Search Engine Optimization

March 13, 2012

Scott Mowery

Search & Online Marketing Manager

Cleveland Clinic

mowerys@ccf.org

My Background

4 Functions of a Search Engine

• Crawling the Internet

• Building an index

• Calculating relevancy

and rankings

• Serving results

Search Engine Marketing

Organic Results

(SEO)

Paid Listings

(PPC)

Increasing

visibility on

search engine

result pages

US Search Engine Market Share

Source: ComScore.com totals for Dec. 2011

Over 18.2 billion

total searches

per month!

Why Consumers Use Search Engines

• “Digital Advice”

• Make informed decisions

• Find correct, complete info

• Reassurance and empowerment

• 24/7 access

• Useful in all stages

of purchase cycle

Loyalty Awareness

Familiarity Consideration

Selection

Why is SEO Important to Me?

• 70% of online health seekers start there

• > 3 of 4 CCF.org visits from SEM

• 85% of searches from outside Ohio

• It’s the key driver for our Internet funnel

Sources: Pew Internet Study, Google Analytics

Everybody is Part of the SEO Team

Marketing

Sales

IT

Copywriters

Media Relations

Designers

Analysts

The Joy of Cooking SEO

The Recipe Has 10 Ingredients…

Ingredient #1:

Make Your Site

Accessible to

Search Engines

Limitations of Search Engines

Descriptive HTML Text is Necessary

How much readable text is on this page?

• Disable browser cookies and Javascript

• Use the cached link on any Google result

See Your Site Like a Search Engine

http://www.joann.com/storage/scrapbook-storage/paper-organizers/

Keep URLs Clean and Simple

Shallow, Logical Site Architecture

Home Page:

Toys

Category Page:

Lego

Subcategory Page:

Star Wars Lego

Product Detail Page:

8092 Luke’s Landspeeder

Shallow, Logical Site Architecture

Largest share of links

Tend to earn few links

Tend to earn few links

A few pages may earn many links,

but most of them earn few

Many Points of Entry

= Spider Entry Point

Eliminate Duplicate Content

http://www.homedepot.com/Lightin

g-Fans-Indoor-Lighting-Indoor-

Ceiling-Lighting-

Chandeliers/h_d1/N-

5yc1vZbvn3/h_d2/Navigation?catal

ogId=10053&langId=-

1&storeId=10051

http://www.homedepot.com/Lightin

g-Fans-Indoor-Lighting-Indoor-

Ceiling-Lighting-

Chandeliers/h_d1/N-

5yc1vZbvn3/h_d2/Navigation?catal

ogId=10053&langId=-

1&storeId=10051#/?c=1&Ns=P_RE

P_PRC_MODE|1

• URL Parameters

• Printable Versions

• http://buymystuff.com/widgets

• http://buymystuff.com/print/widgets

• Session IDs

• http://buymystuff.com/widgets

• http://buymystuff.com/widgets?SESSID=12

Duplicate Content Examples

Solution: Canonical Tag

Solution: URL Redirects

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/an-seos-guide-to-http-status-codes

Even Error Pages Can Help Users

Slow Site Speed Doesn’t

Win the Race (or Rankings)!

Ingredient #2:

Don’t Settle for

Good Content.

Make Your

Content Great!

• Satisfies user needs

• Written by a human

• Not copied from

elsewhere

• 1-2 pages long

• Free of grammar,

spelling and

punctuation errors

• Similar to other sites

Which Content Would You Like?

• Exceeds user

expectations

• Produced by

outstanding writers

and designers

• May use video, audio

and images to

enhance copy

• Provides unique

insights and info

• “I have to share this”

“Good” Content “Great” Content

Search Engine Land Periodic Table

http://searchengineland.com/seotable

Unbounce Marketing Guide

http://unbounce.com/noob-guide-to-online-marketing-infographic/

“Analytics According to Captain Kirk”

http://www.sitelogicmarketing.com/blog/02-analytics-according-to-captain-kirk

Oyster.com Hotel Reviews

http://www.oyster.com/phoenix/hotels/the-boulders-resort-and-golden-door-spa/

15+ Page

Review

300+

Photos

• Company

• Customers

• News/Media

• Blogs

• Social Media

• Vendors

• Government

• Events

Become a Content Hub

• Industry News/Data

• Unique Research

• Timely Analysis

• Product Information

• Multimedia Content

• Discussion/Interaction

• Offers/Promotions

• Humor/Human Interest

• Presentations/White

Papers/Infographics

Sources Content Bank

Ingredient #3:

Boost User

Satisfaction with

Strong Design

and Usability

Poor Design = Lost Traffic

Avoid building link farms and pages littered with ads

Google Panda Update

http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-update-112805

First Question You Must Ask:

What do you want

your site to do?

• Design for people,

not search engines

• Understand your

user’s expectations

• Define user needs

• Leave a scent

• Read this book

Usability and Design Basics

Ingredient #4:

Develop a

Keyword Strategy

That Fits Your

User’s Needs

What’s the Ideal Keyword?

