Web Analytics & Search Engine Optimization: Smart Strategies
The Panelists Joe Teixeira Director of Web Intelligence MoreVisibility Mary M. Tomaro Web & Interactive Marketing Manager Business Development & Communications Jones Day Kristyn J. Sornat Marketing Technology Specialist Much Shelist Keith N. Wewe Director of Client Service and Growth Content Pilot LLC
Why should you use Web Analytics for measuring SEO results? Google Caffeine Google Webmaster Tools Keyword Position Reports
What should you look for in a Web Analytics tool? 1. Outcomes 2. Data export / API 3. Custom Reports 4. Web 2.0 5. People!
Web Analytics Tools Google Analytics Yahoo! Web Analytics Piwik Unica NetInsight Omniture SiteCatalyst WebTrends CoreMetrics www.google.com/analytics www.web.analytics.yahoo.com www.piwik.org www.unica.com www.omniture.com www.webtrends.com/products/analytics www.coremetrics.com/solutions/web-analytics.php
Social Media Tools Radian6 Sentiment Metrics Scout Labs Viralheat Klout Twitalyzer Bit.ly www.radian6.com www.sentimentmetrics.com www.scoutlabs.com www.viralheat.com www.klout.com www.twitalyzer.com www.bitly.com
Everything else: Blogs Feedburner www.feedburner.google.com Mobile PercentMobile www.percentmobile.com Bango Analytics www.bango.com/mobileanalytics Trends Google Insights for Search www.google.com/insights/search A/B (Split) testing Google Website Optimizer www.google.com/websiteoptimizer Omniture Test & Target www.omniture.com Copy / Paste Tynt www.tynt.com
What role does Social Media play in both the SEO and Web Analytics industries? Changed everything Influence & Engagement Klout & Twitalyzer LinkedIn = SEO
For more information visit www.morevisibility.com/ilta
Case Study: What to do when your developer assured you that "SEO is taken care of" but you later discover your site is lacking Kristyn J. Sornat, Much Shelist www.muchshelist.com
Immediate Site Fixes 1. Eliminating Duplicate Sites
Eliminating Duplicate Sites Canonicalization Defined The process of establishing a single URL as the location of a web document. Ensuring that although you may be able to arrive to a page via multiple paths or addresses, there is only one final address which will be resolved by the server. (www.joedolson.com/glossary.php)
Immediate Site Fixes 1. Eliminating duplicate sites 2. Thinking about content differently A) Resolving duplicate pages
Resolving Duplicate Pages Robots.txt File
Immediate Site Fixes 1. Eliminating duplicate sites 2. Thinking about content differently A) Resolving duplicate pages B) Writing so each page can stand alone
Thinking about Content Differently
Immediate Site Fixes 1. Eliminating duplicate sites 2. Thinking about content differently A) Resolving duplicate pages B) Writing so each page can stand alone C) Naming URL s
301 Redirects Resources Site Migration Made Easy - 301 Redirects Revisited Steve Johnston, Google Consultant Gives good background information on what 301 redirects are and why they are important. www.searchjohnston.co.uk/2006/07/301-redirects-revisited Implementing Redirects with IIS and Server-Side Scripting More Visibility SEO Blog Gives helpful and applicable information on several ways to set up a 301 redirect. www.morevisibility.com/seoblog/301-redirects-with-iis.html
Immediate Site Fixes 1. Eliminating duplicate sites 2. Thinking about content differently A) Resolving duplicate pages B) Writing so each page can stand alone C) Naming URL s D) Adding Metadata
Second Round of Improvements 1. Seeking Inbound Links/Referrals
Referral Strategies
Referral Strategies (cont.) Start a firm Twitter account Check out our Twitter site at www.twitter.com/muchshelistlaw National Law Review Legal topic article database targeted to in-house attorneys and insurance, human resource, finance and healthcare professionals. www.natlawreview.com
Second Round of Improvements 1. Seeking inbound links/referrals 2. Adding a Share Feature
Adding a Share Feature Add This Bookmarking and Sharing Service (www.addthis.com) Customizable to the sites you prefer E-mail and print options available Google Analytics Code information available at www.addthis.com/help/google-analytics-integration
Second Round of Improvements 1. Seeking inbound links/referrals 2. Adding a Share Feature 3. Tracking with long-tail URL s in Google Analytics
Empower yourself: Learn about SEO and make sure you understand what outside service providers have put in place for you. Make sure those who are making SEO decisions for your firm understand your web site content, brand and business development strategy.
