Search on a Dime

Aug 12, 2009 - 1:45 pm 0 by

Below is live coverage of the Search on a Dime from the SES San Jose 2009 conference.

This coverage is provided by Barry Schwartz of the Search Engine Roundtable.

We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage. You can interact with us and while we are live blogging, so feel free to ask us questions as we blog. We will publish the archive below after the session is completed.

Search on a Dime(08/12/2009) 
10:37 Barry Schwartz:  We start in 10 minutes or so.
10:47 Barry Schwartz:  Search on a Dime
Search marketing has long been touted as one of the most affordable ways to market a business, but these days, competition is fierce. What's a small business on a budget to do? Come and hear the tips and tricks that will help you pick up the valuable traffic being left behind by your competitors. Learn from the best how to maximize your exposure via organic, paid search, and local search without emptying your wallet.

Moderator:
Jennifer Evans Laycock, Director of Marketing, SiteLogic
Speakers:
Matt Van Wagner, President, Find Me Faster
Stoney deGeyter, President, Pole Position Marketing
David Mihm, Director and COO, GetListed.org
10:47 Barry Schwartz:  Getting started now....
10:48 Barry Schwartz:  Stoney deGeyter, President, Pole Position Marketing is up first
10:48
10:49 Barry Schwartz:  If you don't build your site right, then you wont go anywhere
10:50 Barry Schwartz:  HE then mocks SEOPro.pro's site, you will see why
10:50 Barry Schwartz:  Indexed pages -> Rankings -> Visitors -> Sales
10:51 Barry Schwartz:  Dont make the user think when he/she gets to your site. They should make it easy to find what they need.
10:52 Barry Schwartz:  (1) Domain URL structure
(2) Link Structure
(3) Page Structure
10:53 Barry Schwartz:  Domain Name
  • Keep it short
  • Register it for 5+ years
  • Make it memorable
  • Use keywords in doman name, if possible
10:53 Barry Schwartz:  Domain redirects are important, when you have multiple domain names, make them a 301 redirect
10:54 Barry Schwartz:  Keep the urls search engine friendly
  • make them short
  • use keywords if possible
  • minimize dynamic parameters
10:55 Barry Schwartz:  Watch out for sessions IDs, they are used to track users, but they create duplicate content.
10:55 Barry Schwartz:  Make a custom 404, page not found page. Don't give them one of those white pages
10:57
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10:57 Barry Schwartz:  Don't make a flat directory structure, make some depth, but not too much. Maybe two, three, or four levels.
10:57 Barry Schwartz:  FYI, it isn't about your directory structure, but the clicks from the hom page.
10:57 Barry Schwartz:  Link & Nav:
10:57 Barry Schwartz:  Search engine friendly links are important
10:58 Barry Schwartz:  Unfriendly links are JavaScript links, as one example
10:58 Barry Schwartz:  If you dont have a good link structure, then you are splitting your link flow.
10:59
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11:00 Barry Schwartz:  Make your link text (anchor text) to be as keyword rich as possible, i.e. don't use "click here" for your link text
11:00 Barry Schwartz:  Search engines cannot access anything behind password protected pages
11:01 Barry Schwartz:  He also said behind drop down menus, but now Google can (I guess he is keepign it simple)
11:01 Barry Schwartz:  Site maps (human ones) are good to have
11:01 Barry Schwartz:  You want to prevent broken links, use Xenu to check for broken links
11:02 Barry Schwartz:  Document & Page Structure
11:02 Barry Schwartz:  Title tags are important, do not have them the same on every page, make them all unique.
11:02 Barry Schwartz:  Meta descriptions are good to have, but "not every page needs it" he said. It depends on the page.
11:02 Barry Schwartz:  Dont bother with meta keyword tag
11:03 Barry Schwartz:  When you write content, use this as an opportunity to link to other pages. In context linking is great.
11:03 Barry Schwartz:  Use heading tags, H1 through H6 --- dont over do it
11:06 Barry Schwartz:  David Mihm is now up
11:06
11:07 Barry Schwartz:  He is going to talk about local
11:07 Barry Schwartz:  40% of all queries have local intent, there are about 500 million local searches on Google per month.
11:09 Barry Schwartz:  Google will ask you to enter in a zip code for some queries and now Google is showing you local results right away
11:09 Barry Schwartz:  Local Intent by:
  • Keywords
  • IP targeting
  • mobile targeting
  • browser awareness
  • search history
  • your account info
11:11 Barry Schwartz:  The "New" Local Search has a "10 pack" of local results and Yahoo is about the same.
11:11
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11:11 Barry Schwartz:  The 10 pack levels the palying field for mom & pops and it isn't expensive to get there.
11:12 Barry Schwartz:  Google Local Data comes from:
  • Google Local Business Center
  • Third Party Data Providers
  • Web Crawling
11:13 Barry Schwartz:  Yahoo has a similar local business center
11:14 Barry Schwartz:  Local Biz Center Ranking Factors
  • Claim them manually
  • Categorize Properly
  • Use keywords in your business title
11:17 Barry Schwartz:  Get citations for your local business listing, i.e. here is a link to my business's web pages tab in Google maps http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&q=rustybrick+10901&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&cid=9197058199317457630&ei=CQeDSpPkD-WfmAfah-mhDQ&ll=41.123898,-74.114692&spn=0.010216,0.01575&z=16&iwloc=A&iwd=1&dtab=3
11:17 Barry Schwartz:  Make sure the info is consistent across the web
11:18
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11:19 Barry Schwartz:  Data Providers:
Others:
11:21 Barry Schwartz:  Check your competitors citations and get listed there also
11:22
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11:23
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11:24
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11:24 Barry Schwartz:  Links still matter but right now, citations are more important
11:25 Barry Schwartz:  And it doesn't cost much...
11:25
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11:26 Barry Schwartz:  Matt Van Wagner is now up
11:26
11:26 Barry Schwartz:  Matt will talk about using paid search on a dime.
11:27 Barry Schwartz:  Well, not much you can get from paid search on a dime, but it can be economical
11:28 Barry Schwartz:  Small Businesses Issues
  • time involed in marketing
  • ad spend comes out of owner's pocket
  • technology is not what they do
Define Opportunity
  • develop ideas
  • implement and test
  • evaluate
11:29 Barry Schwartz:  Keep it simple when it comes to paid search
  • Design campaings for low maintenance
  • Don't use "exotic" tactics
  • Stay within your comfort zone
11:30 Barry Schwartz:  Paid Search is part of the solution
  • Stay within major search engines (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo)
  • Expand or contract spend as needed
  • New targeting options enable laser-focus
11:31 Barry Schwartz:  He likes to use geographic targeting to market only to certain areas only
11:31 Barry Schwartz:  There is also time of day targeting which allows you to show an ad at the time you want, bid higher for those times and turn off when your office is closed.
11:33 Barry Schwartz:  He then shows a case study (FYI, I hate covering case studies):
11:33
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11:37 Barry Schwartz:  He goes through how he helped this company with $25 a day, but only spending about $30 per month
11:41 Barry Schwartz:  It turned out to cost only $2.24 to get a new customer for this business
11:44 Barry Schwartz:  That is all...
11:44
 

 

 

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