• High volume of monthly searches

• Low number of optimized competitors

• Provides strong conversion and value

The Long Tail of SEO

Lots of search

volume & competition;

Low conversion

Limited search

volume & competition;

Higher conversion

Cancer

Prostate Cancer

Prostate Cancer Treatment

Chemotherapy Treatment

for Prostate Cancer

• Brainstorm keyword ideas for root terms

• What words are used by other sites?

• Use modifiers, descriptors, extensions

• Group into buckets of common themes

• Expand with keyword tools

• Throw out negative terms

Keyword Research Basics

Google Keyword Tool

http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

http://www.google.com/insights/search

Google Insights for Search

Get popularity by state, city, and new “breakout” terms

Try Testing Keywords in PPC

How Much is a Keyword Worth?

Metrics Epilepsy

Treatment

Epilepsy

Symptoms

Visits 400 1,000

Online Appointment Requests 80 20

Patients 40 2

Conversion Rate 10% 0.2%

Total Net Revenue ($10K per) $400K $20K

Revenue Per Visit $1,000 $20

Conversions trump visits and rankings

Ingredient #5:

Map Keywords

to Pages

• #1 on-page ranking

factor

• Unique for each page

• Starts with primary

keyword phrase

• 65 characters or less

(incl. spaces)

Title Tags

Title Tag:

“Basketball – Men’s Footwear –

Dick’s Sporting Goods”

Think Like a Customer

Think Like a Customer

• Engaging, accurate description of page

• Unique for each page

• Includes primary keyword phrase

• 250 characters or less (incl. spaces)

• Makes a difference on clickthrough rate

Meta Description

• Sprinkle keyword

throughout body copy

and headlines

• Avoid keyword stuffing

On-Page Content

Images

Include in alt-attributes and image file name

“Combo Approach” to Keywords

• Total Hip Replacement Surgery

• Total Hip Replacement

• Hip Replacement Surgery

• Hip Replacement

• Hip Surgery

Ingredient #6:

Develop a

SEO Toolbelt

Google Webmaster Tools

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

Bing Webmaster Tools

http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster/

Google Places for Business

http://www.google.com/placesforbusiness

XML Sitemaps

http://xml-sitemaps.com

HTML Sitemaps

http://www.joann.com/sitemap

RSS Feeds – Feedburner.com

Set up and monitor feeds and subscribers

Ingredient #7:

Win the Popular

Vote with Links &

Social Media

The “American Idol” Effect

More links and shares = more votes of authority

What Makes a Good Link?

Don’t Pay for Links

Sharing Counts for SEO

Ingredient #8:

Make it Easy for

Others to Help You

Gain Traction

Develop Multiplatform Content

• Mobile

• Video

• Audio

• Blog

• Email

• Webinar

• Lead Generation

Spread it thru Inbound Marketing

SEO

Webinars Blogs RSS

Comments

Video

Forums

Social Media

Podcasts

Word of Mouth

Infographics

White Papers

Email

News/Media/PR

Content Syndication Referral Links

Q&A Articles

Research Apps

Presentations

Direct Traffic Interviews

There’s More to Search Than Google…

Ingredient #9:

Master Your

Analytics to

Gain Actionable

Insights

Install Google Analytics in <10 Minutes

Visits by Search Engine

Keywords Sending Traffic by Engine

# of Pages Getting Visits by Engine

www.opensiteexplorer.org

Track Keyword Rankings

http://www.brightedge.com

Most Important Metric: Conversions

Top Conversion Paths and Attribution

Find the Introducers, Influencers and Closers

Analytics Points of Emphasis

• Quantifiable outcomes

• Segment your data

• Fact-based decision making

• Actionable insights

• Competitive Intelligence

Ingredient #10:

Never Stop

Testing

You Can Build a Better Mousetrap

Internet Funnel

Attract: Visit Site from Google

Engage: Positive Site Experience

Convert: Lead Generation

Buy:

Digital Consumers

Customers/Patients

Discover | Test | Measure | Repeat

• Photos

• Videos

• Lead Generation

• Webinars

• Infographics

• Slideshows

• Testimonials

• Page Length

• Calls to Action

• Promos/Offers

• Email Newsletters

• Blog

• Apps

• Checkout

A/B Testing Resources

And for Dessert…

Recommended Reading

• Search Engine Marketing Sites - SEOmoz.org blog

- Search Engine Land

- Search Engine Guide

- Search Engine Roundtable

- SEOBook.com

- Google blogs

- Twitter: #sem, #seo, #ppc, #landingpages

• Web Analytics Sites

- Avinash Kaushik (Occam’s Razor)

- Web Analytics Demystified

- Twitter: #measure, #gaanalytics

Search Engine Optimization Books

Thank You!

Scott Mowery

mowerys@ccf.org

@scottmowery

http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmowery