WebStrategies - website optimisation and search engine optimisation (SEO) Auckland, New Zealand » seo

Google SEO vs. PPC: get the balance right

Webstrategies — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:29:45 +0000

“Pay per click (PPC) is an Internet advertising model used on websites, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked.” (Ref: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_per_click).
“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.” (Ref: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization ).
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When it comes to Google (and other search engines for that matter) I am often asked what the best spend of my client’s budget is when faced with a choice: Pay Per Click (PPC) or Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and what the split should be. Both are valid means of advertising your website and business of course but which is preferred? Well they are very different means of promoting your business and it’s important to understand how each works and the benefits and drawbacks of each.

What’s the difference between SEO and PPC

First the distinctions. Google is the most widely used search engine and has one of the most popular and extensively used PPC programmes: Adwords (called Sponsored Links on the search pages). Adwords and the Organic (free) search results, while both generated on Google by user’s searches, occupy different areas of the Google Search Results Pages (SERPs) as we can see below:

PPC = Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click (PPC) ads are positioned on the right and the top of the “FREE” search results and as the name suggests they cost you, the website owner, directly every time someone clicks on your ad. While the Organic search results are said to be “free”, of course they are not really: a budget is usually required to pay for a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) effort to get you to the first page of the Google results (i.e. the top 10 results).

So given that you have a set budget to spend on search engines, how do you split that budget between SEO and PPC? It’s important to get the balance right, but how do we know? Well we can make better informed decisions if we understand how much benefit each will bring to your website. And the benefit we are talking about here is the CLICKS THROUGH TO YOUR WEBSITE from Google SERPs.

So where do the clicks come from on a SERPs page?

A heat map study has shown that people look at the different areas on a Google search results page as follows:

Red = most views
Yellow = least views
Grey = no views
Green boxes highlight the PPC Adwords ads (lines added after the study)
Source: “The Perpetual Traffic Report” by Ryan Deiss

What does this tell us? Clearly we can see that apart from the two sponsored links at the top of the search results, most people look at the top of the Organic free results, or the top 2-3- positions on the search results, rather than the sponsored links on the right. And those views are going to turn into clicks. To add some actual data to this:

•   The Top position of the paid Adwords results get 2-3% of the clicks from a Google search result page
•   The right hand column of Adwords results get 1-2% of the clicks
•   The FREE organic results get the rest: 95% of the clicks from the page.

(source: http://training.seobook.com/google-ranking-value)

So where do we want to spend our hard earned budget when it comes to Google? What’s the best mix of SEO and PPC? Clearly the focus should be on getting into those first few places in the Google search results, in preference to the sponsored links on the right. Getting into the top few positions on the Google search results will generate long term benefit for your business in terms of visitors to your website.

Why bother with Adwords at all you may ask? Clearly, if you’re not performing in the free Google results at all for relevant and valuable keyword searches, then a paid listing on the right will get you visibility on the first page of Google, and quickly, when you otherwise wouldn’t be there at all. OR if you aren’t performing well on Google for some of your valuable search terms, then Adwords can be used to support those lower performing phrases. This is where you develop your Google Marketing Plan: getting the mix between PPC and SEO for your Google exposure, correct:

1.   Develop your pool of desired keywords for your website
2.   Check your rankings on Google search results for those keywords
3.   Undertake an SEO effort to get you on the first page of those free Google results for your chosen keywords
4.   At the same time undertake PPC advertising on the right to support the poorly performing keywords (i.e. the ones that aren’t reaching the top 10 results in the organic results)
5.   As your website comes up into the top spots in the Google organic search results for each keyword, you drop those out of your PPC campaign and save that budget, or feed the budget into other poorly performing keywords.

Remember, top rankings on the Organic Google results deliver long lasting benefit in the form of ongoing free traffic once top rankings have been achieved. The Adwords PPC system, on the other hand, can offer rapid and effective benefits. If considered together and in a complementary fashion, you can get the balance right and you’ll find that you’ll get maximum exposure for your website on Google.

Author: Ashley Bryan
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FAQ: What are the important factors for ranking well on Google?

Webstrategies — Thu, 20 May 2010 05:37:57 +0000

We are often asked what are the important things that Google factors in, when determining where in the search results a website is ranked, and how to improve those rankings over time. The main factors that you should attend to on an ongoing basis, in order for Google to assign your website increasing value (PageRank) are:

Age of website. The older the website the more “value” it accrues with Google. The website and business behind it is more stable, so is probably a better resource for the Google searcher (Googler).
Grow links in from other websites. Whenever you get the opportunity, ask other website owners to add a link TO your website FROM theirs. You may have to return the favour which is fine: add them to a new page called “Resources” or similar. Google measures and analyses links into your website. The more valuable the website that has the source link the better. Google sees this as a “vote” for your website.
Update your website regularly. Google will measure this and if a regular frequency of updates are recorded then your website will be assigned more value from Google. Regular updates and a growing website are an indication that the website content will be fresh and up to date and of more value to the Googler, than a site that doesn’t have these.

