HP Life Small Business SEO

Slide 1

HP Life:Search Engine Optimization

Agenda

V.E. Story: Board Context 5 mins. Business Scenario: Specific Problem- 20 mins.

Demonstration:Intro. to the software- 5 mins.

Hands on Activity: Software Demo- 1 hour

Debrief: Business application discussion 20 mins

Get found on Google

In this section we discussHow Google search worksAn introduction to search engine optimizationTips for promoting your websiteAn introduction to search engine marketingGetting found on mobile devices*

Source: BIA/Kelsey Group, User View Wave VII, May 2010 97% of online consumers research products & services online before buyingFirst: the why*

How Google search works: search query*This is the search query

How Google search works: organic results*Organic search results

How Google search works: paid ads*Paid Ads

Content is the keyBe engaging Use important keywordsKeep up-to-date Use Webmaster Tools (google.com/webmasters) Find out how Google sees your siteSign up for alertsTell Google about your site Set realistic expectationsAsk the right questions

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)*

S.E.O StrategiesFind quality keywords

Integrating keywords into your websiteKeyword density around 5% Using alternative text when adding images Keyword densityUsing keywords in meta-tags and HTML codeUsing the main keyword in the URL

Inserting Backlinks Trusted Related

Use email for efficient, inexpensive communication.Use social media to develop relationships with fans.Promote your website on receipts and other print materials. Give people an incentive to visit you online.Invite happy customers to recommend your site.Tips for promoting your website*

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) modelAdvertisers do not pay to show adsPay only for clicks on ads Google offers two options: (google.com/adwords) (google.com/awexpress)

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)*

Getting found on mobile devicesMobile mattersBy 2013, more people will use their mobile phones than computers to get onlineBy 2015, there will be one mobile device for every person on earth *www.howtogomo.comVisit Howtogomo.comTest your existing site Create a mobile website, free for one year

Consumers trust people they know*90%Of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know71%Say reviews from family members or friends influence purchase decisions

Available on:Google search resultsGoogle search adsYour website+1: Recommendations from people you know*

Your friends see your +1 on Googles search results.You like something! You click the +1 button.How the +1 button works*

her friends and contacts see the annotation on search results and ads with the same URL.When someone clicks the +1 button on your siteAdd the +1 button to your website*www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/

What is a Google+ Page?A free business profile with interactive features

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Get unique insight

In this section we discussWhy tracking mattersAn introduction to Google AnalyticsHow to use Google Insights for SearchHow to use Google Alerts

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Missed OpportunitiesWebsite visitors who did not become customersWhy analytics and website optimization matter*

What is Google Analytics?A free, easy-to-use web analytics toolProvides reports showing how visitors found your website, and what they did when they got thereMeasures the effectiveness of your online and offline marketing campaigns

*www.google.com/analytics

Am I creating effective content?How can I improve site interaction?What keywords did they use?Where are visitors coming from?Where are visitors abandoning my shopping cart?What answers can Google Analytics provide?*

Google Insights for Search*View what the world is searching for and gain insights for your business

Applying Insights to predict product sales*Compare interest between states or regions:

What type of jeans should a Wyoming retailer stock?What about Oklahoma?

www.google.com/alertsGoogle Alerts*

Hands on Activity

Determine the optimal keyword phrases (Competition isnt too high but is relatively frequently searched)

Follow the instruction in your student handout. Create a Google Place Page

You need a Google account*google.com/accounts

To our local partners....*

Thank you!

*Google should be an important part of your online strategy? Why? Because each day, there are approximately 3.6 searches on Google, globally. Each search is an opportunity for a business or organization to present its website as the answer to the searchers question, need, problem.All businesses, not matter what size, stand to benefit from an online presence.

*Some Key Statistics to Keep In Mind: 97% online of consumers in the U.S. research products online before buying (Kelsey Group)77% of Internet users SEARCH on a daily basis71% of online Americans have bought a product via the web.One in five searches has local intent.

When small business owners think about their presence online, they often think its too hard, too expensive or not right for their business.Google provides many resources that can help small business succeed.Before we can strategize ways to get our website found, it is helpful to understand how a search engine results page is organized.Keep in mind that this page may look different for different searchers based on factors like their geographic location, their search history, and their page settings.At the top, the searcher can type in a word or phrase. This is called a search query. Searchers type these words in to help find appropriate websites and webpages within those sites.Google will display the most relevant results in can, based on the keywords and information it has about the searcher.

