Basics and best practices for digital marketing

1. Intro To Digital Marketing

2. Adam McMahon
● Fullstack Developer
● Digital Marketer
● New Jersey Refugee

3. Search Engine Optimization

5. SEO
Optimizing a website to rank higher on search
engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.

6. Spiders
Robots that crawl and save web pages
● frequency - a few minutes vs. a week

7. Spider Limitations
● Flash
● Images (alt, title)
● Videos (transcribe them)

8. Google PageRank - Ranking Algorithm
● Over 200 different factors
● Analyzes pages linking to you
● Gives more weight to .gov, .edu
● Likes https sites

9. MOZ Page Authority
Alternate ranking system that attempts to model
pagerank
● Get more high authority pages to link to you
https://moz.com/tools/seo-toolbar

10. Sitelinks
Shortcuts to pages within your website that show
up under result
● No control over what site links are picked
Can demote them via Google Search Console

12. Helping Spiders

13. robots.txt
Tells spiders what not to crawl (shopping carts,
admin panels)
Disallow:
Public file
*example

14. noindex
● <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,follow”>
● noindex = don’t save
● follow = follow page links
● nofollow = don’t follow links

15. sitemaps
● file containing urls want crawled
● 50,000 url limit
● Submit to Google Search Console

16. Google Search Console

17. What is it?
● AKA Google Webmaster Tools
● Helps maintain your presence in Google’s
search results
● Sends you email alerts when it finds errors.
● Tips on optimizing your site
● FREE!!!

18. Set it up
● Add site
● Add sitemap
https://www.google.
com/webmasters/tools/home

19. Local SEO

20. Citations
● Mention of your business with your number,
address and/or website
● Found on blogs, news sites, directories and
local government sites

21. Local Directories Focus
● Google+, Yelp, Tripadvisor
GOOGLE IT!
● Your industry + reviews
● Photography reviews
● Coworking space reviews

22. Local SEO
● Claim local listings on Google+, Yelp,
Tripadvisor…
● Seek positive reviews and citations
● Use product key phrases in local pages
● Put up photos, videos on local pages

23. Google Listings Sources
● Business owner
● Aggregators (infogroup, neustar, axiom)
● Citations from Yelp, Yellowpages…
● Government entities
● Google reviewers
● Street view

24. Moz Local
Check local seo and get recommendations
● FREE!
https://moz.com/local

25. Getting Reviews
● Link to listings/reviews
● Follow up after service via email, phone or
social and ask
● Review site doesn’t matter, diversity is good

26. DON’T!
● Write fake reviews
● Push customers for positive reviews
● Don’t offer compensation for reviews

27. Respond to Reviews
● All positive and negative
● Respond as yourself - not as a brand
● Don’t copy and paste

28. Reputation Management

29. Complaint Websites
Pissedconsumer.com
Ripoffreport.com
Scam.com
Scamreport.com

30. Scam Sites Issues
● Many have no approval process
● Many have false claims posted by malicious
attackers
● Some charge to get reviews removed
● Fueled by negativity!
● Don’t respond to complaints on these sites.

31. Combat Bad Reputation
● Guest posting
● Charity + giving back (PR)
● Don’t respond on complaint sites
● Build links to review and social

32. Google Alerts
● Armory coworking
● Armory coworking reviews
● Armory coworking scams
https://www.google.com/alerts

33. Brandyourself.com
Free for personal use

34. Keywords

35. Keywords
Word or phrase that a website is trying to rank for
on a search engine

36. Keyword Types

37. Navigational
Website Destination on the web in mind
● “Election primaries cnn”
● “Membership armory coworking space”
● “Weekly circular king soopers”

38. Informational
Research
● “Iphone vs android”
● “Chevy Tahoe horsepower”
● “Loveland startup week”

39. Transactional
Ready to buy
● Used Lulzbot mini desktop 3d printer
● Specific attributes - brand, type, color, size
● monetary/purchase - Used, buy, affordable

40. Longtail Keywords
● over 70% of searches on google
● 4+ word phrases
● lower competition
● high conversions

41. Keyword Density
● No optimal percentage
● Law of diminishing returns
● Content First!
● Natural Flow
● No BAIT AND SWITCH!

43. Title Tags
● No more than 60 characters long
● Place important keywords closer to the front
● Brand your title tags * need picture of pipe
https://mcmahonadam.com/

45. Meta Description Tag
● NO SEO performance Boost
● Sales Copy only
● No more than 160 characters

47. Keyword Research
● What do you want to rank for?
● What does your site provide?
● Will visitor be satisfied?
● Will they convert?

48. Keyword Competition
● Highly competitive? Bestbuy, walmart…
● Does the competition deliver?
● A lot of ads?
● Keyword planner: average cpc?

49. CHECK SEARCH VOLUME!

50. Keyword planner
https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

51. Content Marketing

52. Content Marketing
Process of creating and sharing valuable free
content with the intent of converting prospects
into customers.

