Search engine marketing Digikring Groot Amsterdam

1
Search engine marketing Digikring Groot
Amsterdam

• Pakhuis de Zwijger, 3 September 2009
• Emily Hardy, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

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Contents

• KLM E-Commerce organisation, strategy and
  approach
• External analysis market developments
• SEM scope
• SEA
• SEO
• Link building
• Analytics for search
• SEA and SEO tools and resources

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E-Commerce at KLM
E-Commerce is managed centrally and locally in a
matrix organisation
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KLM E-Commerce

• KLM.com site
• Multiple country (75) sites and languages
• E-Commerce priorities
• E-Sales
• E-Services
• Ancillary revenue

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Internet penetration SE data in NL

• Internet penetration in NL is high
• 92 of Dutch adults use the Net regularly.
• 85 of Dutch Net users have broadband at home
• Searching is one of the most popular activities
  of European Internet users.
• 67 of Dutch online consumers regularly research
  products online.
• Used in every phase in purchasing process
  online/offline purchases
• Search engine marketing is a pull medium.
• 95 of Internet users use a search engine to find
  information
• 89 of Internet users search for information
  about goods and services. During the orientation
  phase, 55 of Internet users come across
  suppliers which they did not previously know.
• For 77 of Internet users, online orientation
  determines the purchase of products
• Size of the SEM market (SEA SEO) in NL in 2009
  estimated at 400 million Euros
• About 70 of users click on organic and 30 on
  paid results

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The online travel market

• Leisure travel is one of most popular purchases
  on the Net in NL (30 of Dutch online shoppers).
• Forrester expects that NL leisure flight sales
  online will be worth 1.87 billion Euros in 2014.
• By 2012, 51 of airline tickets in the US will be
  generated online.
• 56 of online travel is booked with the travel
  supplier website in NL, versus 37 booking via an
  online travel agent
• Nearly 2 in 3 European travelers are online
• Online travelers travel regularly (average 4
  leisure trips per year)
• Around 40 of European online travelers are
  Bookers and 27 are Lookers.
• Airline tickets are the second most researched
  travel products online (hotels are number 1) 51
  of Europeans are Bookers and 25 are Lookers
• Approx. 50 of air travel queries in search are
  brand related (can be brand generic term)
• KLM is competing with other airlines (network and
  low cost carriers) as much as it is competing
  with travel sellers.

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SEM scope at KLM
SEA
SEO
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SEA strategy

• Long term approach to SEA - enable campaigns to
  improve over time
• Focus on optimising the structural campaigns (the
  24 x 7 x 365 day presence in search engines)
• Support a limited number of tactical sales
  campaigns per year with most effort concentrated
  on the structural campaigns
• Targets are to maximise booking volumes within
  Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)
  constraints.

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SEA organisation

• Centrally managed structural SEA campaigns in
• 37 countries
• 22 languages
• 4 search engines
• Central steering from E-Commerce
• Strategy
• Target setting
• Budget management
• Steering and monitoring
• Campaign management outsourced to one agency
• Tactical alignment with the field organisations
• Opportunities, market developments, keyword and
  ad text input
• Clear processes, goals and transparency
• Consultancy, guidelines and advice for non
  centrally supported markets

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Search engine marketing agency

• Search engine marketing is fully outsourced to
  one agency
• SEM is an expertise
• The complexity of the KLM account (for SEA) and
  the KLM.com (for SEO) site demands flexibile,
  expert and and dedicated resources
• Continuous investment in systems and knowledge is
  necessary
• Overall KLM account management
• Dedicated SEA team
• Dedicated SEO team

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Campaign set up

• Branding campaigns
• Non branding campaigns

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SEO market developments/trends

• Google caffeine
• Yahoo/Bing - need also to optimise specifically
  for Bing?
• Twitter (instant search)
• Will Google remain in top spot or will new search
  engines start to play a more important role?
  Different algorithms? Different focus for
  marketers?
• Cuil
• Wolfram Alpha (computational knowledge engine)
• You Tube and Facebook as search engines?

