Would your business cope if Google stopped sending you traffic?

transcript

Vicky Brock vicky@highlandbusinessresearch.com

UHI eMarketing Course Workshop – Part 2

eMarketing courses at UHI

15 week online courses in web value optimisation

& emarketing

next course starts August

Find out more:www.cpd.uhi.ac.uk

An introduction to web value optimisation

Board Director of WAA

eMarketing & web value course developer for UHI

Associate lecturer in web analytics, UBC Canada

Workshop leader for the WAA, MRS, Internet Marketing Conference and the eMetrics Summit

Rabid blogger at TrackingTourism.com

Co-founder Highland Business Research & digital marketer for a decade

Who am I?An introduction to web value optimisation

Part 1: Just how important is search?

Part 2: Why might Google stop sending you traffic?Organic search, SEO & paid search

Part 3: How would you even know if there's a problem?

What are the right proportions of web traffic?

Part 4: Google-proofing - what can you do about it?

What we're going to cover...An introduction to web value

optimisation

Part 1 – why search engines matterJust how important is search?

March '08, UK saw 33 million people make 4 billion searches – 124 searches pp per month.

80% of those were with Google.

The top 10 Google properties drive 36% of all UK Internet traffic.

Search engines are the primary way Internet users navigate

68% of searchers only ever click the first page of results

Part 1 – why search engines matterJust how important is search?

C a te g o ry

% T ra ffic fro m All S e a rc h E n g in e s , M a y-0 8

% C h a n g e M a y-0 8 - M a y-0 7

% T ra ffic fro m G o o g le , M a y-0 8

% C h a n g e M a y-0 8 - M a y-0 7

Health and Medical 45.76% 3% 30.86% 5%

Travel 34.81% 11% 24.26% 21%

Shopping and Classifieds 25.48% 2% 16.84% 8%

News and Media 21.70% 7% 14.53% 10%

Entertainment 24.33% 17% 15.76% 22%

Business and Finance 18.15% 14% 11.73% 22%

Sports 13.09% 17% 8.81% 24%

U .S . C a te g o ry U p s tre a m T ra ffic fro m S e a rc h E n g in e s a n d G o o g le - M a y 2 0 0 8

Source: Hitwise

Part 2 – Google owes you nothing

Why might Google stop sending you traffic?

1. The search landscape is constantly evolving – stay still and traffic will drop

Blended/universal searchChanging searcher behaviourBehavioral targeting of results

2. Competitors may out perform you or outspend you

3. You may be punished for bad SEO tactics

Part 2 - search is constantly evolving

Universal/blended search

News, image, shopping etc results are now blended together on same results page.Implications? Diversifying of content, Vertical creep – traditional text results being pushed down & off page one

Part 2 – changing user behaviour

“Google gullibility” (or how users search)

Jakob Nielsen:

Search users face 3 problems:

• Inability to retarget queries to a different search strategy

• Inability to properly evaluate each site's likely usefulness

• Inability to sort through the mass of poor results

“Given these difficulties, many users are at the search engine's mercy and mainly click the top links — a behavior we

might call Google Gullibility.

Sadly, while these top links are often not what they really need, users don't know how to do better.”

Part 2 - Competitors may out perform you

Search engine optimisation

Ensuring that your pages are accessible to search engines and are focused in ways that help improve the chances they will be found:

• Relevance, relevance, relevance• Humans not machines• All stages of the search cycle:

InterestResearchPurchase (or Resolution)

Part 2 - Search engine optimisation myths

Beware of the SEO BS

No one can guarantee you the number 1 position on Google .... except Google

There is no such thing as “no work” SEO – optimising involves changing your site

Adding keywords to meta tags is not SEO, nor is adding you to 1000's of search engines

It takes time & effort (=money)

Part 2 – Competitors may out perform you

Optimising for organic search

Key factors include: The titles, headings, text & image tags on your page Links from other sites The HTML coding of your page & meta-data Relevancy & recency Accommodating changes in technology, content, and information distribution (eg blended search)

