • 80%+ Internet User Reach
• 4.3B Daily Page-Views
• 705M Monthly Visitors
• Hundreds of thousands
of sites
Users who have visited your web site
Serve ads on the
Google Display
Network to users who
previously visited your
Web site.
@adamproehl
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96. Buying your Brand Terms
1 + 1 = 3!
Paid ads supplement performance of organic search
% New Visitors to Site Example:
Organic Search 52%
Sponsored Links 64%
12% Increase
@adamproehl
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96

97. Paid Search Advanced - Mobile
• Automatic App Icons – on click-to-
download ads
• +1 on Ads
• Auto-enhanced Click-To-Call –
New Mobile automatically creates phone extensions
Ad Formats on mobile when detecting a phone
number within ad text
now available to help
strengthen your mobile • Instant Preview Ads
ad campaigns
• Store Locator Format
• Bid by Distance – BETA – allows
you to bid more for users who are nearby
your location
• Mobile App Extension - BETA
@adamproehl
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98. Paid Search – Tablet Targeting
Take advantage of the rapidly growing amount of tablet users by targeting
the Exact Kind of Tablets you want with new and advanced options in your
AdWords account
You’re now able to have more
granular control by selecting
specific operating systems to
target
@adamproehl 98

99. Paid Search – Videos
Promoted
Videos
• Now eligible to appear
on search results for:
• Google.com
• Google Video
• m.youtube.com in
the US
@adamproehl 99

100. The Wallpaper Effect
Paid
Local
Organic
Defensive SEM
• Utilize Paid Search, SEO and Social Media to
Blog
create a “Wallpaper Effect” that dominates
Linkedin
the front page of a Search Engine
Case Study
• By dominating and controlling the front page
you push down negative comments and badCareers
press from other Web sites
Facebook
@adamproehl

101. Paid Search
Tools
• Competitive and Keyword
o Google AdWords - Tools & Editor
o KeywordSpy – Research with ROI tools
o SpyFu – Competitive research tool
o SEOBook Tools
o AdWords Wrapper
• Paid Search Management Software
o Kenshoo
o Marin
@adamproehl

102. Measure & Improve
Constantly do this. Don’t ever Stop!
@adamproehl 102

103. Summary Time
• Think “Success in Three Phases” (pre-click,
post-click, post visit)
• Keywords are about how your audience thinks
• SEO not Magic or Voodoo, just sound marketing
& a little technobabble
• PPC  Continues to Grow – Opportunities
abound
• Constantly measure & improve
@adamproehl 103

104. Questions?
@adamproehl 104

105. Appendix
105

106. Paid Search Advanced -
Mobile
Mobile Statistics
• By 2014 Mobile usage will overtake desktop internet usage
• 1.08 Billion smartphones leading the way
• iPad and other Tablets along with apps are changing the way people surf
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107. SEO & Social Authority – Trends
Trends in 2012
• Facebook shares and
comments are more
important than likes
• Google+ Becoming a big
factor
• Use of Google +1 changes
results
• Web Page Authority Vs.
Human Authority
• PageRank, Meet Social Rank?
• Who You Are On Twitter
Counts

108. SEO & Social Authority – Facebook
Facebook & SEO
• Social Metrics are Well
Correlated with Higher
Rankings
• Pages that earn tweets +
Facebook shares also
correlate well with
earning links, and send
direct traffic
• Facebook Shares are
more Valuable than Likes
• Likes are still important
as they convey great
signals of quality
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8

109. SEO & Social Authority – Facebook Ads
Targeting:
• Location
• Language
• Demographic (Age, Gender)
• Interest Targeting
- Precise Targeting (shown):
Likes/Interests /Occupations
(keywords most common to
your target)
- Broad Targeting: General
category
• Connection targeting
- Targeting connections
(informative)
- Excluding connections
- Friends of connections
• Relationship Status
• Education & Workplace targeting
10
9

110. SEO & Social Authority – Google +1
Google +1 Button
• +1 Helps discover relevant content
• Content recommended by friends
is more relevant
• When a +1 button is added Google
assumes you want your page
publically available and visible in
Google Search results
• CarSoup does not have +1 results
11
0
* http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1140194

111. SEO & Social Authority – Google+
Google+ Impact on
SEO
• Google+ pages have begin to show
up in primary search results
• Direct Connect (beta) lets people
enter '+' followed by the name of
your page in Google search to get
directly to your Google+ page.
• Use the +1 button to have others
recommend your brand
• Be prepared for full rollout
11
1
* http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1140194

112. SEO & Social Authority – Google+
Google+ SEO
• Profile – Fill out completely
• Tagline – Keep your tagline to
about 30 characters.
• Posts – Allow publicly visible.
• Influence – Participate in the
Google+ community across as
many networks as possible
• AdWords – Linking your page
will give you credit for any
+1’s that you receive on ads.
• Link your website to your
Page – Also link your other
Social profiles such as Twitter,
Facebook, Linkedin, etc.
• Activity – Social Authority
relies on activity and profile
completeness
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