Conference Buddies

Keynote – Day 1 – Miva Merchant 2009

Speakers:
Russ = CEO, Miva Merchant
Jon Burchmore = CTO, Miva Merchant
Rick Wilson = EVP, Miva Merchant

Miva Merchant 5.5 launched May 2008
Over 10,000 merchants now on Miva Merchant 5.5

New features and fixes:

• Import/Export timeout fixed
• XML import functionality
• Streamlined User Interface
• Highly stable environment
• 100% control of shopping interface
• MySQL optimization
• CSS based skins

2 Miva stores grew into Internet Retailer top 500

Latest Credit Card Industry Regulations:

• PA-DSS/PCI-DSS Compliance mandatory for all online merchants as of July 1, 2010
• PA-DSS => Application
• PCI-DSS => Host
• Penalty = can’t accept credit cards (Visa/Mastercard)

If you are a small retailer then you may have to move to paypal, google checkout, checkout by amazon, etc.

All other online merchants will have to make sure that their shopping cart and hosting provider is PA/PCI compliant for credit card transaction security.

Keynote – Day 1 – Part 2 – Miva Merchant 2009

Speaker:
Dr. Larry Osborne
Pastor, North Coast Church
Founder & President, North Coast Training Network, Vista, California

Word of Mouth Promotion

Create advocates/promoters of your products.

Advocate/Promoters:

1. Satisfaction (both product and process)
2. Confidence (confident always excellent, consistent)
3. Trust (character and integrity)

Process = how it is delivered

If satisfied with product and mildly uncomfortable with process will come back but will not become an advocate and bring anyone to you. Referral chain disappears.

Consistency vs. Quality

Quote from Dr. Larry Osborne:

“We judge ourselves by our best moments. Customers will judge you by your worst moments”

Power of long term customer.

Are they satisfied with your product and process?

Keynote – Day 1 – Part 3 – Miva Merchant 2009

Speaker:
Trevor Claiborne

Google Analytics

1. Landing Pages / Finding pages where they leave (bounce rate on landing pages, split view)
2. Funnel Reports
3. Internal Site Search

Q: How do you know if it is the page or ad copy?
A: Look at bounce rates for NON-PAID keywords
A: Check bounce rate for PAID keywords

Google Website Optimizer

Oct 2006 limited beta, 2007 out of beta

A/B Testing
Multivariable Testing (Headline, Description, Call To Action, etc.)

Test age -> Conversion Page
Section Scripts (up to 8 sections per page)
Tracking Scripts
Conversion Scripts

Best Practices

• Start Now
• Test Often

NerdyShirts: 20 min setup, and in 1 week = 7% improvement in conversion

Google Analytics Resources:

The Techie Guide to Google Website optimizer
WebsiteOptimizer.blogspot.com
google.com/websiteoptimizer
GA or GWO Authorized Consultants (Get authorized)

100 conversions per version (rule of thumb)

tclaiborne on twitter
tclaiborne@google.com

Introduction to SEO – Miva Merchant 2009
Speaker: Mark Simon, Miva Merchant

Conference Notes/Descriptions:

I. How Search Engines Rank Pages

• Search Engine Rank Pages Not Websites
• What the Search Engines evaluate (Ranking Factors)
• Title
• Description (keyword and selling tool)
• Headline (Header tags, 6 tags, 1 to 6)
• Body Text (Write for your customers, write to convert, then plug in keywords later)
• Anchor Text (keyword vote for that page)
• Links
• File names
• Keyword

II. Keyword Research

• Target Markets & Demographics
• Customer lingo – may not be what you think
• Industry lingo – tribal speak
• Number of Searches
• Number of Competing Pages
• Competitor Strength
• Identifying Opportunity (lowest amount of competition for a keyword phrase vs. number of searches)
• Keyword Tools

III. Competitive Analysis (find keywords, find links, etc.)

• Getting into the Search Engines
• Measure Success
• SEO for the CEO

IV. Getting into the Search Engines

• Links from other websites
• Sitemaps – HTML and XML

V. Metrics – Measuring Success

• PageRank doesn’t matter

What does matter:

• Conversion Rates
• Average value of visitors
• Traffic Sources
• Ranking for highly converting keywords
• Inbounds links
• Bounce rate

Q&A:

What is the difference between Indexing and Caching:
Indexing (google bot) = spider your pages and stores the data in their database
Caching = last version that google has saved

If some of my page isn’t indexed how do I get them in there (site:website.com):

1. Sitemap
2. Interlinking top pages (link from top popular internal pages)
3. Social Bookmarking

Some tools and resources mentioned during the SEO session at Miva Merchant

• SitemapPro.com
• SEORecon.com
• Linkscape Tool from SEOMoz.org
• SEObook.com

Miva Merchant Conference 2009
February 26, 27, 28, and March 1st
San Diego, CA

Miva Merchant is one of the top small business E-Commerce shopping cart software on the market and the 2009 Miva Merchant Conference is the premiere event for anyone using or thinking of using Miva Merchant. The conference includes sessions such as SEO to increase the success of your business, as well as Miva Merchant development workshops.

