TESTCo Site Performance Audit and Recommendations

October 24, 2012

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Site Performance Audit Contents

• Overview

o About this Document

• Findings

o TESTCo Web Analytics Most Frequent Search Terms Top Entry Pages Top Referring Domains Top Search Engines All Traffic Sources Entry Pages By Google Rank

o RefreshWeb Site Optimization Scoring Worksheet Recommendations

o Keyword Research By Category By Search Volume

• Recommendations

o Keywords by Volume and Competitor Tenacity™ o Summary o Next Steps

• Appendix

o About Search Marketing Netting Market Share with Search Engine Marketing The Business Case for Search Marketing

o The SEO Process

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Overview About This Document Thank you for engaging RefreshWeb to audit your website for search visibility effectiveness and to prepare a detailed Site Optimization Plan (SOP). This report is the first of the two documents delivered in this process. In this report you will find data and conclusions about:

• Your Search Visibility market space overall • Individual competitors • Search volumes and competing website pages for relevant keyword terms • Keyword targets — based on a RefreshWeb measure called Competitor

Tenacity™ — for the keyword terms presented in this document with the best shot at getting top rankings.

At the end of the report, we ask you to work with us to choose 25-30 of the terms studied in depth for the focus of your search marketing efforts. Once those terms are selected, we will move forward with your Site Optimization Plan.

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Findings TESTCo Web Analytics Web analytics provide historical information about the site’s traffic. Knowing how well the site performs from a marketing perspective helps us identify its strengths and weaknesses. The following six-month snapshot of the new TESTCo Wordpress site’s performance has been taken from April 15, 2012 to October 15, 2012. To put the search traffic in perspective, you had a total of 4,831 site visits over that time, and 2,073 search engine referrals. Most Frequent Search Terms Below are the Top Search Terms that visitors use to find TESTCo.com. Out of 2,073 total visits through search engine referrals since April 15, 2012, only 230 visits (11%) used keywords that are related to TESTCo’s services. (these 230 visits use keywords unrelated to the TESTCo brand, its competitors or personal names) The top 25 terms bringing traffic to TESTCo.com.

Keyword Visits(not provided) mostly TESTCo 748testco 281agile testing best practices 45on demand testing 30testco.com 30testco inc 25test co 16http://testco.com/ 13software testing austin 13www.testco.com 13offshore testing 12http://www.testco.com/ 10best practices in agile testing 7testing best practices agile 7testing on demand 6when and how to automate a suite of regression test cases 6agile software testing best practices 5best practice for testing agile projects 5http://testco.com/contactus/ 4http://testco.net/ 4jeff hotz 4managing offshore test teams 4on demand testing services 4software testing best practices 4testco austin 4

The top 25 most relevant keywords unrelated to the TESTCo brand

Keyword Visitsagile testing best practices 45on demand testing 30software testing austin 13offshore testing 12best practices in agile testing 7testing best practices agile 7testing on demand 6when and how to automate a suite of regression test cases can be a challenge 6agile software testing best practices 5best practice for testing agile projects 5managing offshore test teams 4on demand testing services 4software testing best practices 4watir performance testing 4automated testing to the completion of a quality software product. 3offshore testing issues 3on-demand testing 3ondemand testing 3qa on demand 3software quality assurance case studies 3software testing case study 3software testing client testimonials 3squish automation tool 3squish testing 3testing on demand en mexico 3

Top Entry Pages This table includes the top 25 entry pages for TESTCo.com. A well-optimized site will have traffic coming in on many top-level pages and not just the home page – note that there are a number of 404 errors from news pages which probably need redirects. The high number of bounces on the home page is an urgent warning…this should be less than 60%, and optimally less than 40%. We have some ideas to suggest on how to improve this situation. Page Entrances Bounce Rate Notes

