Case Study: SEO and SEM Coordination...Case Study: SEO and SEM Coordination. Dale Bertrand •...

The Boston Entrepreneurs' NetworkNovember 1st 2016

Dale Bertrand, President, Chimaera Labs

Case Study: SEO and SEM Coordination

Dale Bertrand

• Engineering background• Built a super computer for the NSA• Recruited to an MIT start-up to do

online marketing• Run Chimaera Labs

NursingDegreeGuide.com

Situation

• Informational site designed to

generate leads for nursing schools

• Features nursing articles and a

database of 7,000 nursing programs

in the U.S

• How to increase leads with paid

search or organic search

Visitors Convert to Leads

SEO and SEM

SEO vs. PPC

SEO Campaign:

Link building to improve website’s SEO authority and

generate traffic

PPC Campaign:

AdWords advertising to generate SEM traffic

467,476 total visits September 2011 to December 2015

Converting Keywords (Organic & PPC)

Examples of converting keywords

Keyword CPCrn to bsn $54.99 rn to bsn programs $66.20 lpn to bsn bridge programs $25.30 clinical nurse specialist programs $20.48 lpn to rn programs in pa $10.99 acute care np programs $23.94 rn to msn bridge program $67.81 Average $38.53

Link Building Strategy

1. Research websites linking to competing nursing resources

(e.g. National League of Nursing)

2. Find contact information for each website

3. Email the contact for each website to request a link

4. Rinse and repeat

Example Email

Hi, Mary -

I was doing some research on nursing programs and found the page you maintain at http://ihwassoc.org/resources.html Would our website be appropriate to add to your list of resources?

[omitted: more information about NDG.com]

Thank you for your time,Sarah

Links Created

Examples of websites that link to us

Link Building Cost

Research (contractor): $67.00 per 100 webmaster contactsEmailer (commission only): $50 per link

Labor Cost

Contacts Links Link Rate Research Link Commission Total Cost

1827 74 4% $1,218.00 $3,700 $4,918.00

Total Cost

PPC Cost

467,476 clicks @ $38.53 => $18M

467,476 clicks @ $10 => $4.7M

467,476 clicks @ $1 => $467k

When Does SEO Work?

SEO works well in markets with:

• Moderate to low SEO competition

• High search volume for converting keywords

• Robust ecosystem link targets

Conclusion

SEO is changing quickly but the fundamental

strategies still work.

Dale Bertrandwww.chimaeralabs.comdale@chimaeralabs.com

1.877.214.5385 x701

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