© 2005 watermelon mountain web marketing info@watermelonweb.com 1 marketing your site: search...

Marketing Your Site: Search Engines, Links & PPC Ads

NMSU Extension Service

Enhancing Economic Prosperity In New Mexico’s

Frontier Communities Through E-Commerce

Mesalands Community College Tucumcari, NM 9/8/05

Jan Zimmerman, Author

Marketing on the Internet 6th Ed., Maximum Press

Watermelon Mountain Web Marketing

4614 Sixth St. NW Albuquerque, NM 87107

info@watermelonweb.com 505-344-4230

Search Engines vs. Directories• SE Necessary But Not Sufficient

• Directories use categories– Anywho.com AT&T White/Yellow Pages

– Superpages.com (GTE Yellow Pages)

– DMOZ.com (Open Directory Project) InfoSpace Yellow Pages & Map

– MapQuest

• Search engines use content – keywords or links

Search Engine Market ShareJune/July 2005

Google 47.0% 46.2%

Yahoo 22.3% 22.5%

MSN 12.5% 12.6%

AOL 5.5% 5.4%

– Google gets 80% of B2B searches

– Choose search engines by audience

Search Engine Relationshipswww.bruceclay.com

www.bruceclay.com

overture

Get through the Search Engine Maze: 3 DIY Must-Have Sites

• google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

• search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html

• dmoz.org/add.html

• others are “gravy”

• don’t need 100,000

search engines

“Natural” Search Engine Ranking

Need first page of results to be noticed Different search engines have different rules

- Keywords & tags for Yahoo

- Even different keyword-based engines weigh things differently

- Inbound links for Google

Improve Ranking on Most Engines Select good search terms

– Wordtracker.com– Overture.com – Check competitor keywords (>view>source)

Extra “points” for keywords in links, navigation, headings, subheads

No tricks– No hidden keywords or “magic” pixels– Don’t overpopulate with high keyword density

Keywords Tool: Free Trial or Paid www.wordtracker.com

Interpreting Word Tracker Results

• Will YOUR audience use this term?

• Re-check by typing word into search engine to make sure businesses like yours appear.

Keyword KEIAnalysis

Count24Hrs

Competing..

old west vacations 442.531 119 34 32

large family vacation rentals 15.538 43 12 119

new mexico tourist attractions 12.800 24 7 45

affordable weekend getawaysromantic

12.770 104 30 847

western vacations 11.772 195 56 3230

new mexico santa fe cabins 9.000 3 1 1

ski new mexico 7.122 239 68 8020

santa fe bed and breakfast 5.192 53 15 541

santa fe lodging 4.942 65 19 855

guest houses santa fe new mexico 4.000 2 1 0

historic new mexico 3.661 62 18 1050

hotels santa fe new mexico 3.281 44 13 590

new mexico bed breakfast 3.059 55 16 989

historic vacations 2.822 39 11 539

southwest vacations 2.046 158 45 12200

family friendly vacations 1.659 36 10 781

new mexico lodging 1.500 120 34 9600

Overture.comhttp://inventory.overture.com/d/

searchinventory/suggestion/

Basic Approach (except Google)• View>Source on high-ranking competitors

• Use metatags to improve ranking

• Optimize pages

• Submit individual pages when possible

• Check position, tweak & re-submit if needed

• No need for monthly re-submissions

Meta-Tag Guidelines• Items that appear in source code for search engines to

review. Use View > Source• Keyword tag: maximum 30 • Optimize pages for 4-5 search terms each• Title: 5-7 words including 2 search terms

– Put business name at end after a colon

• Page Description: max. 256 characters, with 4 terms• <Alt> Tags appear when hover over photos; use same 4

search terms

• <title>Lunar Cow :: Results Driven Design in Web, Print and Multimedia.</title>

• <meta name="Description" content="Professional Web Design, Web Design Company, Web Design Services - LunarCow.com Lunar Cow Design improves business opportunities for clients by developing powerful New Media communication tools. Lunar Cow offers services in Web, print and motion graphics.">

