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Presentation covering the search-informed website redesign process, along with a case study for CombinedInsurance.com. Presented at the Association of National Advertisers conference in Houston, Texas, January, 2010 by Rob Garner.
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Designing for Visibility ANA Digital Marketing and Social Media Day
January 27, 2010
Hope RossAccount Director
iCrossing
Rob GarnerStrategy Director
iCrossing
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 2
Overview
• About Combined Insurance and iCrossing• General best practices for search informed web design• Project outline• Process• Research approach• Creative results• Performance results
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 3
About Combined Insurance
• Founded in 1922, Combined Insurance is a leading provider of supplemental accident, health and life insurance products
• Company background– Services customers in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific– Sales force and corporate staff in excess of 10K worldwide– In 2008, sold by AON and became a member of the ACE Group of
Companies
• Mission– Is to provide personal service and exceptional products tailored to help
protect the needs of individuals and families– This mission is the basis of Combined Insurance’s brand promise “Let’s
Make this Easy”
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 4
About iCrossing
• iCrossing is a global digital marketing agency that combines talent and technology to help world-class brands find and connect with their customers
• Company background– Founded in 1998– 550 employees – 12 offices in the U.S. and Europe– Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona
• Digital marketing services include; paid search, search engine optimization, Web development, social media, mobile, display, research and analytics
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 5
MediaResearch &Analytics
WebsiteDevelopment
SearchOptimization
Social MediaMobile
Marketing
• Paid search media
• Display and rich media advertising
• Online to offline integration
• Global campaign integration
• Market research
• Campaign analytics
• Integrated dashboard reporting
• Linguistic Profiling
• Experiential Mapping
• Site development strategy
• User experience development
• Creative and technical design and development
• Natural search optimization
• RSS Feeds
• Content syndication
• Social media audit
• Reputation management
• Word-of-mouth campaigns
• Mobile strategy development
• Mobile site development and optimization
• Mobile media campaigns
Technology
• Merchantize™ Paid Media
• Interest2Action™Search Analytics
• Network Sense™ Reputation Monitoring
• Network Sense™ Social Media
• Sharp View™ Marketing Dashboard
Agency services
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 6
with clients including…
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 7
Top 25 Interactive
Top Digital AgencyTop Search Agency
Fastest Growing Companies
Top 25 InteractiveNumber One Search Agency
Search Agency of the Year
Awards and Accolades
CONSIDERATIONS FOR SEO
IN A SITE REDESIGN
designing for visibility
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 9
Internal SEO considerations that a site owner controls
• Article Syndication
• Body Content
• Canonicalization Issues
• Cloaking
• Digital Assets
• Directory Presence
• Document Accessibility
• Duplicate Content
• Frames
• Hidden Text
• Internal Linking Optimization
• Javascript & Flash Navigation
• Meta Descriptions
• Meta Keywords
• Micro Sites and Sub-Domains
• Obtaining Links from Relevant Sites
• On-page Javascript and CSS
• Optimizing Images
• Page Titles
• Redirecting
• Requiring User Actions
• Robots.txt Files
• Secure Servers
• Server Location
• Sites Built in Flash
• Splash Pages
• URL Structure
• Using Ajax
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 10
Start with these considerations…
• Budget and scope for search• Start with search at the onset of all design and dev
discussions• Include search as both a business and technical
requirement• Build a business case if necessary – there is always
a risk of losing dollars from natural search equity in every redesign
• Don't remove content that supports coveted rankings without assessing risks first
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 11
Focus on strong benchmark analysis, followed by post-launch reporting
• The following data points can be used as benchmark metrics:– Ranking visibility
– Traffic volume from search
– Volume of various defined actions
– Revenue generated from natural search
Before launch After launch
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 12
Ensure that Flash is both crawlable and indexable
Factor:
Valuable website content is implemented using Flash technology
Implications:
Search engine spiders cannot read content or follow links implemented in Flash
Best Practices/Action Required:•Implement a static HTML, low-bandwidth version of the website that mirrors the content within your Flash files•Implement user-agent detection to deliver the HTML site to spiders and the Flash version to human visitors
Alternative Practices:
Break up the Flash movies into smaller components and lay the SWF files into optimized, linked HTML pages with unique URL’s
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 13
Ensure that Ajax is both crawlable and indexable
Factor:AJAX, or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a web development technique used to load content from a server without changing pages. AJAX relies heavily on JavaScript to display and swap content.