Of course getting the relevant keywords into each page in the correct places and density underpins all of these things. Keywords and phrases that you optimise for should be relevant to the content of the page, and from there you can develop a keyword pool for the website. If you want to optimise your website for other, additional phrases then you need to add new pages to support those.

Author: Ashley Bryan
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CASE STUDY: Millenium Institute of Sport and Health

Webstrategies — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:37:19 +0000

About the client:

Millenium Institute of Sport and Health is Auckland’s leading sports centre, and provides:

Gym facilities
Swimming facilities and clubs
Accommodation
Nutrition and weight loss services
and much more

The task:

Webstrategies was hired to provide seo and website marketing consultancy services to the Marketing Manager.

Work undertaken:

Webstrategies undertook weekly meetings with key staff with the objective of understanding the website optimisation and performance environment of the website www.mish.org.nz, and to also tune their Google Adwords campaign.

Services utilised:

- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Google Adwords Management
- Analysis and testing

FAQ: Why doesn’t my Web site rank very well on Google?

Webstrategies — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:01:24 +0000

I’m often asked what the key factors are that determine the success of a website on Google. There can be a lot of reasons why your site is not ranking very well in search engines, but some of the reasons are more important than others. Here’s a quick rundown:

1. Your website is too young. Google measures the age of all websites and assigns more value (PageRank) to websites as they get older. Age is a measure of business stability, which means a more valuable result for people doing searches.

2. Your keyword placement is not right. Bottom line: your website can’t be found on Google if the search phrases used isn’t in your website. If it is there, then it has to be placed correctly in the page eg Title tag, page headings, page content, image tags. If your keyphrases are in text (i.e. not inside an image) and emphasised for your human visitors, then Google will pick them up.

3. You have a low level of quality websites linking into yours. If another website owner places a link on their website to yours, Google considers this a “vote” for your website. The more links in the better, but the better quality websites linking to yours the better.

4. Regularly updated content. Google will keep coming back to your website and re-indexing it. If a regular frequency of updates for your website is measured, then this contributes to your page rank. Websites with good, fresh, up to date content is good for people searching on Google, so Google values it.

5. Technical barriers to Google. Make sure your website is Google friendly and that there is nothing in place which is potentially stopping Google from finding all your content. Website made in Flash still do not perform well on Google.

Of course each of these gives rise to a whole area of website optimisation and management but taken as a whole, these are the key factors which influence the success of your website on Google.

Author: Ashley Bryan
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CASE STUDY: Skellerup Roofing

Webstrategies — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:21:51 +0000

About the client:

Skellerup Viking Roofing and Waterproofing (a Tiri group company) distributes a wide range of waterproofing and roofing products for the construction industry. Products include:

Enviroclad TPO Roofing Membrane

Butylclad Butyl Rubber Roofing Membranes

Epiclad EPDM Rubber Waterproofing Membranes

EPDM Fleeceback Waterproofing Membranes

Bituclad Modified Bitumen Waterproofing Membranes

Dec-K-ing PVC Decking Waterproofing Membranes

Peel & Stick Tanking Membranes (Tank Liners)

CertainTeed Asphalt Shingles

a vast range of roofing and waterproofing Accessories

The task:

Skellerup Roofing commissioned Webstrategies to undertake a full review of their website and provide a detailed recommendation report for the improvement of the website’s:

- higher results on Google
- increased visitor levels
- conversion of visitors to enquiries

Work undertaken:

Webstrategies undertook a full technical assessment of the website and removed a number of barriers to the effective indexing of the website by Google such as duplicate content caused by lack of canonical redirects, misuse of meta tags and image tags, and other errors identified by Google Webmaster Tools. We recommended correct keyword placement in the website to meet best practice targets for placement and density of keyphrases and wrote correct Meta tags and title tags. We undertook a content review and recommended placement of effective calls to action in pages, with an upgrade of content to include more compelling sales copy and increased intuitiveness of user navigation pathways within the website.

The results:

Skellerup Roofing actioned our recommendations and saw an increase in the volume of quality leads generated from the website.

