the cumulative effect of seo improvements
TRANSCRIPT
Sponsored by:
The Cumulative Effect of SEO Improvements How a methodical process for SEO pays off
in markedly better results
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Daren TomeySenior VPCorporate DevelopmentSlingshot SEO @[email protected]
Jen DoyleSenior Research ManagerMarketingSherpa
Kaci Bower Research AnalystMarketingSherpa
@KaciBower
Introductions
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MarketingSherpa, founded in 2,000, is part of the MECLABS Sciences Group
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About Slingshot SEOA professional search engine optimization practice whose full-service strategic consulting and internet marketing services deliver unparalleled results for its enterprise-caliber clients.
2006 Founded
2011
Named “IT Company of
the Year”
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SEO Challenges vs. SEO Objectives Breakout of marketers by SEO maturity phase Impact of SEO maturity on:
• Challenges and Objectives• Execution of SEO tactics• Social media platform effectiveness• Traffic conversion rates, lead quality and lead volume
Strategy Success Story: Become.com• Preparing SEO early to capture future seasonal traffic lifts
Defining Digital Relevancy Methodology to obtain digital relevancy Case Studies of successful SEO campaigns Q&A
Today’s Agenda
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Based on 2012 Search Marketing Benchmark Reports – SEO Edition
Fielded April 2011
1,530 Survey participants
Key findings: • Content creation is underutilized in relation to its effectiveness• Better results with a SEO strategy
Research Background: Creating and Capitalizing on a Rich End-User Experience
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Challenges from last 12 months
• Traffic• Leads• Strategy• ROI• Social media integration• Brand / Product awareness• Online sales revenue
Objectives for next 12 months
• Traffic• Leads• Brand /Product awareness• ROI• Online sales revenue• Social media integration• Strategy
Summary of Top SEO Challenges and ObjectivesDeveloping a strategy is a top challenge…but bottom objective
Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded April 2011, N=1,530
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Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded April 2011, N=1,530
Is it worth the effort?
Process in place for planning, executing and measuring the performance of SEO programs and practices
SEO Strategy
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Which statement best describes the process your organization uses to plan, execute and measure the performance of your SEARCH ENGINE
OPTIMIZATION (SEO) programs and practices?
SEO MaturityInformal processes still define SEO maturity for most marketers
• Disciplined application of a methodical process for SEO eludes many
• Consistency marks the difference between Transition and Strategic organizations
• Trial and Transition organizations more tactically focused
• Strategic organizations more balanced across all three parameters
29%
48%
21%
Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded April 2011, N=1,530
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Trial
• “Right now, it is hit and miss, nothing formal. Management above me sees no real usefulness.”• “We do not have a strategy. It is something we knew we had to do, but we didn't formalize the process.”• “It is not yet defined. Still trying to find our feet.”
Transition
• “It's very informal. We just look for gaps and try to fill them.”• “I read up on best practices and try to implement those as best I can. I'm documenting the process as we go -
which is a move toward a formal process.”• “There is no process. It is done sporadically when there are no other 'more urgent' things to do.”
Strategi
c
• “A mixture of keyword research and measuring the keywords we already receive for long tail insights. Then we look at keyword mapping, internal link structure and architecture. From that we decide on new content and editorial, and with that we construct new online PR and link building campaigns by assessing who should link to us and the optimum path to getting those links organically, bolstered by social media.”
Marketer Insights, by SEO MaturityQ: Please describe the process your organizations uses to plan your SEO strategy.
