March 7, 2014

SEO Tips from Google HQ

Google Breakfast Briefing

Friday 21st February was the first in a series of briefings that Google HQ in Dublin have organised to assist Irish businesses to succeed with visibility and online customer conversion. Each year Irish consumers spend €4.6 bn online and a whopping 70% of this money goes out of the country. Six out of 10 of these consumers expressed a preference to buy from Irish sites. Google is set to help Irish businesses become more successful online.

I was fortunate to get a place at this hugely over subscribed briefing and want to share the great learning with you. The purpose of the morning’s session was to look specifically at effectively converting prospects to customers by getting 1) greater visibility and 2) being mobile ready.

1. Greater Visibility

Google introduced a tool for getting visible on Organic search. This is Webmaster Tools. It is a dashboard full of useful information that Google gather from people who arrive at your website through the Google search engine. Improving your website and making it work for your business is based on combining three key data points – Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics and your own business data of sales and customer feedback. Align the information these reports give you with your objectives and look for actionable insights from these reports

To start you will find Webmaster Tools by signing into your Google account. Register Webmaster tools with your website. The instructions for this are easily found in the ‘how to’ section of Google. Ensure that all the people involved in your website are registered as users of Webmasters tools. You will now see a dashboard of information on Google search traffic for your site over the last 90 days. The number of impressions is the number of people who saw your organic search listing and the number of clicks are the number of people who clicked on your search listing. On the left hand side you will see the funtions of webmaster tools and today we will look at Search Queries and Data highlighter functions.

Search Queries

Under Search Traffic you will find the search queries function. The search queries report gives you information on the keywords your customers use when your website appears on the SERP (Search Engine Result Page). Here you will see a list of words, the number of impressions and CTR’s (Click Through Rates) and the position that your website is listed on the page. Look for important keywords for your business that do not have a good page position and insert these words into the title, headline and body of your website pages. You will notice that the highest performing words relate to your business name. What you want to achieve is to have broader terms. So for example if you are a florist you will want to appear on the result page for the terms, ‘floral bouquet’ or ‘wedding flowers’. On your website look at the keywords you are using on your product pages and expand the headlines, titles and descriptions to include broader terms. Apply these terms to image tags and video uploads also.

Data Highlighter

You will find Data Highlighter by clicking Search Appearance on the left hand side. The Data Highlighter function allows you to select data on your website that will appear on the Search Results page when a relevant search term is entered.

In this example dates and details of an event have been highlighted and appear in the search result. This allows your website to have more relevance and the user can click straight to the page that meets the query. Tagging pages is easy. You can follow the Google Data Highlighter tool tutorial and improve your information showing for your website.

2. Being Mobile Ready

The rise of smartphones now means that your customers are always connected to the internet. 64% of smartphone owners search daily and 44% of those users purchased through their smartphone. These figures are only going to rise so it is important to have your website easy to navigate and user friendly for mobile. Use the Google Data Page Speed Insights report to guide you in what you need to focus on to make your website mobile user friendly.

This tool is also useful to get reports on competitive websites and compare these with the performance of your website. Research shows that after three clicks consumers move to another site. Accessible, easily read information is key to mobile websites. Google provide lots of resources for businesses to help. Here are four that will help you through getting your site more visible. 1) Webmaster Forum 2) Regular Hangouts on Air 3) Help Center 4) Webmaster Central Blog

Next month the Breakfast Series will be on User Experience. I’ll be reporting back on this event on my next blog.

December 5, 2013

Week 10 – Digital Marketing – What you need to know.

In our last class and final week of our digital marketing course we are revising all the great learning the students have done over the past couple of months. There are a number of key areas to focus on in getting to grips with Digital Marketing. The modules we looked at were Customer Analysis, Social Media, Mobile Marketing, SEO, Google Analytics and Email Marketing. Here we’re going to look back at some of these and explain their uses and why they are important.

To begin with it is useful to provide a framework which allows companies make decisions and manage their digital marketing activity. We looked at the SOSTAC planning model. This process goes through 4 basic questions that businesses need to ask themselves – Where are we now? or Situational Analysis. Where do we want to be in the future? Goal setting. How do we get there? Develop strategies. How can we be sure we arrive? Implementation, measurement and control.

