A User Centric Approach to SEO

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A User Centric Approach to SEOLanding Pages
Optimization

• Marc Uhlig

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Agenda

• SEO introduction
• Factors in SEO
• In detail Code, keywords, link building
• Social media
• Some SEM metrics
• Branding
• Landing pages introduction
• Got there - And now?
• The 4 steps of the conversion process
• The 6 steps of landing page design
• The 5 Big mistakes in landing page design
• Eyetracking landing page study
• Conversion rates - Landing page tweaks
• Suggested readings

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SEO is all about communication

• Usability is key, search engines are not
• Need for a more holistic approach

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High importance factors in SEO
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SEO Positive keyword factors

• Title tag
• Body tag
• Keyword density
• H1 tag
• Domain name
• Page URL
• H2, H3... tags
• Alt and image Title tags
• Bold/Strong tags
• Meta Description/Keyword tag

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SEO Positive page/site attributes

• Global link popularity
• Quality/relevancy of inbound links
• Rate of new inbound links
• Internal link popularity
• Quality/relevancy of outgoing links
• Quality of content
• Organization/hierarchy of navigation
• Age of page/domain
• Frequency of updates

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SEO Positive page/site attributes

• Amount of indexible content
• Spelling and grammar
• HTML validation
• Historical performance
• Relevancy to query
• Number of queries
• TLD extension
• Google PageRank of page

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SEO Positive inbound link attributes

• Anchor text
• Surrounding text
• Global link popularity of linking site
• Internal link popularity of linking site
• Topical relevancy of linking site
• TLD extension of linking site
• Google PageRank of linking page

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SEO Negative factors

• Server is down/very slow
• Duplicate content
• Low quality outbound links
• Duplicate Title/Meta tags
• Keyword stuffing
• Participation in link schemes

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Code Separate main/sub navigation
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Code Integrated main/sub navigation
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Keyword research tactics
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Keyword research tools

• Google
• Wordtracker
• Trellian keyword discovery

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Greater specificity means more words
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Keyword research Clustering
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Example Keyword cluster
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Keyword clusters

• Content
• Anchor text of site navigation
• URL architecture

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Link building using media outlets

• Industry specific/trade magazines
• Check Yahoo directory or DMOZ
• Classifieds
• Direct visitors to resource area on your site
• Specialty directories
• Submit your site

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Link building using media outlets

• Discussion forums
• Identify top contributors and establish
  relationship
• Electronic newsletters
• Are usually archived

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Link building using press releases

• Paid
• Prnewswire.com
• Marketwire.com
• Richcontent.com
• Free
• Prurgent.com
• Live-pr.com
• Pr-inside.com
• Pressbox.co.uk
• Clickpress.com
• Ukprwire.com
• Usprwire.com

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Link building One last tip

• Find pages or sites which used to offer a service
  and no longer do

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Social media

• Link baiting Cloaking?
• Digg.com
• Reddit.com
• Stumbleupon.com
• Communication
• Twitter.com
• Facebook.com

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SEM campaign tests ROI
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Indexed ROI of big 3 search engines
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Natural search conversion rates vs. paid
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Conversion rates by conversion type
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Brand most important consideration among clickers
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Combined brand effect of search and display
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Searchers focus on page 1 of the SERP
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Clicks vs. page rank
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Landing Pages

• Website entry point for outbound marketing
  campaign
• Outbound campaigns
• Dont do the heavy lifting
• Goal (microscopically unimportant) Convince
  prospect to
• Enter a website

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Got there - And now?

• Do bunch of reading (90 of population doesnt
  like reading)
• Fill out forms (only geeks use auto form fill)
• Submit phone number (hello telemarketers)
• Submit email address (hello spammers)
• Submit credit card (hello fraudsters)
• Pay for something

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The 4 Steps of the conversion process How a
visitor experiences your landing page
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The 6 steps of landing page design - Step 1

• Conversion definition
• Sale
• Lead
• Time
• Relationship
• Membership
• Viral outreach

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The 6 steps of landing page design Step 2

• Selecting URLs
• company.com/sale/product
• company.com/specialoffers/product
• company.com/event/product
• company.com/category/product
• company.com/brand/product

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The 6 steps of landing page design Step 3

• Demographic research
• Create profile of perfect converter
• Probably more than one
• Target converter with biggest market potential
• Copy wont work for multiple demographics

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The 6 steps of landing page design Step 4

• Graphic elements, layout, and form design
• List of all necessary elements
• Determine size and placement

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The 6 steps of landing page design Step 5

• Copywriting in three steps
• Headline
• Reference to referring page
• Call to action
• Test against headline
• Body copy
• subheads, bulleted lists, guarantees,
  testimonials, explanations and descriptions, etc.
• "Can this be said more concisely, yet as
  effectively?"

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The 6 steps of landing page design Step 6

• Testing, measuring, and tweaking
• Conversion rate
• Customer lifetime

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The 5 big mistakes in landing page design
Mistake 1

• Hard-to-read type

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The 5 big mistakes in landing page design
Mistake 2

• Navigation bar from your regular Web site

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The 5 big mistakes in landing page design
Mistake 3

• Click here to start the conversion process
• Every hurdle will decrease conversion rate

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The 5 big mistakes in landing page design
Mistake 4

• Scary forms

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The 5 big mistakes in landing page design
Mistake 5

• Copy and graphics unrelated to the offer

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The 5 big mistakes in landing page design - Bonus
mistake

• Landing pages that don't match campaign creative

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Eyetracking landing page study Lesson 1

• Visitors briefly scan - not read - pages
• The average American reads 50 words in 20
  seconds, but not in order
• Visitors' eyes are a lot like hummingbirds
  flickering through a garden

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Eyetracking landing page study Lesson 2

• The upper left corner is always looked at
• Glance at spot where logo usually is
• Slight downward drift
• Screen real estate directly below logo is high
  value property

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Eyetracking landing page study Lesson 3

• People look at people
• Eyes are drawn to human faces

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Eyetracking landing page study Lesson 4

• Keep hero shot on the left side

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Eyetracking landing page study Lesson 5

• People read captions but not all of the regular
  copy
• Duplicate your conversion offer

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Eyetracking landing page study Lesson 6

• Navigation bars waste valuable visitor attention

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Eyetracking landing page study Lesson 7

• Hotlink wording can affect page-readership and
  conversions
• Treated less as a thing for clicking and more as
  an informational tool
• Pages without hyperlinked text get much closer
  examination
• Yes or no depends on demographics
• Gender etc.

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Conversion rates Landing page tweaks
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MarketingSherpa's Search Marketing Benchmark Guide
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MarketingSherpa's Landing Page Handbook
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Don't Make Me Think A Common Sense Approach to
Web Usability, 2nd Edition by Steve Krug
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E-Commerce User Experience High-Level Strategy by
NN/g
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Net Words Creating High-Impact Online Copy by
Nick Usborne
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Thank you very much

• Marc Uhlig
• Marc_at_jupiter-labs.com
• Twitter.com/marcuhlig