Search Engine Marketing
A Critical Component to
Your Internet Marketing
Angela D’Auria Stanton, Ph.D.
A Georgia Tech survey found that people
primarily find web sites
using the following methods:
 Links from other sites – 88%
 Signature files – 36%
 Search engines – 85%
 Television – 32%
 Friends – 65%
 Usenet – 30%
 Printed media – 63%
 Other – 29%
 Directories – 58%
 Books – 28%
In September 2008, 8.1 billion searches were conducted, according to data
from Nielson Online.
The 8.1 billion searches conducted in September account for a 9.4 percent
increase over September 2007.
Bottom Line
 If you have a website you need to do search engine
optimization. There are basically two ways to accomplish this:
1.
Do it yourself


2.
Learn everything you can about search engine marketing, and
do it yourself.
There's a lot to learn, but this stuff isn't difficult. Whatever your
search engine marketing strategy may be, you can always do
it yourself. This is what this course is all about.
Pay a professional

Let those who've "done it all before" do the work. Let them
perform the tasks of optimizing your site, or selecting your
profitable keywords. Let them work with the engines to get
your site submitted and ranked well. All the while, you can
relax, focus on your business and deal with the traffic they
send you. Keep in mind that many optimization services
charge from $100 to $2000 per month for their services and
not all of them are effective.
How search engines work
 Search engines help people find relevant information on the
Internet. Major search engines maintain huge databases of web
sites that users can search by typing in some text.
 To compile their databases, search engines rely on computer
programs called "robots" or, more specifically, "spiders." These
programs "crawl" across the web by following links from site to
site and indexing each site they visit. Each search engine uses
its own set of criteria to decide what to include in its database.
For example, some search engines index each page in a web
site, while others index only the main page.
 See for yourself try this free utility to spider you own site:
http://tools.seobook.com/general/spider-test/index.php
Search Engine Spiders
(1)
(2)
Follow a link to
a web address
(URL)
Request the URL
from your web
server. Your web
server gives the
search engine the
web page
(3)
Web Page
________
Record a list of
words and phrases
found on that URL
________
(4)
When people perform a
search, they are
searching the index the
search engine has built.
The index is updated on
a regular basis (every 4
to 6 weeks).
Search Engine
Index
Determine a word or
phrase’s “weight” or
relevancy on the URL.
Integrate the results into
the search engine index.
How Search Engines Organize Info
 Some list the results of a user's search according to
which sites have the most links from other sites -- a
system known as link popularity.
 Other search engines prioritize results according to
the summary information contained in sites' meta
tags.
 Still others look for common themes used throughout
a site.
 There are many other ways to organize results, and
most search engines use a combination of several of
them.
Ranking Results – What Affects It
 Location of keywords and phrases on a web
page (e.g. the higher the word appears on the page, the
higher the rank might be)
 Frequency with which the search term
appears on the page may also affect how a
page is ranked in search results
 Links – the type and number of links
(relevant links are the key)
 Clickthroughs from search results
U.S. Search Engine Rankings*
U.S. Online Searches by Engine, January 2009 and
January 2008 (%)
January 2009
January 2008
Change
Total Search
100
100
N/A
Google
63.0
58.5
+4.5
Yahoo
21.0
22.2
-1.2
Microsoft
8.5
9.6
-1.1
AOL
3.7
4.9
-1.2
Ask Network
3.9
4.6
-0.7
Source: comScore Networks, 2009
Source: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2750
Directories
 Directories are often confused with search engines, but actually
they're completely different. Instead of using spiders to crawl the
web, directories such as Yahoo! and Open Directory Project
have real people who review and index their links. They also
require web sites to adhere to rigid guidelines in order to be
included in their indexes.
 The factors that influence search engine rankings simply don't
apply to directory rankings. Instead, directory editors look at the
quality of a site: its functionality, content and design. That
means that webmasters hoping to see their sites listed on
directories have to use very different strategies than for search
engine placement.
Search Engines vs Directories
Search Engine
Directory
Crawled by a robot 'spider'
Edited by a human reviewer
Meta and title tags are considered
Meta tags are not considered
HTML code very important
HTML code not as important
Easier to change listings
Difficult to change once listed
Few allow paid submission
Most allow paid submission
Quality of site not as important
Quality of site very important
Top Search Engines & Directories
Search Engines
Directories
Google
Yahoo!
(http: www.google.com)
(http://dir.yahoo.com/)
Yahoo!
Open Directory
(http://www.yahoo.com)
(http://www.dmoz.org)
Microsoft Live Search –
formerly MSN
(http://www.live.com)
Ask (http://ask.com)
AOL (http://search.aol.com)
What People Are Searching For
 Top 10 Search Terms in 10 Categories, February 2009
http://searchenginewatch.com/3633050
 Google: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
 Yahoo!: http://buzz.yahoo.com/
 Ask.com: http://about.ask.com/en/docs/iq/iq.shtml
 Lycos: http://50.lycos.com/
 AOL: http://hotsearches.aol.com/
There are many interrelationships in
Search Engine Marketing that are
important to understand for effective site
optimization and positioning
http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginerelationshipchart.htm
http://www.search-this.com/search-engine-decoder/
Manipulating Search Engines
 You Can’t