Implications:Search engine spiders generally cannot read AJAX content. Implementation could block content visibility to spiders.
Best practice/Action required:Use AJAX selectively, primarily for supplemental content associated with low search volumes.
Alternative Practices:Create a static, spider friendly version of your site that includes content from within your JavaScript.
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 14
Use site language that is consistent with the user's perception of your product or service
Industry Language
Oral care
Oral health
Locate dental professional
Good oral hygiene
Oral hygiene
Good Oral hygiene
Whitening
Battery-powered toothbrush
Kid’s toothbrush
Professional whitening system
148
5,232
10
190
5,155
190
5,075
145
592
670
17,407
Search Volume per
month
Consumer Language
Dental care
Dental health
Find a dentist
Dental hygiene
Dental hygiene
Personal hygiene
Tooth whitening
Electric toothbrush
Child toothbrush
Tooth whitening system
188,818
74,588
29,525
24,558
24,558
17,670
146,212
16,522
835
6,205
529,491
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 15
Avoid the creation of URL canonicalization issues
Factor:
Canonicalization is the process of picking the best URL when there are several choices, usually referring to the homepage of a website.
Implications:
Search Engines may not pick the client-preferred URL, rather the one they determine to be most relevant.
Best practice/Action required:
There are a few ways to ensure that the proper URL is indexed:
Consistent linking:•When linking to www.domain.com on other pages within the site, always use this method•When requesting links from other sites, always point to www.domain.com if using this method from the example above
Use 301 Permanent redirects on the web server
Redirect the non-www homepage to the www version of the homepage
Use the canonicalization tag
Viewed as the same by most search engines:
• http://www.dfwsem.org• http://www.dfwsem.org/index.php• http://dfwsem.org• http://dfwsem.org/index.php
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 16
Set up a URL redirection plan
• In just about every redesign project, at least some content is removed, and URLs go away
• Redirection helps the engines and users to point them to the most similar page on your site
• Important to spend time mapping map out which URLs are going away, and where they should be pointed– Ex. site map, home page, custom 404 page, similar new
page of content
• Don't sit on the plan -- execute it on the day or evening that a site is pushed out of production
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 17
Creating experiences that meet the unique needs of each visitor
Dog Breed: (category total: 611,743 monthly searches)
Standard Schnauzer
‘dog grooming tip’
Type of Dog (70,197) “hunting dog” (15,892)
Cocker Spaniel Puppies
Puppy Breed(category total: 1.7 million monthly searches)
“Fancy Dog Bed” (5,088)
Travel Plans
Cheapest Tires
Mercedes Wheels
Kitten Descriptors (63,273) – these included cute, baby, kitten color
5Zigens
Size (61,044) – included small, large, miniature
Feeding baby Kittens
Wheels
Cat Breeds (307,140) Kitten Breeds (119,383)
Sweet rims
Cat Behavior (21,782)
Both Dog and Cats: both dog and cat owners searched for picturesand names frequently Pictures (955,145) vs. Photo (77,475)
Names (390,909)
tires Boxer Photos
“hunting dog”
Dog Health (143,703)
> Information “dog health problem/question”
> Grooming “dog grooming tip”
> Health/Solutions “dog health symptom”
Minivan tires
“Premium Dog Food” (22,358)
Cats (72,640) “older cat care”
Travel Expedition
Cat Breeds (307,140) “Persian cat”
Volkswagen Rims
Consider a relational approach to architecture, as opposed to "top-down"
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 18
Educate your organization about search
• Start by convincing your team of the value of SEO• Convince your Project Managers to budget time for
SEO education, and SEO related tasks• Create and distribute a PowerPoint deck or handout
with an overview of SEO for everyone on your team• Integrate SEO training into each phase of the
project, specific to that phase• Present a list of technical obstacles of your current
site, and how they could be remedied, to your team• Teach that SEO is an on-going process, not a finite
task
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 19
Determine which types of digital assets make sense, and create a place for them
• The days of ten blue links are gone• Universal search leverages various asset types
– This includes images, video, social status, news, etc
• Focus on the most appropriate asset types, depending upon your vertical
• Ensure that your new site design has a place to accommodate these asset types
• Optimize and distribute assets both internally (within your public facing site) and externally (locations outside your domain like social networks, feeds, etc)
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 20
Implement RSS feeds for various types of content distribution
Factor:RSS (which, in its latest format, stands for "Really Simple Syndication") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or special promotions. A great way to easily syndicate your content to website owners.
