Inbound Marketing Workshop: American University

PRESENTERS:

Jay Kelly Megan Cendrowski

INBOUND MARKETING WORKSHOP AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

DAY 1| 8.4.15

CONVERGE CONSULTING IS A DIGITAL AGENCY FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

We use what’s new and next in inbound markeDng, content strategy, search engine opDmizaDon, digital adverDsing, web analyDcs and video storytelling

to posiDvely impact student recruitment and alumni engagement for colleges and universiDes around the world.

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CONVERGE CONSULTING IS A DIGITAL MARKETING FIRM FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

We use what’s new and next in content strategy, search engine opDmizaDon, digital adverDsing, web analyDcs and video storytelling to posiDvely impact student recruitment and alumni engagement

for colleges and universiDes around the world.

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ABOUT US

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Jay Kelly is president and managing partner of Converge. He provides strategic vision and leadership for the company. Jay is a thought leader in inbound markeDng and has presented on the topic at conferences naDonwide.

Megan Cendrowski is an inbound strategist and content marketer. She leads content strategy and development to build new websites and inbound markeDng campaigns for colleges and universiDes across the country.

AGENDA: DAY 1

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9:30AM-‐10:45AM | An IntroducPon to Inbound

10:45AM-‐11:00AM | MORNING BREAK

11:00AM-‐12:00PM | User Personas & Strategic Content

12:00PM-‐1:00PM | Q&A LUNCH

1:00PM-‐2:30PM | Focus Group 1: Health PromoPon Management

2:30PM-‐3:15PM | AZernoon Session A: SEO Part I, Ge\ng Found

3:15PM-‐3:30PM | AFTERNOON BREAK

3:30PM-‐4:15PM | AZernoon Session B: SEO Part II, OpPmizing Content

AN INTRODUCTION TO INBOUND MARKETING

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9:30AM – 10:45AM

IN THIS SESSION

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• How to a^ract, convert and delight: What is inbound markeDng? How is it different than tradiDonal outbound methods? High-‐level discussion of strategies and tacDcs.

• How to get buy-‐in: But does it really work? We'll share data points and case studies of how and why inbound tacDcs work.

Why Is It Important? §  Earning acenDon by producing valued content

§  Making yourself easily found with search opDmizaDon

§  Knowing your audience through data and anecdotal research and delivering: the right message to the right person at the right .me

§  Guiding them through the Enrollment Journey: acract, convert and delight

FACT: Brands that create 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 new leads per month. (Hubspot)

INBOUND MARKETING

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INBOUND MARKETING

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OUT WITH THE OLD

44% of direct mail is never opened

86% skip TV commercials

91% unsubscribe from emails

200 Million say “do not call”

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IN WITH THE NEW

of prospecDve students view college website via mobile devices

of students find college websites to be a reliable sources of informaDon

of students used social media when deciding to where to enroll

Inbound marke-ng prac-ces produce

more inquires than tradiDonal outbound pracDces

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CONVERT DELIGHT

Search Engine OpDmizaDon

(SEO)

Strategic Content CreaDon

Social Media

ATTRACT

VISITORS STUDENTS PROMOTERS

Calls-‐to-‐AcDon (CTAs)

Landing Pages

Forms

Segmented Content

Ongoing

Engagement

User Experience

STRANGERS

INBOUND MARKETING

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ATTRACT

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ATTRACT WEBSITE TRAFFIC

2nd Organic Result: Reoccurring asset, will conDnue to appear year amer year

Paid Results: “online MBA” costs $59/click

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ATTRACT WEBSITE TRAFFIC

OpDmized blog posts for target keywords

Social Media sharing bucons for content to be shared to new audiences

•  Websites that blog have 55% more traffic than websites that do not

•  75% of all clicks go to Organic Search results

•  Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links than companies that don’t

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OPTIMIZE FOR SEARCH

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OPTIMIZE FOR SEARCH

•  Track which keywords drive the best visitors & leads

•  View ifficulty, current rank and search volume

•  Get recommendaPons for low-‐hanging fruit

•  Compare your rankings to compePtors

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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

• What You Need to Know ›  Technical assessment (crawl for errors) ›  On Page opDmizaDon and basic keyword research ›  ThemaDc keyword development ›  Off page opDmizaDon and link building ›  ReporDng

TOOL: A great Inbound and SEO tool is Moz. Plus, 30-‐day free trial!

