Princeton Chamber 111605 Presentation

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About Digital Brand Expressions

• Recognized search engine marketing experts
• Founded in 2002 to provide advanced SEO to
  Fortune 500 and fast growth middle market
  companies
  
• Added SEA services in 2003
• Added SEIP services in 2005
• Providing ongoing success for major consumer
  products and leading B2B players

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SEM Client Experience Includes
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What Is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

• Getting traffic to a website from search engines
• Three main types of SEM
• Site optimization (SEO)
• Pay-Per-Click or Search Engine Advertising (SEA)
• Search Engine Image Protection (SEIP)
• SEM started with site registration back around
  1995
  
• SEO became a discipline around 1998
• SEA added to the mix in 2003 with pay-per-click
  ads
  
• NOW
• SEIP gaining practitioners, akin to online crisis
  management PR
  
• More content applications being leveraged for
  SEO/SEIP
  
• Blogs
• Podcasts

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What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

• Critical process for getting traffic to websites
  from the major search engines.
  
• Process of making site more attractive to search
  engines than other sites competing for same
  keywords.
  
• Site gets more top rankings for important
  keywords than competitors in the natural
  listings (also called organic or editorial
  listings)
• More visibility more visits more sales
• Typically priced on project basis, no per-click
  charges, no media fees. Set up and then monthly
  optimization services.

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What Is Search Engine Advertising (SEA)?

• Alternative means for getting traffic to sites
  from search engines.
  
• Ads purchased through dynamic, real-time auction
  environment by keyword.
  
• Ads paid on a per-click basis
• Means of getting traffic from search engines
  while more cost-effective SEO program phasing in
  
• Ads paid on per-click basis plus fee paid to
  actively manage programs
  

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What Is Search Engine Image Protection (SEIP)?

• Means of fortifying a brands image when negative
  listings appear for brand name as search term
  
• Utilizes elements of SEO and SEA to repress
  negative listings by replacing them with more
  search-engine attracting content on the Web
  
• Results appear in the natural listings and as ads
  when SEA added to the program
  
• Paid on project basis like SEO

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Where Resulting Listings Appear for SEO SEA
(Google Example)
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SEIP Example Splenda
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The ROI of SEM

• A published report comparing SEM results from 6
  companies to standard results generated by other
  online media with 150,000 budget
  

40 per visitor
We have produced similar ROI for our clients,
also across a variety of industries, for less
than half the 150,000 cited in the study.
Source iProspect
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Compare SEA SEO to PR Advertising
1 iProspect in Keys to Unlocking Your
WebMarketing Genius
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SEO OverviewWhat Attracts Search Engines
(On-Site)

• Search engines do not publish their criteria for
  ranking some site higher than others.
  
• Careful analysis of what does/doesnt work yields
  tips
  
• Programming techniques approved by search
  engines
  
• Title tags
• Frequency of keywords in visible site content
• In-bound links (links to your site from other
  sites)
  
• Refreshed content
• Different criteria more important to each engine.
  For example
  
• Yahoo now favors keyword-rich text and links
• Google still heavily emphasizes in-bound links
• New MSN falls somewhere between them
• AOL running Google.

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SEO OverviewWhat Attracts Search Engines
(Off-Site)

• Good link building similar to smart public
  relations/media relations workcreate interest
  among webmasters to promote your site by
  linking to it.
• Approved linking practices include
• No link farms
• No paid links
• Smart use of directories
• In-bound linking program also
• Develops new and repurposes existing content for
  off-site marketing/links generation
  
• Includes distributing press releases to other
  websites

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Dos and Donts of Linking

• Dont use link farms or any other sites that
  exist solely to create links to attract search
  engines
  
• Dont build sites just to have them link to each
  other
  
• Dont create reciprocal linking pages
• Only links from quality sites will benefit SEO
• The anchor text needs to be a keyword/phrase
  important to your brand or the link wont be of
  value to SEO.
  
• Make active generation of quality links an
  ongoing part of your SEO program.
  

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Other Terms You May Hear--More On SEO

• Paid-Inclusion is a subset, not replacements for,
  SEO.
  
• Paid Inclusion means paid registration. It
  guarantees that a site will be included in a
  search engines database, but not that it will be
  ranked in any order.
• Yahoos SiteMatch program is a hybrid of paid
  inclusion and SEA.
  
• SEO counts
• If site listing clicked on, pay on per-click basis

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SEO Pros and Cons

• Pros
• Most searchers look at the natural/organic
  listings (they know the search engine found these
  resultsthe site didnt pay to be there)
  
• 60.5 of persons studiedregarding searching
  behaviors said SEO results more relevant than SEA
  for their searches
  
• Generate volumes more traffic than through
  pay-per-click ads
  
• Most cost-effective form of online marketingROI
  easy to measure, quick to achieve.
  
