Search Engine Marketing

HSMAI HOTEL INTERNET MARKETING COMMITTEE Jens Thraenhart, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Organic Search Engine Optimization Mike Wylie, Wyndham International Paid Search Inclusion Jim Zito, Affinia Hospitality Pay-Per-Click Advertising

www.hotelinternetmarketing.org Why Websites Matter?

“A company that neglects its website may be committing commercial suicide. A website is increasingly becoming the gateway to a company’s brand, product and services. A useless website suggests a useless company. But even the coolest website will be lost in cyberspace if people cannot find it. A company without a high ranking on the major search engines (Yahoo, Google, AOL, MSN) suggests no web presence at all, and is not a credible company to do business with.”

The Economist, May 2004; “E-Commerce takes off” Search is How the Web is Used

How People Use Search 80% of Internet users use search engines to find information, products and services on the web (Jupiter Research, 2003) 87% of Internet users find websites through search engines. Note that the majority of users do not search past third page of listing results. (eMarketer, 2003) 64% of respondents of a recent survey said that search engines were the “main way” they find things on the Internet. 35% of traffic to web sites came from search engines, nearly doubling from 2002. 30% of all web searches are local and contain a geo-specific element (i.e. Miami hotels) 55% of all online shopping purchases originate from search engine listings vs. 9% for banner ads, 7% for tile ads and 30% from "other" traditional media 850 million travel searches per month on Overture paid search advertising network (Yahoo, MSN, etc.), and 2 billion on Google (1 billion hotel-related searches). Search Engine Marketing Rational

Exposure to targeted group of potential customers. Flexibility to target offers based on market demands, seasonality, special offers, marketing campaigns, and product launches. Increased Brand Awareness. Higher conversion ratios for “Search Engine Referrals”. 150% Increase in Search Bookings (Revenue). Remain in potential customer’s consideration set.

Share of US Searches Nov. 2003, comScore What visitors see What spiders see

Search engines prefer big, dumb ugly pages!

Design issues that can impact ranking especially include:

Splash pages, frames & dynamic content delivery Google Spider

Meta Tags

Collecting content

Google Index Google Spider Google: http://www.google.com/addurl.html

Yahoo: http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request Key Tips: -Title Tag Website Optimization - Domain Names (watch Dynamic Site URLs, like: http://www.fairmont.com/FA /en/CDA/Home/PressRoom /CDPressRoomInfo/0,1100, code%25255Ftype%253DE NVR%2526brand%25255F code%253DFA%2526brand %25255Fseq%253D10000 11,00.html -Navigation, allowing spiders to enter website - ALT Tags, Image Tags, No-script Tags - Anchor Links - Relevant Content - Use Robots.txt file for pages your do NOT want to get indexed Kea lani hotel

Fairmont attained top results on Page 1 for this search, thereby attracting more awareness and visits from potential customers Golden Rules Of Link Building

1. Get links from web pages that are read by the audience you want 2. Buy links if visitors that come solely from the link itself will justify the cost 3. Link to sites because you want your visitors to know about them

Google score of page’s link popularity http://toolbar.google.com easy way to see this Organic SEO is the Best Buy

80% of search engine traffic comes from natural/organic results. The majority of users are using search engines to navigate the web. People are using a small number of top search engines (or their partner sites). Pay-per-click campaigns can give you instant visibility but they are costly, and your listing disappears when you stop paying/bidding. New websites and redesigned websites alike can be optimized for the search engines right out of the gate, saving time and money. Existing websites can be optimized without compromising usability and design standards. High positions in search engines, bring the highest return you can get in Internet Marketing. The results are long lasting, and are key to making money. What is Paid Inclusion?

• Paid inclusion is the process of paying search engines to index pages from your site. It is also often called PFI (Pay for Inclusion) or PPI (Pay Per Inclusion). Why Do Paid Inclusion?

• Use for reassurance that “crucial” pages or time sensitive issues get in • Use as solution to dynamic pages problem • More listings you have, more likely you may appear for a variety of different topics • Won’t be at top of page, but may make first page • Mixes you with free listings, a plus for reaching searchers who may bypass or ignore labeled paid listings • Definitely consider if you have multiple hotels within a brand site Paid Inclusion: How it Differs from Pay-Per-Click(PPC)

Service Ranking Pricing

Assured review and Ranking is algorithm- inclusion in index driven, based on content Fixed category Paid submission, linguistics based cost-per- Inclusion Ability to submit analysis, and editorial click dynamic and review uncrawlable pages Assured placement Relevance checked by within result set editor Paid Variable Placement Control over title, cost-per-click Ranking driven by description, and keyword & bid amount keywords Search Marketing Continuum 100,000

10,000 Paid Placement 1,000

100 Paid Inclusion Page Views per Search Term 10

Unique Search Terms Da Dallas Hotel HiTec l Downto Dallas la s H Confe o Numbers not tel wn rence actual – illustrative i n purposes only

Overture - Site Match (Inktomi)

• Site Match, a new service provided by Overture, is part of Yahoo! Search's Content Acquisition Program (CAP). • CPCs are fixed and set by Overture and vary per vertical. The hotel travel vertical’s CPC is typically $0.25. • Does not guarantee top ranking in the search engines, it only guarantees that all the URLs submitted will be indexed somewhere in the results. • What we hear is that as of July 1, MSN will no longer feature Inktomi results. Overture – Site Match

