Below is live coverage of the Keywords & Content: Search Marketing Foundations from the SES San Jose 2009 conference.
This coverage is provided by Patty Adams of Vertical Measures.
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.
| Keywords & Content: Search Marketing Foundations | (08/12/2009) |
| 8:48 | PattyAdams:
Moderator:
Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, Founding Partner and CMO, Joblr.com and Managing Partner & Founder, Beyond Ink
Click to close Speaker Profile
Speakers:
Christine Churchill, President, KeyRelevance
Heather Lloyd-Martin, CEO, SuccessWorks
Jill Whalen, CEO, High Rankings
Marc Canabou, Senior Director, Product Management Leader, Yahoo! Search Advertising
Ari Levenfeld, Manager Client Services, Ask Sponsored Listings
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| 8:50 | PattyAdams:
Summary of session: How many keywords do you need in your paid search account? What keywords are your customers searching for? How do customers find products after they reach your site? Learn how to target the right terms in your paid and organic search marketing, and where these keywords should be used. |
| 9:02 | PattyAdams: This is a part of the fundamentals track of these sessions. The panelists have been a part of SEO for a long time. |
| 9:03 | PattyAdams: Keyword optimization is highly relevent to SEO. |
| 9:05 | PattyAdams: CHRISTINE:
Keyword research applies to several aspects, anything you do on the web, from blog posts to PPC to images, videos and more. Expand your horizons. Even site navigation and architecture. All searches are text-based. Every aspect of search uses keywords, so think about your keywords carefully. |
| 9:06 | PattyAdams: There is a relationship between all of these. Cultivate your keywords. Don't just stuff keywords into your SEO, really think about it. Don't just use mass keyword phrases. |
| 9:07 | PattyAdams: When you're doing keyword research, you brainstorm, come up with a list, then evaluate through analytics. |
| 9:08 | PattyAdams: Using keywords gives you an opportunity to be found. It's good for you, and it's good for your readers. They all matter. Anything on the web, think keywords. |
| 9:08 | PattyAdams: Some of the benefits of keyword tools can save you time and money. They provide you insigth outside of your site so you get a bigger picture of what's going on outside of your website. There are free ones and fee-based ones. Google has several free tools. |
| 9:10 | PattyAdams: Google Keyword tool is probably one of the best. It's easy and it's free. It provides voloume data, will find synonyms for you and can even give you data by location. I like it because you can put in a phrase and I get back a laundry list of terms. Then it can be exported into Excel You can see which terms are popular. However, popular does not necessarily mean it'll convert the best so keep that in mind. Sometimes you need to go for a longer phrase. |
| 9:11 | PattyAdams: Google Trends tool lets you see a trend over time. You can compare popular phrases. |
| 9:11 | PattyAdams: Fee-based ones include Wordtracker, Hitwise and more. I encourage you to explore and test each ones. |
| 9:12 | PattyAdams: Another tool that is similar is Google Insights; I call it Google Trends on steroids. Gives you related, fast-rising terms. |
| 9:16 | PattyAdams: Wordtracker is yet another tool; it's been around for a long time. It'll pull data from meta search engines and eliminates most skewing issues caused by robots. |
| 9:16 | PattyAdams: A new version is coming out soon that will have an increased database, keyword management and more. This will be really good. |
| 9:20 | PattyAdams: Keyword Discovery uses multiple database, including a questions that use that term. Good for writing articles.
Clusty offers clustered search; it helps you to drill down to find a deeper level of keywords.
Google Sets is still in the lab form. |
| 9:22 | PattyAdams: Quintura is kind of different. It allows you to navigate by "clouds"; good for brainstorming to see relationships between keywords. Helps to broaden keyword buckets. |
| 9:24 | PattyAdams: How many tools would you use for any one job?
CHRISTINE:
I'll use Google Keyword tool; it'll actually break the keywords down by "buckets". I use it for paid search. I used Word Tracker and Trillion. There's not a right or wrong tool; all add value. |
| 9:26 | PattyAdams: HEATHER:
I'll be talking about SEO content strategy. One of the things that has come clear is that SEO has turned us all into copywriters, because we all realize we have to use keywords now. It's a new skill for many of us. |
| 9:26 | PattyAdams: Now that you have a keyword phrase list, now what? Now you have to strategize on how to use the keyword phrases on your site. I'll stress conversion and writing. At the end of the day, it's all about content. How the text is written can have a huge impact on search positions. We don't want to sound spammy or "stick" keywords into your copy. |
| 9:26 | PattyAdams: You have to mesh what people want to see vs. what a search engine wants to see. |
| 9:26 | PattyAdams: How to evaluate your site has 5 steps. Review your approach is first. |
| 9:26 | PattyAdams: Starbucks was considered a premium brand of coffee. Now McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts are after them and they're cheaper. Starbucks has had to be defensive with their marketing. They had to review their approach. They never had to do that before. |
| 9:27 | PattyAdams: One site, Help4Homes, is an example. Their benefit statement is clear. Make it obvious. |
| 9:27 | PattyAdams: Focus on your benefits statements. Does it still apply? Visitors need to see your site and see what's in it for them. Whatever you offer, they need to know. |
| 9:27 | PattyAdams: So, the approach you used a year ago may not work now, just like Starbucks. Think about your approach, review your site in today's economy. |
| 9:28 | PattyAdams: So review your content: are there benefits? Do they appear on EVERY page of your site? Not just your home page, but every page. A website can be applicable for many keyword opportunities. Every page of quality content you build with targeted keyphrases can drive new traffic. |
| 9:44 | PattyAdams: So looking at your site: are your pages keyword free? If so, re-write to include them. Possible content opportunities include blogs, customer reviews and articles. |
| 10:15 | PattyAdams: Sometimes we look every day at our site and never see we're missing our core keywords! Take a look at every page and make sure they're there. Blogs, articles or client reviews can help with getting keyword-rich content on your site. Don't blog if you don't have time. Only do it if you can be consistent with content.
General SEO content rules are as follows: put keyword phrases in headlines, subheadlines, in hyperlinks, throughout your content and in the title.
Grab their attention with titles. Try to keep titles around 60 characters. Include your main keyword phrase, clearly explain what the page is about.
Focus on quality writing. Don't stuff your content with keywords.
Create benefit-rich content.
The takeaway is to capture buyers for all phases of the buy cycle for what searchers want to see, not just what the search engines want to see. Great content will always convert. |
| 10:20 |  |
