do's & don'ts of developing corporate hispanic websites in the age of social media

Hispanicize 2011

The Do’s and Dont’s of Developing Corporate Hispanic Web Sites in the Age of Social Media

© 2011 Stone Crossing Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

About Stone Crossing Solutions – Who We Are

• A digital marketing agency and technology consulting firm focused on you

• 30 year history - re-launched in 2010 to take advantage of the company’s deep expertise and results-driven approach to helping clients grow their business and meet the demands of their changing marketplaces

• Focus on our clients’ business needs first, and then we choose the right technology solution to meet your current and future needs

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• We are your trusted partner for effective, affordable technology and digital marketing solutions. We look forward to growing and evolving with you!

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About Stone Crossing Solutions – Interactive Marketing

• Holistic marketing experts determine the best strategy to increase your business growth and revenue

• Expert customer acquisition services in all areas of strategic internet marketing including SEO, Social Marketing, PPC and Online Display

• Combine traditional marketing with technologies to increase online conversions, visibility and overall performance of a website

• Team has extensive experience in all aspects of interactive marketing, usability & analytics

Hispanicize 2011Optimize Your Website to insure that the Search Engines drive

you to the Hispanic Community

John Vojtush

© 2011 Stone Crossing Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

SEM / SEO Defined

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

Paid Search Engine Marketing (SEM):The act of marketing a Web site via search engines by purchasing paid listings and other search engine-related activities.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):The process of using specific techniques to enhance a Web site to improve rank and visibility within the search engines.

Importance of Organic Optimization

As countless studies indicate, organic search engine optimization is one of the most important marketing activities a company can undertake.

▪ 60%-70% of searchers prefer to click on organic listings instead of paid search listings

▪ 62% of searchers don’t look past the first page of search results

▪ 36% of searchers correlate top search placement to company prominence or importance

Organic Optimization Process

Analysis &

ManagementPromotionOptimization

Implementation

StrategyStrategy ImplementationImplementation PromotionPromotionPromotionPromotion MaintenanceMaintenanceMaintenanceMaintenance


Analysis &


Implementation

� Review business goals and market opportunities

� Research keyword and key phrase opportunities

� Define success metrics and establish performance

StrategyStrategy Implementation PromotionPromotion MaintenanceMaintenance

� Define success metrics and establish performance benchmarks

� Develop strategic roadmap for search engine optimization enhancements (often part of a redesign effort)


Analysis &


Implementation

� Leverage Stone Crossings technical expertise to ensure timely implementation of search engine optimization enhancements; including:

� Page titles

� Meta tags

Strategy ImplementationImplementation PromotionPromotion MaintenanceMaintenance

� Alt tags

� Page content

� Page layout

� Site Infrastructure


Analysis &


Implementation� Once changes are completed and validated, begin promotion process; including:

� Engine & directory submissions - where necessary

Strategy Implementation PromotionPromotionPromotionPromotion MaintenanceMaintenance

necessary

� Dynamic site maps

� RSS development and syndication

� Link acquisition

� Optimized press releases & articles


Analysis &


Implementation�Provide monthly search engine visibility reporting

�Adjust / Expand organic optimization as needed

�Leverage analytics to track and identify improvements

Strategy Implementation PromotionPromotion MaintenanceMaintenanceMaintenanceMaintenance

�Leverage analytics to track and identify improvements based on key performance indicators

Understanding Search Motivations

Understanding and managing the keyword-driven consumer buying lifecycle:

▪ Broad keywords often signify the start of the buying lifecycle and are the most frequently used queries.

▪ Niche keyword phrases experience fewer searches but often lead to far

Source: comScore – Search and the Consumer Buying Cycle (2009)

fewer searches but often lead to far greater conversion rates.

▪ The key is finding the right keyword balance to ensure strong presence in the early buying lifecycle and the strong conversions rates associated with the “long tail”.

