SEO – So what is it?
Search engine
optimization is what you do to help your webpages rankings. According to Google
“search engine optimization is often about making small modifications to parts
of your website. When viewed individually, these changes might seem like
incremental improvements, but when combined with other optimizations, they could
have a noticeable impact on your site's user experience and performance in
organic search results” (Google, n.d.).
According
to David Meerman Scott in the “New Rules
of Marketing and PR”, the place where most companies fall down is in building
a landing page. He states “you need to build landing pages that have specific
content to enlighten and inform the people who just clicked over to your site
from the search engine” (Scott, 2015, pg. 402).
Keeping
in mind content is what drives sales, each of the landing pages is where
content is king and written for a target market. Scott suggests that you think of it like the
sales cycle.
1 1) Capture attention
2) Develop interest
3 3) Generate a sale
He
recommends the following landing page guidelines;
- Make the landing page content short and the graphics simple
- Create the page with your company’s look, feel, and tone
- Write from the buyer’s point of view
- A landing page is communications, not advertising
- Provide a quote from a happy customer
- Make the landing page a self-contained unit
- Make the call to action clear and easy to respond to
- Use multiple calls to action
- Ask only for necessary information” (pg. 403).
So where do
you start?
Google’s
guide seems to pull it all together
- Accurately describe the page’s content
- Create unique, accurate page titles
- Use brief, but descriptive titles” (Google, n.d.)
What’s
next?
Description meta tags are a short paragraph that gives the
search engine a summary of what the page is all about. (Google, n.d.) Keep in
mind this is part of the sales cycle – and you are trying to capture the user’s
attention.
What tactics
can you use to drive success?
There
are many options available for driving success including the option of hiring
an outside firm to aid in your SEO. However,
to grow your business and your brand you need a rudimental understanding of what
it takes to enhance your SEO. Scott recommends that the best thing you can do
for a site is to write great content. (pg. 398
1)
“Use your newsroom as (Free) search engine optimization –When new
releases are posted on your site, search engine crawlers will find the content,
index it, rank it based on words, phrases, and other factors” (Scott, 2015,
pg.352).
2)
Search engine advertising-paid advertising which appears when a “user
types in a particular phrase that the marketer has purchased” (pg. 396).
3)
Use specific search terms to capture the terms that people might
search on (pg. 400)
4)
Create a unique identify within your name and make it easy to be
found
5)
Build content driven landing pages- to tell your story as well
and build your sales funnel
As
Scott notes “the best search engine marketing comes from paying attention to
and understanding your buyers…once you’ve executed a great content strategy,
adding effective landing pages and focusing on the long tail of search terms
will give you an even more powerful asset’ (pg. 406).
References
Googles
search engine optimization guide. Retrieved from http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
Scott, D. (2015). The new rules of
marketing & PR (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Monica -
ReplyDeleteYou've got a great summation. Before looking at this unit, I never realized how important landing pages were as a data collection tool and a primary source to distribute information.
Has your company started using landing pages as part of it's search engine marketing program?
DeleteMike, I work in education and thought I would ask the question as to what are the best practices for university landing pages. “Most higher education landing pages have one job – to capture qualified prospective student information. Everything on the page should contribute to this goal” (JMH Consulting, n.d.) Based on the article I found from JMH Consulting, they have a top 7 go to list for landing pages which include:
1. Navigation Matters!
“Many schools create landing pages that include the generic university navigation bar at the top. Landing page experts call these “leaky” pages. Such navigation is confusing and often leads prospective students away from your program and away from your department” (JHM Consulting, n.d.)
2. Have a compelling offer
Use concise calls to action to help your conversion rates of visitor’s to leads.
3. Focus on key differentiators and benefits
“The higher education marketplace is competitive… Focus on key differentiators and give them a reason to continue the conversation with you” (JHM Consulting, n.d.).
4. Capture their Information
Embed a form that will allow you to capture the visitor’s contact information so you have a way to reach out to them to further the discussion.
5. Don’t Ask for Too Much Information
As in any sales process, getting to know who you are talking to is important, but all you need in the beginning stage is a name, phone number and email.
6. Don’t force people to sign up on landing page
Make it is easy for visitors to jump to the information that want to read more about.
7. Capture the visitor’s attention with images
To build trust in a program use quotes and “highlighted statistics can also be used as compelling images that build confidence in the program” (JMH Consulting, n.d.).
“The most effective landing pages are customized to your paid search, paid social, and display ads…Consider creating several landing pages with different messages and content so you can direct each prospect to a page with information relevant to their point in the decision cycle” (JMH Consulting, n.d.).