To find more information about Miva Merchant go to MivaMerchant.com, or to find more information about their conference, visit:
http://www.mivamerchant.com/conference_2009/

The following is a summary of a session at SMX West 2009 on Search Engine Friendly Web Design presented by Shari Thurow, Founder and SEO Director, Omni Marketing Interactive

5 Basic Rules of Web Design

When centered on the user, there are specific rules that form the foundation of successful web design. These are:

1. Easy to Read

The code and text should be written in a way where it is easy to read. It should continue the “scent of information” (contain relevant keywords from acquisition source) so that a user can easily discern that they are in the right place.

2. Easy to Navigate

The web site should be, first and foremost, designed for users and searchers, not for search engines. All elements that appear to be clickable should be and users should have a sense of where they are at when navigating the site.

3. Easy to Find

Being easy to find refers to both the before and after of users arriving on a page. The web site should be found/linked from major search engines/relevant sites. Important elements and contents should be found above the fold (portion of the site that is shown upon initial loading without scrolling). Contact information should be easy to find, usually in the header, footer, about us, or contact area.

4. Consistent layout, design & labeling

Consistency communicates a sense of trust, security, reliably, and branding. Consistency is based on many factors, such as, use of space, color scheme, logo usage, placement of content, etc.

5. Quick to download

Speed is determined by both actual and perceived download. If what users want is hard to see at first, then the download appears to be slower. Larger downloads can be applicable if the important elements can be found easily.

3 Building Blocks to SEO

The build blocks to SEO are centered on how crawlers/robots can index your site. These are:

1. Text Indexing

If the content of a site does not have any text or “indexable” content, it won’t rank well, which in turn, makes it difficult to find.

Some other important factors:

• A site should make use of Primary Text, which includes title tags, visible copy, text within the header, and anchor tags/links as all search engines index these and use them in determining rankings.
• If time allows, a site should make use of Secondary Text, which includes meta tags, filenames/domain names, and alt text, as only some search engines index these.
• Breadcrumbs can help a lot, giving a sense of organization to users, as well as provide relevant keywords to links.
• If applicable, try to use captions for images because visible copy weighs more heavily than alt text.

2. Follow Links

The link component refers to internal liking within the site. These should factor in site navigation scheme, as well as other page interlinking.

Some other factors include:

Navigation menu

From most search engine friendly to least friendly:

Text Links > Nav buttons > Image Maps > Form/DHTML Menus > Flash

If using non-text links, always provide 2 forms of navigation. 1 for target audience and 1 for search engines. The search engine friendly one can be a navigation placed within the footer.

Embedded Text Links

Text links placed within visible copy can help to enhance usability and search engine friendliness. However, it is important to not overdo it. Too many embedded text links can decrease usability and legibility.

Site Maps

Site maps do not refer to the URL list that can be submitted to search engines. In this case, a site map refers to a page that provides users a hierarchy to your site structure. When creating a site map, it should not just be a list of URLs or links. Having annotations great helps with legibility.

Others

There a number of other helpful ways to improve usability and search engine friendliness. Some involved linking to related pages, upselling, and having a horizontal navigation vs. a vertical navigation.

3. Site Popularity (Link Development)

Popularity is based on number of external links, the quality of external links, and click popularity.

Some other factors that influence popularity include:

• Having substantial and unique content
• How other sites link to your site (What is the anchor text being used? What are the annotations?)
• Having keyword rich text on homepage
• Having at least one crawl-friendly navigation (even if it’s the footer)
• Having links to relevant information/sites
• Having a visible site map

Miscellaneous

Some other factors to think about in regard to search engine optimization and web design:

• Always design for searchers, not search engines
• When redesigning a site, SEO should be put into consideration in the initial phases and not after the site is built
• Test the usability of a site to determine the effectiveness of a site. If users can’t find the information, most likely, it’s not good for SEO either

• 1.0 was search keyword by volume. Now we have grown past 1.0 to look at navigational query searches and demographic searches.
• Good tools to keep in mind: Google Ad Planner, MS AD Intelligence, and Yahoo Buss Index
• Leverage your Site Search for keyword source
• Google organic is also a great keyword source
• Two great tools but costly to track competitor keyword reporting tools from: ComScore / Hitwise
• Experts recommend using keyword tools to research, collect data and as data point but not for automated optimization

