Would your business cope if Google stopped sending you traffic?
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Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Would your business cope if Google stopped sending you traffic?
UHI eMarketing Course Workshop – Part 2
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
eMarketing courses at UHI
15 week online courses in web value optimisation
& emarketing
next course starts August
Find out more:www.cpd.uhi.ac.uk
An introduction to web value optimisation
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Board Director of WAA
eMarketing & web value course developer for UHI
Associate lecturer in web analytics, UBC Canada
Workshop leader for the WAA, MRS, Internet Marketing Conference and the eMetrics Summit
Rabid blogger at TrackingTourism.com
Co-founder Highland Business Research & digital marketer for a decade
Who am I?An introduction to web value optimisation
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Part 1: Just how important is search?
Part 2: Why might Google stop sending you traffic?Organic search, SEO & paid search
Part 3: How would you even know if there's a problem?
What are the right proportions of web traffic?
Part 4: Google-proofing - what can you do about it?
What we're going to cover...An introduction to web value
optimisation
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Part 1 – why search engines matterJust how important is search?
March '08, UK saw 33 million people make 4 billion searches – 124 searches pp per month.
80% of those were with Google.
The top 10 Google properties drive 36% of all UK Internet traffic.
Search engines are the primary way Internet users navigate
68% of searchers only ever click the first page of results
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Part 1 – why search engines matterJust how important is search?
C a te g o ry
% T ra ffic fro m All S e a rc h E n g in e s , M a y-0 8
% C h a n g e M a y-0 8 - M a y-0 7
% T ra ffic fro m G o o g le , M a y-0 8
% C h a n g e M a y-0 8 - M a y-0 7
Health and Medical 45.76% 3% 30.86% 5%
Travel 34.81% 11% 24.26% 21%
Shopping and Classifieds 25.48% 2% 16.84% 8%
News and Media 21.70% 7% 14.53% 10%
Entertainment 24.33% 17% 15.76% 22%
Business and Finance 18.15% 14% 11.73% 22%
Sports 13.09% 17% 8.81% 24%
U .S . C a te g o ry U p s tre a m T ra ffic fro m S e a rc h E n g in e s a n d G o o g le - M a y 2 0 0 8
Source: Hitwise
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Part 2 – Google owes you nothing
Why might Google stop sending you traffic?
1. The search landscape is constantly evolving – stay still and traffic will drop
Blended/universal searchChanging searcher behaviourBehavioral targeting of results
2. Competitors may out perform you or outspend you
3. You may be punished for bad SEO tactics
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Part 2 - search is constantly evolving
Universal/blended search
News, image, shopping etc results are now blended together on same results page.Implications? Diversifying of content, Vertical creep – traditional text results being pushed down & off page one
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Part 2 – changing user behaviour
“Google gullibility” (or how users search)
Jakob Nielsen:
Search users face 3 problems:
• Inability to retarget queries to a different search strategy
• Inability to properly evaluate each site's likely usefulness
• Inability to sort through the mass of poor results
“Given these difficulties, many users are at the search engine's mercy and mainly click the top links — a behavior we
might call Google Gullibility.
Sadly, while these top links are often not what they really need, users don't know how to do better.”
