Transcript Why Search Marketing is Different

Why Search Marketing
is Different
Brad Fallon
CEO
Free IQ
[email protected]
cell/text 404-849-2199
Copyright © 2006 Smart Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Search Marketing is Just Advertising
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Direct Response Advertising
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Not “Image Advertising”
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Well Established, Time Honored Rules
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Works Even Better on the Web
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Testing
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Analytics
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Speed
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Cost
Copyright © 2006 Smart Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
But Ad Placement is Different
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Off-line, you control placement and your
message
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On-line, the message is “self placing” via search
engine algorithms
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e.g. the Insertion Order
Placement is a technical aspect of the message
and things connected to the message
Message and message placement are no
longer independent
Copyright © 2006 Smart Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Where Worlds Collide
Copyright © 2006 Smart Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Where Worlds Collide
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Copywriting meets SEO
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Conversion demands control of the copy
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SEO demands control of the copy
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Site design is important for both
Writing for both humans and machines
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Traffic depends on machines liking it
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Conversion depends on humans liking it
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Dealing with the Collision
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Trade-off: Traffic over Conversion
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“Write for the engines”
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Sub-optimal Conversion, but overwhelm with traffic
Trade-off: Conversion over Traffic
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“Write for People”
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Traffic suffers, lots of PPC, but Conversion is Great
Find an Integrated Solution
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The problem is technology
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The solution is more technology
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SEO Copywriting
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More than the sum of the parts
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Copywriting is easy
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SEO is even easier
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Putting them together is NOT
Technology, Process and People
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Technology bar is raised substantially
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Integrated conversion and traffic management
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Combined skill sets
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Top 5 Critical Elements
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Page Title
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Meta Description
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Page Linking
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Site Linking Topology
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Paying Attention (Tracking/Changing)
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Page Title
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The most visible part of the “ad”
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Must persuade the searcher to click
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In less than 50 characters
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A critical element of message positioning
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Has to have the keywords
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Best to have the exact phrase
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What else is possible?
Copyright © 2006 Smart Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Long Tail
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Where do you draw the line?
“Buoyancy” Bigger the base, the higher the
whole site does
Think of animal standing on its own tail. Build
out the long tail yourself.
Example: Promotional products, stupid long
tail, colors/sizes. Only way to win, rank for
80,000 words. Harder than it used to be to rank
from outside links.
The “footprint” problem
Copyright © 2006 Smart Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Search Meta Description
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Needs to support the title (match)
Second most important click-through control
after Title and before URL
We really would like it to read sensibly
It is auto-generated [yikes!] often by grabbing first
occurrence of search phrase.
Take a second bite at the apple
“First Occurrence” means first “in file” not “in
view” -- a tedious technical task to control both
Copyright © 2006 Smart Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page Linking
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Humans understand and need links to consume
your site
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You want to extend their site visit using links
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Short text, in context, is easiest to process
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Link text, including internal links, is critical to
ranking. Worthy of a 90-minute webinar. (option)
Search engines don't understand “context” so
complete key phrases are best, but often won't fit
the nav-bar
Copyright © 2006 Smart Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Site Linking Topology
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Not all of our pages are sales pages
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And not all sales pages are created equal
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Humans need links to all of our pages
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Links distribute Google PageRank (PR)
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We only need PR in sales pages, not support
pages
We need two linking structures, one for Google
and one for humans
Copyright © 2006 Smart Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Paying Attention
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What to track and what to do about it
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Organic CTR
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Top 10/50/100
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Big improvements are possible
Copyright © 2006 Smart Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Important Trends
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Search is “Disruptive Technology”
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It changes the way we must work
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It changes our organizational structures and
processes
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Long Tail Niches ARE the Market
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PPC vs CPM (trend bodes well for “customer”)
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One Site or Big Sites vs. Thousands of Sites
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Not “Adapt or Die” - but HUGE opportunities for early
adopters. (“online dating” vs. “atlanta dentist”)
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Opportunity
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The Web Redefines Huge
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The Challenge
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Enormous wealth is available on-line
“Overnight” success is the norm and still possible
Adopting new technology
Integrating new business processes
The “one trick pony” is dead
The Reality
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Guru vs. Process
Continuing education: StomperNet, Free IQ “seo”
(Jeff Johnson)
Copyright © 2006 Smart Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Any questions?
Chris Watson and will be at our table all day tomorrow.
1. $1 StomperNet
2. Free IQ New Media PPC Ads on a Long Tail
Content Network with no competition
Brad Fallon
CEO, Free IQ
[email protected]
cell/text 404-849-2199
Copyright © 2006 Smart Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.