Advantages: More clickthroughs: 70% organic, 30% sponsored)Perceived as more believableNo incremental cost + huge long-term value

Disadvantages: Constantly changing & ultimately at the mercy of the search algorithm

Paying your way to number 1Part 2 – Competitors may out spend you

Part 2 - why search engines matter

Paid search marketing

1. Paid search engine ads, Pay Per Click/sponsored listings

A fee is charged for every click of each link, with the amount bid for the click determining the position

2. Content-network paid-search advertising

Displayed on 3rd party sites, both get paid when someone clicks on a link in one of these ad

Paying for a click is not the same as paying for a customer

Bounce rates ~ Conversion rates ~ Cost per acquisition

Part 2 - why search engines matter

Paid search marketing

Advertisers pick keywords they want to targetAdvertisers bid on a price they are willing pay per clickYou only pay when your ad is clickedRanking is affected by “quality score” related to conversion (so Ad copy + Landing page are significant)

Advantages: Immediate & significant exposureCan target key terms including trademarksControllable & measurable - driven by ROIYou only pay when you get traffic

Disadvantages: Requires constant financial investmentCompetition and price inflationClick fraud

Part 2 – and you may be punished for bad behaviour

Bad SEO: 10 ways to get banned1. Cloaking - designing so that search engines see one thing & visitors another

2. Doorway pages - optimised for one key term but lead you to different content

3. Keyword stuffing or duplicate content

4. Hiding text – making the background colour the same as the font colour

5. Links to bad neighbours (spammers & link farms)

6. Robot use - to write your web site – eg “instant AdSense” - or to crawl rankings

7. Long lists of irrelevant keywords & overuse of your key terms

8. Title stacking – more than one title tag per page

9. Distribute viruses, trojans, or other badware

10.Build your site entirely for search engines & not people

Part 2 - search engines matter & Google owes you nothing

Rounding up part 1 & 2Search continues to evolve

Blended search is being introduced so subtly that you may not even notice

Paid search alone is not the answer – optimize for free traffic

Don't mistake cost per click for cost per customer – understand and measure conversion

Please beware of the SEO scoundrels

Understanding how you're doing Part 3 – how do you know if you have a problem?

Know your key terms & search on them regularly

Free tools can show search trends and terms over time

Google Trends Google Keyword Sandbox

Measure your own site with a web analytics tool

• Where did traffic come from• Did they do what I want them to• What works best• Did it cost me more than I made

Wonderful, wonderful web analyticsPart 3 – how do you know if you have a problem?

Understand what proportions of your traffic are referred from search

What key terms and phrases are used (what are missing)

Which terms convert best?

Are key search engines missing?

How much third party or direct traffic do you get?

Are you visitors disappearing again? (Exits and bounces)

So, which site is doing best?Part 3 – how do you know if you have a problem?

Are there right proportions of traffic to have?

Part 3 – getting the balance right

Image by cobalt 123 on Flickr

Balancing act:

Third party referrals – affiliates, links, bloggers, news

Direct – email marketing, RSS, bookmarks, offline

Search – balancing paid & organic to avoid cannibalisation

Are you primarily acquiring or retaining customers?

Are you focussing on acquisition, retention or both?

Part 3 – getting the balance right

Site A

New vis itor Returning vis itor

Site B

New vis itor Returning vis itor

Balancing organic & paid searchPart 3 – getting the balance right

To spend or not to spend?

Factors:

-navigational-offline conversions-competitor activity-cannibalisation-uplift via halo effect-other traffic sources

Search is not the only marketing toolPart 4 – What can you do about Google-proofing your site?

Yes, search matters a lot - let Google love your site

If Google delists you, learn from your sins and fix it:

www.google.com/webmasters

But....

-you can drive the second visit by your own marketing-you can avoid over dependence by balancing sources-you can anticipate blended search-you can measure what is & isn't working & act on it

Thanks!

Vicky Brockwww.HighlandBusinessResearch.com

www.TrackingTourism.com

eMarketing at UHIwww.cpd.uhi.ac.uk