• Cons
• Can take up to 4 months for results to take hold
  due to unpublished schedules of search engines
  updating of their databases. (Once it takes
  hold, benefits are cumulative and continuous.)
• Must be revisited and reimplemented to stay ahead
  of savvy competitors.
  
• iProspect, June 2004

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Expertise Required

• Few experts existonly a handful of top-tier
  experts nationally
  
• Programmers, designers, webmasters usually not
  abreast of current dos and dontsad agencies
  and web developers tend to outsource SEO to
  strategic partners that specialize in SEM.
• Rules change constantly
• Need to balance technical, marketing, and design
  considerations with marketing objectives and
  brand properties
  

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Quick Assessment of How Your Site is Performing

• Check the site source code for a few basic
  techniques that would easily affect search engine
  rankings.
  
• Search a few important keywords, see which sites
  come up in Top 10 listings on Google and Yahoo
  for starters.
  
• Use Yahoo tool to check in-bound links compared
  to your competitors.
  
• Note On the search engines, competitors take
  many formsany site vying for same keywords is a
  competitor.
  

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View of Source Code
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In-Bound Links and SEO
To find in-bound links to a site, in search box
enter this linkhttp//www.namesite.com
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Refreshed and Robust Content

• Remember Yahoo and other search engines favor
  sites with many pages over less robust pages.
  
• Refreshed content (press releases, blogs, updated
  information sets) more appealing to search
  engines than sites that dont change often.
  
• Content strategies that leverage SEO knowledge
  are a growth opportunity for marketers blogs,
  text of podcasts, etc.

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SEA Overview

• Ads bought through real-time auction.
• Bid on the amount paidcalled Pay Per Click or
  Cost Per Click Advertising.
  
• Costs range from 10 to over 50 per click
• Yahoos ads seen on Yahoo, MSN, and others
• MSN launching its own network shortly
• Googles ads on Google, AOL, Ask Jeeves, and
  others
  
• Ask Jeeves has its own network too
• Other SEA networks include Shopping.com,
  Kanoodle, FindWhat, and 7Search.

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Other SEAContextual Ads

• Most SEA networks also run their ads on
  participating, non-search engine sites.
  
• Google calls them Contextual ads
• Overture calls them Content Match ads
• Participating sites generate of click income.

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Active Management Critical

• Ads must be managed closely
• To ensure ROI on
• To tweak copy for best return and positioning
• Measure results by adding tracking codes

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Ad Buying Tips

• Important actively manage your bids to be 5 on
  Google and 3 on Overture
  
• 5and 3 positions seen by entire network, not
  just some of engines carrying ads
  
• Buyers tend to click all 3-5 visible ads, why pay
  more to be 1 position?
  

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Pros and Cons of SEA

• Pros
• Ad served when potential customers enter
  keywords
  
• Provides some presence on Top 10 page of search
  results
  
• Cons
• Positioned as ads--Many people ignore them
• Only get traffic for the words you purchase
• Pay every time someone clicks on the ad (pay per
  click)
  
• Bidding against competitors gets costly

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How to Integrate SEO and SEA

• SEO takes time to kick in. Use SEA
• As SEO is taking hold
• For product launches, special events, etc. where
  guaranteed search engine presence and position
  are required
  
• After SEO results established, supplement with
  SEA for underperforming terms
  
• If ROI will be higher on SEA and competitive
  threat via SEO non-existent, try SEA. Remember
  50 per visitor rule of thumb.

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Reporting and Analysis

• To track the results of SEO and other site
  performance factors, most sites use one of these
  software programs to track site traffic (there
  are many others)
• WebTrends
• Urchin
• Deep Metrix
• WebTracker
• Click Tracks
• Hitbox
• Webside Story
• Google just announced its own web stat tool
  called Google Analytics. See http//www.google.co
  m/analytics. It is currently available to Google
  AdWords advertisers.

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Budgeting for SEM

• Determine what you would need to gain through SEM
  results to determine budget.
  
• Usually not enough to just want to appear in top
  positionsdetermine benefits of visibility and
  put to it
  
• Is SEM a good way to reach potential buyers?
• What is the current conversion rate from your
  other marketing?
  
• What will you expect from SEO?
• Assume at least a 35 increase in site traffic
  initially from SEO if done properly, increases
  continue thereafter.
  