53. Content Marketing Tips
● Should be related to your business
● Educate!
● Establish yourself as an authority
● Long term game

54. How does it help product pages rank?
● Direct links to product pages look spammy
● Link to products from blog posts
http://radialdevgroup.com/blog/perils-of-
outsourcing-software-development/

55. HOME
PRICINGABOUT CONTACT BLOGPRODUCT
POST 2POST 1 POST 3

56. HOME
PRICINGABOUT CONTACT BLOGPRODUCT
POST 2POST 1 POST 3

57. HOME
PRICINGABOUT CONTACT BLOG
POST 2POST 1 POST 3
PRODUCT

58. How does it help?
● Fans build links for you
● Diversity of links
● Helps product pages rank
● Helps establish your brand

59. Repurposing Content
● Recycling old content
● Use content that won’t become dated fast -
week, month
● Adopt the content to the medium and
audience
● Add value

61. Content Ideas

62. Ideas about Ideas
● Question existing content
● Look at comments
● Overlap ideas
● Contradict Ideas
● Simplify Content

63. Inspiration
● Quora
● Yahoo answers
● Reddit
● Google news
● Google suggest

64. Easy Way
http://answerthepublic.com/
https://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker

65. Linking

66. Exact Match
Matches keyword you’re trying to rank
<a href=”http://www.thearmoryworkspace.com/”>
coworking space in loveland</a>

67. Partial Match
<a href=”http://www.thearmoryworkspace.com/”>
rent office space in loveland</a>

68. Branded
<a href=”http://www.thearmoryworkspace.com/”>
Armory Coworking Space</a>

69. nofollow
No seo benefit
● <a href=”https://google.com/”rel=”nofollow”>
Google</a>

70. When to use no follow
● Paid links
● Forums and comment sections
● Shady websites
● Competitors

71. Unnatural Links
● You control anchor text
● Embed codes

72. Don’t Use to Rank
● PAID LINKS
● LINK DIRECTORIES
● LINK EXCHANGES
● PRESS RELEASES
● COMMENT SECTION

73. Social Media

74. Tips
● Don’t buy likes
● Use social share buttons
● Create bite-size content
● Be timely
● Show off your fans

75. More Tips
● Ask questions in posts
● Talk with people
● Cross promote social profiles
● Use a face to build trust
● Fill out bio on social

76. Facebook Stats
● 2% organic reach
● 38% are mobile only
● Pay to play
● Highly targeted
● Always have a visual (video, image)

77. Google+ Tips
● Use headlines and long content
● Add potential customers to your circles

78. Instagram
● Add locations
● #hashtags
● Photos (team photos, behind the scenes,
product)
● Events “check out our profile” for link

79. Twitter
● Shows everything in feed
● Tweet lifespan is short

80. Twitter Tips
● Use images - 150% increase in retweets
● 280px X 150px otherwise picture won’t show
up
● Ask for retweets - spell out “RETWEET” - 23x
more likely to retweet - don’t abuse
● No more than 2-3 #hashtags

81. Twitter Tools
Tweetdeck - manage multiple accounts
analytics.twitter.com

82. Youtube Stats
● #2 search engine
● ⅓ all online activity spent on videos

83. Youtube - Creating Videos
● Use suggest to find keywords
● 90 second - 2 min
● Title
● Description 2-3 sentences
● Tags, video filename, thumbnail filename
● Consistent schedule
● Promote on social

84. Online communities groups
● Great if you’re starting out
● Facebook groups, linkedin, google+
● Check for engagement
● Don’t spam / add value
● Build it

85. Email Marketing

86. Email Stats
● 95% of online consumers use it
● 91% check at least once a day
● Longer lifespan than social
● ROI 4300%

87. List Building Tips
● Signup form on your site
● Give them a reason - (discounts, contests)
● Tradeshows, expos
● Email only

88. Mailmunch
● Collect emails
● Free for 1 website
Mailmunch.co

89. Dedicated Email
● Event
● New product
● New content
● Discount

90. Lead Nurturing
● Target people who are on the fence
● Answer doubts
● Highlight benefits
● 8% Click-through rate

91. Transactional
● Confirmation
● Thank yous
● Receipts
● Extra content (behind the scenes, contests)

92. Email
● Why would someone subscribe?
● How many emails are you sending?
● When are you sending those emails?
● CTAs?
● How does it help my business?

93. Name
● Use a name adam@domain.com
● Don’t use noreply@, sales@, newsletter@

94. Subject Line
● 64% open based on subject line
● Keep it under 45 characters
● Don’t use free, help, percent off, reminder, test
- trip spam filters
● Don’t use the same subject over and over
● Subject lines framed as questions perform
better

95. Things That Trip Spam Filters
● USING ALL CAPS
● Going! fucking! crazy! with! exclamation!
points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
● Red or green fonts
● Big image with little or no text

96. CAN-SPAM Act
● Don’t use false or misleading information
● Identify Ads
● List a physical address
● Allow people to opt out
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-
center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-
guide-business

97. Mailchimp
● Free for 2000 subscribers and 12,000 emails
● Widely used - plugins for wordpress,
squarespace, wix….
● Newbie friendly
mailchimp.com