• Complete most SEM project by 20th of each month
• Good book to read: Getting Things Done – by David Allen
• Check email 2 to 3 times a day and turn off the email notification. Don’t do email first thing in the morning – you will be fighting urgent fires rather than focusing on strategic projects

Speakers/Panelists:
Lance Loveday, Founder, President and CEO, Closed Loop Marketing
Eric Papczun, Director of Natural Search Optimization, Performics

Conference Notes/Description:

• 1/3 of searches are ready for purchase
• 77% are for research
• 50-70% bounce rate for landing pages

awareness > consideration (clicks) > (post-click) preference > purchase

Holiday pages:

• Valentine’s day offer – after valentine change to story about valentine’s day surrounding the gift purchased = fresh content and keeping content
• sitemap = search engine customer service
• 800 # gives sense of: not beging afraid to talk to me, reputable, established

ROI = Visibility x Effectiveness

ROI = Traffic x Conversion

ROI = SEO x Usability

SEO, Design, Usability

It is possible to have all 3, it’s just more work & planning
Goes hand in hand.

Flash

Progressive Enhancement – still allow SE to see flash elements
ie. Flash on left side, and static scenes and descriptions on right hand side

Usability

Good usability does not make the user think. Everything is spelled out and easy to find.

1. 25%-400% increase in conversion from usability enhancement
2. functional tagline: tell people what you do
3. Men and Women navigate through the site differently:
   • Men scan the nav bar first
   • Women more interested in looking at images and read content
4. Length of URL does matter
   • long URL = complex and a turn off (2.5 times less likely to click on than short URLs)

User judges your website within 1/20th of a second

• 75% of web users admit making judgments about the credibility of an organization based on the design of its web site.
  -Fogg BJ Standford Guidelines
  • lack of clutter; openness
  • navigation
  • professional design

Resources

• Book: Web Design for ROI

Speakers/Panelists:

Scott Brinker, President and CTO, ion interactive
Jonathan Mendez, Founder and CEO, RAMP Digital
James Zolman, CEO, semvironment

Conference Notes/Descriptions:

Going beyond the basic concept of landing page with advanced techniques such as keyword-specific pages, audience segmentation and targeting, dynamically-generated landing pages and more.

API: understand the technology that people are using

All APIs that are available – www.programmableweb.com

Some APIs include:

• Social AMP landing page: Facebook API to pull content to FB; backdoor to social media advertising
• APIs within Ads: serving the landing page to people
  • content in Ad is dynamically updated where the user can complete the transaction within the ad

Build experience to bring revelance to people

• The more control you give people, the better it is
• Providing advanced search can generate persuasive information generated based on the search performed. ie. reviews, maps (give sense of location), helpful / useful information, etc.

Strategy = Bigger Picture

Marriage of Creative + Technology = Success

5 Kinds of Landing Page Capabilities

1) Cycle Speed: Concept to Completion

- No ad hoc landing page creation; Plan & Follow a Process:

1. CMS
2. Design Templates
3. Digital Asset
4. Proof/Approval Workflow
5. Forms (data collection)
6. Parameterized Flash Objects

2) Targeting = Audience Segmentation

1. How segmented
2. How revelant

Coordination Between Pre-Click & Post-Click (Search Marketing Continuity Space)

Testing

1. Test Process:
   • Hypothesis-driven testing
   • Segmentation Testing: testing audiences vs. content
2. Test Experience:
   • 1 pager vs. multiple pager experiences
   • 2 Step landing pages:
     Page 1: User choices to allow further revelance experience on page 2
     Page 2: More revelant information based on user’s choice from page 1

5) Creative

1. “Beauty is a signaling strategy” -Seth Godin
2. Tap visual design talent
3. Play with flash elements
4. Bold testing / out of the box

Additional Tips & Information: www.postclickmarketing.com

Dynamic Landing Pages:

- Works especially well for E-Commerce

1. 2nd Page dynamics based on 1st page simple entry. Multiple page landing page is often better in conversion.
2. Geo-Targeting: IP Address
3. Keyword: dynamic word insertion

Not for Dynamic Landing Pages:

1. Broad Match Technology: too broad which might include negative image
2. Content Network: default keyword is used resulting in generic landing page
3. Semantics: same word but different meaning

Increase Chances for Success:

1. Negative Keywords
   - Tools: Word Tracker, Analytics, Search Engines, Keyword Research Tools
2. Target & Plan: Campaign Structure & Processes
3. Test Small % of Traffic: Day part campaign; use long tail keywords/phrases to lower volume
4. Location: where to place dynamic keywords (H1, H2, etc. tags as well as footer)
5. Copy writing: make it engaging with questions

Multivariate Tools:

• Omniture Testing Targeting
• Google Website Optimizer
• LiveBall

Speakers/Panelists:

Jeremy Crane, Managing Director, Online Media and Search, TNS Compete
Dan Darnell, Director of Marketing, Optimost, Interwoven, Inc
Sandra Niehaus, Vice President User Experience and Creative Director, Closed Loop Marketing

Conference Notes/Description:

Landing pages with multivariate testing tools – tools that let you change various elements of the page dynamically to see which tests better with people.