/ 3,279 73.10% THIS IS NOT GOOD. /software-testing/agile-software-testing-best-practices/ 106 65.09% Search traffic or bookmarks /on-demand-testing/what-is-on-demand-testing/ 101 59.41% Search traffic or bookmarks /404.html?page=/news.html&from= 80 100.00% /on-demand-testing/offshore/its-not-uncommon-that-offshore-testing-fails/ 47 63.83% /web-application/automation-tools-watir-performance-testing-squish-testing/ 47 95.74% Page not meeting user needs /web-application/report-cross-platform-web-application-and-website-qa-testing/ 38 57.89% /about-us/ 37 64.86% /offshore-testing/its-not-uncommon-that-offshore-testing-fails/ 35 57.14% /stress/automation-tools-watir-performance-testing-squish-testing/ 35 82.86% Page not meeting user needs /library/case-studies-why-our-software-testing-company-is-different/ 30 53.33% /on-demand-testing/offshore/report-four-simple-things-that-make-offshore- software-testing-management-easy/ 29 75.86% /on-demand-testing/on-demand-software-testing-saves-you-time-and-money/ 28 32.14% /software-qa-testing/agile-software-testing-best-practices/ 25 60.00% /software-qa/the-complete-guide-to-software-qa-testing-accuracy-efficiency-and-effectiveness/ 25 68.00% /software-testing/when-should-you-automate-regression-testing/ 24 62.50% /library/on-demand-software-testing-company-expands-to-latin-america/ 22 59.09% /software-testing/load-testing-object-oriented-testing-software-manual-testing/ 21 80.95% /software-qa-testing/when-should-you-automate-regression-testing/ 19 63.16% /software-qa/who-needs-a-qa-department/ 19 89.47% Page not meeting user needs /software-testing/four-things-you-can-do-when-all-the-greatest-testers-are-taken/ 19 73.68% /web-application/web-application-testing-applications-test-automation-services-by-testco/ 19 68.42% /on-demand-testing/offshore/offshore-software-testing-partner-selection-simplified/ 17 76.47% /web-application/web-application-quality-assurance-the-art-and-science-of-getting-it-right/ 17 70.59% /contactus/ 16 56.25%

Top Referring Domains This table includes the top 25 sites referring traffic to TESTCo.com. There is a lot of opportunity to add links and drive traffic through social media and press releases.

Source Visits

Pages per Visit

Avg. Visit Duration

% New Visits Bounce Rate

linkedin.com 85 3 0:01:52 85.88% 34.12%ofertashacker.com 9 1.67 0:00:47 44.44% 77.78%prosinbox.com 8 2.12 0:00:27 0.00% 50.00%www.tinyurl.com/BuyFacebookShares 8 1 0:00:00 0.00% 100.00%ib.adnxs.com 5 1.4 0:00:03 100.00% 80.00%younoodle.com 5 1.4 0:00:08 100.00% 60.00%gemini.valuelabs.net 4 2.25 0:02:14 25.00% 25.00%google.com 4 1 0:00:00 100.00% 100.00%testco.com 4 6.5 0:12:39 50.00% 0.00%insideview.com 3 1.33 0:00:02 100.00% 66.67%partnerpoint.com 3 3.67 0:00:50 100.00% 0.00%search.incredibar.com 3 1.33 0:00:26 66.67% 66.67%billing.tangiblelearning.com 2 1 0:00:00 50.00% 100.00%dev.playnome.com 2 1 0:00:00 100.00% 100.00%forums.asp.net 2 1.5 0:00:08 100.00% 50.00%hvacrinfo.com 2 1 0:00:00 100.00% 100.00%manta.com 2 5.5 0:01:04 100.00% 0.00%refreshweb.com 2 2 0:00:08 100.00% 50.00%safe-collections.com 2 1 0:00:00 100.00% 100.00%speedtocall.com 2 1 0:00:00 50.00% 100.00%stop-list.ru 2 1.5 0:00:08 100.00% 50.00%127.0.0.1 1 1 0:00:00 0.00% 100.00%192.168.0.39 1 1 0:00:00 0.00% 100.00%192.168.43.121:86 1 5 0:03:21 0.00% 0.00%

Top Search Engines Google is the clear leader, accounting for 95% of your search traffic.

Source Visits % google 1,974 95.2% yahoo 42 2.0% bing 30 1.4% all others 27 1.3% Total Visits 2,073

All Traffic Sources This table includes the percentage of all your primary sources of traffic. Source

Source Visits %

Direct Traffic 2541 52.6% All Search Engines 2073 42.9% (Google) 1974 95.2% (Yahoo) 42 2.0% (Bing) 30 1.4% (All Others) 27 1.3% Referring Sites 212 4.4% Total Visits 4,831

Entry Pages by Google rank This table shows all of your top-100 Google rankings and the entry page for each keyword. Building on this foundation (these are the phrases you have good authority for) will give you the quickest success. Note that only one phrase is triggering a search result which points to the home page. Since “software testing company” is a high-volume keyword, you should be able to move up in the rankings by supporting the search term deeper in the site. The lack of rankings for the home page is a consequence of the profusion/confusion of content with the same keyword phrases and the scattered and redundant internal link structure.

