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.
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| 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 DimeSearch 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, SiteLogicSpeakers:Matt Van Wagner, President, Find Me FasterStoney deGeyter, President, Pole Position MarketingDavid 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 |
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| 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 |
 |
| 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: Make sure the info is consistent across the web |
| 11:18 |
 |
| 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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