——————–

Testimonial:

“
“Ashley recently provided a recommendation report for the optimisation of our website www.skelleruproofing.co.nz. His report was comprehensive and thorough and we are working through many of the proposed changes, which we are sure will be of benefit to our website over time. Ashley is clearly knowledgeable in the area of website optimisation and performance and I recommend his services to anyone who wants to see the success of their website improve measurably”

Jane Waddel
Skellerup Roofing
“

CASE STUDY: Corporate Cabs

Webstrategies — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:07:02 +0000

About the client:

Corporate Cabs provide premium chauffeur driven taxi services in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown.

Services:

Taxi service
Airport transfers
Limousine Hire
Wedding car hire
Corporate Tour Service

The task:

Corporate Cabs undertook a recent rebuild of their website www.corporatecabs.co.nz. Webstrategies was tasked with assisting to ensure that the new website was launched in an as optimised state as possible. A particular challenge was to ensure that the new website was optimised for phrases using the word “taxi”. The website currently performed well on Google for search phrases using “cab”, but not for “taxi”, and this was a requirement.

Work undertaken:

Webstrategies provided input at key stages of the website development cycle: design stage, content writing stage, and launch phase:

1. Design stage: advised on content placement: key features, calls to action and user pathway start points. Reviewed visitor activity of existing (old) website and factored this into new content planning
2. Content writing phase. Draft content was a reviewed and optimised for relevant keyphrases that had been identified using keyword research.
3. Launch phase. Prior to launch a full technical analysis was undertaken to ensure the website met best practice for Google friendliness.

The results:

Within 10 days of launch the website performed in the top 5 Google NZ results for searches on the phrases “book a taxi online” and “call for a taxi”. Visitor levels from Google had risen by 74% over the old website.

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Testimonial:

“
Hi Ashley,

Just a quick note to say thanks for all your help with our website. Since employing the services of Webstrategies to oversee and advise us on the development and implementation of our new website we have already seen an increase in traffic. Our web developer also commented on how easy it was to work with you.

I look forward to implementing stage 2 of our programme in the near future.

Regards

Colin Samson I Chief Executive I Corporate Cabs Ltd
www.corporatecabs.co.nz
“

What is PageRank (PR)?

Webstrategies — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:33:20 +0000

PageRank is the numerical value that Google assigns to each page on a website and is a measure of the importance or “authority” that Google places on that page. Google does not disclose exactly how the PageRank value is calculated however it is a number displayed as between 1 and 10 which is boiled down from a much larger number derived from Google’s complex algorithmic analysis of each web page. And that is important to note: EACH page on a website can be assigned a separate PageRank value, even if it is zero (some pages, especially new pages, may not have a PageRank assigned at all). PR does contribute to a page’s rankings or placings in the Google search results but while it seems that in general the higher the PageRank for a page then the higher up the Google rankings it goes, this often does not hold true as other factors come into play.

Several factors contribute to PageRank (PR) and a significant one is inbound link quantity/quality, or Link Popularity. Whenever a website links into your own website, that counts as a “vote” for your website which Google measures and this contributes to your PageRank. Now, the higher the PageRank held by the page linking to yours, then the more valuable that in-bound link is and the more it will contribute to your own page’s PageRank. So it is more important to grow quality links into your website rather than quantity, but even better is to grow the quantity of good quality links in. There are a number of ways in which inbound links can be developed:

Best practice methods:
- Request links from business partners, suppliers, customers etc
- Blog marketing
Dubious or low success methods:
- Purchase links
- Article marketing
- Directory submissions

Absolute no-no’s:
- Use of Link Farms

As well as inbound links from websites that are external to your own website counting toward your PageRank, internal links between pages within your own website are important too. In this way PageRank from high PR pages (often your home page for instance) can be distributed to internal pages on your website, thus increasing their perceived “value”.

So we can see that Google assesses each page on your website separately: analyses inbound link quality and quantity and analyses internal linkage and then in conjunction with other factors pronounces its judgment on every one of your pages by way of the PageRank value. Clearly if Google can’t find a page(s) on your website then it (they) won’t be assigned a PageRank at all and so won’t perform well in the search results pages. This where a website built with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in mind is essential for Google success.

The building of PageRank is a slow process driven primarily by the slow process of acquiring quality inbound links. Gradual it must be: if Google sees any dramatic or sudden increases in your Link Popularity it may deem there to be “unnatural” inbound link development and penalise your website by holding back PageRank and keeping you lower in the search results.

Author: Stuart Wilkerson and Ashley Bryan
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CASE STUDY: Top Deck Flooring

Webstrategies — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:18:37 +0000

About the client:

Topdeck Flooring supply wooden flooring products to the New Zealand market. Their product range includes:

The Problem:

The owner of Topdeck Flooring was frustrated by a lack of success of their website in Google search result pages: they were constantly being overpowered by their competitors who achieved page 1 rankings for relevant keywords, while their own website failed to make any real impression on Google.