98. Building Links

99. Outreach Types
● Guest Posting
● Content based
● Product Based

100. Guest Post
Write a blog post on someone else’s site and
they link back

101. Content Based
Someone reposts content you created on their
site and links back

102. Product Based
Give someone a free sample and they review
your product and link back

103. Outreach Email Tips
● Provide examples of your writing
● Provide ideas for blog posts
● Personalize - discuss recent posts, tweets in
detail

104. More Tips
● Address them by name
● Be transparent
● Engage beforehand
● Get input on projects

105. DON’T!
● Mention links
● Send same email to everyone
● Use flattery
● Have bad grammar
● Have more than 2 paragraphs
● Forget to follow up

106. Finding Blogs
● Google
● Follower wonk

107. URL Structure

108. https://blog.example.com/
Protocol

109. https://blog.example.com
subdomain

110. https://blog.example.com
Domain name

111. example.com/page-title
Page title

112. Page titles
● Short, but descriptive
● Keep important/targeted keywords closer to
front
● Use hyphens to separate words

113. Status Codes
● 200 - OK
● 301 - Permanent Redirect - preferred
● 302 - Temporary Redirect
● 404 - Page Not Found
● 500 - Server Error - Something Broke
● 503 - Service Unavailable

114. Redirects
Redirect www.yourdomain.com to yourdomain.
com

115. Duplicate Content
● Page on your website = page on another
website
● Page on your website = page on your website
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/at-t-wireless/at-t-
mobile-cell-phones/pcmcat211300050006.c?
id=pcmcat211300050006

116. Fix Duplicate Content
● 301 Redirect
● Canonical tag

117. Page Load Speed

118. Why Load Speed Matters?
● Counted in search ranking
● Long Load Time = Bad User Experience
● Amazon > every 100ms cost them 1% in sales
● Google > +.5 seconds cost them 20% of traffic

119. Fix It
● Google PageSpeed Insights
● WP Super Cache
● Render Blocking css and javascript
● Minify html, css and javascript
● Optimize images

120. Open Graph

121. What is it?
The Open Graph Protocol enables any web page
to be a rich object in a social graph.

123. Who supports it?
● Facebook
● Pinterest
● Google+
● LinkedIn
● others...

124. Twitter Cards
Twitter’s version of open graph
● Need to verify your url

125. Website Structure & Layout

126. Deep

127. 3 CLICKS AWAY
● Most important pages
● Pages you want to rank

128. FLAT

129. Internal Linking
● More important = more links
● Do not orphan

130. Content
● Do not link to the same page more than once
● Do not pack article with links
● Best way to get PA to your product pages

131. Internal Linking Opportunities
● Site:loveland.startupweek.org “marketing”
● Mix it up. Use synonyms

132. Quality
● Good Domain Authority
● Related to your niche
● Not a lot of ads
● Updated content
● Avoid easy-to-submit
● Good comment/sharing activity

133. Natural Links
● Earned
● No control over anchor text

134. Tracking Progress

135. Tracking Links
Google Search Console
openlinkprofiler.org

136. Tracking Social Shares
http://www.likeexplorer.com/
http://www.sharedcount.com/
http://sharetally.co/

137. Tracking SERP Ranking
Google it
http://cuterank.net/ -> one website is free

138. Tracking Offline Efforts
● posters, radio, tv, magazines, billboards
● Use separate url and 301 redirect
● Use promo code

139. Google Analytics

140. User
A unique visitor your website got that day
● Multiple visits in one day are counted once

141. Session
Duration of time a user spends on your website
Can end 2 ways:
● 30 minutes of inactivity
● Visit another site in the same tab or window

142. Pageview
A single visit to a single page on your website

143. Bounce
User visits one page on your website then
leaves.
● Might be irrelevant for blog posts...

144. Traffic Sources

145. Direct Traffic
● Typed url or clicked on bookmark
● Email link
● Microsoft office Doc or PDF link
● Url shortener link → Bit.ly
● Mobile social media app → Facebook, Twitter

146. Referral Traffic
Visits coming from another website
● Does not include social → Facebook, twitter,
pinterest

147. Social Traffic
Visits coming from social media → Facebook,
twitter, pinterest, google+

148. Search Traffic
Visits coming from search engines → google,
bing, yahoo, ask….

149. Set up campaign
https://support.google.
com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en

150. Think Lean
● Build Content and Links
● Measure Traffic and Social Shares
● Learn

151. Learn More
● Hubspot Inbound Certification
● Google Analytics Certification
mcmahonadam.com/intro-digital-marketing

152. Extras
https://moz.com/blog/create-crawlable-link-
friendly-ajax-websites-using-pushstate
http://www.wordstream.
com/blog/ws/2014/03/17/what-is-a-good-
conversion-rate
http://www.wordstream.com/conversion-rate-

153. More Extras
https://moz.com/blog/meta-data-templates-123
https://blog.bufferapp.com/twitter-cards-guide
http://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-
media-demographics/

154. Recommended Startup Week Talks
Nick Armstrong
Constructing a Marketing Program
11:10am Today
Jamie Lieben
E-commerce For the Startup
1:30pm Today

155. Recommended Startup Week Talks
Tyler Brooks
Getting Customers From Day One
12pm Tomorrow