Search Engine Marketing

İlker DalgıçAli ElaidiMerve GünayMelis OnayÖzgün ÖzdedeCan Özenç

26/05/08

Outline Brief History SEM

SEM Methods SEO Paid Placement Paid Inclusion

SEM Campaigns Why SEM

Google Yahoo! Social Bookmarking Other Search Tools References

Brief History

chaos exact address development of gophers

server-based collections of addresses

World Wide Web

exploitation of hyperlinks full-text searching graphical browser easy-to-use and highly interactive technology Development of web search engines

First Search Engines

WebCrawler --> 1st search engine 1995 --> AltaVista & Excite 1996 --> Advanced versions 1998 --> Personalization Free e-mail and free homepages as add-ons

Advertising for Engines

inevitable provides main revenue for search engine

companies

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) form of internet marketing promoting websites increasing visibility

What is Search Engine Marketing?

Why Search Engine Visibility Is Important? Search Engine Optimization is a powerful

online marketing strategy Understanding how the search engines work How your target audience searches How best to design your site

Why Search Engine Visibility Is Important? Search engines rather than banner ads 28% of consumers go to a search engine when

looking for a product to purchase online (Jupiter Media Metrix)

Over 300 million searches per day Other ways: print, tv, radio, banner ads, word of

mouth... Maximizing search engine visibility= powerful and

cost-effective part of online marketing plan

SEM Methods

1. search engine optimization

2. paid placement

3. paid inclusion

http://www.phoenixonesales.com/semwhatwedo.html

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Improving volume&quality of traffic to a web

site through search engines Natural search results Targeted keywords Higher ranking=more visitors SEO Cartoon Quiz

Internal and External SEO

If you have site search engine, how well your own pages show up in your own results indicates the effectiveness of your internal seo

How well your pages show up in the search engines(Google, Inktomi, AltaVista,etc) indicates the effectiveness of external seo

Internal and External SEO

You can compare with site search engines What people are typing into the search engines to find your

type of site What people are typing into your site search engine after

they have arrived If your site has its own search engine:

Most popular searches (top search results) Least popular searches Searches that yielded no results Percentage of searches with no results Searches that yielded results but no click-throughs

Search Engine Optimization Strategies Text component Link component Popularity component Building a search engine-friendly web site Building a customer-friendly web site

Building the ste based on words your audience types into search queries

Popularity Component

Credible web sites usually link to pages with valuable information

A site’s end users tend to use the same web site over and over again because the information is relevant

Link popularity The number and quality of links pointing to that

web page Click-through popularity

Building a Search-Engine Friendly Web Site Search engine spiders/crawlers

Keyword positioning Position your business

Cigars or Premium Cigars? Should focus on 70% of business, or 30% of business?

Geographical positioning Real estate (but where? – Istanbul, Ankara, Athens?)

How to look for keywords? 1st think like a customer 2nd ask: Wordtracker, SEOChat, etc…

Building a Search-Engine Friendly Web Site continued… Get technical…

HTML Text rules

Sitemap is a MUST

Building a Search-Engine Friendly Web Site continued…

Avoid 1 – Flash (or should you avoid?) 2 – Text in pictures 3 – Splash pages

Submit your site to the search engine!!! Google Webmaster Tools Yahoo! Site Explorer

Track your progress (with a web analytics program) Google Analytics

Building a Search-Engine Friendly Web Site continued…

4 C’s: Content

Updated? Satisfactory? Got keywords? Code

HTML code lean? Easy to browse/access? Credibility

Who references you? Got any links from the sector leader?

Conversion Got any B2B deals? Banner/link exchange?

Building a Search-Engine Friendly Web Site continued… Things to ask your webmaster/SE optimizer

What type of guarantee will you give me? Will you work with my competitors? How much work is expected of me? Do you have any references/case studies?

Cheating?

