MORE TH>N BusinessCase Study

B2B: Measurability & ROI

Dean HarveySept 2009

overviewiCrossing UK has been working incredibly successfully with major insurance provider MORE TH>N on its natural search strategy since 2006. In 2008, the company turned to iCrossing to drive the natural search profile of its dedicated business division MORE TH>N BUSINESS.

objectiveThe core objective of the campaign was to increase natural search traffic to, and business insurance policies sold via, www.morethanbusiness.com.In this massively competitive, yet low-interest sector, driving traffic from potential buyers of business insurance through natural search referrals was identified as a key goal to deliver low-cost, high-converting traffic.

StrategyiCrossing’s core strategy was to produce and disseminate strong, useful and unique content relevant to MORE TH>N BUSINESS’s potential customers. The content would make the MORE TH>N BUSINESS site a valuable resource for businesses by covering unique and specialised content; the kind that is usually missed by the major media outlets and so build the brand and drive traffic.

What is SEO?

A guide to understanding the methodology of search engines

“Link by link, click by click, search is building possibly the most lasting, ponderous, and significant cultural artifact in the history of humankind: the Database of Intentions.” - John Batelle, The Search

80% of all website visits start with a search engine

Search engine spiders comb the internet through links, looking for documents and their corresponding URLs. These documents and web addresses are collected and sent to the search engine’s indexing software, then to their databases where they are stored.

3

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1 2Search spiders follow links Software compiles pages Pages stored in database

Natural search retrieval process

NSO Best PracticesNatural search best practices generally help a website to achieve the

following

/ Website is accessible/ Pages are found/ Content is visible

Accessibility Relevancy

/Content is implemented/Copy includes terms/All assets are available/All assets are optimised

Credibility

/Compete for valuable terms/Associate with relevant neighbourhoods/Increase entry points/Drive additional traffic

Measurability

/Keywords/Traffic/Position /ROI

Content Accessibility

Links

SEO FUNDAMENTALS iCROSSING APPROACH

Useful and engaging content to address the user in

their language.

Useful and engaging content to address the user in

their language.

Can search engines find it?

Can search engines find it?

Reputation/credibility and

relevance defined by the

wider web

Reputation/credibility and

relevance defined by the

wider web

Social

User interaction and

conversations

User interaction and

conversations

Search engines do not treat flash in the same way as regular HTML elements.While links in Flash files are indexed, the anchor text is not, reducing the optimisation of high value top level pages.

FLASH NAVIGATION

Avoid Flash Navigation

FLASH BASED SITE

Some search engines, such as Google, are able to index a limited amount of Flash content, but as a general rule, having a site created entirely in Flash poses numerous challenges. / A single file – limited optimisation/ Poor usability/ Reduces deep linking/ Poor visibility on mobile devices (iPhone)/ Poor visibility in search

Mix HTML with FlashCreate a Non Flash Version

Search engines will read the content in the order it appears within the HTML. This can cause issues where there’s excessive scripting and navigational code proceeding optimised content. This can reduce the impact of content.In extreme cases where a page is partially crawled, the real content may not be indexed and the page treated as duplicate

Use layers to reposition priority content early on in the HTML

CONTENT PRIORITY

Prioritise content within the HTML

CREDIBILITY: LINKS

Link Reputation and relevance

Visibility in search results are based largely on the credibility of the site. Credibility is determined by the number and quality of external links to your site.

Anchor text

iCrossing and MORE TH>N BUSINESS were keen to identify niche terms that were used – these were less competitive than the more obvious keywords and were also more business specific. For example, analysis has shown that terms such as ‘florist insurance’ have the potential to be just as powerful as more generic terms such as ‘shop insurance’.

The SEO TacticsContent still key to strategy (utilising Linguistic Profile insights where relevant):

•Daily newsfeed covers topical, small business-focused news that doesn't necessarily get heavy coverage in mainstream media. •Monthly features using multi-media content offers in-depth analysis on the most popular topics of interest (identified through analysis of data from the news feed). Next feature: Twitter & Small Businesses.•Existing RSA resources such as Risk Management Guides are repurposed to drive greater value for audiences and deliver more traffic through integration with content being added to the Knowledge Centre, including daily news.•“Sticky" content such as surveys and polls, video and podcasts are integrated to constantly engage users and increase their interaction with the site and the brand.

 

The SEO Tactics continuedAll content is optimised (text, images, audio & video). 

Advertorials on third-party sites target new audiences and support link equity for specific products. Content development is synchronised with PR activity to complement new products - editorial and promotional content support each other in a legitimate and authentic way.

Joined up activity with PRAdvertorial for Van & Bus CarOptimised Podcasts

Specific innovations have included:1. A completely new content approach, using the MORE TH>N BUSINESS Knowledge Centre

(http://www.morethanbusiness.com/Knowledge-Centre) as the host site:• Content produced by journalists not copywriters – iCrossing’s editorial team is a group of

experienced, trained journalists who are focused on producing ‘reader first’ copy that offers accurate, unbiased reporting. This subtle but key difference means that the content produced for MORE TH>N BUSINESS has authenticity and credibility not found in promotional copy

• Daily newsfeed covering topical, small business-focused news that doesn’t necessarily get heavy coverage in mainstream media. It continues to feature original material sourced directly from places such as the Federation of Small Businesses, British Chambers of Commerce and government departments

• Existing RSA resources such as Risk Management Guides have been repurposed to drive greater value for audiences and deliver more traffic through integration with content being added to the Knowledge Centre, including daily news

• Monthly features using multi-media content were produced offering in-depth analysis on the most popular topics of interest (identified through analysis of data from the news feed). These, like the newsfeed, were original and independent, avoiding the hard sell of traditional PR collateral

• “Sticky” content such as surveys and polls, video and podcasts were integrated to constantly engage users and increase their interaction with the site and the brand

The SEO Success story continues> First page Google rankings for most core terms > Natural search traffic accounts for 30% of all traffic> Non-brand traffic is just over 90% of all natural search traffic> 700 monthly sales in May which resulted in £380k

Overall Traffic OverviewNatural Search Traffic

The Detail

NB Please note that due to the latest Google Update “Vince”, positions are currently fluctuating quite significantly, but we have started to see some great visibility for terms we have previously not been visible for (ie “landlords insurance”).

MORE TH>N BusinessCase Study

Thank You

Dean HarveySept 2009