Superfast Business: Google Search, SEO and You

ANIMATION EVENT

21st October 2014 Chris Lyons, Partnership Manager

Roll Out

• The Government ambition is to have the best

Superfast Broadband Network in Europe by 2016.

• By 2014 two thirds of UK premises (residential and

business) will have access to superfast broadband

• Improved broadband (>2mbps) to every business

and community across Wiltshire by 2016

• Faster broadband (>20mbps) to at least 90% of the

area by 2016

What is superfast business?

• Superfast Business is a European Funded programme of fully

funded business support for SMEs

• Delivered by Business West, working with Wiltshire Unitary

Council

• Business advice and specialist support to help growth businesses maximise

the opportunities of Superfast Broadband and associated technologies.

• Benefits for businesses can include:

Competitive advantage

Increased productivity

Access to new markets

Remote working

Opportunity for innovation

Efficiency and timesaving

• Eligibility criteria apply to businesses accessing the service

Superfast Business Support

- SEO / SMO / IM

Conquering Google Search – how easy is it?

- things that have an impact on SEO

- What has Google been up to lately?

- Hints, tips and things you can do

- Established MAD 2001

About me ...

- Involved with web & SEO for over 12 years

- SEO ‘noise’

- Jason - Marketing & Design for 20 years

- SE’s are constantly changing their algorithms, methodology & formulas

- I AM NOT A GOOGLE SALESMAN!!

Before we get started...

- nor am I a geek – we have a cage full of them at MAD, I am ‘normal’

In 60 seconds on the web...

- 1.3 million videos are watched on Youtube

- 6 new articles appear on Wikipedia

- 20 million photos are viewed on Flickr

- £53,000 worth of sales made on Amazon

- 2,000,000+ searches take place on Google

- 204 million EMs sent

- 6 million Facebook views

Search Engine Optimisation (aka Sort Everything Out!)

Integrated Marketing (IM)

A quick look at how Google has been changing the search results we see ...

(2007)

Other Recent Activity in Google

(in addition to screen changes already mentioned when presenting search results)

https & GA - (not provided)

In October 2011, Google began encrypting searches for anyone who was logged into Google. Then in September 2013 began encrypting searches for people who aren’t even signed-in, making about 75% of all searches encrypted, and stopping most keyword data being made available in Google Analytics!

Get Google Analytics Premium for your business. Work directly with Google and a flat annual fee of £90,000 covers all the data, guarantees and service you could need... ... or get Premium through one of our Authorised Resellers. Either way, you'll get the same great service and support... http://www.google.co.uk/analytics/premium/contact.html

Google Analytics Premium (since 2011)

- Penguin May 2012 / 2.0 in 2013

-Link Building - same anchor text - ‘end of an era’

‘Lock man’

"Google's message to websmasters up to now has been pretty constant - make a great site

that users love that they will want to tell their friends about, bookmark, come back to, visit

over and over again, all the things that make a site compelling.

Matt Cutts – 22nd May 2013

We try to make sure that if that's your goal then we are aligned with that goal and therefore

as long as you are working hard for users

then we are working hard to try

to show your high quality content to your users as well.”

- ‘secure search’ (https) (Adwords Remarketing) - now charge for Shopping/Products Feed - logging in to use Google’s services (2011) - Adwords only option (lock man)

Recent Activity in Google

Why has Google done all of this?

Quiz Time...

Game - ‘Guess the Google Click Costs’ ...

Is anybody running an Adwords Campaign?