Keyword Monthly Search

Google rank URL

on demand software testing 16 2 /on-demand-testing/on-demand-software-testing-saves-you-time-and-money/

on demand testing 1300 4 /on-demand-testing/what-is-on-demand-testing/ (unfortunately this phrase is generic…education, medical, IT, load testing and drug testing sites are also ranked)

offshore software testing 390 5 /library/report-how-to-succeed-with-offshore-software-testing/ offshore testing 480 9 /offshore-testing/ outsourced software testing 210 28 /on-demand-testing/offshore-testing/ software testing company 1900 29 / software regression testing 390 33 /web-application/regression-testing-of-software-application-testco/ outsource software testing 170 35 /on-demand-testing/offshore-testing/ agile software testing 590 52 /software-qa-testing/agile-software-testing-best-practices/ outsourcing software testing 140 53

/on-demand-testing/offshore/nearshore-or-offshore-software-testing-6-factors-that-favor-nearshore- outsourced-software-testing/

software manual testing 1000 68 /software-qa-testing/load-testing-object-oriented-testing-software-manual-testing/ software testing companies 5400 78 /on-demand-testing/on-demand-software-testing-company-expands-to-latin-america/ software testing outsourcing 480 87

/on-demand-testing/offshore/nearshore-or-offshore-software-testing-6-factors-that-favor-nearshore- outsourced-software-testing/

software testing business 170 100 /on-demand-testing/on-demand-software-testing-company-expands-to-latin-america/

RefreshWeb Site Optimization Scoring Worksheet The TESTCo.com site evaluation is based on how well each factor enhances or hinders visibility of the site to the major search engines. Optimization

Factor Max Actual Reviewer comments

Title Tag 10 9 Top level pages have a pertinent title tag with keyword inclusion. The limited number of search terms targeted may present a problem with Google, because the pattern is not “natural.” A greater number of search terms will give your content more depth and semantic richness. There are many pages missing title tags, and few with duplicate tags.

Description Meta Tag

5 4 Good integration of unique description tags. Many are missing. Keep them under 155 characters, and try to get the search phrases in the title tag into the description tag.

Keywords 15 7 Too few keywords were targeted for the copy on the pages…80 instances of “offshore software testing” and 63 uses of “offshore testing,” just in the title tags. Good use of H1 and H2 tags. We suspect that the few alt image tags are just keyword phrases, and they need to be natural language.

Page content 15 12 Usually, the sites we audit have too little page content, especially on the home page. For this, there is probably too much content, and the visitors are not finding what they want. 73% of your site traffic is landing on the home page and leaving after a one-page visit. You need to start the page with customer benefits, not TESTCo differentiation.

Back links 20 14 TESTCo would benefit from many more external links. TESTCo shows 112 links, utest.com has 36,000. Google is tracking social media mentions, so Facebook “likes,” Google “+1s”, tweets and shares will help. Blogging & comments help, too.

Technical, Navigation, Internal Linking

15 12 There are no technical problems with the site, but you went overboard on internal linking…6600 internal links, compared to 112 external links and 46 external out links. Internal links should help organize the content, and this is a tangle which could be cut by 90%. External out links to authority sites help build your own site’s authority.

Design and Sales flow

10 5 The site could use some design help, but an engineer would certainly hit “Contact Us.” Good use of testimonials. You might want to try a top-right-sidebar “Need a Quote?” form in the #1 position with your phone number prominent and a fields for name/email/phone to boost conversion.

Site-Level Issues

5 4 There is an XML sitemap, as well as sitemapindex.xml (!!!). An HTML sitemap with a logical organization would be helpful to some users.

News/Social Media

5 1 As noted, social media marketing is becoming more important. An investment in press releases distributed via PRWeb would give you extra-high quality links from an authority site. Blog posts add fresh content, which is a key ranking factor.

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Recommendations:

1. Strategic and more holistic optimization for a broader range of keywords. 2. Link development strategy with keyword-based links and deep linking. 3. Site is over-optimized for a few keyword phrases…content needs to be heavily

revised. 4. Rework home page content to reduce bounce rate.

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Keyword Research All SEO tactics serve the goal of your site showing up for your prospective customers on their terms. Using Google’s keyword research tools, we researched the most appropriate keywords using your feedback and content from your website. In order to find the best keywords for optimization, we look at the following factors: • Monthly search volume of keywords • Google pages: the number of other competing pages reported by Google which

have the same keyword phrase. It will be easier to get into Google’s top-10 on ‘’software testing consultancy” with 11,700 competing pages than “software qa” with 5,070,000 competing pages.

o Google KEI: The Keyword Effectiveness Index figure helps us see better keywords for optimization – those higher volume keywords with fewer competing pages (the formula is daily search volume squared divided by the number of competing pages). The higher KEI figures generally represent better terms for optimization, but the KEI ratio is weighted toward high search volume – to achieve top rankings, it is important to make sure the number of competing pages is relatively low for the terms you choose.

• Appropriateness for content integration: we included “on demand testing” in the keyword list, but it may not be specific enough to be useful because it could also describe services offered in many other markets.

• Google rank: it is much easier to get keywords like “outsourced software testing” (currently #28 on Google) into Google’s top-3 than a term with no current Google visibility, because it already has some authority.