For Digital marketing this means a major focus on your customers, their online activity, their media consumption and buying habits, their use of digital technology and creating an in-depth profile of your customer or a persona analysis.

The explosion and adoption by consumers of social media platforms has led to a whole new media channel for business to engage and communicate with their customers. Understanding the way these platforms are used is critical to achieving successful outcomes. Your brand needs to become part of the conversation with messages that encourage interaction and are useful to your customer. Social media is not a sales platform but rather a place where you can listen and add value to your customer’s experience with your brand.

73% of consumers use their smartphones while shopping. This has led to a whole new purchasing pattern for your customer and one where the store has become more about experience and less about price and product benefits. This is because customers will shop around online while they are in your store. Geo location, QR codes, SMS, augmented reality and apps are just some of the technological aids that businesses can use to enhance their customer experience.

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation ensures that your website is visible to your customers. Keywords, Link building and content are basic elements to pay attention to. Visual elements such as photos and videos and geo location are important to both PC and mobile search.

The digital space is interactive and always on. Measurement tools such as Google Analytics allows you to calculate your ROI and make amendments to your campaigns on an ongoing basis. Site traffic, conversions, referrals and sources of traffic are all measurable through these reports. Ensure that you have well-defined, measurable objectives and defined action outcomes from this valuable information.

Email marketing is probably the oldest of the digital tools but one that remains a core part of most businesses’ digital campaigns. Its ability to deliver personalised messaging and use as a retargeting tool will ensure that email stays in the digital mix. Combining Social Media and email strategies has proven to be a powerful mix in engaging and converting customers.

With all this focus on online activity it is important to remember that we live in a real world. While the digital space is exciting, innovating and offers many opportunities remember to begin with your customer and match their needs with the benefits and value of your products and services in the places where they consume their media.

Thank you for following the students and me over this 10 week course. I’ll be back in January with a whole new class and course. See you then!

November 27, 2013

Week 9 – Five Steps to Email Marketing

Email marketing can often be seen as the poor relation in the Digital marketing toolbox. Yet companies still believe it to be very effective. Today we’re going to look at the five steps in implementing an email marketing campaign.

Step 1: Define Objectives

Because of its personal nature email is effective at delivering objectives like generating leads, renewing relationships with clients, introducing offers or enhancing brand reputation. Set down specific, timed and realistic objectives.

Step 2: Manage Lists

Creating, updating and managing lists is an ongoing task. To generate a list collect emails from sign-ups, or downloadable documents on your website. If you have a store request email information by running a competition and wherever there is a networking opportunity be sure to get people’s business cards. Set up a system that ensures your data does not go out of date and is relevant to your message. Segment your lists by geography, interest or business and customer type.

Step 3: Produce compelling content and offers

The decision to open or delete an email is made by how compelling the subject line is. Give some thought to developing a clear, attention grabbing subject line. Research shows that if the email is sent by an actual person rather than a company name the open rate is higher. Provide valuable and relevant content to your email recipients with new product news, product offers or competitions. Make sure there is an obvious and focused Call-to-Action and include social sharing button links. Always include an unsubscribe link but here give your customer an option to come back at a later stage.

Step 4: Schedule your emails

The time of day and the number of emails you send to your customers will differ from industry to industry. Only send emails when you have something to say as cluttering up inboxes to generate awareness can have a negative effect and be frustrating for the recipient. Sending Emails early in the morning has proven to be the best time for open rates.

Step 5: Measure Results

A good email software provider will have the relevant measurement reports for your email campaign. When sending the email choose the A/B subject line test option. This allows you to send two different subject lines to a sample list, the most effective line then is sent to the total subscribers list. Look at open rates but more importantly the Click Through Rate and what content is being clicked on. Be sure to track the measurements so you can get a picture of the type of emails and content that are more successful than others.

More and more emails are opened through mobile. Watch this in your metrics and check how your emails render on both mobile and tablet.

Next week is the last week of the course. We will be doing a review of the whole course so be sure to check in for a revision update.

November 22, 2013

Week 8 – How to find the right data that counts from Analytics

This week the students are looking at where to start with using Google Analytics reports and what information matters. If you haven’t already linked Google analytics to your website, then set up a Google account and place the Analytics code on each page of your site. Your web developer can do this for you also.

