Do you have the proper mix of organic and paid search strategies? Are you using social media to boost your search rankings? Are you measuring the right things when you evaluate your search efforts? Are you optimizing your website for organic search and making smart paid search decisions?
This month I am pleased to be a presenter in a 13-class online course, Search Marketing School, presented by MarketingProfs. As my friend, you can save up to $200 with my promo code AJAXVIP. Register here!
Live, online classes September 15–30, 2011
Access recordings for 12 months!
In September, join MarketingProfs University for Search Marketing School, a 13-class course designed to help you be a better search marketer. This course covers the art and the science of search marketing and is taught by experts like Rand Fishkin and Lee Odden. Check out our class descriptions below and register now.
How does it work? Each class airs live (see dates and times below) and is recorded during the broadcast. Participate whenever it works best for your schedule. You can watch (and re-watch) the classes at your convenience through August 2012. For each class, students have access to the class lecture and Q&A (streaming media), as well as several support materials: the slide deck (PDF), the audio track (MP3) (so you can listen to the lectures on other devices), a transcript (PDF), and a “cheat sheet” (PDF). Once you view all of the classes, you can download a Certificate of Completion (PDF). As part of the course, you’ll also get access to our course-exclusive Facebook group to network and share your own questions and insights with fellow MPU students, staff, and instructors.
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As a Search Marketing School student, you’ll get these free additional course materials (a $171.95 value):
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Search Marketing School includes these 13 classes (each 30, 60 or 90 minutes long):
- GOOGLE: What Every Marketer Should Know About Google
- STRATEGY: Modern SEO Strategy—Adapt or Die
- KEYWORDS: Keys to Practical Keyword Research
- ETHICS: SEO Ethics—The Morality of Great Marketing
- PAID SEARCH: Five Fundamentals of Paid Search … That Most Companies Get Wrong
- LINK BUILDING: Link Building and Link Marketing in a Post-Panda Web
- LINKEDIN: LinkedIn and Search Engine Optimization
- SOCIAL: Social Media Tools & Tactics for SEO
- LANDING PAGES: Optimizing Landing Pages
- MOBILE: The Mobile Search Marketing Advantage
- METRICS: Meaningful SEO Metrics
- IN-HOUSE: SEO Trials and Tribulations—How to Avoid Them Both as You Start In-house SEO
- REPUTATION: Proactive Reputation Management
GOOGLE
What Every Marketer Should Know About Google
Speaker:
Maile Ohye—Senior Developer Programs Engineer, Google Inc.
Thursday, September 15—12:00pm-1:30pm ET
If you want your products and services to be found online, it goes without saying that you need to understand as much as possible about Google Search. In this session, we will cover the latest in Google Search and the evolving search landscape. We will also take a look at successful approaches—and, just as importantly, the pitfalls to avoid—when building a site that is truly helpful for searchers.
You will learn:
- The latest Google Search features relevant to marketers
- How to build websites with Google Search in mind
- The most common Google Search-related mistakes websites make
STRATEGY
Modern SEO Strategy: Adapt or Die
Speaker:
Lee Odden—CEO, TopRank Online Marketing; Editor, TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog
Monday, September 19—12:00pm-1:00pm ET
If content or media can be searched, it can be optimized for better performance on search engines. Google handles more than 10 billion queries per month, so for businesses to stand out, a holistic, strategic, and customer-centric approach to search engine optimization (SEO) is essential. Modern SEO is more than keywords, links, and XML sitemaps. An adaptable SEO strategy intersects with multiple disciplines—including content marketing, online public relations, and social media—to ensure that brand content shows up wherever customers are looking.
You will learn:
- How SEO, social media, and content create more opportunities for customer acquisition and engagement
- The seven-step process for holistic SEO using searcher personas, social keywords, and social content for link promotion
- Best practices from B2B and B2C companies using this holistic approach as part of their online marketing strategy
KEYWORDS
Keys to Practical Keyword Research
Speaker:
Brian Posnanski—Founder and Principal, TrafficPRM
Monday, September 19—1:30pm-2:30pm ET
Keywords, keywords, keywords. The importance of optimizing content with keywords is something discussed in countless blog posts, whitepapers, and webinars. But keyword research itself seldom gets the kind of in-depth, how-do-you-do-it attention that it deserves. If you’re a social media, public relations, or marketing professional of any stripe and not directly involved in SEO, the keyword research process may strike you as a tad mysterious. In this class, we’ll push back the curtains and explore the topic of keyword research in a practical, down-to-earth way.