• Tenacity: We look at competition in two ways – the number of competing pages (KEI) and the number of competing URLs in Google’s top-10. We will discuss Tenacity more in Section 3: Recommendations, but know that the lower number is generally better for optimization.

The By Category table will sort these keywords into general categories, which will help us decide which new pages of content need to be created and which keywords should best be used on pages. The By Search Volume table includes all keywords sorted by monthly search volume, as well as color-coded by KEI score.

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By Category This table includes all keywords sorted by category. The blue highlights show terms where you have a good opportunity, measured by tenacity or existing rank. Terms that include company, services, consultant, etc. are especially good as they appear more transactional than informational.

Keyword Global Google

Searches/Month Competing

Pages Google Rank Tenacity

Software Testing software testing process 1900 1530000 - 93software testing and analysis 720 95800 - 134agile software testing 590 1160000 52 58exploratory software testing 480 80000 - 119mobile software testing 480 739000 - 145software regression testing 390 18500 33 38software application testing 320 364000 155 157computer software testing 260 129000 - 155freelance software testing 260 69200 - 158functional software testing 260 122000 - 33application software testing 210 2480000 150 120software validation testing 73 49200 - 71 On Demand Testing on demand testing 1300 92500 4 15rapid software testing 590 18200 174 25on demand software testing 16 39800 2 30 Offshore Testing offshore testing 480 59600 9 86offshore software testing 390 25200 5 31 Business/Company/Consulting software testing companies 5400 119000 78 67software testing services 2400 248000 - 46software testing company 1900 89700 29 114software testing lab 590 151000 - 79software testing service 390 326000 - 60software testing solutions 390 463000 - 17software testing consultancy 260 11700 - 72software testing labs 210 147000 - 81software testing business 170 150000 100 165software testing consulting 140 48000 150 48software testing consultant 91 129000 - 43software testing consultants 91 65900 - 50

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Search Volume Competing Rank TenacityOutsource Testing software testing outsourcing 480 77100 87 86outsourced software testing 210 11400 28 113outsource software testing 170 5320000 35 130outsourcing software testing 140 239000 53 103software testing outsource 28 191000 110 113software test outsourcing 16 51600 103 98 QA Quality Assurance software quality assurance 40500 5080000 - 128software qa 12100 5070000 - 129quality assurance software 1900 444000 - 70software testing and quality assurance 1900 160000 130 143qa software testing 720 615000 - 101software qa testing 720 192000 155 158software quality testing 720 808000 173 145software testing quality 480 724000 178 25software qa tester 390 1430000 - 103quality assurance software testing 320 445000 192 151software quality assurance testing 320 67700 184 155software testing qa 320 2050000 180 101software testing & quality assurance 260 322000 127 77software testing quality assurance 260 587000 182 10qa outsourcing 210 21400 - 40quality assurance and software testing 170 440000 131 77software development quality assurance 170 683000 - 67quality software testing 91 961000 170 146 Web Testing web software testing 14800 401000 - 134web application testing 5400 340000 - 95website qa 4400 197000 - 104testing web applications 1900 188000 - 48web services testing 1600 136000 - 26testing web application 720 102000 - 68web application test 720 284000 - 100mobile software testing 480 739000 - 145web app testing 390 170000 - 89web testing 210 1100000 - 107performance testing web applications 73 132000 - 63software testing web applications 28 2280000 - 113web application quality assurance 28 438000 - 75 Misc. types of software testing 4400 264000 - 13software manual testing 1000 98500 68 93software testing faq 110 149000 - 55software testing website 58 264000 - 85

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By Search Volume This table includes all keywords sorted by monthly search volume, as well as color-coded by KEI score into thirds (highest: yellow; middle: orange; lowest: white). The best terms will have relatively fewer competing pages, or existing rankings for TESTCo.com in the first 10 pages of the Google SERPs.