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Part 2 - Competitors may out perform you
Search engine optimisation
Ensuring that your pages are accessible to search engines and are focused in ways that help improve the chances they will be found:
• Relevance, relevance, relevance• Humans not machines• All stages of the search cycle:
InterestResearchPurchase (or Resolution)
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Part 2 - Search engine optimisation myths
Beware of the SEO BS
No one can guarantee you the number 1 position on Google .... except Google
There is no such thing as “no work” SEO – optimising involves changing your site
Adding keywords to meta tags is not SEO, nor is adding you to 1000's of search engines
It takes time & effort (=money)
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Part 2 – Competitors may out perform you
Optimising for organic search
Key factors include: The titles, headings, text & image tags on your page Links from other sites The HTML coding of your page & meta-data Relevancy & recency Accommodating changes in technology, content, and information distribution (eg blended search)
Advantages: More clickthroughs: 70% organic, 30% sponsored)Perceived as more believableNo incremental cost + huge long-term value
Disadvantages: Constantly changing & ultimately at the mercy of the search algorithm
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Paying your way to number 1Part 2 – Competitors may out spend you
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Part 2 - why search engines matter
Paid search marketing
1. Paid search engine ads, Pay Per Click/sponsored listings
A fee is charged for every click of each link, with the amount bid for the click determining the position
2. Content-network paid-search advertising
Displayed on 3rd party sites, both get paid when someone clicks on a link in one of these ad
Paying for a click is not the same as paying for a customer
Bounce rates ~ Conversion rates ~ Cost per acquisition
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Part 2 - why search engines matter
Paid search marketing
Advertisers pick keywords they want to targetAdvertisers bid on a price they are willing pay per clickYou only pay when your ad is clickedRanking is affected by “quality score” related to conversion (so Ad copy + Landing page are significant)
Advantages: Immediate & significant exposureCan target key terms including trademarksControllable & measurable - driven by ROIYou only pay when you get traffic
Disadvantages: Requires constant financial investmentCompetition and price inflationClick fraud
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Part 2 – and you may be punished for bad behaviour
Bad SEO: 10 ways to get banned1. Cloaking - designing so that search engines see one thing & visitors another
2. Doorway pages - optimised for one key term but lead you to different content
3. Keyword stuffing or duplicate content
4. Hiding text – making the background colour the same as the font colour
5. Links to bad neighbours (spammers & link farms)
6. Robot use - to write your web site – eg “instant AdSense” - or to crawl rankings
7. Long lists of irrelevant keywords & overuse of your key terms
8. Title stacking – more than one title tag per page
9. Distribute viruses, trojans, or other badware
10.Build your site entirely for search engines & not people
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Part 2 - search engines matter & Google owes you nothing
Rounding up part 1 & 2Search continues to evolve
Blended search is being introduced so subtly that you may not even notice
Paid search alone is not the answer – optimize for free traffic
Don't mistake cost per click for cost per customer – understand and measure conversion
Please beware of the SEO scoundrels
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Understanding how you're doing Part 3 – how do you know if you have a problem?
Know your key terms & search on them regularly
Free tools can show search trends and terms over time
Google Trends Google Keyword Sandbox
Measure your own site with a web analytics tool
• Where did traffic come from• Did they do what I want them to• What works best• Did it cost me more than I made
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Wonderful, wonderful web analyticsPart 3 – how do you know if you have a problem?
Understand what proportions of your traffic are referred from search
What key terms and phrases are used (what are missing)
Which terms convert best?
Are key search engines missing?
How much third party or direct traffic do you get?
Are you visitors disappearing again? (Exits and bounces)
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
So, which site is doing best?Part 3 – how do you know if you have a problem?
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Are there right proportions of traffic to have?
Part 3 – getting the balance right
Image by cobalt 123 on Flickr
Balancing act:
Third party referrals – affiliates, links, bloggers, news
Direct – email marketing, RSS, bookmarks, offline
Search – balancing paid & organic to avoid cannibalisation
Are you primarily acquiring or retaining customers?
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Are you focussing on acquisition, retention or both?
Part 3 – getting the balance right
Site A
New vis itor Returning vis itor
Site B
New vis itor Returning vis itor
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Balancing organic & paid searchPart 3 – getting the balance right
To spend or not to spend?
Factors:
-navigational-offline conversions-competitor activity-cannibalisation-uplift via halo effect-other traffic sources
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Search is not the only marketing toolPart 4 – What can you do about Google-proofing your site?
Yes, search matters a lot - let Google love your site
If Google delists you, learn from your sins and fix it:
www.google.com/webmasters
But....
-you can drive the second visit by your own marketing-you can avoid over dependence by balancing sources-you can anticipate blended search-you can measure what is & isn't working & act on it
Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com
Thanks!
Vicky Brockwww.HighlandBusinessResearch.com
www.TrackingTourism.com
eMarketing at UHIwww.cpd.uhi.ac.uk
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