In the above example, we see the natural or organic results. Google displays links to Web pages it determines to be the most relevant to the search query.A click on these links does NOT cost the owner of the website money.

The first section we will look at contains Googles ads, served by AdWords and AdWords Express.These are paid placements. Advertisers are competing against each other for spots on this page. Ads can appear directly above the search results or on right side of the page.By default, there can be up to 11 ads on a page.Clicks on AdWords ads DO cost the advertiser money - they set their own maximum price or a click. Advertisers are NOT charged if their ads are not clicked on.

Content is the key to SEO. Help Google understand the website by using keyword-centric content. Be sure that the content you is relevant to the theme of your site. Keep up-to-date -- Blogs make it easy to keep content fresh. A website with interesting, up-to-date content is a resource worth sharing.If you do this, then:As people learn about the site, they will share it with others. And, if people link to your site from their website, it serves as a backlink to you. Every backlink is a vote of confidence for your site. Backlinks help Google determine which websites are authoritative for particular topics. To get a backlink, your website must be linkable. Make sure that individual pages within the sites can be individually linked to. For example, a website can be built using a technique called a frameset. A frame loads new pages within a section of the page, and URL does not change. In this case, it is difficult to link to individual pages, and difficult for Google to index pages within the website.Google offers a resource to help, called Webmaster Central. URL: www.google.com/webmastersWebmaster Centrals tools give reports about your visibility on Google. It answers questions about crawling, indexing and ranking; provides an avenue for feedback and issues; and offers diagnostic tools that help you understand and fix potential crawling problems.On a more technical side, another way to help your website get found is to create a Sitemap -- Webmaster Central allows you to submit Sitemaps. Sitemaps are a way to tell Google about pages on your site it might not otherwise discover. Creating and submitting a Sitemap helps Google know about the pages in your site, including URLs that may not be discoverable by Google's normal crawling process.Sitemaps are particularly helpful if:Your website has dynamic content.Your website has pages that aren't easily discovered by Googlebot during the crawl processfor example, pages featuring rich AJAX or images.Your website is new and has few links to it. (Googlebot crawls the Web by following links from one page to another, so if your site isn't well linked, it may be difficult to find it.)Your website has a large archive of content pages that are not well-linked to each other, or are not linked at all.

A Sitemap doesnt guarantee that Google will crawl or index all of the pages of the website. But, Google will use your Sitemap data to learn about the site's structure, which will helps improve their crawler schedule. This can help Google do a better job crawling your site in the future. In most cases, webmasters benefit from Sitemap submission, and in no case is a website penalized for it.Finally, dont rush it! SEO is a slow, incremental process and you should see improvement over time. Dont be sneaky, to try to speed up the process. Some people try to influence Googles algorithm my trying to promote their websites in ways that violate Googles webmaster guidelines. The simplest example would be stuffing Web pages with keywords, often hiding them in a color that matches the background (white text on a white background). Rule of thumb: if it feels sneaky, best avoid it.(Nancy)

RelationshipBuild trust -Basis of social media people to connect with other people

ValueOnline strategy needs to establish expertiseHave a finite value for people using tool (YOUR client not you!)This is NOT the benefits you offer

StrategyBig picture goal how these pieces fit together for your goals revenueHow and who will execute

*Discuss the merits of email communication. Stress that email should be useful for the recipient should always give them a good reason to open the email. I use an example of email communication that I like: Petsmart knows that I have a pet bearded dragon, so they send me a coupon for 24 free crickets every 2 weeks. Use your own illustration.Talk about how social media facilitates a relationship between you and your customers, helps you keep a pulse on what is being said about you. Introduce the concept of publicized customer service.Help people find your website by promoting it on your offline materialsOnce you have your website, can you think of why someone would want to come back? It could be a weekly coupon, or a monthly giveaway, or a funny blog. But, you have to give them a reason to return.Word of mouth helps! Ask happy customers to recommend you on ratings and reviews websites.Search engine marketing is the practice of paying to promote your website on search engines.