Importance of Keyword Research & Site Architecture

Traffic vs Conversion

Example:• hispanic• latino• widgets

High/Low

Example:• hispanic social media• latino social media• blue widgets

Example:• hispanic social media agency in miami florida• blue polka dot widgets for sale in los angeles

Balanced

Low/High

Keyword Research

Keyword research tools provide deep insight into:

▪ Consumer demand▪ Top categories and products▪ Market trends▪ Geographic interest▪ Seasonality of demand▪ Seasonality of demand▪ Search engine market share

Tools for Keyword Research and Discovery

▪ Google AdWords (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal)Google’s (free) keyword suggestion tool has a number of features that will help you learn more about keywords. If you type in a keyword, you will get multiple keywords that are related. This tool gives you a general sense of search volume but will not show you actual number of searches. You can also get an idea of how competitive the keywords are. Also gives rudimentary average search volume and search volume trends.

▪ Yahoo! Keyword Selector Tool (http://inventory.overture.com)A former industry staple, but longer updated with current search data. However, it remains a good general tool (free!) for discovering and evaluating keywords. This tool helps you discover additional general tool (free!) for discovering and evaluating keywords. This tool helps you discover additional keywords similar to a keyword you are searching on. You can type in general keywords like “dog” and get many variations like “dog breeders, dog training and dog house”. This is especially good when you are just brainstorming new words as it gives you ideas that you hadn't thought of.

▪ Keyword Discovery (www.keywordiscovery.com)Subscription based tool which provides features to help you with both finding new keywords and analyzing them. Compiles search statistics from over 180 search engines worldwide. Features include keyword research, industry keywords, seasonal search trends, related keywords, and more.

▪ Wordze (www.wordze.com)Subscription based tool that provides tools for discovering keywords and phrases. In addition, this tool provides some excellent optimization features, including competitive insight on top performing sites.

Optimization Opportunities

On the site On other sitesIn the code

• Title tag

• Meta tags

▪ Page Structure

▪ Navigation

▪ Body Copy

▪ Header Tags

▪ ALT Tags

▪ Anchor Text

▪ Header Tags

▪ Body Copy

▪ Anchor Text

On the Site - Body Copy

Because the search engines are only able to index HTML text, it is important to provide enough content to help the search engines fully understand the theme and focus of each target page. In order to do so, it is recommended that each page include a minimum of 250 words that are carefully chosen based on their meaning and value to site visitors and the search engines.

On the Site - Header Tags

▪ Besides the page title, a page’s

Header tags are the next most

important or heavily weighted

place to include the target

keywords and phrases.

▪ Generally speaking, the <h1> tag is ▪ Generally speaking, the <h1> tag is

considered more important than the

<h2>, which is more important that

the <h3> tag, and so on.

▪ So where should they go?

<h1>

<h2>

<h3>

On the Site - ALT Tags

Image ALT Attributes or ALT Tags are important because search engines (and site visitors using assistive technology) cannot see content contained in images. The only indexable aspect of images is the text content that is placed within the <image alt=”Put Text Here”>tag. As a result of including target keywords in the ALT tags, it is possible to turn images into ALT tags, it is possible to turn images into optimization assets. The character length for ALT tags should support a minimum of 150 characters.

In addition, ALT tags are needed for Section 508 compliance which requires that: “when an image is used to represent page content, the image must have a text description accompanying it that explains the meaning of the image.”

On the Site - ALT Tags

On the Site - Link Anchor Text

▪ Link anchor text refers to the visible text in an HTML link (i.e. Get an Auto Insurance Quote). The search engines place an increased weighting on the content found within the anchor links. Ideally, the most important keywords and phrases for that page should be included within the anchor links of that page.