Keyword Global Google

Searches/MonthCompeting

Pages Google

KEI Google Rank Tenacity

software quality assurance 40500 5080000 0.35876 - 128web software testing 14800 401000 0.60693 - 134software qa 12100 5070000 0.03209 - 129software testing companies 5400 119000 0.27227 78 67web application testing 5400 340000 0.09529 - 95website qa 4400 197000 0.10919 - 104types of software testing 4400 264000 0.08148 - 13software testing services 2400 248000 0.02581 - 46software testing company 1900 89700 0.04472 29 114software testing and quality assurance 1900 160000 0.02507 130 143testing web applications 1900 188000 0.02134 - 48quality assurance software 1900 444000 0.00903 - 70software testing process 1900 1530000 0.00262 - 93web services testing 1600 136000 0.02092 - 26on demand testing 1300 92500 0.02030 4 15software manual testing 1000 98500 0.01128 68 93software testing and analysis 720 95800 0.00601 - 158testing web application 720 102000 0.00565 - 145software qa testing 720 192000 0.00300 155 134web application test 720 284000 0.00203 - 68qa software testing 720 615000 0.00094 - 100software quality testing 720 808000 0.00071 173 101rapid software testing 590 18200 0.02125 174 58software testing lab 590 151000 0.00256 - 25agile software testing 590 1160000 0.00033 52 79offshore testing 480 59600 0.00430 9 86software testing outsourcing 480 77100 0.00332 87 86exploratory software testing 480 80000 0.00320 - 25software testing quality 480 724000 0.00035 178 119mobile software testing 480 739000 0.00035 - 145software regression testing 390 18500 0.00914 33 31offshore software testing 390 25200 0.00671 5 38web app testing 390 170000 0.00099 - 115application testing services 390 253000 0.00067 187 89software testing service 390 326000 0.00052 - 60software testing solutions 390 463000 0.00037 - 17software qa tester 390 1430000 0.00012 - 103software quality assurance testing 320 67700 0.00168 184 157software application testing 320 364000 0.00031 155 101quality assurance software testing 320 445000 0.00026 192 155software testing qa 320 2050000 0.00006 180 151

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software testing consultancy 260 11700 0.00642 - 77freelance software testing 260 69200 0.00109 - 10functional software testing 260 122000 0.00062 - 72computer software testing 260 129000 0.00058 - 158software testing & quality assurance 260 322000 0.00023 127 33software testing quality assurance 260 587000 0.00013 182 155outsourced software testing 210 11400 0.00430 28 113qa outsourcing 210 21400 0.00229 - 120software testing labs 210 147000 0.00033 - 40web testing 210 1100000 0.00004 - 81application software testing 210 2480000 0.00002 150 107software testing business 170 150000 0.00021 100 130quality assurance and software testing 170 440000 0.00007 131 165software development quality assurance 170 683000 0.00005 - 77outsource software testing 170 5320000 0.00001 35 67software testing consulting 140 48000 0.00045 150 103outsourcing software testing 140 239000 0.00009 53 48software testing faq 110 149000 0.00009 - 55software testing consultants 91 65900 0.00014 - 146software testing consultant 91 129000 0.00007 - 50quality software testing 91 961000 0.00001 170 43software validation testing 73 49200 0.00012 - 71performance testing web applications 73 132000 0.00004 - 63software testing website 58 264000 0.00001 - 85software testing outsource 28 191000 0.00001 110 113software testing web applications 28 2280000 0.00001 - 113web application quality assurance 28 438000 0.00001 - 75on demand software testing 16 39800 0.00001 2 30software test outsourcing 16 51600 0.00001 103 98

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3. Recommendations Keywords by Volume and Competitor Tenacity (TM) The chart on the next page displays the search terms resulting from the keyword research. The terms are placed according to a RefreshWeb index of competitiveness and desirability that takes into account search volume, competing pages, and competitor tenacity. Competitor Tenacity™ is an indicator of how hard it will be to overcome the specific URLs in the top ranks for that term. The size of the circle for each term is its search volume. The X axis shows the relative keyword effectiveness, and the Y axis shows the number of sites competing on the topic as a whole; that is, of the sites that have any Top 10 presence on terms in your keyword list, how many URLs are competing for a given search term. Generally, the further toward the top and right a term is, the more easy it will be to compete, and thus, from a search marketing standpoint, the more desirable it is. The exception is, of course, if the term isn't one for which you want your website visible. It is common for our clients to have most targeted keywords with more than 100 competing URLs, but you have a lot of options with keywords floating to the top – this is great news! With careful optimization on a broader range of search terms, and selecting very precise keyword phrases with decent volume, you should expect to see great results.

Google KEI vs Tenacity (circle size shows number of predicted daily searches)

