Slide 1: Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Movin’ On Up! How to get better rankings and drive traffic to your Web site. Stefanie Moore

Slide 2: First Things First To effectively drive traffic you must ask: 2. Who is your target audience? 3. What do you want them to do on your Web site? 4. How will you get a return on your investment? 5. What is your available budget? Source: American Marketing Association

Slide 3: Search Engine Facts • 84% of online Americans used search engines (107 million) – a Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2004. • 75% of Internet users visit search engines each month – Online Publishers Association and Nielsen/NetRatings, 2004. • Search engines on top (41%) compared to other processes when consumers were asked how they find product Web sites – DoubleClick study, 2003.

Slide 4: Web is First Source “Admissions officials know their Web sites are the first point of contact for prospective students. It has changed from the Internet being a supplement to the Internet to being the first source.” – Judy Hingle, director, professional development, National Association for College Admission Counseling

Slide 5: Search Engine Marketing (SEM) • Form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote Web sites by increasing their visibility in the search engine results. • SEM is the practice of buying paid search listings, different from SEO which seeks to obtain better free search listings. • SEM methods include: search engine optimization, paid placement and paid inclusion. Source: Wikipedia

Slide 6: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) • Improves ranking of a Web site in “natural,” “organic” or "algorithmic” search results • Increases site traffic • Assists in “converting” unique visitors to customers • Considers how people search and how search engines index

Slide 7: SEO Impacts Organic Results

Slide 8: SEO Tactics • Get your keywords onto your pages: – Meta data behind the scenes • Title tags • Description tags • Keyword tags – Visible Content • Build relevant links and link popularity

Slide 9: SEO Tips - Choosing the Best Keywords Pace Yourself

Slide 10: Tips on Choosing Keywords • Think through business goals & objectives. • Think through brand names. • Watch the broad search terms. • Be careful with narrow search terms. • Check Google competing pages. • Watch the quotation marks.

Slide 11: Tips on Choosing Keywords (continued) • The singular vs. plural debate. • Don’t get excited about misspellings. • Give low numbers a shot. • Learn how to form search terms. • Know how people search. • Two-word phrases (32.58%) • Three-word phrases (25.61%) 2004 report by OneStat, an expert in Web analytics

Slide 12: Tips on Choosing Keywords (continued) • Be careful when mining keywords from competitors’ Web sites. • Don’t use competitors’ corporate names or brands. • Ask people – all kinds. • Dust off your thesaurus (or go online). • Analyze log files.

Slide 13: Search Engine Optimization – What You Can Do • Register your site. – Ex. http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html • Keep keywords and meta tags current. – Spread keywords throughout content; revise text as necessary. • Charge someone with monitoring and updating keyword referrals, and search engine referrals and placement.

Slide 14: SEO No No’s Avoid Bad Techniques

Slide 15: Search Engine Optimization Don’ts • Don't use frames in the page design • Avoid long URLs and “=” and “?” • Don’t duplicate copy

Slide 16: Description Overload • Avoid long meta descriptions. • Laundry list of keywords may not match content.

Slide 17: Overdone Visible Text Massive keyword repetition in a small space may annoy Web site visitors. Looks blatant.

Slide 18: Too Many Links • Yes, links in content are useful. • Too many may be viewed as spam.

Slide 19: Text in Unusual Places • Avoid all forms of hidden text. • Make font colors and sizes match design. • Excessive keywords offer no value.

Slide 20: An SEO Case Study www.kent.edu

Slide 21: Content Modifications

Slide 22: Meta Data in Source Code

Slide 23: Let’s Test It! Search for “Ohio Search for “physics universities” in Google degrees” in Yahoo Search for “top Search for “computer universities” in Google technology classes” www.google.com www.yahoo.com

Slide 24: KSU SEO May 2007 Ranking Highlights

Slide 25: KSU SEO Traffic Highlights

Slide 26: KSU SEO Search Engine Traffic Highlights

Slide 27: Other SEO Case Studies • http://www.littletikes.com • http://www.clevelandclinic.com • http://customcritical.fedex.com • http://completetocompete.info

Slide 28: An SEM Case Study www.kent.edu

Slide 29: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) • Also known as paid search. • Pay only when users actually click on an ad. • Supplements search engine optimization; offers critical and timely traffic.

Slide 30: Sponsored link – means we’re paying for this term.

Slide 31: Sponsored link – means we’re paying for this term.

Slide 33: PPC Summary • Kent State ads were seen 344,934 times. • Searchers clicked a Kent State ad and visited the landing page 11,633 times. • Total cost for the clicks was $3,657.72. • From the landing page, visitors clicked to the 'Get More Info' page 1,370 times. • Google Analytics showed there were 1,149 signups for campus tours during the campaign timeframe.

Slide 34: 7 Habits of SEO-Centric Web Design Dino Baskovic

Slide 35: 1. XML Sitemaps. Make your own. Submit them to search engines. Submit often.

Slide 37: 2. Friendly URLs. Ones people can actually read. And search engines love.

Slide 38: /index.aspx?cat=9&id=6 /news/xyzcorp-growth/

Slide 39: 3. Simple design. Less is more. As in, clean up your code. And ease up on the widgets.

Slide 41: 4. Metrics. Pay attention to them. Salt to taste. But don’t obsess.

Slide 43: 5. Social media. Put on your Facebook. Get a Second Life. Can you Digg it?

Slide 45: 6. Education. Read. Evaluate. Talk to others. SEO is not a magic bullet. But it can work.

Slide 46: 7. Professional help. Skip the snake oil. Seek out proven SEO partners. Treat them well.

Slide 47: “7 Habits” 1. XML sitemaps 2. Friendly URLs 3. Simple design 4. Metrics 5. Social media 6. Education 7. Professional help

Slide 48: Traffic and SEO Resources • American Marketing Association – http://www.marketingpower.com • Fathom SEO – http://www.fathomseo.com – http://fathomseo.blogspot.com • WordTracker – www.wordtracker.com • Know your link popularity – www.checkyourlinkpopularity.com • Free Search Engine Marketing Tools – www.marketleap.com

Slide 49: Questions? E-mail: smoore1@kent.edu dino@vincena.com