1. ibm.com
Don’t Just Change the
Search Engine!
Mike Moran
April, 2006
© 2006 IBM Corporation

2. ibm.com
“This search engine stinks!”
 But a “good search engine” I didn’t find it
is not your goal.
and I always
 Your goal isn’t even to find it on
deliver good results Google!
 It’s to deliver the business
value of your Web site
 Search is a means to
an end
2 © 2006 IBM Corporation

3. ibm.com
What are your Web conversions?
 Online sales  Download a
white paper
 Find a store
 Fill out a
 Find a dealer contact
form
 Find a partner
 Phone call
 Affiliate link
3 © 2006 IBM Corporation

4. ibm.com
What are your Web visitors doing, anyway?
 Learn: Research IBM’s
products and services
Learn
 Shop: Compare offerings Use
and prices
Shop
 Buy: Check out and Get
purchase
Buy
 Get: Check order status
 Use: Get technical IBM’s Web
support Conversion Cycle
4 © 2006 IBM Corporation

5. ibm.com
Use your cycle to measure conversion value
 Finding the right product
Land
page puts the visitor in the
“Learn” stage.
Learn
 How many customers that
Use
view a product page put
items in their carts?
Shop  And how many check out?
Get
 Multiply by your average
Buy revenue and you have the
impact on revenue.
Increasing the success rate at any stage
increases the overall conversion rate
5 © 2006 IBM Corporation

6. ibm.com
Your search facility gets you conversions
If they can’t find it,  Answer research questions
they can’t buy it with informational content
Search
 “MP3 player”
Learn
 Respond to product queries
Use
with comparisons
Shop  “iPod”
Get  Provide detailed model and
Buy product pages for buyers
 “iPod nano”
6 © 2006 IBM Corporation

7. ibm.com
What problems are you trying to address?
 “No result”
searches
 “No click”
searches
 “No conversion”
searches
7 © 2006 IBM Corporation

8. ibm.com
ibm.com Web Strategy and Design
The Top-Down Approach
© 2005 IBM Corporation
8 © 2006 IBM Corporation

9. ibm.com
Work the most popular search keywords first
 Most search terms
are unique
 IBM’s 1000 most
popular queries
account for just
27% of all volume
 But it’s the easiest
improvement you
can get
9 © 2006 IBM Corporation

10. ibm.com
Follow the same process for each keyword
yes Audit the
no
OK? landing
Start page
next
keyword
Choose a Analyze the Improve
landing landing the landing
page for page’s page’s
keywords metrics content
10 © 2006 IBM Corporation

11. ibm.com
Choose a landing page for each keyword
 Where does your customer want to be?
 Be careful when choosing
the same page for
multiple keywords:
 “Product Lifecycle
Management” and
“PLM” is OK
 “Aerospace PLM”
and “Automotive
PLM”—no!
11 © 2006 IBM Corporation

12. ibm.com
Analyze the landing page’s metrics
 Search ranking
 Keyword density? In titles and body?
 Search clickthrough rate
 Titles and snippets call to action?
 Search conversions
 Interim pages compel action?
12 © 2006 IBM Corporation

13. ibm.com
Audit and optimize your landing pages
Acronym to Words
Image to Text
Add K
eywor
ds
Before: Google Rank: #175 After: Google Rank #1
13 © 2006 IBM Corporation

14. ibm.com
If all else fails, cheat
 Most search engines allow “Best Bets”
 Be sure to maintain all hand-crafted results
14 © 2006 IBM Corporation

15. ibm.com
Use “product search” or other specialized search
 Use special
searches for
high-leverage
areas
 Choose the most
important feature
to you
Find your server
15 © 2006 IBM Corporation

16. ibm.com
Provide comparisons from product lists
 See your final
candidates
side-by-side
 Spot the
differences
Simpler purchasing
experiences increase
conversion rates
16 © 2006 IBM Corporation

17. ibm.com
Don’t forget to sell related items
Search engines can retrieve the right
merchandising spots based on:
 Knowledge of the customer
 The buyer's current context
 The seller’s situation
 What spots seem to be working well
17 © 2006 IBM Corporation

18. ibm.com
ibm.com Web Strategy and Design
The Bottom-Up Approach
© 2005 IBM Corporation
18 © 2006 IBM Corporation

19. ibm.com
Get your site’s pages into the search index
 Push pages from your content management system OR
 Have a spider crawl your pages
 Remove spider
traps that prevent
crawling
 Use site maps and
country maps to
create spider paths
19 © 2006 IBM Corporation

20. ibm.com
Ensure content is written with search in mind
 Check keyword usage in titles and body copy using
 Your content management workflow OR
 Your content management pipeline
 Roll up each unit’s score
and publicize
Content Quality Scorecards
20 © 2006 IBM Corporation

21. ibm.com
Improve your content pipeline
Search
 Automated categorization Spider
 Subject
 Document Type
 Date Standardize Content
 Country Your Data Pipeline
 Language
 Linguistics
Search
 Custom dictionary or thesaurus Index
21 © 2006 IBM Corporation

22. ibm.com
Tune your search engine
 Do you have the right query  Have you tested your
defaults? facet names?
 AND/OR
 country/language filters
 Have you tested your
ranking algorithm?
 Using the right factors?
Clicks? Links?
 Using the right weights?
22 © 2006 IBM Corporation

23. ibm.com
Customize your search user interface
 Make search
easy to find
 Use drilldown in
search results
instead of
advanced
search
 Optimize what is
displayed for
product and
document lists
23 © 2006 IBM Corporation

24. ibm.com
Apply the same ideas to search marketing
 “Buy this book, read it, and then
read it again.” --Chris Sherman, Search Engine Watch
 “Indispensable guide” --Kirkus Reports
 Develop a strategy that supports your
Web site’s goals
 Get conversions, not just rankings
 Raise your brand awareness
 For more information:
www.mikemoran.com
www.semincbook.com
24 © 2006 IBM Corporation