• Web page submission program • Listings appear in the main body of the search results page with natural listings • Position determined by the relevance of your site content to the user's search request Summary of Site Match Benefits:

• More exposure for your site - reach more than 75% of active internet users • A simple, single point of submission to multiple web portals such as Yahoo!, AltaVista and AlltheWeb • Frequent refresh of your pages - every 48 hours • Daily reporting to track and optimize performance

– Note: All URLs must pass initial and ongoing quality review to be included. Participation in the program does not guarantee rank in search results; rank is determined by assessing site quality and relevance to search terms. Paid Inclusion

• Overture – http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ays/sm.jhtml • Lycos – http://insite.lycos.com/inclusion/searchenginesubmit.asp • Ask Jeeves/Teoma.com – http://static.wc.ask.com/docs/advertise/paidinc/sitesub.html • Looksmart – http://www.looksmart.com/r?page=/SearchSolutions/SearchSolutio ns.html Paid Inclusion

•Key: – Find a top notch search engine marketing company that is on the forefront of the search industry and lives and breathes all aspects of search marketing Search Engine Optimization Paid Media Paid Media Options – Search Syndication – Pay Per Click / Cost Per Click The most typical media buy, appearing as “Sponsored Results” Tier 1 Networks Tier 2 Networks –Tier 1 Networks

Google (AdWords) Overture High Traffic and Search Volume Syndication across popular, highly-trafficked sites Provide extensive breadth of offerings (Local, Contextual) •Google AdWords™ (Syndication – usually top 3 listings required) –Ads displayed along with search results on Google and its partner sites including AOL, Ask Jeeves, Amazon, About, Lycos, Earthlink, Compuserve, Netscape, AT&T Worldnet, Excite, and others

•Content-Targeted Advertising™ (Contextual) –Display Google AdWord ads on related web content pages on sites including HowStuffWorks, Mac Publishing, New York Post, Reed Business, Information, Knight Ridder Digital, BURST! Media, Weather Underground, and others •Google “Local” –Currently in beta, will utilize 3rd party yellow page and business directory information to provide paid search options on a localized level (“chinese restaurants in Denver”, etc.) –Premium Listings (top 3 listings required): Syndication to AltaVista, Excite, Go2Net, Infospace, MSN, Sympatico, Yahoo!, Juno, Netzero, Dogpile, Metacrawler, Webcrawler, IExplorer, AlltheWeb, CNN, ESPN, KnightRidder, others –Overture Content Match (Contextual) Wall Street Journal and CNN Content Match listings currently appear on several of MSN's content areas, including MSN Entertainment, MSN Money and MSN Tech & Gadgets, as well as on sites in the Advertising.com network, MyFamily.com Network and the Away Network. –Local Tier 2 Networks and their syndication partners include: FindWhat – syndicates to Excite, Search.com, WebCrawler, MetaCrawler, DogPile Acquired eSpotting—European PPC Engine providing coverage throughout UK and Europe . Enhance Interactive – syndicates to Dotzup.com, SearchBoss.com, DogPile, MyGeek.com, 1stBlaze.com Kanoodle – syndicates to Search.com, WebCrawler, DogPile, Galaxy.com, MetaCrawler LookSmart – syndicates to InfoSpace, RoadRunner, Mamma.com Benefits

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) listings rotate at top of search engine results • Provides instant and immediate high visibility and brand awareness • Adds value to NSO programs by capturing at least 20% of your audience who may not be looking within the Natural Results for your products/services Targeting • Search Media PPC Advertising targets Active User Mindset

– Allows for increased precision in providing relevant messages that address a user’s current need. • User is highly-qualified – Leads are highly targeted and motivated to buy • User is actively looking for information

– Active User Mindset Targeting=Targeted Traffic • Captures users at exact moment they are seeking knowledge, solutions, and/or products and services Targeting – Sophisticated Options available across Paid Search Providers • Content Targeting: placement of ad listing across content sites that are relevant to search term • Match Type: Terms can be matched on either a standard (exact), phrase, or broad basis – Standard (exact): Core source of traffic, includes exact matches to terms, singular and plural variations, and misspellings – Phrase: subset of Broad Match, includes traffic from Standard and Phrase. Listing for ad will appear if you type in exact, singular and plural variations, misspellings, and terms within a phrase. – Broad: traffic is received from all 3 options, Listing for ad will appear if you type in exact, singular and plural variations, misspellings, terms within a phrase, terms separated by other words, and terms searched on in a different order. Targeting

– Additional Targeting Option: Negative Match or Excluded Words • Negative Match (Google) and Excluded Words (Overture) act to filter out words not relevant to client’s business, products, or services – Ex. A sports fan searches for “rangers”. Use excluded term “fire” to ensure that “fire ranger” listing does not appear in search result pages Pricing – Many Paid Search providers (e.g. Overture and Google) offer pricing on a Bid-based Cost Per Click (CPC) model

• Terms which receive top 3 bids receive listing syndication

• CPC Pricing eliminates wasted inventory – Advertisers only pay for traffic delivered to the site which increases likelihood of increased conversions (actions)

• Average CPC goals drive client Backend Goals (Cost Per Acquisition) goals – Average CPC can be adjusted on an ongoing basis through optimization to meet backend goals – Bid Caps can be set based on CPA requirement and actual conversion rate, metrics

https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox

Resources

www.marketingsherpa.com

http://searchenginewatch.com/