UI Conf: Gerry McGovern on Search engine optimization

AOL clicks related to search result position.

Important lesson: If you’re not in the first ten results you don’t exist
1st on list: 42%
2nd 12%
3rd 8%

They prefer to get the wrong results quickly rather than to waste time finding the right result.

North pole:

More people have been to the North Pole than there have been at search result 5,000

(creates a laugh in the room)

On Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Google banned the BMW website. (because of shady search engine optimization).

If it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true

You could have very big damage from shady seo

There is always a tradeoff: Risc or work. (OK i’ll take risc)

Therefore: Work with the content (because it’s risc free SEO)

1. use the words your customers use

2. work with your linking
Most people write a page, but few are actually focusing on the connection between pages.

Low fare, cheap flight

* Low fare: 700
* Cheap Flight: 1,800,000

At a travel conference, showed this example. “Gerry we can never use the word cheap on our website. It would hurt our brand”. 3 months later the company went into liquidation.

Google trend examples. Even though the airline industry

Trend graphs show news reference. Lots of activity on “low fares”. Customer is not listening to the message anymore. But almost nobody search for “low fares”. This shows customer is not listening to marketing.

This is the huge shift on the web: Customer power.

The customer is not going to learn you language!

Other example “cheap hotel”. I’m not cheap, I’m “budget-minded”. (technically this was solved by a middle-man site that used the word “cheap” in the link)

British people go on holiday, Americans go on vacation.
50,000 british people searching for “carribean holiday”, but only 1,344 american searches for the same term. (“probably English people living in the US”)

Other highlighs

You might be saying cardiovascular disease, but they are saying “heart disease”

Another website (undisclosed):

“find a dealer” to “shop locator” resulted in 100% more visitors from one day to another. They had never seen anything like it

Therefore: Research your customers words, and use those words.

A link is a promise [that burns into your short term memory].

[My live notes from UI Conf. All UI Conf notes. Expect updates of thes rough notes, with references, images, etc. within the first few days – this footnote will stay, though. Feel free to add comments, links to similar notes, presentations, correct quotes and add where appropriate. thanks! Also I post my pictures on Flickr tagged uiconf]

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4 Responses to “UI Conf: Gerry McGovern on Search engine optimization”

  1. justaddwater.dk | UI Conf: My Higlights from UI11 Says:

    […] UI Conf: Gerry McGovern on Search engine optimization […]

  2. Seo Mehboob Says:

    Search Engine Optimization (SEO), considered by many to be a subset of Search Engine marketing, is a term used to describe a process of improving the volume of traffic to a web site from Search Engines, usually in “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Those efforts may also be seen in more narrow vertical Search Engines involving areas such as local search. Many site owners and consultants engaging in SEO attempt to pursue qualified visitors to a site, and the quality of visitor traffic can be measured by how often a visitor using a specific keyword phrase leads to a desired conversion action, such as making a purchase, viewing or downloading a certain page, requesting further information, signing up for a newsletter, or taking some other specific action.
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  3. Tony Warrens Says:

    Hi, i just wanted to share an article i found that should help some newbies. Search Engine Optimization And The Magic Fairy Dust