Implications:RSS feeds give full control to the publisher. The big benefit to RSS is that individuals opt-in to content of interest, totally controlling the flow of information that they receive. Not to mention it is a great way to share your information with other site owners for virtually nothing.
Best Practices/Action Required:Provide users with fresh relevant content specific to your industryIf you can break up frequently changing content into specific groups it may be more appealing for others to subscribeKeep the information short but descriptive, tempting users to visit your website for more informationMake sure to syndicate your feeds
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 21
Use search data and ask search questions when developing personas
COMBINED INSURANCE
+ ICROSSING
designing for visibility
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 23
Combined’s Web Strategy
• Improve brand awareness – Leverage the internet as a vehicle that brings our brand and products to life for
new and existing consumers– Inform interested candidates about the company and encourage applicants
• Improve user experience (new and existing customers)– Design a wireframe with intuitive navigation– Develop content that is clear and easy to understand (no “insurance speak”)– Ensure visitors are one click away from anything
• Improve Natural Search Optimization (NSO)– Provide a means for consumers to find us via search engines– Improve our position over the competition
• Drive lead generation via a strong “call to action”– Increase web leads– Increase inbound calls– Optimize sites pages for improved PPC performance
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 24
Project goals
Primary goal• Drive more qualified leads
Secondary goal• Help existing customers find what they need
Success measures• Captured leads, qualified leads, converted leads
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 25
The project
Challenge: Provide a meaningful experience for users searching for supplemental insurance, and enabling ease-of-use for existing customers, while staying true to the attributes of the Combined Insurance brand.
Goal: Connect with prospective applicants to drive online leads, assisting current customers meet their needs, educating on the subject of supplemental insurance
Metrics: Increase in visitors, leads, follow-ups with existing customers (reduction in call center load)
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 26
The solution
Our approach: Combine in-depth market research with search analytics to drive the architecture, creative and search strategy for the new CombinedInsurance.com
iCrossing believes: If you truly understand what people are looking for and how they search for it, you can create online experiences that deliver on promises and engage the user at every step of the customer journey
RequirementsSite delivery,
Site Map,etc
Final Site
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 4
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 3
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 2
StakeholderAnalysis
CustomerAnalysis
TechnologyAudit
ContentEvaluation
CompetitiveAnalysis
LinguisticAnalysis
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 1
Discover Program Develop
Functional Requirements
Current Situation Report
User Personas
User Experience Strategy
Prioritization
Functional Recommendations
RequirementsSite delivery,
Site Map,etc
Final Site
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 4
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 3
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 2
StakeholderAnalysis
CustomerAnalysis
TechnologyAudit
ContentEvaluation
CompetitiveAnalysis
LinguisticAnalysis
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 1
Discover Program Develop
Functional Requirements
Current Situation Report
User Personas
User Experience Strategy
Prioritization
Functional Recommendations
THE PROCESS
designing for visibility
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 28
Develop User Experience
Strategy Brief
Conduct keyword research
Conduct user
research
Interview 5 – 7 stakeholders including UK
representative
The process: envision
Gather existing & new research
data / define hosting needs
EnvisionGather business, brand, user insights, and search data
ElaborateCreate site framework, design and development, page build
ExecuteQA testing, deployment
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 29
The process: elaborate
Establish hosting
environment
Create copy deck
Develop visual design
Create site map and
wireframes
Develop creative concept
EnvisionGather business, brand, user insights, and search data
ElaborateCreate site framework, design and development, page build
ExecuteQA testing, deployment
Baseline search metrics
Develop test
strategy
