Why You Want to Optimize

Even if you don't think people can find you through Google, meaning- you're not in a business that potential customers would search the internet to find your services- you still want to show up in Google.

Why? Because you just never know.

You might not have an online store, and your website is for clients who already know about you. You still want to show up in Google.

You never know who is searching.

And I can help them find you.

Google Standards

The alogrithm for Google natural search changes all of the time. You'll notice it if your top keywords rank differently.

Trying to react and over optimize is not the best answer. Google is probably way ahead of you, and has anticipated any changes you try to make. Slow and steady might be the best way.

Why do we do the Google Way? They're 65-70% of search traffic.

Pay-Per-Click

I've worked two contracts with online companies, optimizing their ppc accounts. The first one was with an education company, the second was an online retailer.

Google, Yahoo and MSN were the search engines I worked in. I developed a routine for checking and changing destination urls, A/B testing, keyword research. I worked closely with my rep to get the most out of what they knew and how that could be best used for the company.

The bounce rate from the last one was changed from 70%-30% in two days due to updates to the account.

Direct Marketing

I was at Qwest for eight years as a Marketing Manager. During this time I managed state-wide area code accounts. I worked directly with the state commissions. I was a liaison between the commission and the Qwest client.

Organization was important as I had multiple states with area code changes. All had different timeframes and deadlines.

Budget management was crucial as we had advertising on tv, radio and in the newspaper as well as direct mail pieces.

Technical Skills

Web Analytics: Omniture, WebTrends, Web Side Story
Google Analytics
Google Webmaster Tools
XML Site Map
SEO
PPC (Google, Yahoo, MSN)
Social Networking
Keyword Research Tools
HTML
CSS
Excel
PowerPoint
Visio

Search Engine Optimization- Example A

I am working with a very small t-shirt company, Client T, on improving their ranking in the search engines.

There are t-shirt companies that work out of a warehouse and have hundreds of designs. The quantity of t-shirt companies is large. Google "tees" and you get 28 million results, "t-shirt" brings back 151 million! Sure, not every result is an individual t-shirt company, but the competition is huge. How can a small company compete with these guys?

Background
Client T uses sweatshop-free tees, hand-printed work, and works from her home. The quality of the tees she provides are second to none. She is able to communicate directly to customers or anyone with a question.

Budget
Like a lot of small businesses, the budget for web site changes, marketing, seo, was small. She makes all website changes herself. She found she was losing the most money on website changes- she would have to sell 5 tees per every website change she had just to break even.

Goal
Currently she sells some tees through a local store, and has not had much success selling online. Too hard to find her through the large selection of tees. Her goal for the next month is to increase her search engine ranking, and to sell more tees online.

Strategy
Taking inventory on current ranking in the search engines for the keywords she associated with her site. In a spreadsheet, I put the date and ranking. We would update this each week, hoping to see some improvement.

Process
I take her goals and come up with a marketing strategy. Once she approves of the goals, the process is implemented.

Status
After a week- Improvement in Google for some keywords! This is with only 2 of her pages optimimized. I have given her the direction to optimize, but she needs to make the pages "live". Once all of the pages are reformatted, I expect even more traffic. Very slight improvement in traffic to her site. She was getting hardly any traffic, so now she has some to work with. This is encouraging.

Action Items
She needs to finish publishing the pages (remember- this was her choice so as to save money, but I put the optimization in the pages, she uploads the right images and then makes it live). Once these are live, we will move on to Social Networking.

I will update the blog on her improved search engine status a week from when she has all the pages live.


My traditional marketing experience

Traditional Marketing Experience

I call the marketing that came before online marketing, "traditional marketing". I'm sure there are some people that are thinking- "there was a time before online marketing??" Yes, and it involved a lot of fedexed packages!

Traditional marketing can be applied anywhere as it encompasses vital components of a company such as branding.

Even if you are a small company, you need branding. If you're an established company- you still need to be aware of your branding.


While at Qwest, I worked directly with the branding department on company logo specifics. Colors were chosen right down to their specific PMS number. The letterhead and envelope logo dimensions, and how far a logo sat from the edge of the page, were determined. Communication across all business lines was established. A process was formed for proper branding throughout the channels.

At Microsoft I worked with the website team, ad agencies, and the subsidiaries from across the globe on keeping the brand while rolling out a new website. Again, this involves communication and being able to work cross-functionally.

At a LION, a mortgage technology company I worked on keeping the established legacy of the company while rolling out a new website. This involves communicating to the ad agency what the established brand is, and how to alter it for the better in the future.