seo / sem workshop february 2006. bigmouthmedia your voice on the web session agenda the search...

SEO / SEM Workshop

February 2006

bigmouthmediaYour voice on the web

Session Agenda

• The search marketplace • About search • Competitor Landscape • Opportunities for UBS • Creating a synergistic approach• Key Elements of Organic search (SEO)• Key Elements of Paid Search (SEM)• Ethical SEO/ SEM • Multilingual search • Who does it right ? Who gets it wrong ! • Case study of search Impact


• Over 85% of internet users use search engines to find products and services online. (Nielsen/NetRatings, May 2005)

• 93% of searchers will look no further than the first page of results searches. (Jupiter MediaMetrix, June 2005)

• Around 89% of all traffic comes from 6 search engines.

The Search Market Place


The Search Industry

• Spending in online marketing will increase 19% in 2006, while growth in search engine advertising will increase 26%.

• Growth in online advertising is eight times the rate of television ads and at six times the growth rate of print advertising.

• Advertisers find Google search keyword advertising more effective than both Yahoo! and MSN, and Google contextual advertising more effective than Yahoo contextual ads.


Why search?

• 55% of online transactions originated from search. [Jupiter, 2004]

• 84.8% of [online] users find sites through search [GVU, 10th User

Survey, 2004]

• 6 out of 7 clicks come from an organic search index [Forrester

Research 2005]

• Top search positions lift unaided brand awareness by 27% [IAB &

Neilsen/Netratings July 2004]


Global Search Breakdown


Search Engine usage over 2005


What are Europeans going online for ?

UK DE FR ES IT EU

Email 86% 84% 85% 77% 83% 83%

News 46% 54% 56% 69% 60% 56%

Travel 54% 45% 44% 50% 45% 48%

Music 43% 38% 51% 54% 54% 48%

Local 46% 46% 33% 51% 44% 44%

Entertainment 46% 36% 43% 29% 46% 40%

Banking 43% 43% 34% 27% 25% 35%

Sports 37% 34% 37% 36% 33% 35%

Shopping 45% 44% 32% 25% 19% 34%

Jobs 27% 22% 25% 54% 41% 33%

Auction 18% 46% 11% 10% 6% 19%

Chat 8% 16% 19% 14% 27% 16%

Comedy 12% 5% 10% 4% 28% 11%

(Source: SciVisum, 2005)


What activities are taking place online ?2005 Feb April July

Finding information about goods or services 79% 78 82

Searching for information about travel and accommodation 69 68 68

Using email 83 85 85

Telephoning over the Internet/video conferencing * 7 7

General browsing 63 65 62

Finding information relating to education 35 37 33

Buying or ordering tickets/goods or services 47 50 49

Selling goods or services 5 10 8

Personal banking and financial services 34 37 36

Playing or downloading games 11 13 12

Using chatrooms 17 19 20

Playing or downloading music 25 27 22

Reading or downloading on-line news 24 32 26

Listening to web radio/watching web television 12 16 17

Downloading other software 20 24 20

Downloading images 22 27 21

Looking for a job/sending job application 20 22 23

(Source: SciVisum, 2005)


Online Financial Market

Datamonitor forecasts that there will be 84 million Internet banking customers in Europe by 2007. (2004)

61% of bank account users bank online (payment news 2006)

Many consumers now manage their credit card accounts online. A comScore report finds the number of customers who rely on the Web to carry out customer service activities grew 28 percent in the 12-month period ending Q1 2005.


Financial searching habits


Types of search


Methods of search

Search Portals are online properties that offer, but which don’t themselves collate the

information. Data is provided by one or more third parties that are ‘search indexes’, ‘search directories’, or occasionally ‘Meta search

engines’.

No submission can be made directly to search portals. High listings rely on excellent exposure in

other feeder properties.

Search Directories are like an online catalogue of sites. These directories have teams of human

editors who visit and review sites, organising them in a library-type structure which can be

searched tier by tier, or by keyword. Most directories provide other search properties with their data and supplement their own database

data with ‘secondary’ results from another ‘search index’ or ‘search directory’. Submission is by paid submission or regular (usually slow) free submit.

Search Indices are searchable databases that gather data by sending out a ‘spider’ programme to retrieve data from a site (including site wording,

technology, language, Meta tags, images and more). The site will then be placed into the index at the position that the index’s algorithm dictates, based on its perceived importance and relevance.

Search indices often provide data to other search

properties. Submission is by pay-for-inclusions (PFI) or

normal submission.

Meta Search Engines are properties that gather and collate information from search portals, search directories, and search indices in a

comparative fashion.

No submission can be made directly to these engines - high listings rely on excellent exposure

in other feeder properties.


Types of Search

Type of search Example keywords

Brand searching UBS, UBS bank

Brand variations ubs.com, ubs services, ubs interest rate

Top level generic Online banking, investment banking

Search by UBS product/ service type Investment solutions, private label funds, portfolio management

Search by UBS sub brand / service name UBS Funds

Catch phrases You and Us

Other UBS site content areas ubs login, ubs careers, ubs press


Positive Brand experience The UBS experience ….

Competitor experience ….


Where are you now ?

