March 4th, 2010 by Jessica Behal

Search Optimization and Marketing

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NewCity's Search Optimization and Marketing Process

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an essential part of the development and marketing of a website. There are six main areas of SEO to focus on in order to have a successful campaign.

Keywords
Organic Optimization
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing
Link Building
Marketing Optimization
Analytics and Reporting

Below are some recommendations for each area that NewCity uses to drive Search Engine Marketing.

1. Keywords

NewCity works with you to determine the best keyword phrases for Organic and PPC to reach the target audience and achieve the marketing goals. We use audience research as well as marketing goals and existing Analytics data (if available) to create an initial list of terms people are actually searching for. These keyword choices will then be narrowed down by overall competition, average monthly search volume, cost-per-click and PPC competition, until we have a complete and optimized list to use for your campaign.

2. Organic Recommendations

Organic SEO encompasses all “natural” traffic appearing in the search results on the left-hand side of the search engines. It is important that your site’s content, meta data, URLs, and alt tags reflect keywords and terms that are actually used for searches, so that you appear high in the rankings and receive more clicks. Good on-site SEO and usability practices will have the largest impact on organic rankings - streamlined copy; more intuitive navigation; better title tags, image alt tags, and headlines.

Update Meta Data throughout all pages so that site is found in search engines and those results are enticing and informative.
Update content and URLs throughout all pages to include relevant keywords and drive targeted traffic to the site that converts.
Include alt tags for all images that reference the relevant keyword phrases.
Create info pages where appropriate that are strong in highly searched keywords to funnel more traffic directly to the site.

3. PPC Recommendations

PPC is all of the “paid” traffic appearing in the search results on the right-hand side of the search engines, using the same relevant keywords and phrases used for Organic searches. PPC can be a helpful tool to drive traffic if you are having trouble achieving high Organic rankings. It is simply a numbers game – you only pay for the clicks you receive. Additionally, research proves that the more places you appear in the overall search results, the more likely a user is to click through to your site.

Setup a Google PPC Account (including a Local Campaign) using relevant keywords and two versions of each ad per keyword phrase for A/B testing.
Implement Conversion Tracking, so that we can track the success rate of each ad and keyword phrase.
Reallocate the budget as necessary to the higher converting keywords.

4. Link Building Recommendations through Social Media

Search engines place importance on links and count each one as a “vote” for your site - the more links the better. Each link helps to show that your site is authentic and regarded in the industry as a leader with relevant information. Because the search engines want to provide useful information to their users, they place the sites with more links higher in the search results, viewing them as more likely to provide that information. One of the best ways to gain links while increasing your brand and Internet presence is Social Media and blogging.

Create a Facebook page to include links to the site and gain fans and update with events, etc.
Create a Twitter account update with appropriate keywords and links.
Optimize videos with appropriate links and keywords, make sure all are added to video sites such as YouTube and Google Video and submitted to the search engines so they appear in the rankings.
Link to Facebook, Twitter, etc from the website to help gain new followers.
Determine relevant blogs and maintain a presence, making comments, etc, using the appropriate keyword phrases and linking back to the site.

5. Marketing Optimization Recommendations

Although online marketing is not your only form of marketing, in today’s online-driven world it always plays a key role. Driving traffic to your site from various forms of marketing is fantastic as long as you are able to track how much traffic, and see how those users performed so that you can adjust your next campaign accordingly.

Optimize press releases before release with relevant keyword phrases.
Optimize PDFs with relevant keyword phrases.
Include unique URLs and/or landing pages in any printed materials for tracking purposes.
Include tracking codes in email campaigns and banner ads for tracking purposes.

6. Analytics and Reporting Recommendations

Tracking and analyzing your traffic is key to knowing if your SEO campaign is performing, and adjusting it based on those results. NewCity can provide monthly Search Engine Marketing reports and meetings, which give you access to a detailed analysis of your website and each area of your online campaign. This is an important step each month showing exactly what areas have improved, and what simple changes will allow your website to become more visible to your audience.

Set up and configure Google Analytics for your site, including conversion tracking, bounce rates, goals, funnels, subdomains, and Flash, AJAX and JavaScript tracking, etc.
Complete a benchmark report and subsequent monthly reports detailing next steps and adjustments in the campaign as well as statistics such as amount of monthly visitors, average time spent on site, bounce rates, PPC traffic and conversions (including average position and cost-per-click), number of links, and Organic rankings by keyword phrase for all major search engines.

If you are interested in learning more about NewCity’s SEO process and how it can specifically work for you please contact Jessica Behal, ext 201.