A four step approach to a successful search strategy for new online retailers. A presentation given at the Sheerluxe Conference 2009 by Stephen Pratley of Shine Marketing

1. The A-Z of Search for Retailers
Stephen Pratley
MD - Shine Marketing

2. The A-Z of Search
• The importance of search marketing for upmarket
brands
• A Four Part Approach for Long Term Search
Success
– Keywords
– Structure
– Content
– Links
• Case Examples

3. The importance of search
marketing for upmarket brands
• Over 75% of the UK population now online at home
• 72% use the internet to research high value
purchases regardless of where they buy them
• 42% of respondents cited search engine listings as
the most common way they search for products and
vendors (Jupiter Media Matrix)
• Put briefly, everyone in the UK who has a credit card
can now find out about your brand online, and will do
so, at your site or elsewhere

4. How do you achieve good search
rankings?
• Keywords
• Structure
• Content
• Links

5. Keywords

6. What phrases do you
want to rank for?
Browsers
Shoppers

7. Keywords
Generic High Volume
Eye Cream Long term SEO Goal
terms Low conversion
Brand Medium Volume Mid Term SEO
Elemis
Names Medium conversion PPC to test
Brand +
Elemis Eye Low Volume Short Term SEO
Generic
Cream High conversion PPC to test
Buy Elemis Pro
Collagen Eye Site structure and
Product Lowest Volume
Renewal Cream overall link profile
Names 15ml Very High conversion
PPC to test

8. Keyword Research Tools
• adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
• Wordtracker.com
for alternative terms (e.g. handbag/tote/purse)
• SpyFu.com (competitor terms - free)
• Hitwise (competitor terms – expensive!)

9. Keyword Research

10. Keywords
• Choose keywords that will drive buyers not browsers
• Check your assumptions using Google’s tools
• Accept that you can only optimise one page per term
– Home page
– Category pages
– Product Pages
– Content Pages

11. Structure

12. Site Structure

13. How Google Uses Your Text

14. What You See

15. What Google Sees
Does your website
make any sense when
all that is left is text
and links?

16. Getting Google to Every Page
Method 1
1. Google Starts at the
top
2. Works down through
links
3. Leaves a little ‘juice’
at each step

17. Method 2 – Index files

18. Indexing Tools
• XML Sitemaps
• Google
Webmaster Tools
• RSS Feeds
– New products
– Blogs & News
• Feedburner

19. Content

20. How do you achieve good search
rankings?
• Content on your site that relates to the search terms
you want to appear on Google for.
• Content which is either useful to others or shows you
as an authority
• Content which is newsworthy and likely to attract
attention

21. Editorial
Show your expertise
Text = Search terms

22. Blogs
Allows more
feedback
Cheap and quick
to set up
Put it at:
yoursite.com/blog

23. Press

24. Stores
Local Search
Terms
Combine with
Google Maps
&
Google Local

25. Content that Gets Editors Talking
• In order to get other people to talk about you, you
need something worth talking about
– Interviews
– Opinions
– New products
– Celebrity endorsement
– Event appearances

26. Content
Google is still essentially a TEXT search engine
Use copy and other editorial to be found
Interesting editorial is more likely to attract attention
than sales landing pages

27. Links

28. Good Links
High traffic site
Page dedicated to
one site
Few other links
on the page
Some unique
editorial

29. Bad Links
Several sites
Overall site has
little relevance
Same text
repeated on
many directories

30. Links – Press Releases

31. Links – Forums

32. Links – Forums

33. Links – Forums

34. Link Building
Building Links is an Exchange of Value
• Reciprocal Links
• Content & Copy
• Breaking News
• Product Samples
• Hard Cash

35. Link Quality
Bad • Good
• Submit your own links • Editorial Checks
• Lots of links per page • Pages dedicated to you
• Site is relevant to you • Site has no relation to you
• New sites with little traffic • Established ‘authority’ sites

36. “I’m doing it for SEO”
Forget about Google
Where would you want
visitors from if Google
didn’t exist?
Google follows popular
sites It doesn’t create them

37. Finding sites that will link to you
– Google Alerts : email alerts when your brand is
mentioned (or competitors)
– Yahoo Site Explorer: sites that link to you or your
competitors
– Technorati: Blogs talking about your sector
– Hitwise: detailed analysis of UK traffic patterns
(paid for service)

38. Case Studies

39. On site optimisation only
Good structure
Sitemaps submitted to Google
Product feeds sent to Google Base
4,000 pages indexed in approx 2 weeks

40. Buy Beauty Brands

41. Lanson Running

42. Lanson Running
Same on site principles used
• Standards compliant HTML code
• Google sitemaps
• Google base
• Fewer products – only 600 pages

43. Lanson Running
Over 600 relevant links built into the site over 9 months
• Forums
• Events
• Local directories
Regular new content in the noticeboard area

44. Lanson Running

45. Summary
Your checklist for SEO Success
• Decide on 3-4 phrases to target which will bring large
volumes of buyers to your site
• Test Conversion rates using PPC
• Accommodate these phrases in page titles and
content
• Create content about that subject either on product
pages or on a more editorial section of your site
• Tell other websites about yours

46. Questions?