@AnnStanley

Using Search

Marketing for

Ecommerce Sites -

What’s New!

By Ann Stanley

Managing Director of Anicca Digital

@AnnStanley

@AnnStanley

Understanding the Digital

Marketing Landscape

@AnnStanley

Overview of ecommerce marketing channels

Search marketing

(PPC, SEO, Merchant Centre)

Traffic to your site from other sources

(email, affiliates, display ads, social, mobile ads, shopping comparison,

voucher sites, lead generation)

Shopping platforms and market places

(Amazon, eBay, Play, NOTHS)

Other off-site sales/leads

(Social, Mobile Apps, daily deals sites)

Conversion optimisation

On-site Sales/Conversions

Off-site Sales/Conversions

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POEM – Paid Owned Earned Media

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Experian data on source of traffic to top

500 USA retail sites (Dec 2013 vs 2012)

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Online ad spend by EU country 2012 vs 2013

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Ad spend KPI by country (growth,

total spend and per head)

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Paid search growth by country

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UK online ad spend

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Growth by format

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The importance of search – 14.2% increase!

£3.49 billion was spent on search in the UK in 2013 (55% of total)

Advertising spend by category

Search

Display

Classified

Others

Google?

@AnnStanley

Google results for ‘luggage’*

Pay per click ads

Pay per click text ads

Organic or natural search

results

Shopping Ads (previously Product Listing Ads)

Local business listings

*luggage chosen to illustrate different types of results

Local business listings

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Growth in Product Listing Ads (PLA’s)

- Data Courtesy of Marin Software

PLA Spend

PLA Share

of Spend

PLA CPC

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22% increase in Display Advertising

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Growth in mobile

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Mobile advertising by format

Search

Display

Classified

SMS & Other

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Google Algorithm Updates

Google regularly changes its search algorithm to ensure

only the most relevant and authoritative websites are

shown at the top of the search results.

The majority of algorithm updates target spammy

techniques and low quality sites.

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Google Penguin

Update

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Interflora and

Google’s Penguin 2.0 Update

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Penguin 2.0 Update May 22nd 2013

Links should be a by-product of great content and

should not be obtained ‘unnaturally’ - the emphasis is

on quality over quantity.

Websites should stay away from:

• Paid advertorials

• Link exchange networks

• Over-using exact match anchor text for generic

keywords e.g. in online PR and guess blogging sites

• Poor quality outreach campaigns

@AnnStanley

Penguin 2.1 - 4th October 2013

• Affects 1% of all searches

• Looks for “unnatural links” deeper into your website

not just the homepage

• Have you received an “unnatural link warning” in

your Webmaster Tools account?

• SEO traffic could drop by 50% for a partial warning –

more for a full warning

Penguin 3.0 update expected October 2014

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What are “unnatural links”

• Unnatural Links are links that you control, create or buy; as compared with natural links which are generated by real users who value your content enough to link to it.

• Typically found in sites where you can upload the link yourself e.g. unedited directories, article sites

• Often contain “exact match keyphrases” in the anchor text of the link or may be present on every page on the site

• Examples of unnatural links already on the “black list”– Buying links using exact match anchor text– Blog/forum comments (which are done solely for the link)– Guest Posts which are posted on irrelevant sites (which are low-

quality)– Article directories (which are used to create a link)– Online PR/syndication (done solely for SEO purposes with no valuable

content)

– Web designers with exactly the same link at the bottom of every site they build

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Corrective action (disavow)

• Use Webmaster tools to identify all the links to your site• Create a spread sheet and click into each link• Classify each link according to type and grade each link as natural or

unnatural• Collect contact details for each webmaster and contact all webmasters

to remove link, keeping copies of all correspondence• Log removal or feedback, if necessary try again (and possibly a third

time)• Provide all the data to Google with evidence of your attempts to clean

up your link profile and requests to “disavow any remaining unnatural links”

• Wait to see their response and if necessary you may have to remove further links and try again

• It takes 1-2 days to review and clean up around 500 links and a couple of weeks to get webmaster tor help you (if at all)

• Takes a number of weeks for Google to review and re-index• Drop of traffic can only be made up by using AdWords (if affordable)• Re-build your link profile with good links from reputable sites

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Panda

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Don’t forget about Panda!

• Latest update Panda 4.1 September 23rd 2014 impacting 3-5% of search

• Google has incorporated Panda into Google’s main indexing processes, which means penalties are less noticeable than they were previously

• Websites should display unique content and not duplicate mass-produced content

• All poor quality content should be separated then blocked from crawlers

• You need to consider your site as a hub for content marketing and publishing to stand out as an expert in your field

• Invest in the quality and usefulness of your site rather than the old world view of SEO “where you just add a few keyphrases to your content”

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Hummingbird

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Hummingbird – August 20th 2013

• Released to coincide with Google’s 15th birthday

(August 20th)

• Major change which focuses on the way we ask a series

of questions in context (“semantic search”), rather than

us searching on a deliberate string of keyphrases

• This will help with the use of voice search, as it is similar to

the way we speak rather than what we type in

• Results often include the knowledge graph which

contains the answers - so users can get what they want

to know without leaving Google (especially when using

Google Now on a mobile)

@AnnStanley

Examples of Hummingbird

• Transamerica building images

VS.

