Posts Tagged ‘Search Engine Optimisation’

• The what, why and how of a search gap analysis

  Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

  A search demand gap analysis is an essential part of a search engine marketing audit to check how well your search engine optimisation and/or pay-per-click marketing is working for your company. It will show you the commercial opportunity available from search engine marketing and compare your current performance against this opportunity, so showing sales growth potential. It’s often completed as part of a quarterly or annual review, but due to seasonal fluctuations in search volumes and changes in Google’s ranking approaches and competitor activity it should also be completed more regularly; we suggest monthly.

  Here’s an example of a gap analysis. As, you can see it’s based around the main strategic high volume generic for a particular market, in this case related to LCD TVs.

  

  Benefits of a gap analysis

  A gap analysis will show you where you are underperforming for particular keyphrases or products and you can then set goals and then brief an agency or colleagues to take actions to improve performance in these areas.

  A gap analysis also has the benefit that it enables you to compare performance of your search engine optimisation and pay per click marketing. Since these channels are often treated separately, it helps bring these together in an integrated way to compare their relative performance. For example, in the example above where bounce rates are relatively high or market share is relatively low the cells are shaded in red.

  What is a search marketing gap analysis?

  A gap analysis is a comparison of the potential visits, leads or sales from searchers arriving on the site against what the company is actually achieving. It should focus on high volume phrases which are typically two to three keyword phrases including brand searches. However, a form of the analysis can also be completed for longer ‘long-tail’ keyphrases made up of more than 4 keywords.

  What should you measure for a search gap analysis?

  As for the review of the performance of all traffic sources, the main measures you need to look at are traffic volume, quality and cost:

  • Traffic volume – measured through the number of actual visits from paid and natural search. Actual visits are then compared with potential visits
  • Traffic quality – measured by bounce rate, lower if the quality is good. Also measured by conversion rate to lead or sale, higher is better.
  • Traffic value – The value generated through sales or leads can be compared against the cost of search marketing. The revenue per visit can be calculated for each keyphrase and for pay per click can be compared to visitor acquisition costs – amount bid.

  These measures are all available from your web analytics system such as Google Analytics from which data is extracted for the analysis.

  You should also measure the percentage traffic gap which can be calculated by comparing the number of visits against demand indicated by a keyword research tool. We recommend using the Google Keyword Tool to review demand in a single country. It’s best to select the exact match reporting although it can be worthwhile to select phrase match for a different form of long-tail review.

  About the author

  Dr Dave Chaffey is Insights Director at ClickThrough Marketing. As Insights Director he’s responsible for the quality of analysis and reporting used to review and improve the performance of clients’ natural and paid search campaigns. He’s also involved in consulting on digital and search strategy for ClickThrough’s clients through analytics-based audits typically using Google Analytics for which he holds the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ).

  You can also read his advice on best practice and updates on the latest developments in digital marketing at his Smart Insights Digital Marketing advice site. Dave is a recognised expert in digital marketing, listed in 2004 by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have shaped the future of Marketing. Dave is author of five best-selling business books including Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice and eMarketing eXcellence (with PR Smith). He is also author of the Econsultancy best practice guides to Search Engine Optimisation, Paid Search Marketing, Web site design and Managing Digital Channels. Dave also contributed the foreword to ClickThrough’s first two search engine marketing books.

  Tags: gap analysis, Google Analytics, internet marketing, keyword research, Pay Per Click (PPC), Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Web Analytics
  Posted in Blog, Keywords, Pay Per Click (PPC), SEO, Web Analytics

• The Power of Online Competitions

  Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

  

  Image via Wikipedia

  We all know people need motivating (or ‘bribing’!) to take action, and there are numerous examples of this ‘motivation’ online competitions, freebies, giveaways, 1 today only deals etc. Let’s talk briefly about competitions.

  There are many reasons to run a competition: for instance to attract people to your products or your website, to help make a decision and involve your audience in doing so, or to harvest email addresses from potential customers.

  Whilst there are many high value prizes you could offer, you don’t always need to think big. You do, however, need to understand your audience and offer a prize that will be of interest to them. You also need to consider how you will ensure that the competition brings the results you want. If you offer a Ferrari, or an iPad, all and sundry will enter your competition and these people may well have no interest in your products or services they are just after the prize!

  If you want to attract potential new customers, you may wish to offer a discount voucher for one of your services this could bring in a new customer for years to come. Offering a generous discount on a high end service can also help build your brand in the eyes of all those who hear about it, and potentially attract a new audience who can benefit from your website content.

  Run competitions with prizes for great ideas, for a new tagline, for reviews of products and services, and above all make it fun for everyone.

  Think about the competition from both sides of the picture and make it a win-win situation.

  

  Tags: lead generation, online competitions, Search Engine Optimisation
  Posted in Blog, Content, SEO

• Warning – your traffic may drop from Google

  Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

  Are you offering facts and figures which people regularly search on? Does it drive traffic to your site?

  Let’s give an example: what is the height of St Paul’s cathedral?

  

  As you can see, the information the searcher requires is (partially) in the search engine listing. However, the likelihood is that this is enough to pique the interest of the searcher, who will then click on the site to find out more information.

  However, Google announced Google Squared during the summer of last year, possibly in response to Wolfram Alpha, which is a knowledge engine rather than a pure search engine.

  Now, using Google Squared, results in the SERPs are likely to generate very different results for search terms if Google Squared assumes it is a research term. The potential is that the entire answer to the search is held within the SERPs.

  In plain English, this means that a searcher may well find their answer on Google, in the SERPs, and will not actually visit your website at all.

  It has long been known that users search the internet in different ways eg to shop, to research or to socialise, and this latest addition to Google searches is an indication of the recognition of those differences.

