what is seo?
TRANSCRIPT
April, 2015
Jake Aull | Zen Fires Digital Marke6ng | 404.259.5550 | ZenFires.com | @jakeaull
What is SEO…
What is SEO… _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• SEO (search engine op1miza1on) is “making your business come up in Google” (& other search engines – organically)
• What does that mean?
• Consumers are looking for something -‐ they need
something -‐ a solu6on to a problem.
• How do they aUempt to solve it? With info -‐ by going to Google -‐ or Bing -‐ or Yahoo.
• They enter their search terms -‐ their ques6on -‐ their problem.
Sample SERP (search engine results page) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What is SEO… _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Web users enter their search terms -‐ their ques6on -‐ their problem. • And up comes the SERP (search engine results page) -‐ lis6ngs of results and links per their query. • The “organic” or “SEO” lis6ngs are the majority of lis6ngs on the page -‐ they are regular lis6ngs that are
not ads (ads typically are separated at top, boUom and/or side -‐ with an indicator such as the word “Ad” shown).
Organic (SEO) lis6ngs
PPC/digital ads
What is SEO… _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• The goal here is to get consumers to see and click on lis6ngs for some specific ac6on -‐ a company-‐desired landing page, promo6on or general content. (example of a web landing page below – such as from an ad campaign)
What is SEO… _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Going deeper, for the business and/or marketer, the SEO-‐specific goals are: • To communicate with search engines and solve errors the search engines find on websites (these
errors happen all too oden) • To adapt and respond to search engine updates (i.e., Google Penguin, Panda, and Hummingbird
algorithm updates) • To iden6fy the keyword phrases that prospects and customers search for • To come up on the first page of search engines for many of those keyword searches • To consume more SERP “real estate,” with a variety of lis6ngs for same keyword searches • To achieve more visible lis6ngs on the SERP, such as local/maps results or images, or with rich
content, such as video or news results • To expand the brand’s overall digital footprint, for brand awareness results • To con6nually grow visitor traffic (such as first-‐6me visitors coming to the website) • To iden6fy and capitalize on primary traffic drivers to the website (such as back links or social
media) • To adapt and harness new content (such as blog posts), with op6miza6on, for ongoing traffic
growth and search engine results (note that blog posts should typically be on your own website -‐ social media results can also be considered “organic,” but they represent separate tac6cal effort than SEO).
• To con6nually monitor website analy6cs for all above results (and errors), tweak, improve and achieve more growth in posi6ve results!
Sample SERP (search engine results page), with maps and news rich content _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rich content news lis6ngs
Maps/local results lis6ngs
What is SEO… _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Ul6mately – the goal is to connect good company content with target consumers seeking answers -‐ the “answers” are the right match of company services for consumer problem-‐solving.
• Some of the biggest contributors I’ve no6ced to SEO results include a high amount of content (such as pages and/or blog posts), and longevity of domain ownership (less controllable -‐ based on the ques6on of how long have you owned your business domain name?).
• SEO is marke6ng. It’s website coding. It’s copywri6ng. It’s all of the above. It’s all of that for you and your best customers.
• So, why do SEO and/or ads? First of all, which lis6ngs do you, as an individual web user, which lis6ngs do you usually click on from the SERP? If you said organic/SEO, you’re in good company with the majority of web users. But this doesn’t mean there’s no role for search engine adver6sing.
Sample SEO Analy6cs _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What is PPC… _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Digital paid ads can achieve things that SEO can’t, such as: • Let’s say you are a startup company with no digital presence and a brand new website -‐ PPC (pay-‐
per-‐click adver6sing) can get you visibility on the SERP that you can’t get right off the bat with SEO.
• Digital adver6sing is a good way to achieve more visibility (via mul6ple lis6ngs) on the same SERP -‐ incen6vizing web users to click on one or the other of your lis6ngs.
• Digital adver6sing/PPC is a good way to “buy” keyword phrases you can’t come up for organically no maUer how hard you try (e.g., “head” keywords such as “book” or “television” -‐ as opposed to good organic niche/“long tail” keywords such as “children’s book about three-‐legged elephants” or “buy used American-‐brand 60-‐inch HDTV flat screen cheap”).
• Digital adver6sing is a good way to target highly specific web users, such as “men in Birmingham, AL between 40-‐50 years old.”
• Digital adver6sing/PPC is also great at demonstra6ng highly specific analy6cs (such as the above for website clicks)
• And digital adver6sing is great for “immediate gra6fica6on;” while SEO is more of a long-‐term benefit, PPC starts and stops the minute you start and stop paying for it.
“Head” or “Short-‐tail” keyword phrases in PPC adver6sing (“television”) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PPC/digital ads
PPC/digital ads
Google AdWords Adver6sing Campaign Setup _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Google Keyword Research _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Local SEO/directory search channel _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Search Analy6cs, Trending and Alterna6ve Search Engines _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
•
Analy6cs Showing Social Media-‐Driven Traffic to Website _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Facebook, TwiUer, and LinkedIn are successfully driving traffic to the website.
Thank You!
Jake Aull | Zen Fires Digital Marke6ng | GSU Social Media Marke6ng Instructor 404.259.5550 | ZenFires.com | @jakeaull