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WHITEBOARD FRIDAY

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HIGH COST & COMPETITION

LOW COST & RISK

LOW PROBABILITY OF CONVERSION

HIGH PROBABILITY OF CONVERSION

KEY PHRASE CURVE

1 Word Phrases “purse”

2-‐3 Word Phrases “coach purse”

More DescripDve Phrases “leopard print coach purse”

LONG TAIL KEYWORDS

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KEYWORDS Discover which keywords will bring the best organic traffic to your site and analyze your paid search campaigns.


•  View difficulty, current rank and search volume



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ALBA QUEZADA


•  View ifficulty, current rank and search volume



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CONTENT STRATEGY

InformaDonal, the old boring

Compelling, the new awesome ! ! !

z z z

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START WITH WHY

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START WITH WHY

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START WITH WHY

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START WITH WHY

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CONTENT STRATEGY

• Share, educate, delight... don’t sell • Build your content based on themaDc research

• Create visual assets that people want to share • Develop an analyDcs dashboard to see what works best for YOUR audience

• Answer specific quesDons to engage in a meaningful way

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BLOGGING Create long-‐lasDng markeDng assets by publishing blog arDcles opDmized to get found and generate leads.

•  Create content to develop your thought leadership and get found online

•  View detailed SEO recommendaPons for improving your content as you type

•  AutomaPcally publish to your social media accounts

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BLOG POSTS

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BLOG POSTS

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SHAREABLE CONTENT

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VISUAL DESIGN

CONTENT STRATEGY THEME OFFLINE EVENTS 1/8/14 -‐ 2/11/2014

2/12/2014 -‐ 3/8/2014 TransformaDve EducaDon Wesley Conference (3/8), Deposit Deadline, Fee Waiver (2/18), Messenger (3/1), Chaplin Gene Schandorff ReDring

3/9/2014 -‐ 4/15/2014 We LOVE giving you your money's worth Spring Break (3/24-‐28)

4/16/2014 -‐ 5/15/2014 Parents Commencement (5/10), Alumni Weekend (5/9-‐10), Summer Session 1 begins (5/12)

5/16/2014 -‐ 6/15/2014 Best-‐of-‐all-‐Worlds LocaDon Summer Session 2 begins (6/12) Note: Instagram :)

6/16/2014 -‐ 7/31/2014 Highly Valued RelaDonships Summer Session 3 begins (7/12)

8/1/2014 -‐ 9/15/2014 DisDncDve Undergraduate TradiDons

Fall Semester Begins (8/26), New Student OrientaDon (8/22)

9/16/2014 -‐ 10/15/2014 Division II AthleDcs

10/16/2014 -‐ 11/15/2014 A Growing, Vital Campus The Call Conference (11/10-‐13)

11/16/2014 -‐ 12/15/2014 Challenging Yet Accessible

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CASE STUDY: NNU

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CASE STUDY: NNU

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CASE STUDY: NNU

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CASE STUDY: NNU

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CASE STUDY: NNU

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25% increase in organic search traffic

CASE STUDY: NNU

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0

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# of Leads

Months

Northwest Nazarene University APP in EducaPon Google Ad Words

CASE STUDY: NNU

•  189,686 impressions •  1,545 click-throughs •  39 prospects/leads •  16 applied students

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VIDEO: SHOW & TELL

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VIDEO: SHOW & TELL

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SOCIAL MEDIA

• Join into conversaDons about you or industry topics • Less formal, more personality, concise, fun!

• Use your content calendar to schedule consistent, on-‐point posts

• Develop an analyDcs dashboard to learn how social traffic is converDng on your goals

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Social Media

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Social Media

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Social Media

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Social Media

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Social Media

DIGITAL ADVERTISING

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Search Engine MarkePng (SEM)

•  Target users on SERPs when user searches related to ‘mba’ keyword phrases ›  Channels: Google AdWords, Bing Ads

STRATEGIES

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Demographic

•  Target users based key demographics such as geographical locaDon, age range, previous educaDon, job background, etc. ›  Channels: LinkedIn, Facebook

STRATEGIES

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STRATEGIES

Contextual

•  Target users by placed ads based on the context (keywords, topics, etc.) of websites ›  Google Display Network (GDN)

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Behavioral

•  Target users based on their online browsing acDvity or retarget users based on the pages viewed on your website ›  Channels: Google Display Network, Facebook

STRATEGIES

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SEM CAMPAIGNS

Measureable Results Through Google AdWords Conversion Tracking & Google AnalyPcs

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DIGITAL ADVERTISING

Media management tool to analyze effecPveness of various adverPsing channels to allocate adverPsing budget effecPvely

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QUIZ – Phase I: A^ract

• Search Engine OpDmizaDon ›  Is your site search engine opDmized on page? Technical? Off page and link building?