Just because you can see your desktop site on a mobile phone doesnt mean its mobile-friendly. Mobile sites are designed for the small screen, with the needs of mobile users in mind. A mobile-friendly site can help your business connect with customers and drive conversions.

Mobile websites areDesigned for small screensThumb friendlyEasy to navigate

To test an existing site, use the GoMoMeter shows you how your current site looks on a smartphone, and provides a report on whats working and what you can do better.To make a free mobile site: GoMo teamed up with DudaMobile to provide a mobile website builder / editor. Its very easy to use, simply requires to enter a desktop URL and Dudas technology automatically converts the site and makes it mobile friendly.How does it work? The mobile site builder technology scans through the desktop site the user enters to start the conversion process. From there the smart technology picks up the navigation, images, content, color scheme, etc. and applies it to a mobile site template. The user has the option to make changes to the mobile site and customize further before publishing.How much does It cost? First year is free ($108 value). The user does not submit any payment information during sign-up and theres no obligation to continue. The user will be reminded that the free period ends 2 months prior and offered to extend.Does this work with Intuit Websites? Yes. DudaMobile is also partnering with Intuit and will be their mobile site technology provider. So, sites built in the Website Workshop should be good candidates for this service.

10 Mobile Site Best Practices (full talking points here: http://www.howtogomo.com/en/#mobile-best-practices)

Keep it Quick Simplify Navigation Be Thumb Friendly Design for Visibility Make it Accessible Make it Easy to Convert Make it Local Make it Seamless Use Mobile Site Redirects Learn, Listen & Iterate

*People trust the opinions of those they know, and research suggests that the vast majority of online consumers are no different.

People often turn to friends and family for help making decisions. The +1 button combines the power of these personal recommendations with the reach of Google, making it easy to start conversations and offer timely recommendations to your social circles across the web.+1 recommendations appear on your website, display ads, search ads, Google search results and now, your Google+ Page.

*The +1 Button is a socially inspired endorsement gesture designed to allow users to endorse their favorite stuff, and for their contacts to see these recommendations at the moment they need it mostduring a relevant search experience on Google.

Annotations can appear in a couple of ways.When a user hovers over the +1 button on a page, well display an annotation showing the faces of friends who have +1d that page. You dont need to do anything to make this happen. You can also add inline annotations that appear next to the +1 button on your page. To enable these, youll need to update the +1 button code.Note: Inline annotations aren't currently supported in mobile browsers.

How does Google know which annotations to show me? Searchers whose contacts have clicked the +1 button, will see annotations from their Google contacts. These are contacts associated with their Google account and profile. You will also begin seeing annotations for contacts and friends who have shared contently publicly on 3rd party platforms such as Twitter or Flickr.

*Today, there are plenty of sharing methods to choose from, but many fail to surface these recommendations at the moment you need them most. For example, if a friend stayed at a great hotel in Madrid six months ago, and thought to share his opinion while the thought was top of mind, he could syndicate this endorsement pretty easily. It could have appeared in your inbox or perhaps an activity stream. But fast forward to today, while youre planning your trip to Spain. Today, this recommendation might be lost in months of updates, messages, emails or pings. In other words, it wont be surfaced at the moment you need it most.*Add +1 to your pages to help your site stand outLet visitors recommend your content on Google Search and share it on Google+

Where should I put the +1 button on my pages?+1 is a public action, so you should add the button only to public, crawlable pages on your site. Once you add the button, Google may crawl or recrawl the page, and store the page title and other content, in response to a +1 button impression or click.Above the fold, near the title of the page, and close to sharing links is often a good location. It can also be effective to place the +1 button at both the end and the beginning of an article or story.

The +1 button and annotations are available in 40 languages.

What button sizes are available?+1 button icons can render at four heights: small (15px), medium (20px), standard (24px), and tall (60px). The small, medium, and standard icons can render with or without a total count of +1's. The tall icon always includes a total count of +1's

*Pages are designed for non-human entities. You can create pages for the following kinds of entities: Brand or productCompany, institution or organizationLocal Business or PlaceArts, entertainment or sportsEtc.Pages interact in the Google+ world much as regular Google+ profile owners dothey can add people to circles (once those people have added them), edit their profile, share things in Google+, +1 stuff on the web, and create and join Hangouts. Once youve created a page, you can add a Google+ badge to your site to help users follow your Google+ page, +1 your site, share your site with their circles, see which of their friends have +1d your site, and click through to visit your Google+ page.

