Hi all,

Welcome to the second part of our May Newsletter.

Firstly I want to showcase a few of our clients, and some of the results they are achieving from search marketing efforts with Optymise. We’re carrying on from Part One’s Marketing class with Marketing 102: Keyword Selection and Placement (very helpful for the beginner… and a good reminder for the expert).

Have a fantastic month.

Enjoy!

Robyn

We would love to hear any questions, comments, or ideas for future articles… just email us at info@optymise.co.nz.

In this issue:

• » Client Showcase
• » Marketing 102: Keyword Selection and Placement

We are just so proud of our clients, we just had to show some of them off to you!

Client: Interflora
Website: www.interflora.co.nz

Interflora is a worldwide florist with huge online competition. Optymise has worked with Interflora to increase traffic to their website and visibility on the search engines since January 2006.

“Could I take this opportunity to thank you and your team for the work you have done on our site over the last 12 months and in particular the remarkable results you have achieved for us. With number one page rankings appearing on most of our selected key words and the good results from the click through programme, we are achieving remarkable growth rates in our internet business. The figures speak for themselves but suffice to say we recorded a 58% increase in our orders for December. Some of this was due to the work done to increase our conversion rates but a lot of it is to do with the increased traffic that is coming to our site.”

D.J. Hargreaves, Executive Director, Interflora

Client: Lanocorp
Website: http://www.lanocreme.com

Lanocorp is an online shopping site specialising in lanolin skin care and products, and have an international market.

Lanocorp has been with Optymise since 2004 and have seen consistent results from their search marketing campaign. Their positioning on the search engines such as Google.com now lists Lanocorp on page one for key words such as “lanolin products”, “vitamin e skincare”, collagen skin care”, “lanolin lotion” and “placenta cream”. This in effect has raised their website traffic dramatically from 13 visitors in August 2004 to 9829 in December 2006!

"Experience taught us that rankings are too valuable to be left to chance and the complexities surrounding search engine necessitated the services of an experienced and successful company to gain the results. For this reason we presented our challenge to Optymise. Teaming up with Optymise and our developers during the conception of our website was a significant advantage, as it allowed the site to be developed with consideration given to its optimisation, saving cost and valuable time… We have seen a consistent rise in our rankings and sales, with further results expected as new strategies are implemented."

Tim McIver, Lanocorp Pacific Ltd

Client: Run 79
Website: www.run79.com

Run 79 is a retail shop specialising in Merino Clothing and Original Artwork, with labels such as Icebreaker and Caroline Sills. Two years on from opening the store they went online. Run 79 operated the website without any marketing efforts for six months.

With the implementation of Run 79’s search engine optimisation campaign, Run 79 has achieved an increase in visitors and orders to the site in excess of 300%, and all within a realistic budget for a small company. Run 79 now reaps the benefits of having first page results in Google for key words such as “icebreaker clothing”, “merino wool clothing”, “wool outdoor clothing” and “wool vests”.

“We have increased our online marketing activity once in that time and are now looking for further expansion, as it is now apparent that the customer depth is available. We currently run at upwards of 1200 online orders per year, and have a seasonal trend. We are increasing our stock coverage on the site which will enable us to increase our key words. We also write to our customers with newsletters giving info on stock changes and new lines. We have found optimize to be a realistically priced company that will fit any budget with great results.”

Lynn Frost, Run 79

Keyword Selection and Placement

Hi team, remember how in Part One, we covered keyword research? Now we are carrying it on with tips for keyword selection and placement.

Here I must emphasize a very important point. Don’t always search for keywords with high traffic and less competition alone. Always discriminate first on the relevance to your site, not potential traffic. Remember what we observed at the beginning: quality keywords equal quality traffic.

Let us assume that a person wants to buy a television. Read the mind of your clients. What does he search for? Imagine that he searches using the keyword "television." The result would be mostly a list of websites featuring major television companies. He may be confused and mostly want to buy a television from a shop near his own geographical location. So next he might search using a keyword phrase with "television" and his geographical location. This time, there is a very good chance that he will find the website of a local shop from where he buys the television. Add such keywords to the top of the list.

Next, find out the spelling mistakes people make. Don’t forget the words which people use to represent the same object in different regions of the world--for example, a “jersey” in New Zealand is a "jumper" in the United Kingdom. Also ask each of your friends to tell you a few words that they would use to search if they were to buy the products you're trying to promote on your site. List the additional keywords, and include them in appropriate positions in our previous list. Now we have a list of approximately 25-30 keywords.

If you have competitors, then find out the keywords that have been used in the highest ranked website. Check if you have missed any; I bet you haven’t. In case you have missed, add those words also to your list.

Optimise each of your web pages for not more than a couple of keywords. Preferably, use the top few keywords on the homepage. For a first hand reference, analyze your competitor’s website and take note of the places where he has included his keywords on his Web pages. Try to use the keywords towards the top of the Web page, because this helps in improving the ranking of the page. Following is a list of important locations for putting up your keywords:

• Title Meta Tags
• Alt Tags in Pictures that are Links
• Alt Tags in Pictures that are not Links
• Anchor Text
• Header Tag Content
• Title Tag in Anchor Tags
• Bold/Italic Tag Content
• Body Text on top, middle and bottom of page
• URL/Filenames
• Meta Keyword Description

The keyword placement process is the most difficult part as it never ends. You must keep experimenting, and analyzing the results. You might go through a fairly large number of iterations before you achieve the ideal placement.

Remember…

1. Quality is better than quantity

Concentrate on grabbing more and more qualified traffic to your website. Qualified traffic implies a higher percentage of visitors to your site are interested in any product or service that you are offering. This will give you a higher number of repeat visitors and more subscribers for the service that you offer.

2. Be a mind reader

Get into the mindset of your clients. What do they search for? What are they interested in? How are they going to act on a particular search result? Sketch out a detailed plan as to how you will use your clients' thought processes to your benefit. This takes a lot of time and effort, which I am sure you are ready to contribute.

3. Be specific – don’t beat around the bush

Make it very clear what your website is all about. State clearly the intent of your website, and the services that you offer. Visitors shouldn’t be confused when they reach your site, or they'll leave as quickly as they came.

4. Phrases are better than words

Research proves that the majority of searchers use phrases rather than single words. Using phrases for search implies that users are looking for more focused results. Optimise your pages for commonly used phrases to get more quality traffic.

5. Divide and conquer

Don’t try to finish off the big hamburger in a single bite. Distribute your keywords on various pages throughout your website. Focus on only a few keywords on a single page.

6. Be competitive

Don’t sit dumb and let things happen. Make things happen.

7. Follow good ethics

On any issue, do only what you think is right. Remember the point I emphasized above, about choosing keywords that are highly relevant. This will both increase the number of qualified visitors to your site and help prevent visitors from feeling deceived. Also be considerate enough to take any suggestions that others may give you-evaluate them and apply them as necessary.

8. Go by what your elders say

Take the experience of your predecessors as a lesson. Don’t just start off in haste because you want to do something. Get to know the experiences of various people, read articles and various forums. Learn your lessons thoroughly; remember, this is an ongoing process.

9. Practice makes perfect

Have patience and don’t worry about needing to do the same things over and over again. You'll do things better each time.
That’s it! Go forth and get recognized by the search engines--and your customers.

CONTACT US today to find out about any of these services, or to fill out a brief outlining your business and website goals. We will assess your needs and be in touch with our recommendations.