›  Are you building content based on search trends?

• Strategic Content ›  Do you have a blog? ›  Are you measuring success? ›  Is it strategic?

• Social Media ›  Do you have a strategy? ›  Are you measuring it?

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CONVERT

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CONVERT

• If you don’t ask, they’ll never do it • CriDcal for collecDng informaDon about prospects, which fuels inbound markeDng

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CALLS-‐TO-‐ACTION (CTAs)

• Should go hand-‐in-‐hand with strategic content • EnDcing and friendly • Knowing your prospects will help you know what would be enDcing to them

• Visual should stand out and be placed consistently

FACT: Benefit focused terminology is more likely to enDce prospects to click. (From research by The Science of Blogging)

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CTAs

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CTAs Provide a conversion point for students while they’re sDll researching programs

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LANDING PAGES

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2 or 3 of our best landing page examples

CONVERSION-‐FOCUSED LANDING PAGES

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2 or 3 of our best landing page examples

CONVERSION-‐FOCUSED FORMS

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LANDING PAGES

• Unique landing page per campaign with Google AnalyDcs applied

• Clear • Free of clucer, compelling copy

• OpDmized for mobile

• Only capture what you use • Test

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• Keep them short – only collect what you use

• Break them up into mulDple pages, but provide a status bar

• Explain what you’ll use the informaDon for – and mean it

LANDING PAGES

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Example Campaign

NURTURE & BUILD A RELATIONSHIP

Convert Visitor to a Lead

Meet Professors

Student Success Stories

Info on Campus Visit

Info on Financial Aid

Push towards “apply now”

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EMAIL MARKETING Send personalized, beauDful emails that your prospects will look forward to receiving and measure which messages are most effecDve.

Collect valuable informaDon on your leads for segmentaDon, personalizaDon, and follow up by your sales team •  Personalize your

message, sender, and subject lines

•  View detailed engagement analyPcs

•  Choose from a variety of pre-‐tested templates

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WORKFLOW AUTOMATION Trigger email messages and acDviDes within your contact records to automate your email markeDng strategies.

•  Trigger emails, acPons in your Contacts database & webhooks

•  Create custom lead scoring

• Move leads easily to different workflows and lists

•  View detailed engagement data

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QUIZ – Phase II: Convert

• Calls to AcDon › Do you have calls to acDon at every opportunity? › Are they direcDng the user to what’s next?

• Landing Pages › Do you have landing pages? › Are they following best pracDces?

• Forms › Do you strategically use forms? › Are they opDmized and following best pracDces?

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DELIGHT

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DELIGHT

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President of Converge, Jay Kelly

PresidenDal Hopeful, Chris ChrisDe

PHASE III: DELIGHT

• Repeat “customers” are your best advocates

• The trust factor: word of mouth

• Improve retenDon

FACT: 77% of consumer are more likely to buy a new product when learning about it from friends or family. (Nielsen)

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ONGOING ENGAGEMENT

• Social Media

• Events – online and in person • Segmented email lists

• Measure success, in person or online

FACT: MailChimp found that segmented emails perform about 15% becer than average on opens and clicks than non-‐segmented lists. (MailChimp)

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MEASUREMENT Analyze which of your markeDng acDviDes are driving the highest ROI in terms of visits, leads, and students.

•  Track how your markePng is performing in terms of visitors, leads & students

•  Measure the ROI of your markePng campaigns

•  Drill into detailed reports on your performance

•  Compare the effecPveness of your markePng channels

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COMPETITOR ANALYSIS Analyze how you compare to your compeDtor’s online presence.

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OPTIMIZATION • Geographical targeDng

›  20 miles around campus, Idaho and Oregon performing strongest thus far

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“Within Google’s search trends analysis from this quarter, it is highlighted that while the search queries of

prospecDve students are not becoming any more closely aligned with individual university brands, they are in fact becoming much more specific in terms of locaPon and

field of study.”