Stimulus > Exposure > Response

Advertising > Landing Page > Conversion Funnel

Insight + Testing = $

Rules:

1) Dedicated Landing Page
2) Don’t get between your customer: focus on the target destination
3) Optimizing post-click experience
4) Learn from your competitors
5) Every other rule is only true for 5-6 months

Copy:

- Less is More: Remove distractions
- Clear organization of copy
- Clear messaging of offer
- Credibility support (logos)
- Each landing page should have a unique phone number for tracking

Call To Action (CTA):

- Test CTA text, learning what does not work is the goal
- Make text align with expectations to get the offer to the right audience and help people focus on what you want to drive conversions to
- Clear CTA

Overall:

- Pick your battles, focus on what is most important
- Interactions between elements make a difference (test combinations)
- Be careful of raising issues unnecessarily. ie. Privacy Policy for well known brands. In contrast, for less known brands Privacy Policy will help in assurance.

Testing:

- Fine tuning landing pages increases ROI significantly

Step 1: Fix all usability issues on website

Step 2: Getting the offer to the right audience

Step 3: A/B testing is great for clients that are inexperience with testing. Or has a really bad design and needs convincing that a redesign is needed and worth the investment.

Step 4: Multivariate testing for winner of A/B Testing

Investment in Landing Page Design:

- Investing in design skill is worthwhile to achieve the high level of professionalism, harmonized design elements, and good flow of usability experience.

Speakers/Panelists:
Drew Hubbard, Senior Linking Analyst, SEO, The Search Agency
Matt Liu, Product Manager, YouTube, Google Inc.
Jonathan Mendez, Founder and CEO, RAMP Digital
Eric Papczun, Director of Natural Search Optimization, Performics

Conference Notes/Description:

Tips and tactics for doing well with YouTube, the leading online video destination for the web and leading video search engine. YouTube content is widely distributed in search results elsewhere, including those of its owner, Google.

YouTube:

• 2nd largest Search Engine behind Google
• 4th largest web property

Video Ranking:

1. Title
2. Description
   • use complete sentences
   • avoid keyword stuffing (will be penalized)
   • descriptive, accurate & unique
3. Tags
   • avoid keyword stuffing (will be penalized)
4. Community
   • Share & distribute
   • Experiment with annotations, video responses & thumbnails
   • Avoid spamming & rating your own videos
5. Embedding Video
   • distribution = popularity = better

YouTube Insight

• Free Video Analytics Tool for anyone with a YouTube account
  1. Discover: Paid, Organic, etc. traffic
  2. Demographic statistics
  3. Paid Search
• CPC
• Only US & English Only
• Goes to video

Integrated Marketing Campaign with YouTube

• Keyword density within description
• Inbound links
• Ad Bitz video link
• Channel page to include:
  • Optimize channel & profile
  • Include keyword in channel title, tags, description
  • Include the word “Video” within the title
• Subscription
• Distribution: email, embed, embed entire page
• Landing Page for more content
• Deep branding engagement using YouTube

2 Linking Opportunities:

• Under profile picture (deep link)
• Indicate website link (domain only)
• These links are no follow links which will not help SEO but Google does see them

Annotations:

Allow cross-linking within YouTube; these links are clickable. Outside link will not be clickable.

YouTube Title = Meta Title
YouTube Description = Meta Description
YouTube Tags = Meta Keywords

Additional Optimizations:

• Upload captions, annotations, transcripts
• Brand your video with logo watermarks for additional layer of branding
• Annotations can be placed on top of video
• Include Google Map for integration into local search which is 3.3 times more likely to click through
• Include and optimize thumbnails
• Include video sitemaps

What videos can do:

• Promote demand and awareness (ie. BlendTech increase blender sales by 700%)
• Generate traffic through social media: facebook, blogs, media press around video
• Video lifetime is long: months

Jonathan Mendez’s Blog – SEM, Branding in Digital, Social Media Optimization, etc.:

http://www.optimizeandprophesize.com/

TubeMogul:

Distribute video to multiple sites.