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Top SEO Challenges, by SEO Maturity Strategic organizations wrestle with the top challenges to a lesser degree
• Challenges for Strategic marketers are not as intense
• Transition organizations most feel the need for a strategy and process
• Trial organizations struggling with increasing website traffic
Increasing online sales revenue
Improving brand/product awareness or reputation
Integrating with social media
Achieving or increasing measurable ROI
Developing an effective and methodical strategy
Increasing lead generation
Increasing website traffic
24%
24%
33%
35%
31%
43%
43%
35%
32%
41%
47%
54%
51%
47%
34%
37%
29%
43%
43%
49%
69%
TrialTransitionStrategic
Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded April 2011, N=1,530
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Top SEO Objectives, by SEO Maturity Developing SEO strategy falls to the bottom of the list
• Developing SEO strategy falls to the bottom of the list
• Strategic organizations are fine-tuning
• Strategic organizations shifting focus from just traffic to leads, revenue and ROI
• Transition and Trial organizations setting sights on more traffic and leads
Developing an effective and methodical strategy
Integrating with social media
Increasing online sales revenue
Achieving or increasing measurable ROI
Improving brand/product awareness or reputation
Increasing lead generation
Increasing website traffic
26%
32%
54%
57%
46%
63%
61%
30%
34%
48%
53%
48%
66%
80%
19%
38%
41%
38%
57%
57%
70%
TrialTransitionStrategic
Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded April 2011, N=1,530
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Top 5 Most Effective SEO Tactics Tactics deemed “very effective” in achieving marketing objectives
Content creation
Keyword/Keyphrase research
Title tags
SEO landing pages
External link buildingSource: ©2011 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded April 2011, N=1,530
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Most Utilized SEO Tactics, by SEO Maturity Strategic process empowers the execution of more tactics
Strategic organizations…
• More heavily employ the most effective SEO tactics
1. Content creation2. Keyphrase research3. Title tags4. SEO landing pages5. External link building
• Dominate in their usage of all tactics• Often by a factor of 2
Digital asset optimization (images, videos, podcasts, webinars, PDFs,
etc.)
XML sitemap
Competitor benchmarking
SEO landing pages
Blogging
Social media integration
External link building
Content creation
Internal linking
URL structure
Meta description tags
Title tags
Keyword/keyphrase research
58%
66%
63%
69%
63%
66%
74%
76%
75%
83%
92%
92%
97%
37%
46%
55%
53%
54%
52%
64%
65%
69%
71%
84%
87%
97%
31%
30%
29%
41%
40%
43%
37%
43%
51%
50%
74%
69%
83%
TrialTransitionStrategic
Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded April 2011, N=1,530
1
2
3
5
4
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3D View of Top 5 SEO Tactics, by SEO Maturity Strategic marketers fare better in terms of usage, effectiveness and difficulty
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Content creation
Content creation
Content creation
Keyword researchKeyword
research
Keyword research
Title tags
Title tags
Title tags
SEO landing pages
SEO landingpages
SEO landingpages
External link building
External link
building
Externallink building
Sphere size indicates level of usage per SEO Tactic
Degree of difficulty per SEO Tactic
Leve
l of e
ffecti
vene
ss p
er S
EO T
actic
Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Sur-vey Methodology: Fielded April 2011, N=1,530
Strategic organizations…
• Utilize these tactics to a greater degree
• Have less difficulty executing tactics, in terms of time, effort and expense
• Experience better outcomes with all tactics
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Social Media Integration, by SEO MaturityPercentage of organizations integrating social media with SEO campaigns
66% Strategic Organizations
52% Transition
43% Trial
Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded April 2011, N=1,530
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Effectiveness of Social Media PlatformsSocial media platforms deemed very or somewhat effective, by SEO Maturity
Strategic organizations stand out…
• Finding greater success in the crowded spaces:• Blogs• LinkedIn• Facebook• Twitter
• Creating more marketing opportunities from less frequently used platforms
Scribd or other document sharing
Flickr or other photo sharing
Delicious or other social bookmarking
Slideshare or other presentation sharing
YouTube or other video sharing
Blog
18%
20%
33%
27%
75%
73%
60%
66%
82%
6%
9%
16%
16%
50%
58%
54%
47%
63%
5%
8%
13%
11%
39%
45%
38%
38%
49%
TrialTransitionStrategic
Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded April 2011, N=1,530
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Impact on Traffic Conversions, by SEO Maturity Strategic organizations convert more traffic and yield higher quality leads
• Lift in average traffic conversion rates:• 13% Trial to Transition• 12% Transition to
Strategic• 27% Trial to Strategic
• Leads from natural search traffic considered to be of the highest quality by:• 1 of every 33 Trial• 1 of every 4.2 Transition• 1 of every 3.7 Strategic
TRIALWe have no process or guidelines
for performing SEO
TRANSITIONWe have an informal process with a few guidelines we sporadically
perform
STRATEGICWe have a formal process with
thorough guidelines we routinely perform
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
3% 24% 27%
2%
4%
5%
8%
9%
10%
% Organizations Rating Leads from Organic Search as Highest QualityMedian Conversion Rate on Organic TrafficAverage Conversion Rate on Organic Traffic
Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded April 2011, N=1,530
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Impact on Total Lead Volume, by SEO maturityOrganic search drives more than 75% of all leads for…
11% Trial organizations14% Transition organizations25% Strategic organizationsWhat percentage of your organization's total lead volume
is generated from organic search?
Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded April 2011, N=1,530
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Top SEO Challenges & Objectives
Usage, Effectiveness & Difficulty by SEO Tactic
Extent of Social Media Integration
Traffic Conversion Rates & Quality of Leads
Lead Volume
Cumulative Effect of an SEO ProcessBig Question: What difference does having a process really make?
Impact?
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Hypothetical Example of Business Impact The cumulative effect of having a strategy and process for SEO
• Assuming 1,000 total leads, organic leads comprise:• 242 Trial• 277 Transition (14% lift)• 326 Strategic (18% lift)• 35% lift Trial to Strategic
• Net Value of organic leads:• $147K Trial• $204K Transition (39% lift)• $248K Strategic (22% lift)• 69% lift Trial to Strategic
Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded April 2011, N=1,530
Assumptions for
calculations% Total Leads from
Organic Search Mid point Trial Transition StrategicLess than 10% 0.05 29% 21% 21%
11% - 25% 0.18 14% 24% 26%
26% - 50% 0.38 29% 28% 16%
76% - 90% 0.83 7% 11% 16%
91% - 100% 0.95 4% 3% 9%
Weighted # of Leads from Organic Search
out of 1000 total leads 242 277 326
Quality of Leads from Organic Search Value per Lead
These are our highest quality leads $1,000 3% 24% 27%
The quality is mixed $700 45% 57% 63%
The quality is low $500 16% 11%
Don't know $500 36% 8% 10%
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MarketingSherpa Case Study: Become.comCapturing future seasonal traffic lifts by preparing SEO early
• Become.com, a shopping comparison site
• Followed five steps to prepare SEO six months in advance of Cyber Monday
• Resulted in increased traffic, leads and revenue
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Business ChallengeEnsure that natural search pays off on Cyber Monday
• Business model is to provide visitors with search tools and content to find the right products
• Generate revenue by sending cost-per-click leads to online merchants
• Dependent upon natural search traffic from a holiday season for sales lifts
• Needed to prepare marketing well in advance to avoid having a major channel like natural search suddenly plummet before Cyber Monday
“Being the online version of Black Friday, [Cyber Monday] is one of the highest days for
site traffic. We have to prepare for it. We want to beat the previous year.“
Arpana TiwariSenior Manager, SEO
Become.com
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Step # 1Make sure search engines can index all content
• Gave the site accessibility audit in June
• Identified problems with pages:• Not indexed• Missing• Duplicate content • Outdated meta information
• Prioritized new products over old
“We started …cleaning these up in June, because it takes some engineering time to make sure we get these projects scheduled
and have the resources for them.“
Arpana TiwariSenior Manager, SEO
Become.com
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Step # 2Identify topics of interest to attract and satisfy more visitors
• Created content focused on high-volume keywords
• Identified topics where they could provide more value than other websites
• Uncovered new product opportunities for merchants to offer
• Stayed abreast of latest trends and topics to support additional content development
“Having such a large number of products and being such a large site means our keyword
research is always ata very large scale...We have to pick and
choose which categories to go after."