Google Search Trends: Lessons for Higher Educa.on TopUniversiPes.com August 2014

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QUIZ – Phase III: Delight

• Targeted Content ›  Do you know who your audiences are? ›  Have you developed targeted messages (email, social, online) to answer their quesDons?

• Ongoing Engagement ›  Do you provide customized experiences? ›  How do you encourage current students and alumni to share their experiences?

• User Experience ›  Have you done user tesDng? ›  Have you opDmized for mobile?

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INBOUND MARKETING

inbound 87

RESULTS

We want to move where the market is going, not where it’s been. (Marketer Surveyed in Hubspot’s State of Inbound MarkeDng 2013)

“ ”

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THANK YOU!

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SEGMENTATION & STRATEGIC CONTENT

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11:00AM – 12:00PM

IN THIS SESSION

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• The what, why and how of personas: IdenDfying your target audiences, leveraging qualitaDve and quanDtaDve data to establish goals with user personas

• How and why segmented content works: Conveying the right message to the right audience with segmentaDon

ICE BREAKER

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INTRODUCTION

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Photo by Sam Valadi

INTRODUCTION

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•  Content volume has exploded, acenDon spans have shortened, and ‘capDve’ audiences no longer exist.

•  As consumers, we set filters and tune in to those we trust or care about the most.

USER PERSONAS

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Define your target audiences.

What?

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User personas are cri-cal benchmarks for segmenta-on. •  Provide a deeper understanding of

target audiences.

•  CreaDve markeDng tools to reference when developing content.

•  Help us deliver the right messages at the right Dme.

Why?

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We have a wide range of target audiences to reach. •  ProspecDve students •  Current students •  Alumni / donors •  Parents •  Community members

How?

Where to start… •  Focus groups •  Look at historical data •  NegaDve personas •  Surveys •  Talk to admissions •  More the becer

What to think about… •  Gender •  Background •  Age •  Income (if any) •  Common concerns/quesDons •  Personal Goals •  Real quotes

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USER PERSONAS

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USER PERSONAS

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USER PERSONAS


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THE ENROLLMENT JOURNEY

High School Henry

Transfer Taylor

•  Do I want to go to college?

•  Do I want to go to school far away?

•  Do I need a concentraDon?

•  Are there other campuses out there I’d like becer?

•  What schools are closer to home?

•  What schools are in the city?

•  What major do I want to focus on?

•  Where do I want to go to school?

•  What size campus is right for me?

•  Are my credits going to transfer?

•  Is my different major offered?

•  Am I going to need to do an extra semester?

•  Are there scholarships available?

•  Is there early decision available?

•  Is my sports team good?

•  What is the difference in cost?

•  Do I like the professors/deans?

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What?

Funnels help us strategize communica-on touch-‐points. •  Do we need more conversion

points in our funnel? •  Should we focus on building our

prospect pool? •  Is there a push for applicants? •  Where are we focusing our efforts? Answer these ques-ons to allocate -me and efforts according to your unique goals.

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Why?

We want our users to voluntarily take ac-on. •  Request informaDon •  Start an applicaDon •  Download content •  Register for an event •  Visit campus •  Make a donaDon Maps and workflows help us get get users from point A to point B.

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How?

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SeJng Up Your Funnel/Campaign:

1.  Determine where a prospecDve student is in their journey

2.  IdenDfy how someone would be enrolled in a ‘workflow’

3.  What content will we send in that workflow

4.  Decide on a goal for that workflow, and how someone will be removed

AUTOMATED WORKFLOWS

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PROCESS MAPS

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TOUCH-‐POINT CAMPAIGNS

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STRATEGIC CONTENT

Create segmented messages.

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What?

You can segment more than just emails. •  Social media posts •  Digital adverDsing •  Content offers •  And yes, emails, too

Segmented content helps us deliver the right message to the right person at the right -me.

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How?

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EMAILS

Send personalized, beauDful emails that your prospects will look forward to receiving and measure which messages are most effecDve.

Collect valuable informaDon on your leads for segmentaDon, personalizaDon, and follow up by your sales team •  Personalize your

message, sender, and subject lines

•  View detailed engagement analyPcs

•  Choose from a variety of pre-‐tested templates

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LANDING PAGE

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INFOGRAPHICS

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CONTENT OFFERS

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E-‐BOOKS

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E-‐BOOKS

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BLOGS

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BLOGS

WEBINARS

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VIDEOS

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“It’s not what you know. It’s what you create with what you know.”

