How to create the Perfect Search Results Page 7 advanced optimisation techniques

Transcription

1 How to create the Perfect Search Results Page 7 advanced optimisation techniques A range of advanced SEO techniques that will help you to get your brand to the top of the search engine results page (SERP) and keep it there. Contents Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) 2 Perfect Search Results Pages (PSRPs) 2 Universal Search 3 Local Search 4 News Feeds 5 Images 6 Blog Content 7 David Deutsch Head of SEO, Fortune Cookie E: david.deutsch@fortunecookie.co.uk T: +44 (0) Brand Refinements 8 Shopping Results 9 Video Screenshots 10

2 2 Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) Most first position SERP listings get between 1% and 50% of the traffic that lands on that SERP so it makes sense to do all you can to ensure that your brand takes the top spot. At the moment, it seems that the broader the keyword the lower the click-through rate regardless of the position of the listing. When you achieve top position with your target keywords, you are rewarded with a huge amount of traffic which can increase sales and business leads. But have you ever wondered how much traffic you could achieve if you really put your mind to it? The key to boosting your site s search performance in 2010 lies not only in optimising the pages your visitors see, but in actively creating additional pages that only the search engines will visit, and loading these with relevant text, images and video. Think about the SERP for your preferred keywords as an extension of your website and focus as much energy as you can muster on doing whatever it takes to dominate that SERP. Perfect Search Results Pages (PSRPs) An average SERP contains between 10 and 40 listings (paid, organic and universal results). SERPs usually display links to a range of different websites. However, a well-optimised website could lay claim to up to 16 of the 40 available listings. Brands should aim to create Perfect Search Results Pages (PSRPs) for the keywords they are targeting. When SERPs are more interesting to users, click through rates (CTR) will improve dramatically. It s now possible to have image and video on SERPs and multiple listings. In fact, see if you can create your PSRP and occupy every single listing on the SERP with your preferred keyword. After all, the more links to a brand on a SERP, the greater the number of clicks to that brand s site. In this white paper, we describe seven advanced SEO techniques that will help you create your Perfect Search Results Page (PSRP): 1. Local Search 2. News Feeds 3. Images 4. Blog Content 5. Brand Refinements 6. Shopping Results 7. Video Screenshots

3 3 The Perfect SERP for kitchen appliance brand Kenwood Universal Search You already deploy basic SEO techniques to achieve high natural search results for your website. Now it s time to build on basic SEO and adopt an approach that focuses on the more complex areas of optimisation: Local Search News Feeds Images Blog Content Brand Refinements Shopping Results Video Screenshots By taking advantage of these advanced SEO techniques, brands can get much more visibility than they would with a text listing. Universal Search is an approach that blends all these areas with listings gathered by other search engines and listings Google gathers from crawling web pages and social media. This blended approach produces enhanced listings that contain images, maps and video in addition to text. If you have created a page that contains well-optimised video for example, a video screenshot will appear next to the site listing for that page on the Google SERP.

4 4 1. Local Search Local business listings including a Google Map showing where the business is are offered to any business with a physical address. These listings can generate profits for businesses that have more than one physical location because potential customers who intend to pay a visit to a business premises are more likely to click on a map listing than on a link to a website. Take car rental companies as an example. A company whose listing includes a map of the nearest pick up point is far more likely to attract visitors than the company whose listing is shown only in text, no matter where each company appears on the SERP. Many businesses, such as estate agencies, restaurant chains, cinemas and retailers, those with multiple locations and those with a single premises location, can all realise greater traffic using Local Search. When to implement Local Search Who should implement Local Search How to implement Local Search As soon as the site is live and tested. This is a non-technical marketing task and should be overseen by someone with good knowledge of the business, such as a Marketing Manager. An SEO professional who knows how to optimise Local Search should implement the campaign. Google, Yahoo and Bing each have a different submission process: Google: Yahoo: Bing: Note: Microsoft Bing is still streamlining its submission process so for the time being you should continue to use Bing s Market Location service to post your business listings.

5 5 2. News Feeds Any website can host an up-to-date news feed containing original news articles and current industry news. Google and Bing crawl web sites news feed pages for the latest news and will publish articles on their SERPs when people search using the appropriate keywords. Under the right circumstances, the increase in traffic from providing news on target keywords can be astronomical. At the launch of the Hollywood blockbuster Avatar, a website carrying a trailer video and publishing news about the movie supposedly generated over nine million visits in three days. Companies wishing to be seen as a real authority in their field should consider creating news feeds for their sites. News feeds also makes PR much easier to generate as it is more likely that major news providers will pick up articles from a company with a professional (and popular) news feed. When to implement News Feeds Who should implement News Feeds How to implement News Feeds The best time to start planning the implementation of a news feed is at the site conception stage. However, it s never too late to launch a news feed. Note: One of Google s requirements is that the site contains at least three months-worth of archived articles. The graphic designer and front-end web developers will be needed to create the look and feel of the news section of the site. Web developers will be required to create XML feeds and the back end of the news feed. Some SEO agencies provide news-writing services. An SEO professional who knows how to optimise news feeds should be hired to oversee the creation and maintenance of the company s news feeds. Google: st.py?contact_type=suggest_content Bing: To have your news feed listed on Bing you require an invitation from someone on the Bing staff. Companies can request reviews by submitting their domain and information about their site(s) to lswmc@microsoft.com

6 6 3. Images Hundreds of millions of people search Google, Yahoo and Bing to find images. Companies that have the best online image banks have the best chance of attracting visitors who use image search services. Companies that invest in their image content should consider developing an Image Optimization Campaign. When to implement Images Who should implement Images How to implement Images The best time to start planning an Image Optimization Campaign is at the site conception stage. However, it is never too late to create and optimise an Image Bank. The product team and/or the site designers. Web developers will be required to create a user-friendly means of uploading and optimising images. An SEO professional who knows how to optimise images specifically should be hired to implement the campaign. Google, Yahoo and Bing will crawl the site using search engine robots or spiders calibrated to review images and their descriptions.