You will learn:
- Where to begin your keyword research—tips and tools
- Best practices for selecting keywords and optimizing content
- How you’ll know when you have the right keywords
ETHICS
SEO Ethics: The Morality of Great Marketing
Speaker:
Rand Fishkin—CEO and Co-founder, SEOmoz
Monday, September 19—3:00pm-4:00pm ET
Tragically, the history of organic search is littered with stories of manipulation, malpractice, and spam. In this class, we will explore many of the ethical issues facing search marketers and provide recommendations for those wishing to remain wholly white hat while still producing remarkable, effective results.
You will learn:
- Where moral/ethical conflicts may arise in the practice of search marketing
- How to creatively solve tough issues without resorting to tactics that violate guidelines or ethical best practices
- Specific tactics that are remarkably effective yet wholly white hat and ethical
PAID SEARCH
Five Fundamentals of Paid Search … That Most Companies Get Wrong
Speaker:
George Michie—Co-founder and CEO, Rimm-Kaufman Group
Wednesday, September 21—12:00-1:00pm ET
Paid search is complex and ever-changing. The myriad new product offerings from Google, the buzz about attribution, and the plethora of misinformation in the blogosphere can be disorienting. This class covers five fundamental truths of paid search that most advertisers and agencies get wrong. By focusing on core principles of paid search, smart advertisers will get an edge on their competition and make paid search an efficient, effective, and significant part of their business.
You will learn:
- Why aggregated performance data can hide true performance
- Why bidding to position guarantees inefficient advertising
- How to use layered match types to grow a search program efficiently
- How to vastly improve your overall paid search effectiveness
LINK BUILDING
Link Building and Link Marketing in a Post-Panda Web
Speaker:
Eric Ward—Chief Link Evangelist, AdGooroo; President, EricWard.com; Publisher, URLwire.com
Wednesday, September 21—1:30pm-2:30pm ET
You know link building is important, but you don’t know what (or who) to believe—let alone where to spend your time and money. You need step-by-step implementation instructions. In this class, we’ll help dispel the fog around link building so you can stop spinning your wheels on linking tactics that are destined to fail. And although your Google ranking is important, we’ll show you why link building is about much more than search rank.
You will learn:
- How link building today differs from years past and what it means for your site and linking strategy
- How to recognize viable linking opportunities that can help your search rank and click traffic
- How to keep the links coming over time
Note: Google radically changed it’s search algorithm earlier this year with a release it calls Panda. To learn more read Evan Britton’s post on Business Insider and this post from Google.
LINKEDIN
LinkedIn and Search Engine Optimization
Speaker:
Craig Fisher—Vice President, Ajax Social Media
Friday, September 23—1:30pm-2:30pm ET
Everyone knows that you can use LinkedIn to find new employees and potential clients, but LinkedIn can also play an important role in your organization’s search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. In this session, we will look at practical ways tha
t you can leverage your company profile—and even individual employee profiles—to boost search rank and help your company get found.
t you can leverage your company profile—and even individual employee profiles—to boost search rank and help your company get found.
You will learn:
- How Google treats LinkedIn
- Tips on improving your profiles to boost search rank
- Guidelines on involving employees in these efforts
SOCIAL
Social Media Tools & Tactics for SEO
Speaker:
Rhea Drysdale—Co-founder & CEO, Outspoken Media
Monday, September 26—12:00pm-1:00pm ET
Now that you have a strong foundation in SEO, it’s time to talk about social media. What does social have to do with search? A lot! With recent changes in social networks and search engines, social media can have a significant impact on search results. In this class, we’ll take a closer look at the ways in which social media influences search, and discuss the tools and tactics you’ll need to effectively integrate this into your SEO plans.
