Scott Wilson

Google performs three Billion searches a day: So, the question for executives is: When a prospective customer is searching to buy, do they find your company or your competitors?  

There are now more than a trillion pages on the web, a 1,000 fold increase from 2000. If your web site is a billboard, how will prospective customers find it in a jungle of a trillion others? The reality is most websites are billboards lost in the jungle.

Scott Wilson is Canada’s leading web sales and marketing expert using Search Engine Optimization (SEO). PROFIT magazine ranks him as an essential speaker and resource for the CEOs of Canada’s fastest growing companies. He is invited back every year to speak to the CEOs of the PROFIT 100 and PROFIT 50 fastest growing companies.

Wilson’s dynamic presentations provide practical, proven strategies for increasing sales and winning new customers – all in a highly cost-effective way. By drawing lessons from fascinating real-world examples, he educates and empowers decision makers. You will learn: the key performance indicators for a successful web marketing & sales campaign, benchmarking best practices, secrets of success for winning business on the web, the classic mistakes ad agencies and web design firms make that undermine web sales and marketing effectiveness, why search engine optimization is one of the least expensive methods of prospecting and winning new customers, and successful strategies to significantly reduce reputational risk when a corporate crisis hits.

Wilson’s presentations are unique, because he focuses on the financial pay-back of web sales, documenting case studies with a proven ROI. As a result, his company, RankHigher.ca, has grown to be one of the largest SEO firms in Canada, with over 110 active clients ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.

His captivating presentations are designed for decision markers, empowering them with the necessary knowledge to make the best business decisions utilizing proven strategies. Wilson will inspire you to implement your new-found knowledge right away. Organizations and individuals respond to his presentations with rave reviews and overwhelming enthusiasm.

• 3. SEO for the CEO

  The Internet is now a major marketing force for organizations providing goods or services.  But unless your website can be easily found, it will quickly fade into the internet jungle while other, more internet-adept organizations attract and recruit the customers you want.

  While consulting to companies in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, internet expert Scott Wilson became convinced that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was much too important to be left to IT consultants. “In the current marketing environment all top executives need basic knowledge about SEO, because it is the #1 prerequisite for internet success,” says the President of Rank Higher, a Google
  And Scott provides it, in a dynamic, fast-paced presentation on “Secrets of SEO” that all can understand and apply to their own websites and businesses. By following the key principles of configuring websites that Scott outlines, many of his listeners have been excited to see their websites rank within the first few listings in leading search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
  Scott will also explain how companies can take advantage of the dynamic changes being made by Google as it strives to give its users information of better quality and diversity. As an example, he outlines how one new feature, Google Local Business, is helping firms ramp up their customer base in their drive-to area, cheaply and effectively. 

  The conclusion of Scott’s presentation is even more riveting for his audience. He moves from the general to the specific, with on-screen analysis of the websites of individual audience members who volunteer. Then he points out what they’re doing right, any deficiencies, and suggests changes that, if made, can help them knock down the barriers they’ve erected to being found on the internet and put them on the road to internet marketing success.

• 2. Why Google?

  People ask, “Why Google?” Simple. Google has created the world’s greatest – and dominant - search engine. Google’s goal is to organize the world’s information and make it easily and instantly available to anyone with an Internet connection. This is being conducted by some of the brightest minds in the world and, not surprisingly, the complexity of their search algorithm is difficult to comprehend. After years of studying Google, my firm has simplified SEO into three easy-to-understand principles that I call the three secrets to SEO.

  Secret No. 1: Earn Trust
  The first secret is trust. Until your Website has earned the trust of Google, nothing else you do matters and you will not rank in search. The most important way to earn trust is to receive links from other trusted Websites. When Google co-founder Larry Page first created the Google algorithm called Page Rank, he looked at an existing system of qualifying papers called academic citations. If your academic paper was cited frequently it would become trusted and used more often. Page compared a link to academic citations. The more citations or links the more trusted the source of the content would become. Therefore, the best way to become trusted by Google is for your Website to be the receiver of links. In “geek speak” these are called back links.