You can spend a lot of time going through data without a focus on what you need to know. Stay focused on three things: Data, Insights and Action. What you are looking for is information that will help you make decisions to improve your website and make it easier for your users to get what they are searching for. One of the topical sets of data that businesses look at, presently, is the number of visitors who are accessing their websites through their mobile phone or tablet. This insight will inform your decision on your need for a mobile friendly site. Get information that lets you better understand your website users’ behaviour to take actions that are useful and relevant.

So now what? Before you go to the extensive reports that Google supply begin with a pen and paper and write down the three main reasons why your website exists. This will give you a set of objectives for your website. Next list the things your website needs to do or what you want the visitor to do. These are your website goals. Then list the groups of people that matter most to your website. This is your target audience. With these three categories of information you are now ready to identity the data that you need. In Analytics speak this data is called KPI’s – Key Performance Indicators. A KPI might be the number of downloads of a ‘white paper’. the number of subscriptions to a newsletter or the number of repeat visits to a particular page. Put numbers on these KPI’s with specific targets and a time period to achieve them. Now you are ready to get the reports from Google Analytics. Create a dashboard with the reports that are most important to you and set a comparison on the data you get from one month to the next so you can see the historical performance of your site to identify trends in the data.

The final stage is to use this data to make useful, actionable decisions for your business. For example a company maybe focusing its efforts in one geographic location but see that their website visitors are coming from a different location. Changing your strategy to incorporate this new location will impact positively on your business.

Next week we will be looking at email as part of a Digital Marketing Strategy.

November 14, 2013

Week 7 – How to Build Links to your Website to Improve your SEO

Last week while studying SEO we looked at Keyword Research. This week we will look at three steps you can use to build links to your website that will improve your ranking on Google’s Search Engine Result Page (SERP).

1. High Quality Content

Whether it is a blog post, a news item or curated content from another source you should always have the mind frame of your reader as your focus. Ask yourself what is of interest to your customers? Can the content address or solve a problem? Organise the information so that it can be digested easily and scanned for top line news with more detail further on. Look for topical and relevant content.

2. Build a Reputation with Your Influencers

Do a search for experts in your industry. Use Twitter advanced search option to find people and companies who have built large audiences on Social Media. Use sites that rank the top blogs in your sector. Establish a relationship with them through commenting and sharing their content. Connect with them on social media by following them and posting valuable commentary.

3. Make Content Sharable and Distribute

Before you publish content make sure you add social network widgets and make them visible at the top and the bottom of the post. Consider adding Social Network ‘counters’. These are social network icons that tabulate the number of shares. Your content should encourage your readers to share with their networks. So when tweeting a link make sure you have left enough characters for your audience to retweet. Post a link of your content on relevant social media platforms such as Linkedin Groups, Facebook pages and Twitter. Create categories and hashtags so your content will show up on searches. Produce the content in different formats like posting images on Pinterest and instagram, slide shows on Slideshare and videos on Youtube including a link back to the landing page.

Check in next week when we will be learning about Google Analytics and finding the data that counts.

November 7, 2013

Week 6: What do I need to know about Search Engine Optimisation?

We’re Back!! After a well deserved mid-term break we’re back in the class room and ready to go. This week we look at SEO and what practical tips we can use to improve the traffic to our website. SEO deals with the factors that make your website more visible to your audience. It starts with Google and the search engine results page (SERP). Your goal is to rank high up on a results page when a user enters a search term that relates to your business. SEO is a wide and complex subject that covers technical coding to easily managed changes you can make to your website. Over the next two weeks we are going to cover two key areas that are practical, ‘can do’ elements. This week we’ll look at:

Keyword Research.

Google presents the most relevant and current pages to a search result so it is important that you know the words that your audience are entering when looking for information about your product or service. There are five basic steps to carrying out keyword research.

1. Create a list of words.

Brainstorm all the words your customers would use. Look at single words and multi-word phrases that they would use when researching and buying products. Cover all the services your site offers and avoid generic terms. Look at your competitors’ sites and check what words and phrases they are using. You should now have a list of at least a hundred words.

2. Refine your list through the Google Keyword Planner Tool.

You will need a Google Adwords Account to access this very useful Google tool. It is easy to set up and you do not need to have an ad campaign running. The Keyword Planner allows you to upload your list of words, target the area your customers are in – e.g. Ireland, Leinster, Dublin and gives you a report on the average number of monthly searches for all your terms. Look at the variations of searches throughout the year. For example the words ‘fitness’ and ‘diet’ have high volume of searches in January.