“CONTENT IS KING” Always update & refresh Design for humans, not search engines!

http://www.avangate.com/seo-services/

Pay-for-Placement

Pay-per-clickcharged for every click Predicting target market Bidding on keywords and ranking Sponsored ads next to normal search engine

results Search engine guarantees top positions in

exchange for payment

Pay-for-Placement (Cont’d)

Pay-for-placement search engines have distribution networks

Paid placement advertisements are marked on partnered sites as “Featured Listings”, “Sponsored Links”

Participating in pay-for-placement programs can get expensive

Pay-for-Inclusion

Beneficial for search engine marketers and web site owners: Their web pages will not be dropped from a search engine

index Any new information added to web page will be reflected in

the search engines quickly Does not guarantee that the pages appear in top

positions Web page cannot rank if it is not included in the

index Fee to include in search indexAn exception Google

PPC Compared to SEO

PPC Instant implementation Reliable No disappearing ads 62% of searchers are

unaware of the difference between paid for and organic results

Pay for each click Can be ignored

SEO No costs for clicks No financial investment

required necessarily Best placement spots are

for results Huge increase in traffic and

sales May take time to obtain

good organic ranking No guaranteed method Disappearance of the web

site in the results

Example of SEM Process

http://www.netconnexion.com/search-engine-marketing-toronto.htm

Why SEM?

high usage of search engines increasing level of Internet marketing competion brand awareness website visibility update frequency proactiveimmediate returns cost effectiveness

Why SEM?

Statistics: 85% of all new visitors will reach you via leading

search engines 55% of online purchases originate from search

engine traffic

High Usage of SEM

http://www.finkernet.com/sem/sem-statistics/

Cost Effectiveness

http://www.finkernet.com/sem/sem-statistics/

Better Sales in SEM Campaigns In traditional print ads companies pay for the

number of people who are supposed the see the ad

With pay-for-click program such as Google’s AdWords or Overture, companies pay the search engines per click on their ads

Better Sales in SEM Campaigns Step 1: Describe a real feature or benefit

“Save 20% on your next purchase of printer paper”

Step 2: Give incentives price discount or an added value bring in

additional targeted traffic to a site offer a free service if they buy right away

Better Sales in SEM Campaigns Step 3: Appealing to a specific market

Different and separate ad listing for each keyword in ad campaign

Step 4: Offer a competitive advantage Ad listings should convey a unique and distinctive

message Step 5: Create a sense of urgency

“why they need to click on your ads now instead of later”

Better Sales in SEM Campaigns Step 6: Integrating keywords

Include keywords in ad listings Step 7: Call to action Step 8: Monitoring results

Web analytics

12 Search Engine Marketing Campaign Mistakes To Avoid

Foreign Languages

If your site is written in English: automatically is submitted to English-speaking, country-specific search engines

If the target audience extends to non-English speaking countries, need to modify the web site

Purchasing country-specific domain names Creating unique web sites for each targeted country

Foreign Languages

Creating subdomains or sub directories on a single main site

Example: fictional Organic Tea company www.teasorganic.com (U.S.) www.teasorganic.fr (France) www.teasorganic.de (Germany) www.teasorganic.co.uk (United Kingdom)

Which Search Engine?

http://www.ppcmanagementconsulting.com/services/search_engine_optimization.htm

http://www.p21.com.au/search_engine_optimisation.aspx

Foundation

- Sergey Brin and Larry Page were both students at Stanford University.

- Larry Page was the first one to initiate Google as a research project in January 1996, then he was joined by Sergey Brin.

- The hypothesis was that a search engine which related the websites among each other could perform better.

- Main point was to rank the websites according to the number of times the search term appeared on a website.

- Original domain was http://google.stanford.edu- Google.com was registered in 1997, and the company was

founded one year later at a friend’s garage.

History

In 2000, Google started to sell advertisements related to the search terms.

Google charged customers with 0.5$ per click. Advertisements were text based to avoid clutter, and to maximize

the loading speed of these pages. Name originated from misspelling of the word “googol”, and this

word means 10 to the power of 100. The verb “google” was added to Merriam Webster Collegiate

Dictionary and Oxford English Dictionary in 2006. 1. intr. To use the Google search engine to find information on the

Internet. 2. trans. To search for information about (a person or thing) using

the Google search engine.

History cont’d

The company recorded a revenue of USD$ 10.492 billion in 2006 fiscal year.

Google had 53.6% market share in search engines in 2007. Google technique was also implemented in Gmail service, and

advertisements were displayed according to the email subjects and their contents.

Google has also been very popular mainly because of its simple design and ease of usage.

Changes in the shapes of letters of Google in the main page, (for example: a Turkish flag instead of L on 29 October) also made it more user friendly, and created an emotional bond.