software quality assurance

web software testing

software qa

software testing companies

web application testing

types of software testing

website qa

software testing services

quality assurance software

software testing and quality assurance

software testing company

software testing process

testing web applications

web services testing

on demand testing

software manual testing

qa software testing

software qa testing

software quality testing

software testing and analysis

testing web applicationweb application test

agile software testing

rapid software testing

software testing lab

exploratory software testingmobile software testing

offshore testing

software testing outsourcing

software testing quality

application testing services

offshore software testing

software qa tester

software regression testing

software testing service

software testing solutions

web app testing

quality assurance software testing

software application testing

software quality assurance testing

software testing qa

computer software testing

freelance software testing

functional software testing

software testing & quality assurance

software testing consultancy

software testing quality assurance

application software testing

outsourced software testing

qa outsourcing

software testing labs

web testing

outsource software testing

software development quality assurance

software testing business

outsourcing software testing

software testing consulting

software testing faq

quality software testing

software testing consultant

software testing consultants

performance testing web applications

software validation testing

software testing website

software testing outsourcesoftware testing web applications

web application quality assurance

on demand software testing

software test outsourcing

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Summary Technical issues: Pages must have unique and optimized title tags, description tags, headline tags and alt image tags. This site is over-optimized in terms of content and internal links, so a thorough rewrite is needed. Other recommendations made previously in the Technical Scorecard should be followed. More, better optimized content: The site should be scrubbed for redundant content, and many internal links removed. The Site Optimization Plan will provide a guide, but the general theory of content optimization is that you introduce a few topics on the home page, and then cascade optimized content through the category and content pages. Pages specific to search phrases should be developed, or existing content repurposed to add content (ex. moving posts to a specific area for your blog). Link Development: A strong link development campaign is needed to compete well in this market. Utest has thousands of links, we have 112. This is a substantial investment, so we recommend optimizing the content first, monitoring results, and as business improves, consider a link development program in the second half of 2013. Other areas: Greater focus can be given to social media, blogging, the optimization of press releases, and consider utilizing videos and presentations to drive traffic. (YouTube and SlideShare both do very well in the rankings.) Next Steps The next step is for TESTCo and RefreshWeb to work in partnership to prune the list of targeted keyword phrases to 25 or 30 terms. The best strategy is to choose the terms based on a) their ability to attract qualified prospects, and b) on the term’s potential to compete effectively, rather than selecting terms simply because a lot of people search on them. After we’ve agreed to 25-30 terms, we’ll produce the Site Optimization Plan (SOP) and design a comprehensive search visibility plan. Again, we are enjoying working with TESTCo, and we are looking forward to partnering with you to optimize your site for search engine visibility. We look forward to taking the next steps and beginning to move your site up in the rankings.

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Appendix About Search Marketing Netting Market Share with Search Engine Marketing Prospective buyers are hungry for information, but they want it on their terms. This means they primarily use natural, or organic search results when looking for information. In fact, according to a survey by MarketingSherpa of business decision makers, only 5.7% of the clicks on Google’s search results pages go to PPC ads…94.3% are on local or natural search results. Traditional media usage is down, making marketing “suspects” (pre-consideration potential clients, customers, job searchers) harder to reach, leave alone motivate. It’s essential to be visible to these “empowered individualists,” to maintain market share and to fuel growth. Search engine marketing bypasses the expense of creating top-of-mind awareness via advertising, and gets you top-of-list consideration at the time of need. Search visibility is the way to reach 85% of the people who are currently considering purchase or selection of a product or service: you must be visible on their search terms. It’s not enough to have a dominant brand. It’s not enough to have a slick presence on the web. You have to wrap your site around the mind of the market to be effective. The Business Case for Search Marketing Being at the top of the search engine rankings means first-place visibility to new prospects actively looking for a solution. High rankings drive new business…up to 40% more visits from top-ranked listings convert to purchase. Typical results from RefreshWeb optimization programs are an increase in Web visibility in excess of 500%. While a poor site will naturally show off-the-charts improvement, typical results from optimization immediately drive over 50% more traffic from search engines to a site—even with pay-per-click advertising in place. The need for search engine marketing is widespread, as most sites are created by a design team, maintained by an internal technical team, and have never been marketed. “Marketing” a web site means ensuring that the site is visible to large numbers of prospects; this is done by 1) researching prospect search behavior, 2) optimizing the content of the pages to make these search terms have relatively high weight on the page, 3) managing the submission and inclusion of pages on the major search engines, 4) internal and external link development, and 5) adding and updating content. Both site performance and competitors’ positions need to be monitored for optimum results. Pay per click can be a powerful tool to get immediate top-of-the-rankings presence. However, PPC requires you to continually pay for that placement, like any form of advertising. Strong organic rankings from search engine optimization (SEO) are more like owning that real estate at the top of the page, instead of renting. PPC is auction-based, so there is a tendency for costs to go up over time. Our solution? Integrated management of both organic SEO and paid search, with the goal of continually lowering cost and increasing the number of leads.