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SEA tips and tricks

• Set clear objectives and business goals for SEA
• Pay attention to initial campaign set up
• Build dashboards based on goals
• Measure performance
• Regular monitoring to steer towards targets
• Pay attention to branding
• Use Google tools and advice but always apply
  common sense and understanding of your business
• Test and learn (keywords and copywriting)
• Continuously optimise
• Focus pre-click but also post-click to improve
  results

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Recommendations if just starting out

• Get website basics right first
• Start with a SEO optimised site
• Do SEA once youve got the basics in place if
  it makes sense for your business
• SEM looks easy but beware of the complexity and
  time required to manage it properly

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SEO success factors

• 3 key SEO ranking factors
• Content - Creating content rich keyword pages
• High quality rich and original content
• Premium in SERPs for frequently updated and
  relevant content
• Think about multi format content (e.g. text,
  images and video) for universal search
• Remember different devices PC mobile
• Link building - internal and external links
• The value of external links can be about 60-70
  of all SEO results.
• Having a fully optimised site structure
• Keys to SEO success
• Project management
• Prioritisation
• Dedication and focus long term

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SEO at KLM

• Optimising KLM.com in general
• Destination Guide

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SEO challenges at KLM

• Legacy and operational systems
• Electronic booking tool and CMS
• Organisational complexity and size (central and
  local activities)
• Scope of operations for KLM.com (75 country
  sites), multiple languages (also duplicate
  content), all on one domain
• KLM is not a pure online player
• Reduced flexibility and time to market

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SEO advantages for smaller players

• Reduced organisational challenges
• Speed and time to market (test and implement
  quickly if test is successful)
• Less risk/less at stake
• Ability to deploy creative solutions and
  techniques - stay white hat, though!
• Focus on a niche, become an authority in your
  nice and then build on that

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Getting started with SEO

• Define business goals
• Build dashboards based on goals
• Measure performance
• Regular monitoring to steer towards targets
• Do keyword research for your site. What are
  customers searching for?
• Categorise keywords
• Create themes/categories
• Think about seasonal trends or events
• Keyword tools/inspiration
• Google keyword tool
• Wordtracker
• Own site
• Competitor sites
• Keywords used in PPC campaigns
• Referral phrases in log files/analytics

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SEO metrics

• Natural search referrals from search engines
• Conversion rates per keyword for different
  referral sources and SEA vs SEO
• Conversion rates
• Bounce rates measured for different pages and
  at different times, e.g. when sending out emails
• SEO performance compared with other online
  marketing activity

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Link building - relevance is the key!

• Create content (e.g. tips and tools) that is easy
  and attractive to link to - get creative!
• Focus on trusted and relevant links
• High authority (paid and free) directory sites
• Link baiting
• Identify authorities in field and approach them
• Real relationships are easier to translate into
  links online
• Online press distribution and article marketing
• Social networking sites (e.g. del.ici.ous, Digg
  eKudos)
• Affiliate links no SEO value (but good for
  traffic/awareness)
• Bought links are no good for SEO
• Offer an incentive?
• Reciprocal linking? Target relevant sites
• Blog (outbound links from blog, chance for
  reciprocal links)
• Comment on other blogs

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Link building case study KLM

• Starting points
• Focus on destinations not with a page 1 ranking
• 2 languages and 8 destinations
• Methodology
• Results at the end of the pilot (gt60 links)
• Lessons
• Next steps
• Quantify number/quality of links, review rankings
  and measure traffic from links

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Analytics management per channel had reached its
limits
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DART Floodlight facilitates cross-channel
measurement and optimisation
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Analytics for search

• SEA is tracked by
• DART for Advertisers
• Webtrends
• Google AdWords Conversion Tracking
• SEO is tracked by Webtrends
• Challenges
• Tagging and implementation
• Getting the data right
• Making sense of the data and using it
• Becoming data driven
• And opportunities

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Some SEA resources/tools

• http//www.google.nl/adwords/learningcenter/
• https//adwords.google.com/select/AdTargetingPrevi
  ewTool
• IAB (Search Marketing Thursdays)

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Some SEO resources

• Google Caffeine (www2.sandbox.google.com/)
• Google Webmaster Tools
• Google Insights for Search
• Google Analytics (meten is weten)
• Google Website Optimiser (conversion
  optimisation)
• Focus not only on pre-click but also post click
• Google SEO Starter Guide (Dutch version available
  here http//googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/20
  08/11/googles-seo-starter-guide.html)
• Book SEO Resultaatgerichte zoekmachineoptimalis
  atie (http//www.onetomarket.nl/boek/)
• Lipperhey.com
• www.copyblogger.com (online marketing
  copywriting tips)