• For SEA, determine cost of lead/order and make
  assessments based on conversions from
  click-throughs
  

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Build Or Buy SEM Expertise

• Site optimization expertise is in demand and cuts
  across several disciplines. Finding one person to
  handle all aspects (programming, copywriting,
  in-bound linking/relationship building will be
  challenging so expect to hire more than one
  person for managing this in-house.
• To optimize properly, assume at least 18-20 hours
  per week for a 200-page site in a competitive
  market
  
• Traffic analysis
• Competitive analysis
• SEO recommendations
• Copy modifications
• In-bound link generation
• SEO implementation
• SEA managementa separate but related discipline
  often handled by the same person doing the
  optimization.

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Factors for Determining ROI--SEO

• For SEO
• Traffic to the site from search engines
• Cost of new visitors compared with other
  vehicles
  
• Sophisticated web traffic tools can track SEO
  visitors through e-commerce sales
  
• Tying results of offline sales to SEM is
  difficult without significant cooperation. Many
  big-ticket sales still completed offline

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Factors for Determining ROI--SEA

• For SEA
• Traffic to the site from search engine ads
• Cost per click
• Tools provided by ad networks track SEA visitors
  through completed actions (e.g. Thank You page)
  
• Tying results of offline sales to SEM is
  difficult without significant cooperation. Many
  big-ticket sales still completed offline

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Hiring a Reputable Search Engine Marketing Firm

• If you decide to hire a firm to handle your SEO
  ask
  
• If they guarantee results. If they do, run,
  dont walk, away.
  
• A reputable firm will share client-approved case
  studies and testimonials with you and offer for
  you to speak with its clients for more
  information. Ask for these references.
• Ask if they are white hat or black hat
  optimizers. For more on this, see our article
  published by MarketingProfs http//www.marketing
  profs.com/preview.asp?file/5/fielding1.asp
• If they use doorway pages, cloaking, and offsite
  hosting to achieve resultsyou dont want to work
  with these companies. (See above . . .)
  
• Ask if they provide link popularity services and
  how they go about getting links. Avoid firms
  that use link farms or spam sites to get links.
  
• Ask if they adhere to the Bruce Clay principles
  of ethical SEO. See this page
  http//www.bruceclay.com/web_ethics.htm
  
• If they specialize in your industry. You need to
  then ask them how they handle conflicts of
  interest.
  
• See article by DBE published in WebPro News in
  October re doing SEO in-house or hiring outside
  firm. Link to it from our site.
  

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Typical Results You Can Expect

• Clients typically see increases of at least 35
  in relevant search engine traffic within 3 months
  of launching DBEs SEO programs, with ongoing
  month over month increases. Most clients
  traffic increases by over 300 within the first
  few months of optimization and continues to climb
  each month.
• E-commerce clients have had 100 sales increases
  through their sites within the first few months
  of optimization implementationresults continue
  to accelerate after the initial boost.
• Clients typically achieve at least a 50 increase
  in Top 20 rankings for client-approved target
  words within same 3 month period, with ongoing
  month over month increases. As results ramp up,
  we shift focus to Top 10, and then Top 5
  rankings.
• In-bound links usually start to come in during
  the fourth month--it takes about that much time
  to identify, court, and convince webmasters to
  link to the site--and then they are on their own
  timetable for actually implementing the changes.
  Once links start to be generated, it is typical
  for clients to see 10-20 in-bound links
  increases month over month after month 4.

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SEO and 2006

• For the last 2 years, search engines were
  behaving more similarly than not. As we approach
  2006, expect search engines algorithms to become
  more obviously divergent in how they rank sites.
• Watch for in-bound links to become more valued by
  the search engines as a means used to determine
  real sites
  
• See how search engines factor in other site
  attributes in determining rank, e.g., how long is
  the domain name registered for?
  
• Watch for more companies to embrace SEO as SEA
  becomes increasingly expensive/competitive
  
• See companies adding blogs and podcasts to their
  sites for SEO purposes
  
• Observe companies pushing for better, more
  cost-effective measurement tools to help guide
  their SEO decisions
  

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SEA and 2006

• Expect SEA costs to continue to climb
• Watch metrics become even more important as sites
  track beyond the click through to sales in
  determining ROI
  
• Find companies doing more exhaustive research in
  determining how to balance their SEO and SEA
  strategies
  

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SEIP and 2006

• In 2006, SEIP will begin to take hold as more and
  more PR and brand managers embrace search engines
  as a marketing mechanism for promoting and
  protecting their brand images

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For More Informationinfo_at_DigitalBrandExpressions
.com

• Digital Brand Expressions
• 4499 Route 27
• Kingston, NJ 08528
• 609.688.8558
• www.digitalbrandexpressions.com