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Internet marketing is now the most cost-effective way for a company to spend its marketing communications dollars. We believe RefreshWeb’s approach is the most cost-effective way to strategize and implement an Internet marketing program. The fact that we bring over 20 years’ experience in marketing to the equation is the reason we partner so effectively with our clients. The SEO Process RefreshWeb starts every engagement by running a free ranking report, to see how much of the Total Available Search Market™ (TASM™) you are currently reaching. Search terms themselves define the market which is available to you via search visibility. There are literally hundreds of search terms that might be relevant to your brand. We start by testing a few dozen terms for visibility on the major search engines, directories and pay-per-click advertising services. Strong rankings on your brand and trade names is a given -- but these are people who already know you are the answer to their question. These are prospects, not suspects. Suspects have to search by defining their problem using terms they know already…not on terms they’ll learn from reading your website or would know if they already had completed their research. Our next step is a prescriptive site performance audit. We look at your server logs, your web analytics, your paid search results, your site’s programming and your sales flow to evaluate how well the site is working with the traffic you have. We do a thorough analysis of competing sites to evaluate their effectiveness, probe their weaknesses, and scope out the program you need to surpass them. Finally, we do deep keyword research and make detailed recommendations via a site optimization plan. This audit is how we scope the recommendations to solve your search marketing problems so you know the costs, the timeframe and the benefits to expect before we start work. The actual on-page search engine optimization work takes about 60 days. The key to effective optimization for search is not just to place high-volume keywords on the pages, but to differentiate between information-based terms and transactional terms, and build in these terms throughout the site. Optimizing your site for search requires much more than inserting search terms into your HTML metatag code. It requires a complete overhaul of your site content to align it with the strategy in the site optimization plan, supported by an ongoing process of monitoring your rankings, measuring the performance of traffic generated by search, and tweaking the site content to improve your results. Our on-page SEO includes rewriting your top-level pages, detailed recommendations on internal links, metatag content, and information architecture recommendations; implementing the top-level changes we recommend is normally very straightforward, typically requiring only a few hours’ work by your web team. Reworking other content and implementing best practices like landing pages and call tracking for your PPC campaign can be more time consuming.

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Once the content is in place and we can see the results (our SEO management dashboard is a powerful way to share this information), we do a 60-day refresh to adjust to the realities of the search engine results. Some terms we tried for may need additional support, such as internal linking or additional content, to come up well in the ranking results. Other terms may show no movement, and so we may replace them in the optimization strategy and work with terms that have more promise. From there, the next step is link development. Link development is equally important to your rankings as the on-page optimization, because it’s the heart of the way Google measures the relevance of your site. We craft these links, both in style and in selecting sites to request links to you, according to constantly-evolving SEO best practices. Our SEO package includes a basic level of directory listings; depending on our competitive analysis, we may recommend a more aggressive campaign. On a regular basis, we monitor your rankings and show your site’s performance in our on-line dashboard. As marketing partners and coaches, we make recommendations for improving performance, by looking for terms with good search volume which need to be supported more aggressively to move up. We also help you interpret your site’s web analytics, typically using Hitslink or Google Analytics. We are happy to work with other tools you may be using, such as ClickTracks, Omniture, HitBox or WebTrends. For clients where we are managing the paid search marketing program, we provide a written monthly report.

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Moving Forward: Overview of the Search Engine Optimization Process There is a five-step process to search engine optimization (SEO), understanding that search engines look at meta tags, original, useful site content, internal link structure, external link popularity, as well as your site authority and fresh content to determine your ranking in the results.

1. Brainstorm, research and analyze the key words and phrases that will draw profitable traffic to your site.

2. Optimize your content against these key words and phrases a. Create pages specific to individual terms b. Include keywords/phrases in title tag c. Write meta descriptions around keywords/phrases d. Develop or improve headline tags and text tailored to key

words/phrases e. Incorporate links and alt image tags appropriately

3. Register site with directories, submit optimized pages to search engines

a. Submit site to search engines and free directories b. Subscribe to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools, use these to submit new or updated pages.

4. Monitor the results, tweaking as needed to increase traffic and improve your position in the search results

a. Install Google Analytics (free)

b. Monitor rankings (our clients have the SEO dashboard for this)

5. Develop a strategy for external linking – listing your URL on popular directories and other relevant web sites – because links are increasingly important to page ranks on Google and other search engines.

Optimization will help increase your site traffic; the larger question is how to increase the percentage of visitors converted into customers. To monitor your results, we recommend that all our clients subscribe to an online web analytics package like Google Analytics, which we can also access. Many sites experience site visitors who look at a single page and leave—these obviously weren’t prospects. What we want to do is motivate people to engage with your site—to call or ask for more information. The most important advice: optimize each web page for search engine visibility Determine which keywords are the most important for targeted traffic, and organize them across the primary pages, one or two per page.

• Page titles – must be specific to each page’s content focus - put primary keyword and second keyword at the FRONT of the page title.

• Meta keywords and meta descriptions specific to each page. Headline tags (H1 tag) repeat keywords for that page.

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• Alt image tags – use where you have graphics to describe the picture, but also repeat primary and secondary keywords

• Useful, practical keyword-focused content on every page. Start writing for search engine visibility, but keep the content meaningful to the prospect.

• Make sure pages (including image files) are typically 35-50k. Always aim for a fast-loading page, as this has become a ranking factor.

• Deploy an XML site map and create an HTML site map page to make it simple for search engine spiders and users to find all the pages.