• Give me pictures of the Transamerica building

• Height of Transamerica building

VS.

• How tall is it

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Semantic search

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Knowledge graph

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Voice-enabled Search

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Pigeon Update

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Pigeon update – July 24th

• Updated that surprised search community

• Affects local results

• More of a closer ties between core algorithm and

local algorithm

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Payday

Loan

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Payday Loan 3.0 June 12th 2014

• Designed to target specifc sectors like payday

loans and porn

• Official statements suggested that 2.0 targeted

specific sites, while 3.0 targeted spammy queries.

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Other Google Changes

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Not-provided search phrases

Tools are available to extract this data from Web Master Tools

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Structured data and rich snippets

• Less than 1% of site used Schema or structured data

• Identify any elements of the site that can be marked up using schema (refer to

schema.org for more information).

• Highlight and additional information that could be marked up.

• Mark up individual elements such as business name, address, phone number,

opening times and reviews.

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Authorship before and after photo and

byeline removal (June 28th/August 28th

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HTTPS/SSL – secure websites –

ranking factor?• August 6th 2014

• Google announced that they would be giving

preference to secure sites

• Adding encryption would provide a

"lightweight" rankings boost!

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Examples of SEO activities

(especially for ecommerce sites)

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Optimise for the user –

not search engines

• Good levels of interaction on site (low bounce rates, inbound links to ‘deep’ pages, social mentions etc.)

• No spam (keyword stuffing)

• Avoid link schemes and develop “Natural links” – e.g. a higher

proportion of links should have anchor text with your brand

name or URL (not just your exact match or target keyphrase)

• If you can create the link yourself then it is probably classed as

spam. Your links need to be earned not built!

• Many sites received penalties for unnatural links (automatic or

manual) resulting in significant drop in organic traffic.

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Optimised static page content

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Ecommerce category and sub category

content

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Engaging product descriptions

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Ongoing ‘Fresh’ content

(blog with social plug-ins)

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Use of infographics to provide useful

content and “link bait”

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User-generated content

• User-generated content, or UGC, is still a great way to add unique and

relevant content to web pages – especially product pages in the ‘post-

Panda’ search environment.

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Video integrated within web pages

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Recent Changes and

Tactics for AdWords

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Introduction to Shopping ads

LINK

Create & Export

Product Feed

from your website

Set up Shopping

Campaigns

and Ad Groups

Set Max CPC Bids

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Example Product Group hierarchy

Brand (Campaign)

Product Type

Item ID

Product Type

Item ID

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Product ratings (stars) in Shopping ads from

October (via Reviews.co.uk and BizaarVoice)

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Expanded PLA on mobile

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Local Inventory Ads - stores with stock

Set-up

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European Anti-trust Ruling Against Google -

“Alternative Ads” to Include Comparison

Shopping Engine Results (CSE)

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Shopping Ads – Automatic item

updates (30th September)• Currently product feed is updated daily (unless you

use an API)

• This can cause discrepancies in your product feed

due to updates on your site which currently causes

ad to be disapproved

• Going forward Google will scrape your updated

Schema information on your site in order to update

item information in your Shopping Ads e.g. price,

• This will help avoid ads being disapproved

@AnnStanley

Top Tips for Shopping Ads• Shopping Ads replaced Product Listing Ads in August

• Design your hierarchy in advance – the more granular the better, e.g have a campaign for a brand and product type – Bosch washing machines, Hotpoint

washing machines

• Improve relevancy by:

– Using Custom Labels

– Adding lots of negatives

– Improving Feed quality

• Use benchmark data for optimisation:

– Pause Product Groups with low CTR’s (use “Excluded” next to bid change)

– Check CPC – change bids at Product Group level

– Check Impression share

• Use “Segment” to determine performance on devices and networks – you may want to use bid modifier for mobiles and/or pause Search Network

• Get Stars in your Shopping Ads by using Reviews.co.uk or Bizzare Voice to get your Product reviews to display in Shopping ads when they launch in October

• Use Schema on your site with updated product information so your Shopping feed is automatically updated

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Other Key Changes

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Exact Match Targeting Settings

• Previously default campaign setting was to show

your Exact match phrase for plurals and mis-

spellings

• However you could select campaign settings so

that exact match meant you were only shown for

exactly what was typed in

• This option is no longer available

@AnnStanley

Google Certified Stops now in UK

(September 28th)

• Will show in Shopping

ads

• Large amount of

information needs to

provided

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Mobile ad format changing

• Have at least 1 ad opted for mobile in each ad group

• Call for action needs to be on the first description line

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Ad Customizers (dynamic

parameters)

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Ad Call outs

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Planning for Christmas – Courtesy of

Google

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Our brands

ann@anicca.co.uk 0203 0518070