SEO: Quality vs. Searchability

• VP, New Media for Primedia Business, Prism Business Media and Penton Media (’03 to ‘08)

• Brought SEO from About.com to PRIMEDIA Business (now Penton Media) in 2002– Grew traffic from 1.5 million page views to 7 million

page views in under a year

• Grew division from $3MM in digital revenues to over $60MM and from 8 people in ‘03 to 147 in ‘08

Who is this “Prescott” guy and what can he teach me about SEO & B2B Media?

• Why page view journalism is a waste of time unless you have a network of low-cost content creators

• Combat page view journalism with service journalism

• How can you get management to focus on the right metrics?

• What tools should I be looking at?

Today’s discussion

Quality• Attract the right

audience• Make an impression• Reader wants more

content from you• Creates influence

Searchability• Content discovery• Increased traffic• Credibility with

advertisers & readers• New users• Steal market share

Quality vs. Searchability

Can quality be measured as easily as searchability?

• How do others quantify quality content?– Google: PageRank– Facebook: EdgeRank

• How do you quantify quality content?

SEO Impact: 2003 vs. 2002

• Goal: massive page view growth• Technology

– Pre-populated title tags with editorial ability to override it with an optimized title

– Meta description and keywords– Static url’s– Spiderbites

• Editorial Training– Trained over 150 editors on SEO in three months– Focus was on-page factors

SEO 2002 Gameplan

• Goal: reach, engage and develop an ongoing relationship with as many people in the industry as possible

• Technology– Web Analytics– Audience Management System (registration, paywall, etc.)– Workflow– Syndication

• Editorial Training– Social Media – Focus on understanding metrics– Social media and link building– Maintain on-page skills– Tagging and meta data

SEO Gameplan 2012

• Value of a page view has fallen to $0.01 or $0.02• More competition for keywords

– Advertisers are blogging, tweeting, etc.– Readers are blogging, etc.– Events are blogging, etc.

• Off-page factors are becoming more important• Rise of social media and social media

optimization (SMO)

What’s changed in 10 years?

Your website is your top audience acquisition tool, but it isn’t set

up to attract and acquire new users/readers.

20% of Homepage Used for Conversions1 2 3

4

5

6-15

5% of Homepage Used for Conversions1-5 6

• If page views are worth a penny or two, what is the opportunity cost?

• Good content should create value beyond the page view– Email newsletter subscription: $3 to $5– Print magazine subscription: $5 to $50 – Webinar registration: $30 to $120– Facebook Fan: $2 to $4– Twitter follower: $2 to $4

• Lifetime values of the above number are much higher• Email addresses can be used to market conferences and

trade shows

Stepping over dollars to get pennies

ABM Managing Profits StudyChannel Average Revenue

per User (ARPU)Avg. Reach Margin Growth Rate

Print $28 59,448 23% 2.3%

Web $29 56,000 31% 15.5%

Conference $1,327 412 31% 9.8%

Trade Show $191 12,717 52% 9.8%

Source: 2012 ABM Managing Profits Study

eHow.com• 46M uniques• 110M total visits• 64M return visits• 280M page views• 5:00 per visit

nytimes.com• 23M uniques• 110M total visits• 87M return visits• 370M page views• 8:00 per visit

Who has more influence?

Google Analytics Can Track These Engagement Metrics

Tying Editors to Engagement Goals

• Number of content assets• Non-bounce visits (easy)• Return visits (easy)• Newsletter signups (talk to developer)• Social media activity (talk to developer)• Unique Visitors (easy)• Page Views (easy)

Executive Dashboard

• Top converting writers• Top converting content types (video, article,

blog, podcast, review, how-to, news, etc.)• Top converting content assets• Top converting referrers (sites that send you

traffic)• Top converting keywords • Top converting tags (need developer)

Editorial Team Reports

• Manage story pipeline• Manage writers (fulltime and freelance)• Analytics by writer• Payments, etc.• Licensing

KaPost.com

• Chartbeat: Real-time analytics for large, newsy sites

• Scout Analytics: Paid content analytics platform• PublishFlow: Real-time analytics, competitive

analysis

Other Web Analytics

• Keyword targets• Keyword rankings• On-page analysis• Off-page factors• Link Development

SEOmoz

• Temis• Open Calais• Inform• OpenAmplify

Automated Tagging

• Quality content leads to deeper relationships, more influence

• Manage up… tell your boss what metrics to follow

• Use tools to make content discoverability more efficient

• Take time for content strategy

Final thoughts