▪ Top search engine performance requires inclusion of target keywords in all of the following types of link locations:

Top Navigation

Sub Navigation

Contextual

In the Code – Titles and Meta Tags

Key Factors

▪ Page Titles should contain the most important keywords and phrases for the page

▪ Meta Descriptions should be keyword-dense for the most important keywords and phrases for the page

▪ Meta Keywords should only contain the target keywords and phrases for the page

In the Code – Title Tag

The Title Tag is the single most important and heavily weighted place within a Web site to place target keywords. The page title should consist of a sentence or sentence fragment that includes the most important keywords or phrases for the page. Each important page of the site should have a unique page title. Standard format is Title Case.

In the Code – Meta Description

The Meta Description provides an opportunity to increase the total keyword density for the page, because some search engines combine the words from the Meta Description with body copy when calculating density. The Meta description should consist of a keyword-rich paragraph (250-500 words) that further elaborates on the page title by using target keywords to convey the value proposition and call-to-action. Standard format is sentence case.

Did you know? In Google, if the Did you know? In Google, if the keyword in the search query is contained in your page title, Google will show your Meta description as the description in the SERP. Otherwise, they will use a snippet of text from your page content.

In the Code – Meta Keywords

The Meta Keywords tag is the least important of the tags discussed in this section, however it should not be omitted. Some search engines may include the Meta Keywords in the ranking algorithm, and therefore you should include 4-6 unique keyword targets for each page.

Additionally, the Meta Keywords tag is an Keywords tag is an acceptable location to use common misspellings of keywords or singular / plural tenses of keywords since the user will not see it on the page.

Technical Design - URL Structure

Always maintain the hierarchy of your domain structure by driving all traffic from the top down thru the root domain. By driving the traffic thru the root domain, your sub-pages are creating “juice” for your domain.

BAD

http://auto.driveinsurance.com/auto/auto_insurance.aspx

http://rv.driveinsurance.com/rv/rv_insurance.aspx

http://motorcycle.driveinsurance.com/motorcycle/motorcycle_insurance.aspx

GOOD

http://www.driveinsurance.com/auto-insurance/

http://www.driveinsurance.com/rv-insurance/

http://www.driveinsurance.com/motorcycle-insurance/

Technical Design - HTML Site Map

▪ Since spiders crawl through Web sites in a sequential manner, it is beneficial to have a single page that links to the majority (and preferably all) of the pages that exist on the site.

▪ This is far superior than requiring a multi-page parse in order to find deep-multi-page parse in order to find deep-rooted pages.

Technical Design - robots.txt file

▪ It is extremely important to include a robots.txt file on the Web server. This file tells search engine spiders which directories of a site can or cannot be crawled.

▪ Common pages to exclude from spidering include: privacy policies, spidering include: privacy policies, shopping cart pages, help pages, account details, and directories that contain images or other sensitive company data.

Measuring Success - Search Engine Cache

Google’s Cache provides important

indicators of search engine

performance, including:

• Inclusion in search index

• Date of last indexing

• Keyword inclusion• Keyword inclusion

Measuring Success - Google Webmaster Tools

▪ Google Webmaster Tools provides valuable insights into top search queries and search query clicks

▪ Top search queries are the queries on the selected search property that most often returned pages from your returned pages from your site

▪ Top search query clicks are the top queries that directed traffic to your site (based on the number of clicks to your pages).

Thank You

• Register for a FREE I-Pad from Stone Crossing Solutions by visiting our booth (#113) or visiting stonecrossingsolutions.com

• FREE White Paper: The Definitive Guide to Social Media Marketing for Business

• Product Sheet: Spanish SEO – Optimize your site in 60 days!

• Product Sheet: Community Stack (Community Website Platform)• Product Sheet: Community Stack (Community Website Platform)

• Product Sheet: Site Core (Content Management Solution)

• Session: Introduction of Spanish SEO, brought to you by Hispanicize and Stone Crossing Solutions (session Friday @ 5:00)

Contact Us:Stone Crossing SolutionsOne Independence Place, Suite 7004807 Rockside RoadIndependence, OH 44131www.stonecrossingsolutions.com

Email: [email protected]: (216) 524-9055Fax: (216) 524-2594

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