SEO & SEM Checklists: How to Spot & Stop SEO & SEM Waste & Fraud (PART 15)

SEO & SEM Checklists: How to Spot & Stop SEO & SEM Waste & Fraud (PART 15)

TRANSCRIPT: All right. We’re in the home stretch. What we’re gonna do is we’re gonna recap very quickly. I’m gonna give you some checklists here, in the end, but don’t worry about writing everything down, because I’m gonna give you a location where you can download that checklist.

So, we did do a marketing … Everything can and should be measured. Google Analytics provides, when it’s properly managed and set up, provides you all you need for managing your PPC, your display budgets. Google Analytics gives you 100% spend transparency. It’s possible, when you’re paying directly, and anything less is unacceptable. For SEO, you need Search Stations. Sorry you do. If you know of a better tool or a similar tool, please tell me. I’ll recommend that, as well. Search Station’s the only tool that I know that could keep your team and your SEO vendor focused on what you need.

Now, all right. That’s a lot to remember. So, let’s do some quick checklists for your SEO and SEM vendors. We’ll walk through these here, but I’ll give you a location where you can download those semi-detailed versions of these for free.

So, this is our SEO accountability checklist, things that are gonna be included on that. Number one, all search is local. For SEO, Google is the authority. We need to remember that. There is no magic, and there’s no secret sauce with SEO. Good SEO is simply good content plus good distribution. The impact of SEO is 100% measurable, when you’re using something like Search Station. SEO vendor reports that they show you are mostly worthless.

Now, these are the questions that you should ask your SEO, or that your SEO report should answer. If your SEO reports don’t answer these questions, then you need to find a new SEO or, like I said, get Search Station. So, how do I compare to all competitors for the important keywords in my market, and if I’m not number one, who is? What is my relative rank on near me searches done within my market? How do I improve or decline? How did improve, rather, relative to others, week over week? Really important, who got the Google My Business, or the Local Pack results and on which keywords did they get them?

Then, during your monthly SEO review, you wanna ask, “What did you guys to do improve this metric last month? Did it work? Great! Then, show me.” Ask to see their SEO journal that they keep for your sites. Now, remember, Search Station is the only way I know to track a relative local position of you and your competitors over time, and keep your SEO focused.

All right. Let’s get to the SEM checklist. For SEM, Google is a vendor. Don’t ever forget that. They are Lamar Billboards. They are the radio station, the TV. They are your vendor. You cannot and should not run your own PPC and display. Always use and outside vendor, but follow the rest of the checklist.

Use your own AdWords account and pay Google directly with your credit card for both PPC and display. If your vendor is unwilling to let you pay Google directly with your credit card, for your Google AdWords account, then you need to run, not walk from that vendor. If you’re unwilling to pay Google directly, and you want to allow the vendor to have an AdWords account set up for you, then make sure you get actual access to it. All right?

Dealers not paying Google directly for display can assume the impressions they are buying are marked up as much as 500%. You’re PPC and display accounts must be linked to your Google Analytics account. There’s nothing proprietary on the vendor’s side that keeps them from properly linking your AdWords to your Google Analytics account. So, if they claim that there is something keeping you from doing it, then run. All right? All conversion metrics should be clearly defined in reporting, and set up in Google analytics by your SEM vendor. So, you don’t have to be the expert in Google analytics, your SEM vendor does.

Be sure to emphasize those conversions that a human can and would do. This means you wanna look at lead forms above page views, and then phone calls are above everything else. They’re the most important. If all the SEM wants to do is show you cost per click, impressions, quality score, click through rate, and average position, then you need to run. As I said, none of these are success metrics.

Now, your good SEM reviews, they take about 20 minutes on a WebEx. You do not need to meet with the SEM, in person, in your dealership, just get on a WebEx. You wanna make sure that you get 100% transparency, and your entire PPC and display spend, because it is possible that your vendors not providing that, then change vendors. Click fraud is easily avoided, when you have 100% transparency into your spend, and you are properly measuring the ROI of every key word.

Now, let me give you some basic SEM dos and don’ts. Then, we’ll wrap it up, or some basic SEM don’ts rather. Don’t allow any vendor to use their own Google Analytics account or replace your Google Analytics account. All right? Make sure that, if they want to configure your Google Analytics account for their spend and link that, that’s great. If they wanna put their own code on your site, that’s great, but your code wins. You’re Google analytics code is all that’s important.

Don’t overpay for keywords. Don’t compete with your OEM per keywords, and don’t buy your dealership’s name as a keyword, unless you are fully aware of the impact to your SEM budget, because again, we don’t have unlimited budgets. Don’t buy your competitors name, as a keyword, unless you are fully aware of the impacts on that to your SEM budget. Don’t allow your SEM vendor to co-mingle your organic and paid traffic, in the same report. Don’t use your OEM’s preferred vendors just because you can co-opt the budget, okay? Make sure they’re also providing 100% transparency, and allowing you to pay Google directly. All right, we’re gonna wrap it up here.

We’re gonna look at a few more slides, and then we’re gonna stay on for any questions. If you have questions, after today, make sure that you contact me, at Steve Stauning dot com, or you can e-mail me directly Steve at Steve Stauning dot com. These are my training sites. They’re 100% free. Steve Stauning dot com, and undeniable advantage dot com. Again, 100% free video training on both sites, be sure to share those with your teams. Make sure that you like us on the Facebook, right. So, like me forward slash SM Stauning. Like Undeniable advantage forward slash UD advantage. Follow us on the Twitter. I am at Steve Stauning on Twitter. Undeniable advantage is at UD advantage on the Twitter. Look for both. Please follow both. You’ll get lots of great information, I promise.

Here’s where I told you you’d get the checklists that we just went through. Go to Steve Stauning dot com forward slash 2018 list dot PDF and list, L-I-S-T is in all capitals. It matters. Steve Stauning dot com forward slash two zero one eight L-I-S-T all caps on the L-I-S-T dot PDF. You’ll be able to download the two, the SEM and the SEO lists. They’ll be combined into one document. You can download that PDF. You don’t have to sign up for anything.