Search Engine Optimization - Optimizing For Google

Domain Names & Search Engine Marketing

Foundation

Jerry Yang and David Filo were both Electrical Engineering graduate students at Stanford University in January 1994.

In April 1994, “Jerry’s Guide to World Wide Web” was renamed and the famous Yahoo! website was founded.

The name “Yahoo” comes from Gulliver’s Travels, and it means “rude, unsophisticated, uncouth”

Original domain was, http://akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo At the end of 1994, Yahoo! had 1 million hits and this resulted in

the incorporation Yahoo! Exclamation mark was added because there was a knife producer

named Yahoo.

Yahoo!’s Growth

Main purpose of search engine companies was to create portals and make customers stay in that portal as long as possible.

Yahoo! acquired Rocketmail, turned it into Yahoo! Mail. Acquired Classicgames.com turned it into Yahoo! Games. Acquired Geocities Acquired eGroups and turned it into Yahoo! Groups. Launched Yahoo! Pager, and Yahoo! Messenger. During the Dot.com bubble Yahoo! stocks became all high priced

stocks in Japan, and American stocks. E-Bay, and Yahoo! have formed a marketing/advertising alliance in

2006.

After the Growth

Yahoo! was one of the few companies that survived after the Dot.com bubble burst, and on September 26,2001 Yahoo! experienced 5 year low stock price.

Yahoo! formed partnerships with several communication companies to be able to compete in the market, but Google’s rapid growth was making everything harder for Yahoo!

When Gmail was released, Yahoo! increased the mail storage limit from 4MB to 1GB. Which then became unlimited in 2007.

In 2006 Yahoo! purchased Flickr, the famous photo sharing service.

Advertising in Yahoo!

Yahoo! also uses advertisement system based on the content of a page.

Yahoo! has launched its advertisement system in February 2007. “Advertisers will simply enter the keywords they want their ad to

appear next to and the maximum price they are willing to pay for a click. The most significant option will be to specify a certain geographic region in which the ads will be shown, a feature Google also offers. “ ¹

“as advertisers enter each bid, they will see an estimate of how many clicks they will receive each day. More important, a graph will show how many more clicks they can expect for each increased bid.” ²

1,2 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/08/technology/08yahoo.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5090&en=658529acc1fc013a&ex=1304740800&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

New Source of SEM : Social Bookmarking Del.icio.us Digg Mixx Reddit Stumbleupon

What is Social Bookmarking

Enables users to bookmark and tag websites on the internet

Content Sharing

New Source of SEM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2sOI0vpXgE

How to promote ?

Be: Trustable Popular Proper Active

Road to being reliable

Add interesting, unique and non-commercial content

Try to get it from mainstream media Never lie Back up facts by citing Put enticing titles

Tips to be a good Social Bookmarker Success: %40 content, %30 title, %30 presentation Ensure the content is accessible and looks good in

all major browsers and screen sizes Always include eye catching pictures and images

wherever possible Break the content down into different sections and

use headers Avoid serving intrusive ads that get in the way of the

all important content

Other Search Tools

Catalogues and Directories

Virtual Libraries

Metasearch

Ethical Question

Relevance ranking or PPC? Are the “normal” results actually ...

...normal...

...fair...

...acceptable for the consumers?

References

http://www.finkernet.com/sem/ http://www.aims.co.il/seo-cartoon-quiz.html http://www.ppcmanagementconsulting.com/services/

search_engine_optimization.htm http://www.netconnexion.com/search-engine-marketing-toronto.htm http://www.p21.com.au/search_engine_optimisation.aspx http://www.phoenixonesales.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/

seroundup.gif http://www.avangate.com/seo-services/ http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/search-engine-

optimisation/social-media.shtml http://www.marketingfind.com/articles/

website_creation_and_the_eye_of_the_spider.html http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?

hl=en&answer=40349 http://www.marketingfind.com/articles/

questions_to_ask_your_potential_seo_company_part_2.html

References

Battelle, John., The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture.

Doubleclick, Performics 50 Search Trend Report Frost, R. & Strauss, J. Marketing on the Internet. (1999).

New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Hock, R. Web Search Engines.(1999). New Jersey:

CyberAge Books. Silverstein, Barry., Business-to-Business Internet

Marketing, 2nd edition, Maximum Press, 2000.

Any questions?

Thank you...