3. Finalise your list

Create a spreadsheet to see each word’s search volume, discard the words that are not relevant to the site and have low volume. Aim for 10 – 20 keywords for each service. Your list should have a mix of targeted and broad keywords. For example a broad term would be ‘boots’ or ‘red boots’. A targeted term would be ‘Ladies red boots’ or women’s suede red boots’.

4. Plan your on-page content.

With your refined word list, build your words into the content of your website. Use three or four related keywords per page and make sure they are in the Title Tag, Meta Description Tags, Meta Keywords Tags, Headings, Alt Text and images. Do this for all new content like blogs, releases and social media posts.

5.Monitor and adjust your Keyword list.

As you post fresh content and measure the traffic/click-through rate you will build a picture of the content that is popular with your audience. Be sure to monitor your keywords in your analytics report and adjust your keyword list and content on an ongoing basis.

Next week we will look at Link Building for SEO with practical actions you can take.

October 18, 2013

Week 5: 5 Ways to Make Mobile Marketing Work for your Business

Its Week 5 of the Digital Marketing Course. The huge rise of mobile smartphones and tablets has rapidly changed how we reach our audience. Here are five ways you can use Mobile marketing to work for your business.

No 1. Location based offers

Proximity based coupons and offers works with digital signage in the stores with brands pushing offers to mobiles that are bluetooth enabled. Cadbury’s and Coca Cola use this technique in convenience stores where they connect with customers in real-time when they are close to the point of purchase. Over time they can reconnect with consumers with more targeted messages based on their actions and preferences. O2 media offer this service in Ireland by setting up Geo Fences™ around locations, stores and venues. When the customer enters this area they can opt to receive targeted offers and coupons for products they are loyal to.

No 2. Mobile Search

Mobile search differs from desktop searches because its immediate, local, social and always on. Mobile searches also offer different options than desktop such as direct dialling to the phone number provided. Targeting paid search ads is considerably cheaper than desktop as there are higher click-through rates with mobile users and their intent is more immediate. Fewer competitors and on-page dominance are other factors that make paid search advertising attractive to local businesses.

No 3. Mobile Optimised Sites

Creating a mobile site that allows users to carry out tasks in as few clicks as possible increases the interaction and engagement with your customer. Research shows that after three clicks a user moves to another site if they cannot get to the information they require. Domino Pizza saw an increase in pizza delivery orders when they converted their site to mobile use. With geo location they made it possible to order pizza to a particular location and not just an address.

No 4. QR Codes

Quick Response codes can be read by a mobile phone to send the user to a destination where they can redeem vouchers, shop online or enter a competition. They are an easy way to access more detailed information on the go. They are particularly strong when used at POS or outdoor poster locations. QR codes can also be used for ‘scan to call’ or download business card details.

No 5. Apps

ABI Research (March 2013) predicts: 56 billion smart phone apps will be downloaded in 2013 globally. Apps can be divided into three core categories, utility, entertainment and e-commerce. The three most popular ways of hearing about an app are from friends, the App store and the App charts. Well thought out and designed apps can offer your customer a faster, easier way to interact with your services or product on the go.

Ownership of mobile smartphones will continue to increase and their use will deepen as more functions are added. Mobile marketing now requires to be integrated into your marketing strategy rather than being seen as an add-on to marketing activity.

Week 6 will be on Search Engine Optimisation. The students have a mid-term break next week so we’ll be back the week after then with our next session.

October 11, 2013

Week 4: How to use Social Media for Your Business

Irish people are heavy users of social media platforms. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Youtube are the most widely used places where people connect and share. Pinterest, Instagram and more recently Snapchat are growing in use and while these are the most popular there are many more. So while your customers are posting, uploading photos, sharing with their family and friends how do businesses make sense of the Social Media space and how do they use it? Begin with listening to your target audience. Join groups and follow influencers in your sector. Media monitoring tools such as Google alerts and Hootsuite are free and really useful. Listen to conversations, articles, blogs and videos in your market. Use the search function on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin and start connecting with your customers by following or commenting on discussions they are in.