Source: Gnasher, bigmouthmedia software

Meta data on some pages which could be targeted a bit more for keywords

Optimised Meta tags 1,540 inbound links identified by Google

Google PageRank ™ – 8/10

Inconsistent results


Competitor positioning


UBS - German exposure


German Competitive Market


UBS – Swiss German Exposure


UBS – Swiss French Exposure


Competitors – Credit Suisse

Evident organic optimisation

Evidence of generic and specific keyword targeting

Optimised Meta tags

1,260 inbound links identified by Google


Poor results

Swiss Exposure


International sites available in English and local languageSearch engine friendly navigation, good use of crawl mapsGood level of content throughout the sitePoor Keyword optimisation through meta tags 3,530 inbound links identified by GoogleGoogle PageRank ™ – 7/10

Site geared for optimisation but in-page optimisation lacks

Competitors – Deutsche Bank

German Exposure


Lacks appropriate meta tagging

Content requires improvement

363 inbound links identified by Google


Competitors – PostFinance

Swiss Exposure


Opportunities for UBS

• Improve visibility (brand & generic) within major search engines through organic search

• Drive relevant / high quality traffic to your site • Ensure positive brand experience• Create synergy with all other marketing approaches, thus cost

efficiencies • Increase online enquiries


Creating Search Synergy

Organic

Generic

Service related

Tactical / promotional

Organic

Organic

Paid

Paid

Paid


Key Elements of Organic Search

Website Content

Link Popularity Technical Spec


Key Elements – Technical

Technical

URL set up

URL spiderability

CMS / backend system

Site Architecture

Linking between pages

In page optimisation

Site Maps


Key Elements – Content

Content

Keyword integration

Use of keywords within the pages

Crosslinking between pages

Meta tags


Use of Keywords

• Search engine criteria for assessing a sites’ suitability for listings

• Enforcing keywords to search engines and users

• Increasing competitive capability

• Formatting pages to match user search habits


Selecting Keywords • -Keyword search frequencies and competition

• -Keyword co-synergy and cross linking properties

• -Brand terms, generic terms and niche terms

• -Actual page content and ability to increase keyword relevance

• -Realistic targeting of achievable keywords


Links

Developing quality Inbound links from:

Direct links

Submissions

Article writing

PR distribution

RSS feeds

Key Elements – Links


PR Proliferation - Example


Article Proliferation – Example


Ethical Search and Key Pitfalls

Ethical Search- Brand Security- Uphold search engine guidelines on and off the website

Key Pitfalls• Keyword Stuffing (extreme repetition)• If you have to ask…

– Is it considered spam if…?• Anything that does not appear to the search engine as it

would to a searcher


Unethical Optimisation


Paid search (SEM) key considerations

• Keyword selection – Selecting keywords which compliment organic (tactical, reactive,

keyword gaps )

• Landscape – Who is bidding and how much is a fair price ?

• Positioning – Where should you position your ads at what time of day?

• Creative / advert writing – What are the key factors which affect CTR (click through rate) and how

do you incorporate the key messages ?

• Landing page – Where does the user arrive, is it the most appropriate page and will they

convert ?


Advert Placement


Time Based Effects

0102030405060708090

100

9am 11am 1pm 3pm

Clicks

Sales

WastedClicks

HighestConversion Time

• Time Based Rules Example

•Lower spend between 9am to 11.30 am where clicks are not converting

• Allows focus of budget in higher converting periods

• Will lead to improved ROI and increased conversion rates


Multilingual campaign Considerations

Research considerations : • Native linguists

– To ensure accurate research / keyword targeting

• Target search properties – To ensure appropriate targeting & reach

• ‘Hybrid searching’ – To ensure cross language searches are picked up


Multilingual campaign Considerations

Site considerations : • Domains / URL’s-

– Ownership & use of country specific domains • Content -

– Sufficient specific language content which incorporates target keywords

• HTML-– Correct language encoding in the HTML

• Landing pages -– Ensuring ‘select your country’ options are not used


Who does it right ? Example

Default English language with country choice

PageRank 8/10

Well handled re-directs



Quality ‘fresh’ content



Links to key content areas


Who does it wrong ? … Citibank

Search engines do not like being redirected

Once you’re here…you get redirected again

Until the ‘real’ site appears


UBS Keywords

How would you search for these pages?


British Airways - Case Study

Working with BA since 2003 (organic search and consultancy)Paid search transferred to bigmouth in May 05Developed a synergistic strategy between both methods of search and other online marketing

Developed awareness within the organisation to meet goals

Overall Paid search ROI has tripled during the campaign Google ROI increased by 407% between May and November 2005Increased conversion rates by 40% Reduced cost per acquisition by just over 20%


Barclays - Case Study

Working with Barclays since August 2005Early days in an extremely competitive market, but progress is positive

and phase 2 underwayDeveloped highly targeted campaign on targeted keyword phrasesDeveloped awareness within the organisation and integrated with overall

online and traditional marketing strategy to meet goals

Increased in search traffic by 47% from October to JanuaryIncrease in top 10 Google listings by increase 20% for ‘credit card terms’Increase in top 10 Google listings by 90% for ‘current account’ terms


What’s Next - Technical Strategy

• Outlines the current technical issues on the site which prevent or impair search engine performance

• Technical enhancement to boost performance• Technical housekeeping• Website protocols to ensure your website is fully understood by the

search properties• Spider control – where you want to allow a search engine program

to go on your website


What’s Next - Marketing Strategy

• Identify keyword targets• In-page optimisation techniques to ensure keyword integration

within your webpages• Detailed competitor analysis• Performance Benchmark• Link Strategy


Now you do the talking…

Questions? Comments?

seo / sem workshop february 2006. bigmouthmedia your voice on the web session agenda the search...

Documents

search engines

search positions

search gvu

webwhy search

search engine advertising

online advertising

webthe search marketplace

online users