- avoid massaging your own ego

GET THESE RIGHT AS THEY ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS FOR A LOT OF THE THINGS YOU NEED TO

DO TO YOUR SITE

- avoid licking your finger & simply sticking it in the air

- conduct proper keyword research

- plan carefully how to break KWs up

Keywords

MAN VERSUS BERTH

- 2 berth tents - 58

- 2 berth tent - 170

- two man tent - 590

- two man tents - 1900

- 2 man tent - 5400

93.103448 times the volume of clients initial proposed category

8118 searches

MAN VERSUS BERTH additions

- two person tents - 22

- two person tent - 91

- 2 tent - 260

- 2 person tents - 260

- 2 person tent - 880

3413 additional searches

- 2 man tents - 1900 TOTAL: 11,531

- PAGE TITLES use keywords - also relevant for DDA Compliance (Equality Act) in particular Screen Readers

Meta Data

- PAGE DESCRIPTION - more commonly now CODE SNIPPITS are delivered - Captivate / hook reader ... Should really be written for visitor and not search engines

Meta Data

- KEYWORDS (list of) - only place where encourage a ‘list’

- old white on white trick!

Meta Data

Ctrl + u

Responsive Web Design

(shush – current hot potato!)

- sites that display on all platforms

- a site that resizes itself automatically

- same URL (no mobile version)

- update only 1 site

ONE URL & SEO

- ‘This is Google’s recommended configuration’

- think about your users

- In the last 3 months of 2013 apple sold 22.9 million tablets up 60% year on year

ONE URL & SEO

- 20% of all emails are now opened on iPhone

- 18% of all emails are opened in Outlook (fall from 38% in 2012)

- half of global internet access via mobile

Content Management Systems (CMS)

- effectively a ‘translator’

- no web design experience required

- not restricted to one computer

- web ‘2’

- take control / ownership of a site

- the developer / client scenario: ‘time taken to update a page means its dated already!’

- Microsoft is evil - notepad to the rescue

Content Management Systems (CMS)

“ make a great site that users love that they will want to tell their friends about...”

Remember the purpose behind doing this...

Google Results...!!!

This next bit is not intended as a ‘Guide’ to Social Media ...

“ make a great site that users love that they will want to tell their friends about...”

Question - how will they tell their friends?

- Google & ‘citations’ / engagement / dialogue / repurposing / sharing

- Google relies heavily on inbound links still

SMO – Social Media Optimisation

- we believe since Penguin update in May 2013, up to 50% of linking value is now gained through social channels (Twitter, G+ & FB possibly biggest)

- SM for B2B always relevant? (Engineers?)

“ make a great site that users love that they will want to tell their friends about...”

Google+ is a social networking and identity service owned and operated by Google Inc. It is the second-largest social networking site in the world, having surpassed Twitter in January 2013. It has approximately 359 million active users...

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_plus

SMO – Google+

- some think Google+ is finding its place

- Google attempted to buy, then investment in FB circa 2007 (valuing FB @ US$16bn)

- set up to compete with FB?

- G+ pages can actually be returned in searches in their own right

SMO – Google+

SMO – Google+

5 citations

Remember the purpose behind doing this...

Google Results...!!!

You gotta be in it, to win it and you need to stick with it!

Interesting that BMW (& others) push a lot of people to FB. Great for engagement . Great for

conversation (as with other SM).

However – remember – unlike with your website, you do not own the content on SM

portals – they do.

CONCLUSION – Social Media

Pitfalls to avoid (Google & in general) ...

- ‘only really need a couple of pages’

- underestimating ‘the fold’

- relying on just the home page

- reflection of you and your company

- underestimate importance of 1st impression

- undersell v oversell (lead generator)

- underuse of keywords & phrases

- overuse/dilution of keywords & phrases

- entry pages not relevant to user

- KISS – being everything to every visitor

- assuming competitors online are simply the same as those offline (wikki, directories, etc)

- underestimate value of adding your own fresh content (content is KING!) (PENGUIN)

Common website mistakes ...

- keyword research

- design of website that’s not just a ‘pretty site’ & with plenty of unique content

- integration of keywords

- off page SEO/SMO (Integrated Marketing)

- monitoring, understanding & revising

- working on the right things yourself / with right people & using the right technology

Pitfalls to avoid (Google & in general) ...

Possible Funding to help you?

- You may be eligible to find out more and to help grow your business...

- Business card to me – write funding on it - Speak to SFB team

- [email protected]

What is the purpose of a Commercial Website?

BOTTOM LINE IS TO MAKE MONEY

... does yours?

CONCLUSION