  Google’s trust also comes with a website’s age. A business that just opened the doors is less trusted than one that has been around for many years. Websites are the same. Since a Website’s age can’t be faked this weighs heavily on earning Google trust. This has created a whole new online industry of people buying, selling and trading aged domains at online stores and auctions.

  Secret No. 2: Get Read!
  So now you have worked hard to earn Google’s trust by creating a compelling reason for great Websites to link to your site. Google trusts you, but they have to be able to read your text in order to know what your site is all about. People think that if they can visibly read the text on a Web page then Google must be able to read it. That is not always the case. For example, Google has difficulty reading Websites created entirely in Flash, database-driven content management systems run by Java Script, and Websites containing frames. These are just a few examples of Websites that will probably not rank in search and most webmasters do not know this. So the second secret of SEO is to create content that Google can easily read. The best way to create readable content is to create Web pages in HTML and follow World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards.

  Secret No.3: Laser Beam Focus
  Many marketers want to get multiple messages out to their customers simultaneously. Brochures and posters all may contain several product offerings or messages. I’ve even seen business cards that list five or six things the company does. Marketers incorrectly utilize the same strategy on a Webpage. A single Webpage may contain 10 different products. Now that we have implemented SEO secrets No. 1 and No. 2, we can assume that Google trusts your Webpage and Google can read the text. If the page is about 10 different things then Google will reward you by ranking you for all 10. The problem is you will rank on page 100 for product one, page 1,000 for product two, page one million for product 3…you get the idea. If you are not on the first page in Google’s search results, the majority of internet searchers will never find you. The world is filled with fantastic content that no one can find

  Choosing Keywords
  Keywords have become a powerful tool in the world of search. A keyword is a word or a small cluster of words on your webpage that identify what the page is all about. “Cholesterol” is a single keyword. “Good cholesterol” is a keyword cluster. Single keywords are the hardest to win but offer the highest number of targeted visitors.  Keyword clusters like “good cholesterol” are easier to win but they usually have less traffic. Laser beam focus means a webpage should provide an exact match with some density to a keyword that matters to your business.  The first step to selecting good keywords is to guess. Hold a brainstorming session with your SEO consultant’s pharmaceutical executives and patients, to create a list of product-relevant keywords that you think people might be searching for. The next step is to data mine these keyword guesses to seek actual keyword searches on the internet. We subscribe to numerous databases that collect information on internet searches. They tell us how many searches are conducted daily on a given search query and how many competing Websites are currently targeting the keyword. Two databases that I recommend are Wordtracker and Wordze. Both are reasonably priced, easy to use and contain a wealth of valuable search query information.  
  
  Location, Location, Location
  Websites are like real estate.  Your domain name is a plot of land. The look, feel and functionality of the Website is your hotel.  The traffic that comes to the Website is your guests.  The goal is to create a property that people can easily find. When they visit you the experience is so good that they want to tell their friends and family about it and come back to visit you again. I know of a major pharmaceutical company that created a fantastic patient Website that helped patients track their health on a daily basis. Over the course of three years the Website grew in popularity as nearly one hundred thousand patients joined this program. The Website was part of a drug study that came to an end and when the study was completed the pharmaceutical company terminated the Website. Using my Internet/real estate analogy, a company purchased a piece of land and built a great, extremely successful hotel. Just when the hotel reached its peak performance, the company who created it brought in the wrecking ball and gave the land back to the city.  Lesson: every Website is a valuable piece of property that will gain customers over time. Each property can refer people to other similar and beneficial properties. It’s good for businesses to own and develop several properties.  Create a separate internet property for each disease that you treat.
  
  Education, Diagnosis, and Compliance
  Most everyone would agree that an increase in a patient’s education about his or her disease leads to better compliance. We know that patients are turning to the Internet by the millions and conducting searches by the billions to look for answers about their health. This provides the pharmaceutical industry with an unequalled opportunity to reach a laser beam-targeted audience of people who are seeking better education on their specific diseases. The pharmaceutical companies who are first to create disease-specific patient education on the internet that are search engine optimized will empower patients within their target market to be proactive in their health. Educated and empowered patients are more likely to get properly diagnosed and treated.