• <meta name="Keywords" content="Professional Web Design, Web Design Company, Web Design Services - LunarCow.com,web design, web site design, web page design, web design company, flash web design, web design services, web design and development, internet marketing, online marketing, internet marketing service, internet marketing consultant, internet marketing solution, internet marketing plan, internet market strategy, web design firm, web site design company, web page design company, flash web site design, best web site design, best web design, design web site, design, web page, web site design firm, online branding, internet branding, corporate branding, marketing, online, brochure design, ecommerce development, e-commerce development, business to business ecommerce, business to business e-commerce, motion graphics, internet extranet intranet, print design, technology integration, ohio">

Good Metatags www.lunarcow.com

What Search Engines Don’t See• Frames

• Pictures

• Flash

• Splash pages

• Dynamically-generated or some active server pages (.asp, .jsp)

• Database contents whose URLs have a ? & or = (use special database search and shopping search engines)

Make Your Site Search Engine-Friendly

• Avoid “not-seen” errors on prior page

• Put text above photos

• Use linkable footers on every page

• Site index

• Outbound links page• If you have a database-driven site, ask

developers to feed Google an XML index https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login

Identify Specialty Search Engines & Directories

• Meta-indexes (e.g. allsearchengines.com)

• Shopping search engines– shopping.yahoo.com

– froogle.google.com

• Price comparison sites– shopping.com

– buyersindex.com

Arabian Horse Directory www.arabianinsite.com

Cowboy Search Engine www.cowboy.com

Google Ranking: Special Case

• Need inbound links from high Google-ranked sites that share a keyword

• Google Page Rank >5 (toolbar.google.com)

• Alexa Traffic Rank (alexa.com)

• To view links (yours or competitors)– On Google: link:www.website.com– Linkpopularity.com or Linkstoyou.com

• Internal and outbound links also count

Spider To Check Inbound Linkswww.linkstoyou.com/checklinks.htm

Inbound Linking Find Your Audience Online Check Competitors’ Links Check Google & Alexa rank Remember directories, maps, yellow pages Send email request Be selective about reciprocal links Avoid

– Free-For-All Link Sites– Link Exchange Services– Web Rings or Alliances

Other Ways to Increase Google Rankings

• Inbound links from blogs

• Press releases online with links

• Links from .org and .edu sites– Check all the organizations you belong to

– Check all trade shows or fairs where you exhibit

– Check local, regional, state sites

Other Online Advertising• Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

– Some shopping sites, some directories and secondary search engines, Yahoo Express

• Pay-Per-Action (PPA) – Some commissions or affiliates in this category

• Sponsorships of others’ newsletters• Banner Ads

– Click-through rates average <0.8% for banners– Use for branding and exposure– Banner Ad Exchanges - most 2:1; not well targeted

Google AdWords PPCadwords.google.com

Overture PPC Programwww.overture.com

Google Adwords Vs. Overture• Feeds AOL, Netscape,

Lycos, others

• Content sites (AdSense)

• 5¢ minimum PPC

• Set daily ad limit

• Can track conversion rate

• Geographical and language targeting

• CPM option by impression

• Graphic ad option

• Feeds Yahoo, Alta Vista, MSN (temporarily), others

• Content sites (Content Match)

• 15¢ minimum PPC

• Set monthly ad limit

• Can track conversion rate

• Local, Yahoo shopping, travel targeting

• Not as much budget control

Writing A Good Google Ad • Like writing a classified• First line 25 characters• Second line 35 characters• Third line 35 characters• Include search term in ad• The more specific the ad, the better• Select right landing page• Include benefit or call to action

Bidding Strategies for PPC

• Google appearance based on clickthroughs as well as bid price; Overture based on bid price only

• 2nd-4th position may have better conversion rates that 1st position

• Do not pay more per click (or cost/conversion) than a sale is worth!

Don’t Go Broke with PPC• Conversion code allows you to see

what % of visits from an ad/search term result in a sale or other call to action. Can put on thank you page.

• Revise to reach a click-through rate of at least 1% (5% or better preferred)

• Look for conversion rate of 2-4%• Be “ruthless” about deleting terms and

ads that don’t work.

Exercises

• Go to Word Tracker or Overture to select some good search terms for your site

• Write several Google Ads using that search term

© 2005 watermelon mountain web marketing info@watermelonweb.com 1 marketing your site: search...

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