Arpana TiwariSenior Manager, SEO
Become.com
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Step # 3Ensure that inbound links come from reputable sites
• Determined whether links were hurting or helping the search engine rankings
• Encountered bad links from:• Old blogs gone bad• Formerly high-quality relevant sites• Content scrapers• Spammers
• Reached out to site’s owner and requested link removal
“Reaching site owners can be difficult and time consuming, so be persistent."
Arpana TiwariSenior Manager, SEO
Become.com
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Step # 4Set expectations based on historical traffic data
• Analyzed traffic and clicks from previous year’s Cyber Monday
• Used data to anticipate when traffic spikes would occur
• Understood that previous year’s data was not an exact prediction of the future
“Given that we had all our ducks in a row, we were able to take advantage in the last few weeks and do additional keyword research
and add more content.”
Arpana TiwariSenior Manager, SEO
Become.com
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Step # 5Give yourself plenty of time and be patient
• Finished site updates one month before Cyber Monday
• Gave search engines plenty of time to process changes
• Avoided making major changes in response to early metrics
• Understood that SEO takes time to show results
“SEO takes time to show results, and you might do more harm than good with last
minute-changes. All the work you have put in could go to waste.”
Arpana TiwariSenior Manager, SEO
Become.com
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Results Planning and starting SEO work early paid off
7% YOY increase in natural search leads
sent to partners
4% YOY increase in natural search traffic
$250,000 in gross merchandise value for
their merchants
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What percentage of your marketing mix makes up SEO?
• Less than 10%• 10-20%• 20-30% • 30-40% • 40% or greater
Audience Poll Question
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• Founded in 2006• Headquartered in Indianapolis, IN• 100+ active clients• Over 200 SEO and social media specialists
Some of our clients:
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Example Post
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Example Infographic
Infographics tell a story in a visual way. When these are popular, people interact with them in digital social environments.While this is categorized under Content,infographics are also part of the “L” in CLASS.
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Videos can enhance the userexperience of your site and add SEO value.They are part of the Content conversation.Create a video sitemap, transcribe videos and use a channel like YouTube to reach out.
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Before
Content Only
“So, tell me more about yourself…”
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Fully Deployed On-Page Delivery
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Meta Descriptions
Title Tags
URLs
Headlines
Internal Linking Structure
Page Load Speed
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CASE STUDY #1SERVICES RECOMMENDATIONS COMPANY
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2010 20110
500,000
1,000,000
1,500,000
2,000,000
2,500,000
Q1 Comparison Results
Organic Visitors
SUCCESS
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2010 20110
500,000
1,000,000
1,500,000
2,000,000
2,500,000
Q1 Comparison Results
Organic Visitors
SUCCESS 486%
INCREASE IN ORGANIC TRAFFIC
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2010 20110
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
16,000
Q1 Comparison Results
Q1 Subscriptions
SUCCESS
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2010 20110
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
16,000
Q1 Comparison Results
Q1 Subscriptions
SUCCESS 377% INCREASE
IN ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS
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Case Study
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189% increase in organic search engine traffic that drove
over 725,000 new visitors to their three largest websites.
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“Slingshot SEO has not only delivered on every phrase that we’ve thrown at them, but in most cases has attained first page rankings well ahead of schedule.”
Tyler DishmanVice President of Technology
National Trade Supply
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NT Supply had a 227% increase in long-tail traffic.
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276,576 new organic visitors
worth over $1,000,000 in PPC value for IAQSource.com
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Over $2,000,000 in
new sales and 637% ROI for IAQSource.com
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637%ROI
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33.9x
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FurnaceFilters.com Site launched in mid-February 2011 300 pieces of content $4mil in 3 months Rank for > 8500 long-tail
Case Study
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Questions & Comments