Search Engine
Marketing (SEM)
Understanding search engines and how to market using them
More than results
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First experience of your digital brand
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About creating the right experience with your audience.
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What you need to remember
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Google considers ‘links’ a sign of trust
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All natural SEO strategies are based around the idea of
increasing the number of external links
Optimised pages perform better in Pay Per Click (PPC)
campaigns
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Cost of the keywords will be less
Adverts will rank higher
Better click through-rate.
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Organic vs. PPC
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Two types of results generated by search engines
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Organic - these are results from all pages indexed
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Free!
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Users are more likely to click on the first organic result, than the PPC
Pay Per Click (PPC) - these are results from advertisers who have
paid to appear
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Target by ‘keyword’
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Integrate into campaigns
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Give immediate results.
Google Analytics and PPC analytics data can often differ
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Understanding the anatomy of Google
PPC Results
Organic Results
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Tip:
Organic user behaviour
About 90% of users
do not go beyond
the first page.
User most likely to click
first three results
The likelihood that user
will click on a link drops
by 15% per result
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Tip:
Factors affecting ranking
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Find out your page
rank, download the
Google Toolbar
There are ‘thought’ to be over two hundred factors, which affect ranking
in Google
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Google, doesn‘t just consider structural factors:
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Site layout, Page content
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Domain age, Authorship
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Speed
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Links
It also considers behavioural as well:
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Click-through rates
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Social signals
Creates a quality score or ‘page rank’
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Low page rank = low perceived quality by Google
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Pages should have a consistent rank through-out.
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The Good news
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You can get good search results by following the basics.
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The Bad news
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90% of users do not go beyond the first results page
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Users tend to click the first three links result
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Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is difficult.
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Controlling how your brand is found
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Google, allows you to control how your brand is found in three
ways:
1. Title tag
2. Site description - controlled by the sites meta-description, and/or
your dmoz listing
3. Site links - controlled using Google Webmaster tools
4. Google Places.
*site links are Google’s recognition of brand!
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Controlling how your brand is found
Title tag
Site
description
Site links
Google
Places
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Tips: For controlling your results
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Title tag - make sure its simple and straightforward
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Meta description - describes what you do
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Site links - reflect your key goals.
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Basic SEO strategies
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Flat hierarchical structure
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Expose as many pages as possible
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Pages should be part of site structure, not stand alone
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Quality/Semantics of mark-up
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Use of title tag
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Correct use of heading, paragraph and other tags
URLs
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Use text links, rather than image links
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URLs generated are meaningful and related to the document
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Database should generate clean urls
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Links need to be present for at least one year
About relevance of document
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Not about keywords, keyphrases
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Density of keyphrases
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Concentrate on what phrases users will search on
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Think what would be the primary, secondary and tertiary phrase searched for
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Google understands synonyms.
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Advanced SEO strategies
1. Link bait
2. Affiliates
3. Feeds
4. Other methods
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1. Link bait
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Google treats links as signs of trust
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Link bate
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Measures internal links, as well as external links
The “idea of creating a lot of natural links” - Washington Post
Possible examples of link bait
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Free content e.g. tutorials
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Research blogs from leading academics in their field, for example WordPress
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Sample podcasts on lecturers about interesting or challenging subjects
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Useful and/or helpful information about starting university and how to prepare
Social bookmarking
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Will increase number of social signals (+1)
o Increase click-through
o Increase user bookmarks.
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Recommendations
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Add social bookmarking
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Develop a link strategy
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Develop a content strategy
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Specify how links are name
Who to link to
Encourage existing sites to link to the University of Bath.
Identify sources of existing for promotion
Identify sources of new content for promotion
Identify methods of distribution
Encourage deep-linking, when a page moves use a 301 redirect.
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4. Other methods
Expose search keyphrases on homepage.
E-PR
Press releases seeded with keyphrases
Research blogs
Media guide to expertise
Survey & polls
Brand monitoring.