TESTIMONIALS

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Leveraging tes-monials as suppor-ng content to con-nue the narra-ve

TESTIMONIALS

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TESTIMONIALS

SOCIAL MEDIA

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CONTENT STRATEGY DEFINED

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MESSAGE AUDIENCE

TIME

RIGHT AUDIENCE

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RIGHT MESSAGE

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RIGHT PLACE

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RIGHT TIME

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RIGHT TIME

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CASE STUDY: WINTERLINE

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Since March 1, 2015…

• 400+ Facebook Page ‘Likes’ • 170+ Twicer Followers • 290+ Digital AdverDsing Leads • 30+ New ApplicaDons • 450% increase in website traffic

ACTIVITY: MAKE MY PERSONA

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Persona generator: makemypersona.com

Q&A LUNCH

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12:00PM – 1:00PM

2:30PM – 3:15PM

SEO: GETTING FOUND

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IN THIS SESSION

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• How to play nice with search engines: What works and what doesn't for search engine opDmizaDon. You'll leave with a thorough understanding of how search engines work and how to opDmize for them.

• How to future-‐proof: Things change frequently, how can I stay on top of SEO tacDcs? You'll learn why quality content will always win the day.

The majority of web traffic is driven by the major commercial search engines.”

“DO I NEED SEO?

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EVEN IN HIGHER EDUCATION?

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1.  Search engines use robots, someDmes called “spiders” or “crawlers,” to creep

around the pages of the web using links like a subway system.

2.  The spiders read and store select secDons of the pages in a big database.

3.  A users types a keyword or search term into the search engine.

4.  The engine accesses that huge database to find the best fit using a top secret

algorithm.

ROBOTS AND CRAWLS

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WHERE THE TRAFFIC CONVERGES

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h^p://moz.com/google-‐algorithm-‐change

SEARCH ENGINE ALGORITHM CHANGE HISTORY

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Moz Search Engine Ranking Factor Survey 2013

HOW TO RANK

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TECHNICAL MOZ REPORT

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WHY IT’S WORTH IT

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On Page: -‐  Content -‐  HTML -‐  Architecture

Off Page: -‐  Links -‐  Social -‐  Trust -‐  Personal

ON PAGE VS. OFF PAGE

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OFF PAGE

OFF-‐PAGE SEO

1.   Trust ›  Links from a trusted, quality or respected web site

2.   History ›  Has the site been around a long Dme?

3.   OpportuniPes ›  Admissions ConsulDng Sites

–  Clear Admit –  Accepted.com

›  Government sites ›  Earned media

–  Wall Street Journal –  Washington Post –  Poets & Quants –  Financial Times

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Links

OFF PAGE: LINKS

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Owned -‐  Your website -‐  Anything you can edit -‐  Your social channels (barrowed) Earned -‐  Congrats, you wrote great content! You’ve earned yourself some

links. -‐  Killer blogs, podcasts, videos, ebooks, webinars and more. -‐  Guest blogs Paid -‐  CPC -‐  Banner ads -‐  Sponsored

LINKS: QUALITY

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BEST PRACTICS: •  Local media •  NaDonal media •  ExisDng relaDonships •  “Experts” •  Guest blogs •  Ask!

LINKS: QUALITY

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LINKS: AVOID VIOLATIONS

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LINKS: A HISTORY LESSON

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LINKS: AVOID VIOLATIONS

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WHAT IS GOOGLE LOOKING FOR? •  InauthenDc Dtles •  ManipulaDve internal links •  Link filled footers (is it there for the user or for SEO?) •  Text content blocks built primarily for the engines •  Backlinks from penalty likely sources •  Large amounts of pages that are very similar, slightly modified

LINKS: WHAT IS OVER OPTIMIZATION?

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Jon Wye’s Custom Designed Belts

LINKS: TEXT

=

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LINKS: NUMBER OF LINKS

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OFF PAGE: SOCIAL

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>

SOCIAL: REPUTATION

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SOCIAL: SHARES

SOCIAL: WHICH CHANNELS?

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OFF PAGE: TRUST

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ARE YOU A TRUSTED AUTHORITY? •  Types of links your site receives?