Set out clear and defined business objectives. You will use different Social Media platforms depending on the outcome you want to achieve. For example, Twitter is really good at customer service. Zappos, an online retail company, create a Twitter stream on their website to respond in realtime to customers’ questions and comments. A bakery in Australia uses Twitter to let their local customers know when a fresh batch of bread has come out of the oven. Create awareness, increase engagement and build relationships are objectives that can be achieved through developing a social media plan.

Consider what message is appropriate for the Social media platform you are on. Remember that this environment is social and not a place to make a sales pitch. Look to add value for your customers and encourage sharing. Murphy’s Ice cream set up a cute swinging chair in their shops where customers could take photos eating their ice creams to post on Facebook.

Spend time every day connecting, creating, responding. Most of the social media tools are free so for very little investment you can create awareness and an audience for your business. The investment here is time. Be diligent and focused on spending time every day to post content, respond to comments, share videos and stay active on all your platforms. Use Google analytics and Social Media insights to see what’s working and what’s not. Be flexible and modify your strategies and message to your customers as you learn what appeals to them.

Join us next week when we will be looking at mobile marketing.

October 3, 2013

Week 3: Who are you talking to and where are they?

Its Week 3 of our course and a fundamental piece of work that is required in digital marketing is to identify who your customers are and where they are online. At first glance it seems a daunting task. The traditional method of segmenting a target audience into primary and secondary target audiences still applies. In addition it is essential that you get data that informs you where they are online, how they use social media platforms, view media and use mobile devices

You can begin your search online with sites such as Comscore, IAB. Amarach and Comreg. These sites publish research on Irish consumers and their internet usage. Setting up online surveys and polls is another way to get this information. Of course nothing beats picking up the phone or having a discussion with your existing customers to ask them: how they watch their favourite TV programmes, how they share with their friends and what they are doing differently with new technology. With this information you can produce a profile of your different target audience segments. This is best done by creating a ‘personna’ for each segment. Create a storyboard that sets out in pictures who your customer is.

This will clearly show what age they are, what type of clothes they wear, what music they listen to, what books they read, who are their favourite celebrities and influencers. What sports they play and follow, what car they drive and holidays they go on. Include what technology they use, how they use mobile phones and tablets, what websites they visit, what they search for online and how they use mobile when shopping. In addition to a storyboard, Hubspot, an American online marketing company have developed a great template for doing this work. Buyer Persona Template . Use this template to see how you would describe your customer. It will help you to answer how they interact online and how your product or service can help them.

Matching your customers’ needs with your company’s products and services requires curiosity, determination and a willingness to go the extra mile. Spend time seeking this information out.

On week 4 we will be looking at Social Media and how large and small companies are using these platforms.

September 26, 2013

Week 2: Cutting through the Clutter of Planning your Digital Marketing

Marketing is notorious for jargon and Digital Marketing is no different. It is easy to get confused with processes and systems that companies follow to create and implement digital campaigns. Start by understanding the steps that are required. In all planning processes there are four key steps:

The first step is all about establishing where we are now. This is often described as Situational Analysis and for a digital marketing campaign you will need to gather information. Begin with competitors’ digital activities, consumer digital media usage and their behavioural patterns. Listening online is a great place to start. Set up Google alerts for key words that apply to your market. Use software like Radion 6 that monitors social conversations on multiple channels and search for articles, blogs and videos related to your market.

The next step is to decide where do we want to be in the future. What would success look like in that future. Set out goals and objectives that are clear, realistic and within an agreed time frame. Creating awareness and building relationships with your target audience are often common objectives. Quantify the number of connections you expect, the number of unique visitors to your website and the level of engagement you want to achieve.

The third step is working out how to meet our goals. Here we develop digital marketing strategies that fit with our objectives, target audience and products and services. Digital Marketing strategies are simply the decisions you make on the tools you need to implement a campaign. What are the channels, the message and the timing? Always check to ensure that these activities are aligned with where you want to go and are consistent across multiple platforms.

The final step is ensuring that you know if you have achieved success. With Google analytics, Insights data on Facebook and other social media platforms you can measure impressions, website traffic, engagement and sentiment. This data will allow you to amend and adapt your activities as you monitor them. Ensure you regularly collect and analyse the data and communicate these reports to the team.

On week three of the course we will look at Target Audience Profiling.

Maeve Nunan

Digital Marketing Educator