**If you use pay-per-click marketing, like Google AdWords, youre paying every time someone clicks an ad to visit your site.Obviously, youd like to make the most of those visits, since these visits cost you money.The barely visible blue area on this chart represents website visitors who converted (i.e. took the action you hoped they would, perhaps an online sale). Conversion rates are typically in the low single digits, say 2%. So while its important to optimize your AdWords campaigns, it is equally important to optimize your website. You want every visit to give you the best opportunity to make the sale!

Tobegin to understand why some visitors arent converting on your website, you need to understand what they did on your website. This is called website analytics data--and you can use it to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of your website.This helps you get into your customers mind set. ** stress that point.Google provides a free, hosted analytics solution called Google Analytics, GA for short.GA may be free, but its powerful.Some of the largest brands and websites in the world have opted to use this solution, and hundreds of thousands of websites now rely on GAfor web analytics.With more than 80 highly customizable reports, GA helps answer questions about the effectiveness of your websites content, how engaged your users are with the site, wherethey abandon your shopping cart and much more.Using this data, you can make smart decisions and make sure that the money spent on AdWords is delivering the results you want.

*Insights for Search is a free tool that helps to measure the popularity and search volume of keywords. Search by country or state, to figure out where and when searches are happening.You can do research with Insights to:Refine your marketing messaging: Compare searches for specific words to find those that most popular with consumers.Determine seasonality: Use Insights to find out when consumers start planning (e.g., ski trips, weddings, etc.) and buying.Find your customers: Track where search volume is heaviest across regions and cities to better target your marketing efforts.The numbers on the graph reflect do not represent absolute search volume numbers. The represent how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. The data is normalized and presented on a scale from 0-100. Each point on the graph is divided by the highest point, or 100. When Google does not have enough data, 0 is shown. The numbers next to the search terms above the graph are summaries, or totals.

Lets take a look at how Insights can help you with your marketing messages.If you were a clothing retailer, planning your upcoming online marketing strategy. One question might be, how are people searching for jeans? What brands they interested in these days? Insights can help you find out. In this example, we compare four search queries. Insights lets us compare the level of interest in these queries, and how that level has changed over time, and where interest is higher for particular terms.

Google provides a free, easy way to monitor anything on the Web, called Google Alerts Alerts are emails sent to you when Google finds new results -- such as web pages, newspaper articles, or blogs -- that match your search term. People use Google Alerts to:Find out what is being said about their company or product.Monitor a developing news story.Keep up to date on a competitor or industry.Get the latest news on a celebrity or sports team.Find out what's being said about themselves.Here's how it works:You enter a query that you're interested in.Google Alerts checks regularly to see if there are new results for your query.If there are new results, Google Alerts sends them to you in an email.For general queries like [football], you can get a summary of the new results every day. For specific topics, like [ cardiovascular atherosclerosis ], you might not get an email every day, but you'll find out when something new and relevant is published.

(Nancy)

RelationshipBuild trust -Basis of social media people to connect with other people

ValueOnline strategy needs to establish expertiseHave a finite value for people using tool (YOUR client not you!)This is NOT the benefits you offer

StrategyBig picture goal how these pieces fit together for your goals revenueHow and who will execute

*A Google Account functions as a single Google login, made up of an email address and password of your choosing. A Google account is freeA Google Account gives you access to various Google services, including AdWords, Google Places, Google Groups, Google Alerts, Google Apps, Google Analytics, Personalized Search, etc.If you've used any of these services before, you already have a Google Account. If you have a Gmail account, you can use your Gmail username and password to sign in to your Google Account.

Thank you very much for participating in todays session. We hope that this has been an informative introduction to Googles tools for small businesses. If you are interested in learning more about AdWords and AdWords Express, please stay for the next session.Remind people to visit the expo for one-on-one help after the session -- Look for staff wearing Blue Google shirts for assistanceWe will now open the presentation for questions.

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