•  Quality of social menDons?

•  Engagement metrics?

•  Quality of content: (for example…) o  Would you trust the informaDon presented in this arDcle? o  Is this arDcle wricen by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is

it more shallow in nature? o  Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant arDcles on the same or

similar topics with slightly different keyword variaDons? o  Would you be comfortable giving your credit card informaDon to this site? o  Does this arDcle have spelling, stylisDc, or factual errors?

TRUST: AUTHORITY

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THE WEB IS DECAYING: CausaPon vs. CorrelaPon

“We can't promise that (the age of links) is not a factor, but if it is a factor, it's super .ny. It's a really small thing. We're using it primarily in conjunc.on with other things to try and see what's going on.”

“Think about the fact that there is this huge billions of page index for the World Wide Web but only about 20% year-‐over-‐year is really surviving.”

TRUST: HISTORY

OFF PAGE: PERSONAL

PERSONAL: COUNTRY AND LOCALITY

PERSONAL: HISTORY AND SOCIAL

ACTIVITY: META DATA

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Title tag

Meta descripPon

AFTERNOON BREAK

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3:15PM – 3:30PM

SEO: OPTIMIZING CONTENT

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3:30PM – 4:15PM

IN THIS SESSION

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• How to be remarkable: What makes content that is compelling and engaging enough to generate traffic?

• How to get it done: We’ll cover things like keyword research, best pracDces for SEO, content amplificaDon, and trend analysis.

ON-‐PAGE SEO

1.   Content ›  Clear, concise and compelling ›  Shows rather than tells ›  Engaging ›  Relevant keywords ›  Fresh

2.   Architecture ›  Search engines can easily crawl pages on site ›  Speed – site loads quickly ›  URLs are short and contain meaningful keywords to page topics

3.   Search friendly HTML ›  Titles contain keywords relevant to page topics ›  Meta descripDon tags describe what the pages are about ›  Headlines and sub-‐heads use relevant keywords

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Why Is It Important?

§  Get found: Search Engine OpDmizaDon (SEO)

§  Show and tell your story = build an emoDonal connecDon

§  Establish thought leadership and experDse

FACT: Website conversion rate is nearly 6x higher for content markeDng adopters than non-‐adopters. (Aberdeen Group) FACT: Using inbound tacDcs saves an average of 13% in overall cost per lead. (Hubspot)

ON-‐PAGE SEO

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Content

ON PAGE: CONTENT

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Content: Keywords

CONTENT: KEYWORDS

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History of SEO Tactics: Humming Bird and Content as King

CONTENT: KEYWORD THEMES

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Modern Tactics •  Everything works together to build AUTHORITY

–  Not just one keyword, lots of keywords •  Develop high level strategic themes

Over 70% of the traffic you earn for any given page will come from keywords you didn’t try to opDmize for. 15% of all Google searches, over half a billion per day, have never been seen before.


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Content: Research

CONTENT: KEYWORD RESEARCH

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CONTENT: KEYWORD RESEARCH

1.  Know your value and tell your story. 2.  Think about how your target audiences are searching.

Why do they need you? How will they find you? 3.  Do some keyword research and analysis. 4.  Determine the themes that you want to “own”. 5.  No keyword stuffing. It does more harm than good.

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Example: ThemaDc Keyword Development


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ANSWER PROSPECT QUESTIONS

Examples:

“What are ways I can involved in college life?”

“What are the best colleges?”

“What crea.ve wri.ng programs are there near me?”

“Is American University a good school?”

“Does it have brand recogni.on away from the east coast?”

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KEYWORD PLANNER

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KEYWORD ANALYSIS

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CONTENT: IMPLEMENTING KEYWORD THEMES

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Value is future proof and algorithm proof.”

“CONTENT: QUALITY

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Content: Page Engagement

/mosDmportant/landingpage

CONTENT: ENGAGEMENT

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Content: Fresh

Infographics

Press Releases (and newsworthiness)

Compelling Blog Posts

Video

CONTENT: FRESHNESS

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Side Note: What is “compelling”? THE CONTENT RULES! 1.  Embrace that you are a publisher. 2.  Insight inspires originality. 3.  Build momentum (trigger an acDon). 4.  Speak HUMAN. 5.  Reimagine and COPE. 6.  Share or solve. DON’T SHILL. 7.  Show, don’t just tell. 8.  Do something unexpected. 9.  Stoke the campfire. 10.  Create wings & roots (sharability & point of view). 11.  Play to your strengths.