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 30
The process: execute
EnvisionGather business, brand, user insights, and search data
ElaborateCreate site framework, design and development, page build
ExecuteQA testing, deployment
Ongoingmeasurement
and optimization
Deploy Interest2Action
Deploy newsite
Execute QA tests
THE RESEARCH PROCESS
designing for visibility
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 32
Understanding the Combined Insurance audience
• Linguistic profiling: We provided Combined Insurance with an in-depth understanding of the vernacular used within their target categories by mining search data and applying proprietary algorithms to the data
• Competitive search landscape: We defined competitive set and identified opportunities to capture market share in the search landscape
• Interviews: Extensive interviews were conducted with audience targets on how they chose insurance products, their impressions of the Combined Insurance brand, and how they behaved in an online environment
• Experiential mapping: Using our primary research methodology, we defined current research and decision-making processes, identifying barriers and trigger moments; we also mapped keyword landscapes to the process to ensure laser-like campaign targeting
• Personas: Customer interviews and search-informed experience mapping were synthesized in a collection of personas expressing needs, frustrations, values and behavioral tendencies to inform development of the online experience.
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 33
Methodology - how we approached the challenge
5. Keywords are classified/structured into relevant
categories based upon criteria
E X T E N D
Seed
Concepts
Generate
Keywords
C A T E G O R I Z E
Calculate
Volumes
R E S E A R C H
Analyze Findings
A N A L Y Z E
S T R U C T U R E
Classify Keywords
1. Seed concepts are established upon business needs and requirements
2. Keyword lists are generated through various extensions of
seed concepts
3. Keywords are analyzed and annual search volumes are
calculated
4. Search universe is analyzed. Criteria is established to define
nomenclature patterns
Identify Patterns
6. Dissect the keywords and findings to determine any unique/emerging patterns
I D E N T I F Y
FindSolutions
7. Formulate recommendations based upon findings mapped to
business needs
R E C O M M E N D
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 34
Type767 Searches
Detail2,003 Searches
Geography841Searches
General1,009 Searches
General6,498 Searches
All Categories 24,512 Estimated Searches
Supplemental Insurance7,369 Estimated Searches
Government2,249 Searches
Brand536 Searches
Type2,354 Searches
Disability Insurance11,998 Estimated Searches
Product keywords were used to generate a list of 349 search terms related to Combined Insurance’s business
*Note- The total of the classification search volumes is higher than total category search volume due to the overlap of terms between classifications.
**Sub-categories shown have estimated search volumes > 100
Information730 Searches
Gap Insurance4,038 Estimated Searches
Disability Income846 Estimated Searches
Type722 Searches
Type217 Searches
General1,660 Searches
Who?818 Searches
Loss of Income148 Estimated Searches
Information219 Searches
General191 Searches
Who?369 Searches
Brand313 Searches
Information322 Searches
Organization191 Searches
Who?170 Searches
Action121 Searches
Government213 Searches
Why?152 Searches
Geography113 Searches
Detail122 Searches
Who?104 Searches
Low Income113 Estimated Searches
Category Breakdown
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 35
• The topics of Disability Insurance and Supplemental Insurance were the main drivers in this analysis
– Searches with keywords pertaining to General Descriptions and Types of insurance were present in a majority of the searches
– Combined Insurance can capture the consumer searching for insurance by employing SEO strategies for the general terms and optimizing their website for various types of insurance search terminology
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000 11,998
7,369
4,038
846148 113
Example: Classification
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 36
• Consumers searched for specific types of insurance when looking into the “supplemental insurance” category
– 18% of the searches contained the keyword “health”
– “dental” was only applied in 5% of the searches
– Combined can improve their visibility by applying NSO optimization to develop content around the general term health when referring to supplemental insurance
Example: Classification > Supplemental Insurance > Type
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1,400
Health Dental Medical Tricare Prescription
1,349
341
204129
60
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 37
What did we do?
