best practices for drupal search engine optimization and driving site conversions

Best Practices for Drupal Search Engine Optimization and Driving

Site Conversions

Ben FinkleaCEO

Volacci Search Engine Marketing

@BenFinklea

Bryan HouseSr. Director, Marketing

Acquia

@bryanhouse

Agenda

SEO in Drupal

SEO Checklist module

Better On-Site Search with Acquia Search

Optimizing Landing Pages for Conversions

Wrap-up + Q&A

Introduction

Ben Finklea– CEO, Volacci Search Marketing

Making Drupal work for your bottom line

Best Practices for Drupal SEO & Driving Site Conversions

questions/feedback: @benfinklea / [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

SEO is communicating clearly to Google and site visitors what you are about and that you are important.



What is a Conversion?

A Conversion is when a website visitor does something that you want them to do.



Why SEO?SEO magnetically attracts buyers who are highly motivated to do business with you now.


SEO Magnet


Why Drupal?

Drupal enables fantastically gorgeous websites that convert visitors into paying customers.



SEO Magnet



Then shouldn’t we do SEO & Conversions on every Drupal

website we touch?



Why Drupal?


Configurable

Easy to Use

Clean Code

Easy Integration with 3rd Party Tools

Fights Spam

Landing Pages

Breadcrumbs

Community

Thriving ecosystem

Ready for the semantic web



“Anyone Can Cook.”

-Chef Gusteau

“Anyone Can Drupal SEO.” -Ben


The Modules

Global Redirect

Google Analytics

HTML Purifier

Mollom

MetaTags (aka Nodewords)

Page Title

PathAuto


http://drupal.org/project/seo_checklist

Path Redirect

Scheduler

Search 404

Drupal SEO Checklist

New XML Sitemap

Sitemap (Pla in Text)


http://drupal.org/project/seo_checklist

SEO Checklist Module



More Modules I Like


Validation

Taxonomy Title

Menu Attributes

Apache Solr

Open Calais

More Like This

Google Website Optimizer


2 Free Chapters + Bonus: Volacci.com/webinar

“...any Drupal shop should have on the shelf...” -Greg Holsclaw

“This is definitely a reference guide that any Drupal

developer or site manager should read and then keep

within close reach.”--Lance Loveday

“...you will have an arsenal of answers to tough questions

you're inevitably going to get from potential customers

regarding SEO and managing content.”

--Chris ShattuckBook: $35 ebook: $25

http://www.volacci.com/webinar

Drupal is the best platform on the planet

for SEO!



Conversions

3 Major Types of Visitors = 3 Different Conversion Goals

Remember: A Conversion is when someone visiting your site does something that you want them to do.



Conversions


Visitors want to know:

Is this what I expect to see?

Does this look credible?

What does this company do?

Do they offer what I want?

What should I do now?

How do I contact the company?


eCommerce Conversion



Lead Gen Conversion



Ad Conversion



It’s critical that the first page your visitor sees leads them down the path to conversions.



Acquia Search



© Acquia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Why On-Site Search Matters

Site evolution

User experience

Content utilization

Conversions

© Acquia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Unlocking Content with Acquia Search

Built on Apache Solr

Faceted navigation

Content recommendations

No server infrastructure

Landing PagesPutting Content to Work for SEO

Targeted – Is this what I expect to

see?

Multimedia– Is it engaging?

Actionable– What should I do now?

Landing PagesContent Recommendations Will Drive Click-Thru’s

Credible– Is there more content

here to explore?

Valuable– Should I invest more

time?

Landing PagesUsing On-Site Search to Drive Conversions

Seamless– Static and dynamic

results tied to SEO action

Actionable– Focus visitor on

specific call to action

…/search/apachesolr_search/mountain

Landing PagesPutting Search to Work to Drive Conversions



Predetermined content to focus visitor on specific conversion activity



Query results help visitor assess content value across site



Dynamic query filters focus visitor quickly on content that’s valuable to them



Tie block region to search query terms

– Using content top region



Turn search result pages into keyword driven landing pages

– Use your top keywords to increase conversions


Performance Matters!

Drupal test siteHardware:•3.2 Ghz processor•1.7 MB RAM

Site:•10,000 content nodes•300 millisecond page load speed

Drupal core search

Acquia Search

Query result time:

1.5 - 7.7 seconds

Query result time:< 500

milliseconds

Performance gain with Acquia Search3x - 16x faster

Subscription Level Capacity

Basic 10 Slices

Professional 25 Slices

Enterprise Unlimited

New Packaging for Acquia Search

Increased capacity with every subscription level

Get started for less than $30 / month

Google website Optimizer

A B

2% 98%

1000 Visitors

2.3% 97.7%2 Free Chapters + Bonus: Volacci.com/webinar


Installing Website Optimizer

Google.com/websiteoptimizer

Drupal.org/project/google_website_optimizer

New SEO Stuff You Need to Know About

Site structure just got very important

Site speed is a ranking factor.

Video is the New Text

Bahoo/YaBing/Yahoo gives up



What is a Conversion?

Breadcrumbs just got really important

Site speed is a ranking factor.

Pagerank Sculpting is dead

Video is the New Text

Bahoo/YaBing/Yahoo gives up



“What if I do all that and the site is still not making

money Online?”

Volacci SEO Program• We wrote the book on Drupal

SEO.

• Over 95% of clients achieve positive ROI within 1 year.

• We focus on both traffic and conversions.

• Track record of success - HP, Acquia, Amazon, Inc Mag., eBay, service companies, ecommerce, etc.

• Not time consuming (for you).



Drupal is the best platform on the planet

for SEO!



Upcoming Acquia Webinars

• Thursday January 14th

–A Look Under the Hood at Acquia Hosting for Drupal Sites

• Thursday January 21st

–Integrating Drupal with Enterprise Back-Office Systems to Deliver a Best of Breed e-Commerce Site

• Thursday January 28th

–Preview of Drupal Gardens

Register Today - http://acquia.com/webinars

Landing PagesDownload A Copy of Ben’s Book Today


QuestionsFor more information, visit each of us at:– http://acquia.com– http://twitter.com/acquia– http://twitter.com/volacci

Contact us:– [email protected]– 888.9.ACQUIA

Contact Volacci:– http://volacci.com– [email protected] – +1.888.736.4306

Download a copy of Drupal Search Engine Optimization• http://www.volacci.com/webinar

Sign up for a free 30-day Acquia Network Trial– http://acquia.com/trial

Today’s webinar recording will be posted at:

http://acquia.com/community/resources/recorded_webinars

http://acquia.com/

http://twitter.com/acquia



http://volacci.com/



http://acquia.com/trial

http://acquia.com/trial

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