• 1. Search Engine Optimization: Laser Beam Your Target Market

  The Internet has quietly revolutionized the world in the last several years. Consumers are banking, shopping, being informed and entertained from their personal computers and mobile devices. The massive shift of consumers to the Web has relevance far beyond those in the media and entertainment industries. Today, as never before, people are researching their health, their diseases and their medications online. According to comScore, Inc., 61 billion searches were conducted worldwide on the Internet in August 2007 and that number continues to grow. Although we are seeing a massive shift of eyeballs to the Internet, drug marketing has been slow to follow.
  
  Those that have transitioned to online advertising have found a medium that moves at light-speed and operates under rules far different from the traditional marketing world. Creating great content found online is an important way to deliver targeted messaging to your audience. One of the most powerful tools used by marketers to stake out the high ground in the ever-shifting online landscape has become Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO/SEM turned into a multi-billion-dollar business almost overnight. But don’t be fooled by that impressive-sounding figure. There are plenty of outfits that say they do SEO, but most don’t do it very well.
  
  SEO is the science behind earning first-page results in “natural search,” displayed down the center column when using search engines.  Natural results account for more than 70% of search generated traffic. The results in the right-hand column and the very top, separated by a light pink-shaded area, are paid ads. Paid ads, known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM), are an important part of an Internet marketing campaign but account for less than 30% of clicks.  

  So how do you win first-page placement in the natural results on Google and the other major search engines? With a click of a mouse and some important tips, so let’s go!

• Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) sound like dry subjects, but not when Scott Wilson talks about them. I’ve seen several times how strongly he engages audiences through the sheer force of his passion for SEO and SEM. He’s excited about these subjects, and he gets his listeners excited about them as well. Many speakers who have deep knowledge about their areas of expertise struggle to explain it to people who lack such knowledge. But Scott speaks in clear language, so even audience members who don’t know much about SEO and SEM can easily understand what he’s saying. And he nicely combines big-picture analysis of these subjects with specific tips and tactics that his listeners can apply to their own websites.

  PROFIT Magazine

• We’re a network of entrepreneurial CEOs who own some of Ontario’s fastest growing and innovative companies so every minute counts for our Executives.
  We’ve asked Scott to present to us on at least four occasions and he’s never wasted anyone’s time; delivering concise, real and useable tools for our CEOs to take back and implement … immediately. Scott is so passionate about what he knows that even CEOs who have any number of pressing issues in front of them were sufficiently engaged to focus on his presentation and learn.

  Innovators Alliance

• Just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated your SEO for CEO presentation earlier this week. Much the information you presented was new and highly relevant in my current role, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have been present. I have also read through the information you provided, and have watched the DVD. Thank you for this valuable information also. In fact, I have read your articles in Profit magazine before, and have actually implemented some of your ideas on our current website and other marketing initiatives. Your knowledge on the art of SEO is impressive, and I hope the seminar brings you new business.

   

  Zeton Inc.

• I have been audience to Scott Wilson’s presentations on Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing on no fewer than 4 occasions. Even after repeated exposure – in both very large as well as smaller, more intimate settings – I find myself engaged, interested and involved in Mr. Wilson’s messages. He not only knows his subject matter, but understands it so deeply that he can deliver it in simple, relatable terms. He uses real world examples and demonstrated results to illustrate his proven concepts and approaches.

   

  JAN Kelley Marketing

• Just wanted to say thank you – yours was truly the most inspiring and exciting presentation we have had.

  Sims & Company

• On behalf of CMA Ontario, thank you for sharing your knowledge and information in the SEO for the CEO presentation yesterday evening. I trust you also found the evening to enjoyable and beneficial. Do let me know if it yielded any business for you in the future as this would help evaluate the impact of the presenters we bring in to CMA.

   

  CMA Ontario