[NMMC] Justin Hartman on Search Engine Optimisation

This is a synopsis of talk given by Justin Hartman, digital Innovation Manager at Avusa)

Last year there were 35 billion online searches, which equates to 74 searches per user per month.

Google has a 79.6 1^st page success rate.

In January 2008, Google performed 4.2 billion searches, Yahoo 1.4 billion and Microsoft 894 million.

Google dominates in almost all countries, except in some where English is not dominant, like China.

Why SEO (Search Engine optimisation) rocks:

• It’s free
• It does not require a high skill base
• It is the gift that keeps on giving

Why SEO sucks:

• It’s a fast changing world, and you are working against Google
• Delayed gratification, with possible NO gratification
• Live and die by search engines

Ranking Factors (how to optimise your site for search engines)

Markup

• Title tag: key words should be at the beginning
• Description tag: customized to each piece of content, 12-24 words
• Keywords: irrelevant to international search engines, but some local ones still rely on them
• H1 tags: your main title should be enclosed by them
• Body Text: Although it should be written with the end user in mind, it should also be optimized for search engines (by repeating your keyword, for instance)

Linking

• Domain name should have your main keyword in it
• URL should repeat the keyword
• Internal links: use your keywords

Site Popularity

• Consider global popularity (incoming and outgoing links)
• Age of website (the older the better)
• Website performance: load time, javascript, time on page (the quicker the better)
• Update content daily

SEO negative factors

• Don’t duplicate content, page titles, meta info
• Don’t stuff your site pages with keywords

Also,

• Spider your site
• Create a site map
• Add title, description, keywords
• Be mindful of internal linking
• “related content” boxes are valuable

Keyword search

Determine which search terms people are using to search for your product. Most people suck at this. Analysis show that people usuallysearch for 2-3 word phrases.

You must evaluate the keywords for which you are optimising. Figure out how many people are searching for that term, analyze your competitive landscape, figure out all relevant keywords, include actionable keywords (buy iphone vs iphone), measure the conversion rates.

There are online tools that help you with this: Google adwords/ Google trends, Trellion, Webceo (one of most valuable tools, but works only in windows)

Social Media and Web 2.0

There is now a new way of communicating, that allows others to create own content. There are at least 1300 Web 2.0 sites “that matter”.

Social Media tools

• Facebook
• Blogging
• Microblogging (twitter)
• International: Youtube, Flickr, Digg, Technorati
• Local: Blueworld, iBlog, zoopy.com, muti, amatomu, afrigator

Facebook Ads

• It is free to create pages
• Social ads on Facebook allow targetted ads
• Groups are good way to spread the word
• Applications are useful to allow people to interact with your offering

South Africa is ranked #10 user of facebook, with a 15% online population active on the site.

Time to get creative

Go viral, by creating something useful funny or contraversial. Make it easy to share.

Use Social Media to get the message across

Crowd Source (all blogs matter, top blogs matter most)

Is it worth it?

Your message is irrelevant to us, but friends opinions count. Friends trust each other.

Reputedly 7.8 million Internet users in South Africa, with online ad spend at over R200 million.

Dorito’s campaign

Dorito’s (the chip makers) were being outspent by competition 2 to 1. They needed to increase awareness with consumers, and change the playing field.

So they created a game, the “Crash the Superbowl” idea, where they invited users to create a 30 second commercial to promote Dorito’s.

The competition was promoted through a website, on Yahoo, through university campuses, film schools, social networks and Youtube.

The winning commercial was flighted to 90 million viewers during the Superbowl. It cost $12.79 to make, it ranked #4 on USA Today Super Bowl Admeter, and it won a Golden Lion marketing award.

The campaign generated 1.3 billion page impressions (worth $35 million) and increased sales by 12%. It also generated 20 print stories.

It is an excellent example of innovative thinking in campaign creation.

Note: For photographs, videos and blog posts by Zoopy, the official social media sharing partner for the New Media Marketing conference, go to www.zoopy.com/newmedia.