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Is Your Site A Rich Feast Or A Dogs Breakfast? Part 1 of 2
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Author: Tim Giles
Topic: SE-Optimization
Viewed: 61 time(s)
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It had started out as a prank, a practical joke to play on some
of her ostentatious yuppie friends. They had always had the last
laugh at her expense and now it was to be her opportunity for
revenge. Half an upturned can of Pal surrounded by biscuits and
garnish. The trap had been set.
She had always intended to reveal the punch line at the
appropriate moment just before the guest succumbed to the faux
pate. Then she got side tracked. An unexpected phone call, a
rush of guests and small talk. Oops!
The result was unexpected. No complaints or indignation. The
plate had been virtually licked clean and she was confronted
with an endless stream of compliments over her interesting array
of appetisers. It had gone over remarkably well.
She didn?t have the heart, or perhaps indeed the courage, to
reveal the truth. The guests departed happily wagging
metaphorical tails and unknowingly looking forward to the added
bonus of a shiny coat and stronger teeth.
Accidentally she had successfully taken the product to a new
market. Whilst this probably says more about her gullible
friends than the long term potential for dog food as snack food,
the key Item from a marketing perspective was that she had
managed to engage her customers into trying something new. This
was achieved by positioning the new product within the familiar
context of the dinner party where a degree of experimentation
and tolerance is part and parcel of the experience. It was
relevant and therefore it was tested and consumed.
Relevance and context encourage consumers to sample and nowhere
is this more true than on the web. It is in essence the
underlying principal of search engine marketing. People don?t
stumble upon web sites they search for them. Every time a
consumer types a keyword string into a search engine they are
asking a question. How well your site can answer that question
will determine how likely a visitor will engage with your site.
It is one thing to know the questions that potential customers
are interested in and to set up your site to answer them, it is
another thing all together to get them to come to your dinner
party in the first place.
This requires planning. A good search engine strategy is a feast
of multiple courses and a blend of numerous ingredients. The
following is a good start.
The Ingredients:
A good Carbonara sauce is more than scrambled eggs and ham. Like
cooking, search engine marketing is all about using quality
ingredients in the right proportions. The following is a short
list of some of the best tools to kick start your site
performance.
? Search Engine Pay Per Click (Google AdWords, Overture etc)
Sometimes you have to tie a chop around your neck to get the
dogs to play with you.
? Directory Listings on/offline (Yellow Pages) Although not as
defining and as cost effective as they would have you believe it
is a fool who ignores them altogether.
? Direct ad delivery (eg. Google AdSense) Get Google to place
your ad on other relevant sites. Potentially useful as long as
you have a strong call to action.
? Third party campaign management and competitive analysis
providers (eg. Hitwise) Let someone else manage the headache of
juggling your keyword mix, keep up to date with listing
requirements, and target the increasing number of search engines
out there. This is also great for competitive analysis and
intelligence for other online marketing purposes.
? Direct onsite search engine optimisation (Content optimization
and copywriting, page structure, organisation, under the bonnet
tweaks) There are many ways to get your site listed but
ultimately it is your sites structure, usability and content
that will determine its long term success.
? Link exchanges Just like high school it pays to be popular. It
is all about linking. Recently a Google listing competition was
won by a single entry in a popular blog proving that no matter
what else you do if you can get sufficient numbers of other
sites linking to your site it will list well. (see http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,64130,00.html
a>). Get your site listed in as many relevant industry
directories as you can.
? Public relations Blow your trumpet high and low and always
mention your URL. Encourage subsidiaries, suppliers, customers
and other friendly businesses to link to your site.
? Domain name management Domain names are relatively inexpensive
to set up and there is really no limit on the number of domains
that you can have pointing at your website. A good generic
domain name as well as providing an easily remembered URL for
you to use in advertising and other marketing materials will
also help boost search engine results for that keyword.
? Link farms Towards the murky grey area of the SEO spectrum
however properly implemented and managed they can help direct
relevant targeted traffic to your site (ie. Useful information
directories), however at their worst they are little more than
spam (think menu hell). Link farms in many ways are the direct
response to the current search engine listing process and
increasingly they are polluting the free listings and forcing
web marketers to either follow suit or rely on the paid listings
to help. Care should be taken in their use as it can lead to
your site or IP becoming blacklisted by search engines.
The Preparation:
Depending who you talk to in the web marketing industry the
previous listing of ingredients will be given differing
emphasis. Most of this advice is influenced by vested interests
in one technique or product or the other. The truth is that
there is no real hard and fast rule and the mix may vary
depending upon your product, industry or budget. As a general
rule of thumb all of the above can help achieve an improvement
in your page listings and the best results come from combining
as many channels as you can. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is
a science of small increments. It is the little one percenters
that in isolation are insignificant but can total together to
deliver tangible results.
Task 1 ? Define your keywords.
This is the most important part of the process and a could
justify an entire article to fully detail many of the techniques
and strategies that can be used, however if you address the
following checklist you shouldn?t go far wrong.
? Conduct an in house brainstorming session to compile a list of
all possible keywords that potential customers might use to find
your site. (or those that you would like to be found under).
Include all company names, major products and brands. Try not to
edit the list too much at this stage and explore relevant
tangents.
? Review your competition to see what they are using.
Specifically look at the best performing sites in the search
engine keyword categories that you would most like to target.
You can get a good idea of the keywords being used by looking at
the page titles in the browser or looking at the meta keywords
contained in the HTML code of the site (Contained within the <>
tags generally towards the top of the code). This can be seen by
selecting view and then source from the browser menu or by right
clicking on the page and selecting view source. Ethically it is
considered extremely dirty pool to use your competitors names or
brands directly in your SEO however legally this issue is a bit
cloudy. My advice would be to not do it or risk becoming the
test case that defines the law.
? Use the Overture keyword selector tool to test the popularity
of listed keywords. This will reveal the number of searches done
throughout the Overture network for the last month and enable
you to rank your list of terms and phrases accordingly. It may
also suggest some additional terms that you had not previously
considered. www.c
ontent.overture.com/d/USm/ac/index.jhtml
? Google Ad Words (http://adwords.google.com.au<
/a>) also contains a keyword suggestion tool that can be useful
in this process. Unfortunately you actually have to commence the
sign up (and move through several screens) to actually get to
use it, however you can always abort the sign up once you have
found the information that you need before you are asked to
commit.
? Using the above information shortlist a top 10 of primary
target keywords. If possible list a further 10 as secondary
keywords that can be used to a lesser degree throughout the
site. Try to be specific to your target market as some keywords
are highly competitive and can have multiple meanings that are
not necessarily directly connected to your business. Also try to
include a geographical locator. For example if you deal in car
seat covers it would be better to target Car Accessories
Melbourne rather than simply the generic keyword Cars.
Task 2 ? Define your goals and ensure they are shared and have
internal support. Make sure they are realistic.
As with any marketing endeavour it is dangerous to enter into
any campaign unless you have a realistic target to work towards.
It is also important that this target also has the broad support
of the company as a whole. It is no good setting in place a
program to boost online enquiries if the company doesn?t have
the procedures in place to cope with them. Poorly managed a
successful campaign to bring more customers to your site could
have detrimental branding effects if they encounter poor
customer service upon contacting the company.
Key questions:
? What would you consider a successful outcome? (Traffic
numbers, leads/enquiries delivered, downloads made, pages read
etc.. If possible define this quantitatively)
? Who is taking ownership to make sure that leads/enquiries are
actioned promptly? All enquiries should end up with a live
person capable of responding quickly (ie. The sales team not the
network administrator). 24 hours later is not prompt service.
? Be prepared to experiment a little and to give it sufficient
time to work or fail. Note that it can take up to three months
for a search engine to fully catalogue and index your site. This
should be the absolute minimum appraisal time.
Task 3 - Look at your current site. Be honest.
Attracting people to your site is the easy part. Getting them
engaged enough to contact your sales team will depend upon their
experience upon arriving at your site. The beauty of the web is
that it theoretically allows everyone an equal footing, however
a poorly thought out site is unlikely to convert those window
shoppers that arrive on site into sales leads. Remember if they
arrived via a search engine then a full listing of your
competitors is only a back click away. Key questions:
? Are there any artificial barriers to entry on site? (eg. Long
loading times for non broadband users, annoying splash pages and
unnecessary transitional animations, confusing navigation etc..)
? Is there at least one call to action prominently displayed
upon arrival at your site or must a visitor hunt around to find
your contact form, email address, store location or phone number?
? Do you have at least 200 words of searchable text on the home
page of your site? (If you can highlight the text with your
mouse then it is searchable)
? Place yourself in the position of a potential customer. Would
you be engaged enough by this site to make contact?
If your product/service offering is of sufficient quality then
the online campaign has a chance of success. If not then at
least you are failing on your merits.
Next installment: The cooking and the eating, the proof of the
pudding after all.
About the author:
Tim Giles is a Pre Marketing
Consultant for Enedia (www.enedia.com). Enedia's
client's include Ansearch (www.ansearch.com.au), an
Australian search engine and directory.
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