@jloomstein
In-House SEO Strategies
Presented by: James Loomstein, MBA
Digital Space Consulting
@jloomstein
Wait, About Me…
• Digital agency with over 10 years experience in content, crea8ve, communica8ons, and analy8cs
• Passionate about the tools, pla>orms, and technology used to connect and engage consumers
• Focused on empowering brands and customers by enabling them to research, relate and engage with each other
• Extensive experience in local search, PPC, SEO, conversion op8miza8on, targe8ng/segmenta8on, and marke8ng strategy
@jloomstein
Enterprise Experience
Agency level
Client level
@jloomstein
So a long time ago (2011) it was like this…
Source: http://moz.com/rand/first-existential-threat-seo/
Some of the SEO traffic we get is really valuable. I wonder if we could get more.
C-LEVEL PERSON AT CORPORATE Great. Here are some resources.
Get to work.
Whoa. It’s working! We’re gePng more traffic for the keywords as you help us improve rankings, op8mize our lis8ngs, and target content..
Let’s invest more.
Agreed! CLIENT
I’m on it! Look at these ranking reports!!!
I can help!
SEO PERSON
@jloomstein
And now it’s more like this…
I’ve heard good things about SEO, and even though I can’t tell what’s helping us, it seems like organic search is a good channel. Let’s make an investment.
C-LEVEL PERSON AT CORPORATE
I can help!
SEO PERSON
Great. Here are some resources. Get to work.
I’m on it!
OK, here’s the deal. We really can’t tell whether your efforts are the ones driving value, or if the keywords you’re op8mizing for are even helping us. But the rankings are clearly
going up / organic search is cri8cal to the funnel.
Yeah, but we think a lot of that is probably just branded search for our name.
@jloomstein
And now it’s more like this…
But the traffic is going to pages that aren’t ranking for branded terms alone – some of that has to be coming from non-‐branded keywords that I’ve helped with.
SEO PERSON
You’re making a terrible mistake.
C-LEVEL PERSON AT CORPORATE
Well, that could be personaliza8on, or localiza8on, or something else we don’t know about. I’m sorry, but we need to invest our budget in places where we have solid data. Can you help us increase our Facebook likes?
@jloomstein
So what are we suppose to do now? • We need to think for ourselves • Realize the data we need – we already have • Understand that our SEO efforts reach is far greater than on-‐page and off-‐page
Internal Technology - Competitive intelligence - Campaign Mgt. - Dashboards - SEO Analysis
Product Technology - UGC
- Social features - Digital products
External Technology - Email
- Landing pages - Interactive page - Search ads - Mobile marketing
- Behavioral targeting - Video
@jloomstein
What questions do we need to be asking?
ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL • Finding the right skills to match in-‐house experience • Conflic8ng interest and struggles for budget, work, and crea8ve freedom • Death by commi]ee (“…..It just doesn’t feel right”)
INTERNAL LEVEL • How do we train and support our internal SEO team? • How do we show SEO value in the wake of con8nual Google algorithm changes? • How can we show value to other parts of the organiza8on? • What should we be measuring and who should reports go to? • What sec8ons of our site are working harder than others? • How can we improve our site structure? • How do we create, organize, and distribute our content strategy? • What content are people talking about? • Is our link building working?
??
@jloomstein
Think about how we need to THINK
– Efforts tracked to leads, sales, calls, downloads, etc.
– A]ribu8on model – Conversion path – Compe88ve intelligence – Is this is the best place to
spend my dollar – Is my boss going to fire
me
– Relevant pages matched to intent
– Concise/organized naviga8on
– Quality up and down the page
– Off-‐site valida8on – Search pa]erns
– Crawlability – NAP cita8ons – Site speed – Content op8miza8on – Link velocity – Page views / bounce rates – Social amplifica8on
LIKE A CONSUMER LIKE OUR BOSSES LIKE A SEARCH ENGINE
@jloomstein
Dig deeper into our customer data
DIGITAL AUDITS – Direct visits – Referral sites – PPC traffic – Conversion
path – Heatmaps – Site goals
PERSONA DEVELOPMENT – Loca8on – Demographic – Referral traffic – Social engagement – Top pages visited
Tools for audits/personas
PAGE LEVEL TESTING – Find a product – Find a contact form – Read a review – Download a
whitepaper
– Time of day – Top content – Conversion
path – Likes/dislikes – Search intent
@jloomstein
Build the right toolbox
Business Insights SEO
Highrise Pocket SpyFu Whitespark LinkChecker
Basecamp Trello Moz Hi]ail.com Xenu
Join.me Callrail Fliptop MySeoTool.com SEOQuake
Evernote HipChat Rapleap Screaming Frog PageSpeed Insights
Rappor8ve Boomerang CrazyEgg Moz / Mozbar Majes8c SEO Plugin
Followerwonk Google / Bing Webmaster Tools WooRank
Builtwith.com
@jloomstein
Get MORE out of your in-house team Focus on content Determine which sec8ons of
your site are working harder than others
Op8mize page structure
Review internal search data Learn what pages people are talking about
Inves8gate your link building
Build on what’s working / improve on what’s worth
improving on
evergreen vs. local
Hierarchy, landing pages, category pages, clicks to content, alt text,
clean URLs
Conversion tracking
@jloomstein
What to remember
Instead, find out what your competitor isn’t doing, and do it
better
Executing the same strategy as your
competitor will not make you successful
REMEMBER
The research tools you need are already in your
hands
Select high value activities – then stay
organized and on-track
Realize that not every page is an SEO landing page
TAKE AWAYS -‐ Use Google Analy8cs (Conductor, BrightEdge, etc.) to drive SEO decisions -‐ Always be able to 8e your ac8vity back to revenue -‐ Keep reports simple, clear, concise, brief and persuasive -‐ SEO is as much art as science
@jloomstein
What 2014 holds
• Redistribu8on of influence and the further integra8on of search and social • Rise of the marke8ng technologist • Adop8on of agile methodologies into marke8ng opera8ons and management • More educa8on from the ground up • Pla>orm partnerships
@jloomstein
SEO
Industry Trends
Code
Keyword Research
Stay Smart
@jloomstein
Stay Smart
Join local organizations
Sponsor events
Attend conferences
@jloomstein
Set your in-house teams up for success
Build on what’s working – improve upon what is worth improving upon
Reliable Authorita8ve
Trustworthy Engaged
Con8nually RATE your site. Keep it:
Build customer personas
Educate & Evangelize from the ground up
Stop chasing shiny objects
Create platform partnerships
Complete digital audits
Track to metrics that matter
@jloomstein
Digital Space Consulting
Create. Connect. Engage.
Thank You.
@jloomstein
DigitalSpaceConsulting.com
Linkedin.com/in/Jloomstein
Slideshare.net/jloomstein/presentations
Twitter.com/jloomstein
Contact Information