  Go play! All of a sudden, the SEO industry cannot refer to a particular set of results to show off its prowess or portfolio, because as personalisation and search intelligence kicks in, you are likely to see very different results than your neighbour, even with similar keywords.

  There is a problem here though. If Google endeavours to feed all the information to searchers, without any requirement to visit your site at all, where does that leave your carefully crafted website? Or your PPC campaign if the answers are within the organic results provided by Google?

  The fun has begun!

  

  Tags: facts, Google, knowledge, Search Engine Optimisation, Search engine results page, traffic, Web search engine, wolfram alpha
  Posted in Google, Internet Marketing News, Keywords, SEO

• Your visitors still can't search

  Thursday, November 12th, 2009

  The 10 UK search terms for the 4 weeks since Oct 19th 2009 show that UK searchers still don’t comprehend how a browser works.

  The top 10 search terms include Facebook, Bebo, Youtube, Ebay, Argos – all major brands with basic TLDs eg argos.co.uk, facebook.com and so on. What this implies is that users are not using the location bar to directly enter the domain name or URL of a site, even when it is a global company with a simple and recognised name, such as Facebook.

  Therefore, even if you have picked an obvious domain name for your widget company, such as widgets.co.uk, the majority of users don’t even have a stab at guessing the domain in the location bar – they use a search engine instead.

  This snapshot of search behaviour should indicate to many businesses that one of the most important terms they need to be optimising for is their business name and brands, in order to show up in the search engine rankings.

  It is surprising how few companies get this, and insist on putting their business name in a pretty logo invisible to the search engines, and giving the index page of their site a page title such as “Homepage”.

  Whilst it is not necessary, nor desirable, to scatter liberally across every page the name of your business and brands, to the point where users can’t see beyond those terms to actual quality content, it is vital to ensure that they are included in visible text and indexable content. This includes alt img tags, reference tags, H1 and H2 and so on.

  Check your website today and see how many instances of your business or brand names occur on your site, and how many are indexable. Searchers may be researching the availability, price, existence etc of a product they desire, and not know the names of companies who offer it, many more will be searching directly for you if your advertising and marketing is working as it should. If they can’t find your company even though they know the name, they will resort to researching the product/service type instead, and that is where deeper optimisation on many more keywords is essential.

  

  Tags: Brand, business, Domain name, optimization, search engine, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, Web search engine
  Posted in SEO, Tips & Tricks

• SEO question generator tool

  Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

  We all know that people like to use the search engines to get answers to questions, but when promoting our sites, creating content and so on, how do we know what questions they might be asking in their search queries?

  Well, look no further than the extremely useful Wordtracker question generator tool

  Let’s try some examples:

  Internet marketing – of course people want to know what it is, but look at some of the other questions asked that you could create content about…

  SEO – what does it stand for and what is SEO come at the top but there are plenty of opportunities to incorporate some of these questions into your page content and optimisation.

  Swine flu – pick an item in the news and you get some great ideas for topical content.

  Give it a go!

  

  Tags: content creation, Keywords, Search Engine Optimisation, search queries, SEO, wordtracker
  Posted in Content, Keywords, SEO, Small Business Resources, Tips & Tricks

• SEO IQ Test – how good are you at SEO?

  Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

  Time to find the experts…..try this SEO IQ quiz and see just how good you are at search engine optimisation.

  Having tried it, it is a little like the Impossible Quiz though! There are so many double negatives make sure you have a clear head before starting.

  Also, some of the questions are unclear, particularly those which contain a false statement, which might lead you to the wrong answer. For instance, the question about dynamic URLs. A dynamic URL does not necessarily imply ‘product specifications’ and a site using dynamic URLs could just as easily be a purely information site full of articles eg a newspaper site. But it’s fun and a great marketing gimmick to sell subscriptions!

  Tags: IQ test, Search Engine Optimisation, search engines, SEO
  Posted in SEM Industry, Tips & Tricks

• Top SEOs ranking for August announced

  Monday, August 3rd, 2009

  The latest top 30 rankings from TopSEOS for August 2009 has been released.

  Two UK companies, WebLinx Ltd and High Position Ltd continue to feature in the international list, which is good news for our search industry. The UK top SEO rankings show little change at the top; however there are three new entrants in the ranking list.

  There is a rigorous evaluation of companies applying for a ranking, including speaking to at least three clients, and consideration of both on and off page optimisation, as well as keywords analysis and reporting methods.

  

  Tags: ranking, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, UK
  Posted in SEM Industry, SEO

• Google Rich Snippets

  Monday, May 18th, 2009

  Google’s research team have discovered that when additional data is shown with the research results, users are more likely to click through to a website. So, for instance, if in a news story about a vending machine for pizzas,

  additional information is added to the search results about the value of the vending machine industry in Europe, this will capture the interest of a specific audience who will then seek further commercial information. Those looking for a local vending machine that sells pizza will be unlikely to be interested about the value of the European vending machine sector!

  For those using Google site search, rich snippets offers the opportunity to customise results to include structured data embedded in pages, for instance graphs, images, video, ratings etc within search results, and obviously this means that searchers can be directed to the appropriate information more easily by offering a taster of what they will find on that page or within that area of the website.

  Currently, Google Site Search is only offering snippets which include reviews and people, and the roll-out of further ‘snippets’ of useful info will be gradual. However, it is a step in the right direction in producing search results of relevance that can be immediately spotted within the SERPS by a searcher who knows precisely what they information are looking for.

  

  Tags: Google, Google Site Search, rich snippets, Search Engine Optimisation
  Posted in Google, SEM Industry, Stats & Trends