Trick search engines by imbedding hidden keywords on your
site
Artificially generate links to your site from unrelated sites
Artificially generate traffic to your site so it appears more
popular than it is
Force your web site to appear in search engine rankings by
submitting it repeatedly for inclusion in rankings (rule of
thumb: submit once and hen wait at least six weeks before
doing it again)
 Expect search engines to automatically rank you at the top
of your topic/category/keyword as soon as the site is picked
up.
Manipulating Search Engines
 You Can





Create a web site that contains meta tags, content, graphics
and keywords that help improve your site ranking
Use keywords liberally on your site – make sure they are
used in the correct context of your site and topic
Include reciprocal links to your site from others as long as
the links are legitimate and relevant
Encourage web site traffic through many venues, including
keyword advertising, reciprocal links, and marketing
campaigns
Submit your web site to search engines manually, rather
than waiting for them to pick up your site in the natural
course of cataloging web sites.
Understanding Search Referrals and Traffic
 The whole point of search engine positioning
and optimization is to increase traffic to a site

Qualified users who are seeking content or a
product or service your site can provide
 It’s the top 30 or nothing!

Studies have shown that most searchers do
not click past the third page (or 30 results)
Choosing the Right Keywords
 You must choose not only keywords that
match your site, but also keywords that are
used by actual searchers to find sites with
content like yours.
 You should also review the terms your
competitors are targeting.
One is the Loneliest Number
 Be wary of single keywords as they may be difficult to
obtain rankings for and may not provide qualified
traffic to your web site.
 Think "specific keyword phrases" not "keywords".
 Due to the extreme amount of competition for general
terms in the search engines, if your keyword phrases
are too general it is very unlikely you will rank well in
the search engines.
 You stand a far better chance to rank well for specific
phrases where there is less competition.
 The resulting traffic, since it is more highly targeted,
should also be much higher quality too!
Example for Selling Shoes
 Much Too General:



shoes
men's shoes
women's shoes
 Much Better:



imported italian shoes
men's leather penny loafers
women's aerobic sneakers
Developing Your Keyword Strategy
1.
2.
What’s your theme?
Brainstorm the right keywords

WordTracker

Google’s Keyword Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Online Thesaurus: http://thesaurus.reference.com/
Other Tools: http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/


3.
4.
http://www.wordtracker.com/
Develop your title and description
Now, misspell your words (http://www.searchspell.com/typo/ or
http://tools.seobook.com/spelling/keywords-typos.cgi)
5.
6.
7.
Think globally, act locally
Make word stemming work for you
Avoid “stop words” – words so common they are left
out of the database http://webteam.waikato.ac.nz/guidelines/stop_words.shtml
Keyword Quiz
 Which is the more popular of these two
search terms?
a. marketing strategy
b. marketing strategies
 marketing strategies
Keyword Quiz
 Which of these two search terms is more
popular?
a. marketing strategies
b. Marketing Strategies
 marketing strategies
Keyword Quiz
 Which of these two search terms is more
popular?
a. marketing strategy
b. Marketing Strategy
 Marketing Strategy
WordTracker vs Overture
 Here are the search counts according to WordTracker:

Marketing Strategy - 446 searches
marketing strategies - 347 searches
marketing strategy - 268 searches
Marketing Strategies - 22 searches
 Notice the different variations of all lowercase and first letter of each word
capitalized?
 Here are the search counts according to Overture:

marketing strategy - 28030 searches
 Overture search term suggestion tool disadvantages:


Compiles singular, plurals, upper and lowercase keywords as one search
term.
Only returns search terms that include the keyword/s you searched for WordTracker returns many more keyword combinations that bears any
relation to your business or service.
 But why is this important?

Well, if you wanted to target searchers looking for marketing strategies,
you would want to know which search term is more popular. Imagine
targeting "marketing strategies," without realizing that "Marketing
Strategy" is a more popular search term.
Key Words are of
KEY IMPORTANCE
 Use descriptive words that may be associated with benefits of
your products.
 Always use the plural (rather than singular) version when
forming your keywords.


“running shoes” instead of “running shoe”
Don’t use both versions because many search engines consider
that to be spamming. However, it is acceptable if the plural is
significantly different from the singular (e.g., dairy versus dairies).
 Use lowercase letters in formulating keywords.
 “running shoes” instead of “Running Shoes”
 Be careful about using competitors’ keywords!
 Don’t use “Nike” if you are not Nike.
 However, you should check what the competition is doing
Tools
 Search Engine Tracker – shows your position
on 4 key search engines:
http://www.netmechanic.com/products/Tracker_FreeSample.shtml
 Keyword Count – this site will let you see the
keywords used in your site and compare
them to a competitor’s site:
http://www.designerwiz.com/test/keyword_density_check.htm/
 SEO Book – a wide variety of tools to help
you optimize your site http://tools.seobook.com/
Wording Methods for Success
The “30/100 Rule”
A strategy to get triple bang for the buck.
 The “30/100 Rule”

(Note: This technique works best with 100 note cards
or small pieces of paper.)

List each keywords or phrases on each card (100) to
be used as keywords meta tag.

Write a page description that will grab the web
surfer’s attention using 30 or fewer words

Use the business name and your best words (5-7) from
the 100 in an attention-getting title meta tag.