References
JMH Consulting. (n.d.). Best Practices for Landing Page Design | JMH Consulting, Inc. Retrieved from http://jmhconsulting.com/best-practices-in-landing-page-design/
Hi Monica,
ReplyDeleteBuilding off of your topic of search engine optimization, brand's also need to consider paid search versus organic search.
What's the difference?
Organic search are the listings of websites that are pulled through a search engines algorithms that closely match the keywords. Paid search is more or less an advertisement in which a brand pays the search engine to have their ads displayed when users do a search containing specific keywords. Paid search can be found along the top (above organic search) or sides of a search engine such as Google. Check out this link for a reference image: http://www.thewebdesigner.com.au/img/523.
Organic Search
Pros
-Trust and Creditability which leads to a higher click through rate.
-Evergreen presence which leads to a website maintaining its high rank long after the content was created.
-Ranking are easier to maintain.
-Click through rates are high
Cons
-It may take a long time for a brands site to get high rankings.
-It will take more resources (needing to create content and SEO).
Paid Search
Pros
-Brands see their website at the top rankings once they pay for the placement.
-Brands can target their specific audiences.
-Keywords that denote high purchase intent
Cons
-Cost due to paying for competitive keywords and levels of expertise to manage campaigns.
-Ads disappear once a brand stops paying for their placement.
-Consumers don't always trust paid ads and avoid them.
-Users click on paid search listings less than organic search listings
(Brecht, 2014).
Reference
Brecht, R. (2014, May 27). Paid Search Vs. Organic Search: Which is Better? Retrieved March 02, 2017, from https://www.dmn3.com/dmn3-blog/paid-vs.-organic-search-which-is-better
Hi Kerstin,
DeleteI really like what you’ve added to Monica’s post about the differences, pros and cons of paid versus organic search. I think it’s necessary for companies to not only understand the strengths and weaknesses of each, but also understand how the two digital focused efforts can work together to achieve your goals.
Eliasson Marketing, a California based marketing firm, shared a blog post on how they combine their SEO and PPC strategies, which allowed them the ability to identify a critical data points and consumer behavior insights. They shared some of the results including the ability to:
•Create and optimize new content to rank within their target audience’s specific intentions
•Adjust their PPC budgets to only running ads within the most popular markets and effective time frames
•Align PPC ads with their client’s offline marketing schedule to maximize awareness and conversions
Their metrics at the end of their campaign:
•30-percent increase in organic traffic
•25-percent increase in paid clicks
•35-percent savings in ad spend
•20-percent increase in quarterly profits
SEO/SEM has great potential and we, as “new” marketers can make the most out of it by truly learning and understanding all it has to offer.
References
Eliasson, S. (2016, October 06). PPC and SEO. Better Together. Retrieved March 03, 2017, from http://eliassonmarketing.com/2016/10/06/ppc-seo-better-together/
Hi Kerstin,
DeleteGreat add to the SEO discussion. Another area we haven’t explored further is link building.
“Link building is a necessity if you want your site to earn meaningful rankings in Google search results. Inbound links are what pass “authority” to your domain and individual pages. Inbound links are like “votes” that act as third-party indicators to Google of whether your website can be considered an authority in your space” (Demers, 2016) and it’s important to find respectable and relevant sources to link too. If you don’t, you run the risk of being red-flagged by Google.
Acquiring Links
“Content is going to be the vessel through which you acquire inbound links—whether the links are embedded in the content you submit to an external publication, or whether you publish content on your own website that attracts inbound links on its own merits” (Demers, 2016). Be sure to look for different sources from different domains to help build links and within this strategy you also need to focus on getting published on a wider range of sites. (Demers, 2016)
Key Takeaways
“The bottom line is that link building is important…More links means more visibility in organic search, which leads to more authority, credibility, traffic, and conversions” (Demers, 2016)
References
Demers, J. (2016, January 6). Forbes Welcome. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2016/01/06/your-guide-to-link-building-for-seo-in-2016/#6638d301a9b1
Monica,
DeleteI came across an article on HootSuite today which spoke about how search engine optimization and social media go and in hand and do impact one another.
As you discussed, link building is a great tactic to earn rankings in search engines such as Google. Inbound link building helps improve a brands visibility and increases awareness with the help of social media. Social media encourages inbound links to its unique, valuable and authoritative content.
The article shares a quote from Jim Lodico from Social Media Examiner: “[O]ne of the quickest ways to build social media credibility is to share outstanding blog posts, videos or other online content. When you create content that will give Twitter users or bloggers credibility just by sharing it, you’re going to generate valuable incoming links” (Tran, 2016).
Reference
Tran, K. (2016, September 21). Social Media and SEO: 5 Quick Wins to Increase Your Reach. Retrieved March 04, 2017, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-and-seo-increase-your-reach/