7 7 4. Blog Content Google places great significance on blog content and enables users to search blog content specifically. By creating and optimising one or several blogs companies can increase the number of results that appear against their preferred keywords on the SERPs. Blog content offers more than just extra listings on the SERPs however: search engines treat blogs as if they are websites which makes blogs very good for link building by allowing people to post comments on your blog you create additional, usergenerated content for the search engines to crawl blogs are a great way for ecommerce sites to keep their customers updated on the latest news about a product or service the ability to post comments against posts provides customers with a direct feedback mechanism When to implement Blog Content Who should implement Blog Content How to implement Blog Content You can create one or more blogs at any time, but the sooner you build them the sooner you they will yield results. Blogs are easy to create and maintain, so no specialist input is required. However, it would be wise to enlist the help of an SEO professional to assist with optimisation. Create one or more blogs using free blogging software available online.

8 8 5. Brand Refinements Brand Refinements is Google.com s latest search enhancement (still to be released on Google.co.uk). Certain keyword or key term searches ( DVD player, for example) will prompt Google to generate a list of the top five brands associated with that keyword or term. Appearing in Brand Refinements listings is important because: these links appear above position one on the SERPs brands that are listed as Google s Favourites will undoubtedly see higher conversion rates these links are likely to drive a higher volume of traffic and sales than traditional organic listings To rank well, manufacturers must ensure their sites are well optimised for all of their services and product types. When to implement Brand Refinements Who should implement Brand Refinements How to implement Brand Refinements Brand refinements are a recent addition to the Google SERPs so now is the best time to optimise the site. An SEO professional should create a strategy for targeting Brand Refinements. The trick is to optimise every service and every product that a company produces, so that the company appears in the listings for every product type.

9 9 6. Shopping Results Google, Yahoo and Bing (among others) enable companies to upload their entire product database into their comparison engines. This is a huge boon to ecommerce sites as they can submit detailed information about their products to Google directly without having to wait for their SEO pages to be crawled and listed. The process for most supplying product data is usually standardized making it easy to create a data feed for upload to the search engines. When to implement Shopping Results Who should implement Shopping Results How to implement Shopping Results As soon as details about the products have been uploaded to the site. The developer who built the back end ecommerce engine. This service is by request only. Owners of ecommerce sites must submit a formatted product feed to the search engine: Google: answer=59556 Yahoo: Bing/Ciao:

10 10 7. Video Screenshots Video content has become of major interest to the world of SEO, triggered by Google s decision to include video content in its SERPs. Brands may now take top SERP positions by creating relevant, interesting video content that promotes their services and products. By publishing video screenshots on its SERPs, Google draws the customer s eye past the traditional text listings to the prime video listing. Brands can achieve this in three ways: YouTube video submission, the easiest and fastest way to create video content for SEO. However, Google will link to the content on YouTube, not on the brand s own site; Video XML feed, best for sites that have multiple videos across multiple pages; Video meta tag optimisation, the most commonly-used method for sites with just a few videos. When to implement Video Screenshots Who should implement Video Screenshots How to implement Video Screenshots Video screenshots are a recent addition to the Google SERPs so now is the best time to optimise the site. This is a job for the web developer and the video crew. Create bespoke, original video content that is relevant to the site. YouTube submission, XML video feeds and individual video meta tag optimisation on a per-page, per-video basis.

11 11 A Google search for the extremely competitive hotels keyword shows which brands are really taking SEO seriously

12 12 David Deutsch Head of SEO, Fortune Cookie E: T: +44 (0) David joined Fortune Cookie in 2009 as Head of SEO. He manages a crack team of bilingual (English French) search specialists who develop search strategies for clients including Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Big Lottery Fund, Lawn Tennis Association, Le Creuset, Europcar (France) and Europcar (UK). David is a qualified Google Advertising Professional (GAP). He is one of the online marketing world s pioneers and was one of the very first Affiliate Marketing Managers in France. Over the course of his career, David set up one of the most successful text link advertising networks in the US and has managed multi-million dollar online marketing accounts for Jamster.com, Jet Multimedia, Citrix, Metro International and HotelClub.com. His objective: to push back the boundaries of what SEO can deliver. Fortune Cookie integrates SEO and SEM into the design and build of every website we create. Our innovative approach enables us to focus on more advanced and more profitable areas of SEO. About Fortune Cookie Since 1997, the world's leading companies have chosen Fortune Cookie because we create outstanding digital experiences that make a significant measurable difference, time and again. We are experts in digital channel transformation, with a focus on opportunity and value. Clients include Legal & General, National Rail Enquiries, Europcar, Trader Media Group, Metro International and The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Over the past two years, websites designed by Fortune Cookie have been short-listed for major design awards a total of 50 times. Further information about Fortune Cookie is available at Fortune Cookie (UK) Ltd The Lightwell Laystall Street Clerkenwell London EC1R 4PF United twitter.com/crumbs This white paper was originally written for and published in the Marketing Week Knowledge Bank in June 2010.