You will learn:
- How social media can influence search engine rankings
- Tactics to help combine social media and SEO
- Tools that help you execute an effective SEO plan
LANDING PAGES
Optimizing Landing Pages
Speaker:
Janet Driscoll Miller—President and CEO, Search Mojo
Monday, September 26—1:30pm-2:30pm ET
You’ve got a great pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaign with a respectable click-through rate (CTR), but site visitors aren’t converting. Why not? The answer may lie in your campaign landing pages. Landing pages—the Web pages that ad respondents “land” on after clicking on your PPC ad—can be the difference between conversion success and failure. Although CTR is a measure of how well your ad copy resonates with a searcher, conversion rate is a direct measurement of the impact of your landing page—its messages, usability, and of
fer—on the ad respondent. In this class, we’ll learn how to create and test landing pages to ensure that you can continually improve conversion rates and guarantee return on investment from your PPC campaigns.
fer—on the ad respondent. In this class, we’ll learn how to create and test landing pages to ensure that you can continually improve conversion rates and guarantee return on investment from your PPC campaigns.
You will learn:
- Best practices for landing page layouts
- How to customize landing pages based on the ad respondent’s search query
- The importance of real-time A/B and multivariate testing on pages, and how to set up and run A/B and multivariate tests
- Which page elements to test
MOBILE
The Mobile Search Marketing Advantage
Speaker:
Bryson Meunier—Director of Content Solutions, Resolution Media
Wednesday, September 28—1:30pm-2:30pm ET
Mobile search is set to surpass desktop search in four short years, according to IDC, and Google’s mobile search product manager expects mobile search to surpass desktop search even sooner than that. When that happens, will your business be ready? Maybe not, as 79% of businesses don’t have a mobile website. In this class, we’ll look at the ins and outs of mobile search and discuss the best practices your competitors haven’t even started to think about yet.
You will learn:
- Mobile website or apps—which is best for your business
- How mobile search engine optimization (SEO) differs from traditional SEO
- Today’s top five mobile search marketing action items
METRICS
Meaningful SEO Metrics
Speaker:
Stephan Spencer—Consultant and Co-author of The Art of SEO
Friday, September 30—12:00pm–1:00pm ET
Search engine optimization (SEO) represents a major commitment of time and resources, so you want to make sure that you are using the most relevant metrics to gauge the effectiveness of your efforts. Rather than relying on old-school SEO metrics such as PageRank, rankings, and link popularity, or meaningless metrics such as “keyword density” or KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index), you should be considering SEO metrics such as brand-to-nonbrand ratio, index-to-crawl ratio, search traffic per page, visitors per keyword, and many others. In this class, we’ll explore the full range of useful SEO metrics and how to leverage them for SEO success.
You will learn:
- How to conduct scientifically valid SEO experiments
- How to identify weaknesses in your site’s SEO
- How to expand your keyword list, improve indexing, increase rankings, and boost link authority
- How to prioritize your efforts, allocate resources, and budget effectively
IN-HOUSE
SEO Trials and Tribulations—How to Avoid Them Both as You Start In-house SEO
Speaker:
Jessica Bowman—CEO, SEOinhouse.com
Friday, September 30—1:15pm-2:15pm ET
Whenever you are paying an agency to do something, you inevitably think, “Why don’t I just do this in-house?” Of course, answering that question is harder than it seems, and it can be particularly tricky when you’re talking about something as ever-changing and seemingly arcane as search engine optimization (SEO). In this class, we will discuss just what it takes to successfully do SEO in-house and everything you need to consider when making the move—whether you’re leaving an agency or starting from scratch.
You will learn:
- When to do things in-house vs. hire a consultant
- How to hire the right in-house SEO for your organization (and vet for the right skillset)
- How much time you need to dedicate to SEO
- What needs to be included in a 12- to 18-month roadmap
REPUTATION
Proactive Reputation Management
Speaker:
Tony Wright—CEO and Founder, WrightIMC
Friday, September 30—2:30pm-3:30pm ET
In a world driven by search, your reputation is whatever Google (or Google Instant) says it is. So beyond making great products and providing outstanding service, what can you do to manage and positively influence your reputation on Google and elsewhere? In this class, we will look closely at the online reputation management landscape and provide concrete steps that you can take to develop a proactive approach to managing your brand’s reputation.
You will learn:
- Why online reputation management is important and how best to monitor your reputation
- The characteristics of effective social media policies
- The key to reviews management and proactive reviews management strategies
- Critical elements of an online crisis communications plan