The solution:

We started with our full technical analysis of the website and determined that there were several issues which needed to be remedied. Paramount among these was the fact that all pages shared a common title tag and Meta tags, which were driven from one file. While the website did have a CMS there was no meta data management facilities on a per page level and this could not be easily remedied. As the client also had other issues with the CMS we advised and he agreed that a website rebuild was in order. The website was quickly and efficiently rebuilt by Worldnz using their proprietary CMS and full keyword optimisation was undertaken.

A keyphrase pool was established for the website and these phrases were optimised into each page correctly. This was supported by in-bound link (IBL) development, internal link development and sitemap management. We also undertook a review of the content and tweaked key features, calls to action and navigation pathways.

The results:

A month after completion of the work the following results had been achieved:

Top 10 listings on Google for 23 relevent kyphrases including the following: flooring auckland # 5, bamboo flooring #10, laminate flooring auckland #6 etc
Visitor levels from Google doubled following the changes made to the content of the Topdeck website

Case Studies – pre September 09

Webstrategies — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:39:10 +0000

www.conservationvolunteers.org.nz	Conservation Volunteers The problem: Poor performance on Google for project listings. The solution: Modified website code to automatically feature keywords for listings. The results: Top 5 rankings on Google for Project names eg: #2 for “Karori Wildlife Sanctuary Trust” #1 for “Waitakere Regional Park Maintenance” #1 for “Aroha Island Charitable Trust” 1 for “Mana Island Planting”

www.webstarters.co.nz	Webstarters The problem: Low performance on Google for essential keyphrases. Poor conversion of visitors to business. The solution: Website page tuning to emphasise the keyphrases in the correct locations and density. Copywriting to add impact and calls to action to content. The results: #1 on Google for a search on “starting a website” #2 on Google for a search on “free website hosting” #2 on Google for a search on “website development auckland” #3 on Google for a search on “web development auckland”

www.conveyancing.co.nz	Conveyancing The problem: This directory website needed more exposure on Google. The solution: Modified directory listing to feature law firm names prominently. Modified website structure to allow Google to access all regions and listings pages The results: #1 on Google for a search on “lawfirms auckland” #2 on Google for a search on “lawfirms wellington.”

www.careeranalysts.co.nz	Career Analysts The problem: Low performance on Google for essential keyphrases The solution: Website page tuning to emphasise the keyphrases in the correct locations and density. The results: #1 on Google for a search on “career assessment” #1 on Google for a search on “career coaching” #1 on Google for a search on “free xarerr healthcheck”

www.gardenretailsuccess.com	Garden Retail Success The problem: New website, no exposure on Google at all The solution: Got website indexed on Google in 36 hours. Website content tuning to push website up Google results pages.. The results: #1 on Google for a search on “garden retail consultancy” #1 on Google for a search on “garden retail marketing” #1 on Google for a search on “garden retail manuals”

www.mtcnz.org.nz	Ministry Training College The problem: Poor performance on Google for their essential keyphrase: “Bible College”. The solution: Website page tuning to emphasise the keyphrase in the correct locations and density, supporting by inbound link development. The results: #3 on Google for a search on “Bible College” #3 on Google for a search on “certificate in christain studies”

Noindex Meta tag versus robots.txt disallow – which to use?

Webstrategies — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:23:35 +0000

It’s easy to think that both the noindex Meta tag and the robots.txt disallow command appear to do the same thing: stop a page being listed on search engines. But there’s more to it than that.

Robots.txt, disallow:

A search engine bot will recognise that the page exists but not index the content, therefore the page URL may still display in search results, but with no other content displayed.
A search engine bot will not crawl the page, therefore will not find any content that you might want it to eg other Meta tags, or links out of the website.
Page can still accrue PageRank.

Format:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /page.php

Noindex Meta tag:

A search engine bot will not index the page and the page will not show up in the search engine results.
A search engine bot still crawls page and find content.
Page can still accrue PageRank.

Format:

= the page will not be in search results but Google can still follow the outbound links in the page.

= the page will not be in search results and Google will not follow the outbound links in the page.

= the page will be ignored ie the same as

Author: Ashley Bryan
Webstrategies
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WebStrategies - website optimisation and search engine optimisation (SEO) Auckland, New Zealand » seo

Google SEO vs. PPC: get the balance right

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CASE STUDY: Millenium Institute of Sport and Health

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Case Studies – pre September 09

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Ministry Training College

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Noindex Meta tag versus robots.txt disallow – which to use?

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