MRIA is presenting the 3rd Free Webinar in the 2009-10 series

January 20, 2010

Search Engine Optimization –Building Customer

Relationships Online

January 20, 2010

By Inga Petri, CMRP Principal, Strategic Moves

2

Inga Petri, CMRP• A marketing and marketing research perspective

– Canadian book publishing – sales and marketing (6 yrs)– Advertising agency – account management (10 yrs)– Independent strategy consultancy (3 yrs)

• Research-based strategy development and implementation• Online since 1995

– Helps clients navigate the labyrinth of online channels and develop strategies• Wide range of clients and sectors including

– Iridium Satellite Communications, Nokia– National Arts Centre, Canadian War Museum– Canadian Geographic – Canadian Atlas Online– Cdn Medical Assoc., Cdn Wireless Telecommunications Assoc. – Federal government– Locally-based: Alavida Lifestyles

• Presents at conferences, professional meetings and in post-secondary institutions• MRIA Ottawa Chapter board of directors since 2004

4

Disruption to ‘traditional’ media is irrevocable

5

Into the future

So, what is online marketing all about?

• Connecting with the right people where they are in ways that are meaningful to them.

6

Online Channel Ecosystem

7

The importance of getting found

• What I want, when I am ready, wherever I am, in just the way I want it

• People don’t want to ‘search’, they want to ‘find’– Keyword thinking

• Brand matters online– Trust can be won and lost in an instant– Search engine often first encounter SEO is important

8

From a recent SEO improvement experiment

9

Why does the listing look like this?

10

Because the site tells it to.

How is this code displayed on live site?

11

Created in Flash – cannot be seen by search engines!

The fix: A small change to code

12

... and homepage: useful for visitor and search engine

13

Search result listing improved

14

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION GOES BEYOND SEARCH ENGINES ...

15

My new site: created for web users ...

16

... constructed for search engines: Using important meta tags – core value proposition

17

SEO reaches beyond search engines – “Description” tag is used by other sites, too.

18

#1 in Canada and #4 in world within days of launch ... and alerting Google

19

20

Know-how on Search Engine Optimization• Write/Rewrite the site for people

– Start with your keyword list– Use your keywords, rather than

‘creative’ variants – Importance of titles, headings, body

text– Be authentic and trustworthy

• Construct code for search engines– Power of the url– Important Meta tags– Image tags– Every page can be optimized – put

effort where it matters• Linking Strategy – Hubs matter

– Reputable, authentic– Use your url – minimize microsites that

use unrelated (campaign) urls– Google Wonder Wheel

• Strategy is important– What is the site’s purpose and how

does it deliver on that purpose– Global or local markets

• Analytics– Web Traffic Statistics

• Traffic and keyword analysis– Text analysis

• Keyword extraction • Term targeting• Brand communications

– Crawl test (how a search engine sees your site)

– Indexed pages– Rank Tracker– Back links– W3C validation

– Track key competitors (they may be different from bricks and mortar world)

21

Some resources

• code.google.com– SEO starter guide PDF

• www.digital-web.com• www.seomoz.org• www.google.com - Keyword tool (Adwords)• www.wordtracker.com• www.trellian.com• www.alexa.com• www.radian6.com• www.dna13.com

22

INGA PETRI, CMRPOTTAWA, ONTARIO www.strategicmoves.ca613-558-8433 ipetri@strategicmoves.ca

Questions, Comments, Discussion

23

Computers count

People measure