Selling “system” in place Marketing theory for web sites says you need to provide the prospect with a clearly understood path…anticipating the informational needs of a prospect as they move from awareness, to consideration, to evaluation, to purchase. Obviously, a prospect has very different needs than a customer, so you have to organize your site appropriately. The goal of every prospect interaction is to motivate them to move further along in this decision-making process. Every page needs review to be sure your “most desired action” is present. In most cases, we would expect that to be a phone call, a demo or some information download like a white paper. Other parts of a selling “system” can be an e-mail series on issues relevant to your solution, additional audio or video interviews with staff/customers, etc. These all supplement the Web content, are likely to be saved and/or shared, and require no human intervention. These should require no more information in registration than an e-mail address. It’s important for prospects to be able to quickly find you again—they are more likely to save useful information than they are to bookmark your site. We will work with you to develop a straightforward, rational path for the prospect, and to recommend ways to encourage calls or request additional information. On each page of a site optimized for sales, there needs to be a clear “most desired action” for the prospect to take, and you need to expand content, such as FAQs, comparisons and testimonials, that support a broad range of prospects at multiple points in the decision-making process.

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Site Optimization Strategies Item and strategy Recommendation

KEYWORD PHRASES

Primary Integrate up to five keyword phrases (KPs) into the page copy on each top level page, each about 2-3 times. Scatter home page KPs across the top level pages. You should prioritize the keywords according to their counts and relevance (looking for traffic that will convert to sales). Secondary An excellent strategy for having high rankings on secondary phrases is to develop KP-specific pages, such as in your FAQ section, or in press releases. On all pages, “content is king.”

METATAGS

The Title and Description meta tags usually appear in the search engine results. The page title is especially important; it integrates the top two or three KPs, also emphasized in the page content, to draw traffic based on real search terms. Each should be unique, but should be in readable, logical form (for Google, 89 characters max for the Title tag, the Description gets 155 max characters including spaces). Don’t worry about the Keywords tag…it doesn’t factor in your rankings.

HOMEPAGE

Copy is SO important: in SEO, “Content is king.” It is important to have good keyword density on the homepage; when we optimize copy we also build an internal link structure for better KP visibility. Often, optimized content appears “below the fold,” when you scroll down the page. 80% of user activity is above the fold, so your optimized home page can still be light and airy in its design.

GRAPHICS AND alt.image TAGS

Anything that is a graphic should get a written description, for visually impaired people. We use this alt.image tag, and include keywords in it. Use alt.image tags for the company logo, photos, headlines which are graphics (not text). Alt.image tags are especially powerful in the top banner.

HEADER TAGS

Headers (<H1>, <H2>, etc.) are style definitions, but these are typically used in headlines, subheads, caption, lists, etc. The spiders pay attention to these H tags and use KPs in them as part of the page index. They can be a sentence or a phrase that contains keywords, and they are an important resource for KP-rich page content.

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MOTIVATE RESPONSE

Call to action: Consistently, effectively, and deliberately placed on each page. Optimize the response mechanism on every page. Determine your “most wanted [realistic] result” and frame an offer accordingly.

SITEMAP

Use both an XML sitemap and an HTML sitemap. For the HTML version: View the map not just as a way to describe the site, but as an index and glossary to your entire business. Definitely incorporate keywords into the map itself, and include a title tag. Also, this is an excellent place to incorporate messages for market segments – savvy web users often go straight to the site map and navigate from there. The XML sitemap is for the search engines.

SUBMITTING TO SEARCH ENGINES – CREATING MORE TARGETED TRAFFIC

After the updates have been made to the web pages we will submit your site to the major search engines. It will take about a week to see the new pages start showing up in all the sites. Top rankings generally take time, now that the web is so large…you are shooting to be one of the top ten pages on the internet. This table shows approximate times for a search engine spider to cycle around to your site (once a page has been submitted) and the time it takes for key directories. There are about 15 directories which are essential external links which show the search engines serious intent…earning respect is important.

Search Engine / Directory

Time to Index

Google Generally, within a week Bing/Yahoo Usually takes longer, 2-3 weeks Yahoo Directory 1 week with paid listing ($299) All The Web 3-8 weeks for free listing, 1 week if paid Open Directory 2 weeks to several months, but it’s free Best of the Web 2 days (paid listing) Business.com Another excellent paid directory, $299

LINK DEVELOPMENT

Link popularity is a very important metric for the search engines, especially Google. Adding links can be difficult. However, it is worth the effort for top rankings. One easy way to generate links is to comment on blogs; if you post interesting content, your blog posts may generate external links. It is important to maintain current links and continue to acquire new ones. By systematically increasing the number of keyword-specific external links, you can develop a richer link structure which will increase your rankings with Google.