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Pay Per Click - PPC
1. Audience behaviour
2. How to identify audience behaviour
3. Understanding audience behaviour
4. PPC bidding and budgeting techniques
5. Integrating offline
6. Banner Ads?!?
7. Beyond Google
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Audience behaviour
Short tail phrases
Long tail phrases
simple phrases, most common, most
competition , less intent as buyers
‘Browsing’
complex phrases, less competition,
more intent as buyers
‘Researching’
‘Completing’
Buying Cycle
Undirected, exploratory
Directory goal-oriented
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Tip:
How to identify PPC audience behaviour
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Your advert has no value
if it can’t be seen. Make
sure that you know your
audience, for maximum
profile and impact.
Before you begin a PPC campaign, it is essential you carry out a keyphrase analysis
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Identifying audience behaviour:
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What language do they search in?
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What search engine are they most likely to use?
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Do they search at a particular time of day? (dayparting)
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What stage of the buying cycle are they at?
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What keyphrases or synonyms do they use?
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How do the keyphrases or synonyms perform (in terms of search volumes)?
What gaps or patterns exist in keyphrases or synonyms?
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For example do users search on location, on type.
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How understanding PPC audience behaviour can help
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Understanding audience behaviour allows you to:
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Target an audience depending on stage of buying cycle/stage of information journey
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Using short tail keyphrases for ‘larger’ budget or high profile campaigns
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Larger search volumes
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Types of courses for example ‘postgraduate business courses’
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At the beginning of the buying cycle.
Using long tail keyphrases for ‘smaller’ budget or targeted campaigns
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Smaller search volumes
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Committed to a course or specialism, for example ‘MBA with a specialism…’
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At the end of the buying cycle
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Exploit gaps or patterns in keyphrases or synonyms that competitors have missed.
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Improve campaign performance
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Increasing click-through and conversion rates
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Extending your campaign budget and improving Return On Investment (ROI).
Tip:
Conversion rates vary,
however, as an
industry anything
above 3% is good
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PPC bidding and budgeting techiques
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Highest position is not always the best
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Higher positions tend to cost more and convert less
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As a rule target lower positions as these tend to convert better
Use matching types
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This give you more control where your advert appears
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For example ‘postgraduate courses’ + ‘business’ or ‘computer aided design’
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Use negative keywords where appropriate - BA
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Use dayparting
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Buy your competitors name
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For example buy the keyword ‘Durham University’
Improve your quality score
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Reduce fees
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Increase conversions
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Improve your return on investment
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Manage your PPC account carefully.
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Tip:
Integrating offline.
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Campaigns don’t have to be online
o Can integrate PPC with offline as well
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Include reference to your brand or specific campaign message
Considering coinciding with ‘dayparting’
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Where prospects
can speak to a
trained member of
staff conversion
rates improve.
To achieve profile and impact
Possible examples could include:
o Postgraduate recruitment campaign connected to unique
telephone number
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Number creates a measurable metric
Take the next step and get
a postgraduate
qualification.
Call: 0845 111 111
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Tip:
Banner Ads?!?
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Individuals are more
likely to click on
images with faces
and/or bodily parts
such as the chest or
groin
Typically have a very low conversion rate
Individuals tend to ignore images, which appear like
adverts
o Shouldn’t be used as a conversion tool
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Used as a means to increase brand awareness
o Shouldn’t underestimate there contribution to conversion.
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Beyond Google
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Consider other advertising opportunities, applying the same
principles of:
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Identifying and understanding user behaviour
Using PPC Biding and budgeting techniques
Other search engines include:
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Recommendations
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Develop PPC strategy
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Including a profile of visitor types and behaviour,
keyphrase dictionary, with information about keywords
and search volumes
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English and foreign language versions
Trial different types of campaigns on and offline
Build market intelligence for HE conversion rates
Experiment with regional search engines.
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Bringing it all together – Effective PPC & Web analytics
Pay Per
Click Advert
Analyse
advert and
landing page
Performance
Marketing &
Communication
function
Visitor
Landing
page
PPC/Web
analytics
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