From Content Rules by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman

CONTENT: WHAT IS COMPELLING?

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HTML

ON PAGE: HTML (THE TECHNICAL STUFF)

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You see

Search Engines see

HTML: WHAT SEARCH ENGINES SEE

Title

Meta DescripDon

HTML: TITLE AND META DESCRIPTION

The Perfectly Keyword OpPmized Page (keyword: chocolate donuts)

hcp://moz.com/learn/seo/on-‐page-‐factors hcp://moz.com/blog/visual-‐guide-‐to-‐keyword-‐targeDng-‐onpage-‐opDmizaDon

HTML: CHOCOLATE DONUTS

HTML: ARCHITECTURE

Search Engines need links to crawl!

Lots of reasons this can happen: •  Submission forms required •  Links in un-‐parseable Javascript •  Links poinDng to pages blocked from robots •  Frames of iframes •  Robots don’t use search forms •  Link in flash, java or other plugins •  Links on pages with many hundred or thousands of links

ARCHITECTURE: CRAWL

/mosDmportant/landingpage

ARCHITECTURE: SPEED

ARCHITECTURE: URLS

BEST PRACTICES: •  Employ empathy. •  Shorter is becer. •  Keyword use is important (but don’t sacrifice usability) •  Go staDc. •  Use hyphens to separate words (more than three)

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HTML: SEMANTIC

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SEO TRENDS

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SEO TRENDS

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WHAT HAPPENED 4.21.2015?

• Google released its new mobile-‐friendly algorithm

• SEOs have dubbed it #mobilegeddon

• Algorithm favors web pages that are deemed mobile friendly

• Pages are either mobile friendly or no – there is no scale

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AREA OF IMPACT

Mobile Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

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WHAT MAKES A SITE “MOBILE FRIENDLY”?

GoogleBot detects the following criteria:

• Avoids somware that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash

• Users text that is readable without zooming

• Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom

• Places links far enough apart so that correct one can easily be tapped • Overall touchscreen readiness

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THE MOBILE TAG

• Rolled out last fall • Helps users idenDfy mobile friendly sites

• Same overall criteria to #Mobilegeddon

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GOOGLE’S MOBILE FRIENDLY TEST

hcps://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-‐friendly 206

RESULTS

hcps://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-‐friendly

WEBMASTER’S TOOLS MOBILE USABILITY REPORT

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HOW IS IT IMPACTING WEBSITES?

hcps://moz.com/blog/day-‐amer-‐mobilegeddon 209

CHECK YOUR SITE

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CHECK YOUR SITE

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COMMON MISTAKES

• Blocked JavaScript, CSS and image files

• Unplayable content • Faulty redirects • Mobile-‐only 404s

• App download intersDDals •  Irrelevant cross-‐links • Slow mobile pages

hcps://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-‐sites/mobile-‐seo/common-‐mistakes/ 212

USERS FIRST AND MOBILE FIRST

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Mobile Goals

Short Term: •  Index your site and prioriDze prospecDve student pages, alumni giving pages and other high objecDve secDons

• Work through them and make sure they “get the tag” • Use digital adverDsing to supplement traffic loss • Consider inbound tools like the COS from Hubspot

Long Term: • Make sure your whole site passes the Mobile OpDmizaDon reports in webmaster tools

• Redesign – including informaDon architecture and content – where needed

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1.   Fix technical errors.

2.   Do on page keyword research and develop a strategy.

3.   Implement.

4.   Do themaPc keyword research.

5.   Build some valuable content.

6.   Develop a link-‐building strategy.

7.   Monitor and improve – repeat.

THE CONVERGE PROCESS

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IS IT WORKING?

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IS IT WORKING?

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30-‐day free trial: hcp://moz.com/

IS IT WORKING?

IS IT WORKING?

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Technical Assessment On Page OpDmizaDon Off Page Growth Strategy Improved Domain Authority Increase in # and quality of links Increase in Organic Search Visits Increase on ConverPng Organic Search Visits

+

IS IT WORKING?

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

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ACTIVITY: GOOGLE TRENDS

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THANK YOU!

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Inbound Marketing Workshop: American University

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