Case Study: Why isn t my biography or practice coming up first on Google? Mary M. Tomaro, Jones Day www.jonesday.com
Preferred Reports Summary Directories Pages Path Referrer Time spent on site Entry and Exit pages Keyword
Google Analytics - Profiles
Google Analytics - Reports
Search at Jones Day Single URL Robot.txt optimization Dynamically generated, meaningful title tags and URLs Alt, title, and heading tags Links Syndicate, RSS, newsletters
New Associate
Facebook Page
New Partner
Other Links www.martindale.com www.findlaw.com www.linkedin.com www.lawschool.com www.uschamber.com www.zoominfo.com www.pipl.com www.law.com www.lawyers.com www.lexisone.com www.slate.com www.oyez.org
Google Adwords
How to use keywords What we thought: acquisitions audit compliance exemption LLC nexus Public Law 86-272 state tax use tax What we found: should federal or state governments pass legislation requiring that companies engaging in e-commerce perform regular audits and investigations on their systems to safeguard sensitive client information
Answers: Marketers - Use your web analytics to see how people are using your site; what keywords are being used Lawyers - write a substantive profile and submit any publication, speaking engagement, or news item to the web site Be specific with your keywords; there is too much competition for general keywords Incorporate the keywords you choose into bios, publications, practice descriptions, etc.
Answers: Lawyers - Actively publish and participate in events; Marketers find ways to push this content to other sites and mediums Hide (make private) your Facebook page and update listings and directories Ask your old firm to delete your name and, if necessary, clear Google s cache (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=164734) This all takes time and never ends
The best SEO is good content that people want to share. Analytics help you figure out what s good.
Resources www.google.com/support/webmasters Webmaster Guidelines Design and content guidelines Technical guidelines Quality guidelines www.google.com/webmasters/checklist/ Webmaster Tools Checklist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cdtt0kpltc Google Algorithm Updates
Site Optimization for Online Search Case Study of Foundational Best Practices of AMLAW 100 Law Firms Keith Wewe, Content Pilot LLC www.contentpilot.net
The Criteria Meta tags, meta descriptions, page titles, URLs and text links are optimized Employs H1 header tags for content titles Images have alt tags that provide alternative text when images can t be displayed Site includes custom error pages
The Criteria XML sitemap is placed and current What is the site s online awareness -- comparative analysis of: Google PageRank and other tools Number of pages indexed by Google Link popularity
The Results
Winning Example
The Outcome SEO Attribute (Example) 2010 Meta keywords / meta description Yes / Yes Site Map Yes Page Rank 7 Pages Indexed by Google 11,800 Back-links 12,418 HTML on Home Page Yes Image Optimization Yes Rank 92.1
What does all this mean? Building a strong foundation is largely organic Online searching is a level playing field SEO is a moving target Start now
10 Questions About SEO and Web Analytics That You Should Know How to Answer 1. Are you using "ALT" tags on your images, and, are your images near relevant content? 2. How often are you updating your website? Are you blogging or making website updates on a regular basis? 3. Do you have a Google Webmaster Tools account and have you uploaded an XML sitemap? 4. How high is the "keyword density" on your most important pages? 5. Are your pages targeted to the appropriate keyword?
10 Questions About SEO and Web Analytics That You Should Know How to Answer (cont d) 6. How well implemented are your web analytics tags? Are there pages on your site that are not tagged for your web analytics platform? 7. Are you doing pay-per-click marketing? If so, are your destination URLs tagged for your web analytics platform? 8. Have you set-up outcomes, goals, and conversion paths through your web analytics platform? 9. Does your web analytics platform allow you to perform segmentation and create custom reports? 10. What actions are you taking on your SEO efforts from the insights you gleam by using web analytics?
Thank you! Joe Teixeira jteixeira@morevisibility.com Kristyn J. Sornat KSornat@muchshelist.com Mary M. Tomaro mmtomaro@jonesday.com Keith N. Wewe kwewe@contentpilot.net