iaee ts2 is your event website optimized part 1
TRANSCRIPT
Arran Coole, ASP Inc Dave Lutz, Velvet Chainsaw
Stephen Nold, MeetingTechOnline
Is Your Event Website Optimized?
What is website optimization?
• For an event website it means good online marketing
• Most of the work is not on your website
• Results in attendance, long term exhibitors and a profit center website
What does a good website do?
• Converts• Converts the converts• Rewards good exhibiting• Markets to people you are not
marketing to (yes they do exist!)• Recruits 100’s or 1000’s of copy
writers
Throw away the books
• Pragmatic advice• Convince you
– Not to have a website– Don’t SEO optimize the website you
don’t have
Event: No Social Media
Alone online
People can talk about you
You have no reply
Popular party vs lonely kid
Event: Website SM
Lets build SM on our website!
Subset of your audience
Could grow outside
Conversation restricted
Event: Social Media Participation
?
Pros:2 way conversationInstant market researchRelationships aidedCreates wantCreates content
Cons:Needs resources
Am I Google biased??
• Of 12 Billion U.S Searches in Dec 2008 62.9% were made in Google [Source: Search Engine Watch]
• Google beats Yahoo ~ 4 to 1[Source: Search Engine Watch]
• There are an estimated 28 billion web pages indexed by Google(Source: Google ‘Big Daddy’)
• On average everybody in NA with access to the internet searches Google once a day.
SEO vs. SEMSEO• organic search results• mass content
approach• optionally free• long term results
(slow)• more cost effectiveAlways should be
used - Free
SEM• paid for results• focused campaigns• paid for (click or
placement)• immediate results• more expensiveLaunch shows & new
URL’s during visitor promotion campaign
The SEO Goal
To get as many pages indexed by the search engines, with the most
relevant content, that is most useful for your event’s target audience, so they repeatedly
visit your website
SEO is like Chess
•Minutes to learn the basics•Years to master• Just to make it harder
– Some of the rules are secret– Each search engine is different– Billions of other players!
Alan Eustace, a Google VP of search engineering announced in 2006 that there are over 200 signals that Google uses to determine document relevance for a searcher.
ASP’s SEO Approach
• It’s impossible to figure out the ultimate SEO strategy as the rules are too complex and change constantly• Holistic approach instead:
– What is Google trying to do?– Google wants to be #1– Google will stay #1 by giving the best results– That means:
Google Empathy
When you make a search on Google, Google must find the most relevant
answerto your query to remain successful•Holistic approach:
– Don’t cheat– Don’t spam– Have loads of great content– Apply all the basic SEO techniques
SEO Areas
Marketer can control
• Content• Page Titles• Images ALT tags• External linking• Internal linking• Domain name• Social SEO• PR SEO
Web Dev can control
• Code structure• Flexibility• Enforcement• Design• Page structure• Submittal
SEO Analytics• Programs enable site owners to measure their
successes • Tracks visitors from all referrers, including search
engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents.
• If integrated with AdWords, users can review online campaigns by tracking landing page quality and conversions (goals).
• Goals might include sales, lead generation, viewing a specific page, or downloading a particular file.
• These can also be monetized. • Marketers can determine which ads are performing,
and which are not, providing the information to optimize or cull campaigns.
SEO Analytics
• SEO Website Grader by HubSpothttp://www.websitegrader.com/
• Google Analytics– free service offered by Google – generates detailed statistics about the
visitors to a website. – product is aimed at marketers as opposed
to webmasters and technologists from which the industry of web analytics originally grew.
Social Media Enhances SEO
• Social media/networking sites are increasingly showing up in Google search results
• Social sites like Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter show up due to the communities these sites empower and the viral nature of the content found in these places.
• Means content has the ability to be spread further than ever before.
• Community can submit good content to Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit or “Tweet” it on Twitter, comment on Facebook or email it to a friend.
• Effect = direct impact on increasing inbound links = huge impact on search rankings.
• “Buzz generates citations, citations generate links, links generate rankings, top rankings = good SEO.” NetWits Think Tank
– SEO Blogs - seo.alltop.com– General - WebMarketing Today– Blogs/Social Media -
Chrisbrogan.com– TSW Event Tech Blog– IAEE eMerge Blog
Resources