We interviewed 12 Combined internal
Stakeholders, performed a competitive
review of 5 different sites, and leveraged
dozens of research and data sources.
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 38
•McKinsey Brand Idea Deck
•Buffalo Learning Summary
•Developed personas
•Stakeholder interviews
– Chief Marketing Officer– Vice-President, Marketing– Assistant VP, Database
Marketing– Systems Developer, IT– Assistant VP, Marketing– Financing Services (Lead
Processing)– Director, Insurance Services
(Claims)– Graphic and Marketing
Assistant– Vice President, Customer
Service– Vice President, Application
Services, IT– Senior Vice President
•Forrester
•Hitwise
•eMarketer
Combined Inputs iCrossing Inputs 3rd Party Inputs
Staffers
•Linguistic analysis and experience mapping(in progress)
•Obstacle analysis report (in progress)
•Competitive position analysis report
•Content evaluation
•Competitive analysis
Input sources
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 39
Personas & journeys
Identified Primary and Secondary Personas: collaborative exercises produced four primary personas
Developed Journeys for Each: online and off-line interaction points, primarily preceding enrollment
Prioritized Content and Features: established a hierarchy of requirements based on customer value, business value and development complexity/cost
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 40
Commonalities that show what users want
Behavioral modes• Browser
• Hunter
• Communicator
• Tracker
• Investigator
• Skeptic
• Decider
• Problem-solver
What they want• Assistance
• Advice
• Education
• Protection
• A personalized experience
• A 2-way dialogue
• Value
User types
•Insurance believer
•Reluctant researcher
•Enthusiastic learner
•Directed shopper
•Insurance manager
•Online streamliner
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 41
In a user’s words—based on the six primary things the site can enable
guideme
teachme
protect me
connect me
assistme
engageme
Defining an action architecture for Combined.com
• Assist me – “I’m short on time. I’m hunting for...hurry and help me…”
• Guide me/advise me – “I need help finding the right solution.”
• Protect me – “Show me that you can protect me and my family.”
• Teach me – “Prove to me why I should trust you, your expertise, and your products.”
• Engage me – “Give me reasons to use the site beyond research and purchase.”
• Connect me – “Let me interact with you in the way that I choose at any moment.”
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 42
Creating a relational architecture to satisfy specific users’ search queries
“Let’s Make It Easy”
The overall tone of the new website was to be “Let’s Make It Easy”, focusing on the needs of help users who need supplemental insurance, as well as serving existing customers who need help
“Findability” is a usability issue
Whether it was a new user coming from a search engine, or an existing user seeking information on their own policy, relevant information had to be equally represented on the site and equally “findable” through the search engines
Delivering on the search “promise”
The traditional idea of creating one primary homepage had to be modified to accommodate multiple points of entry that resulted from searches on a variety of insurance options and needs
THE CREATIVE RESULTS
designing for visibility
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 44
Old Global Wireframe
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 45
New Global Wireframe
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 46
Where search intention is met with relevant answers: High ranking pages get straight to the heart of what searchers are seeking
Findability is a usability issue: Both new visitors and existing customers can find what they are looking for, faster
Delivering on the search “promise”: Multiple points of entry create a relevant and engaging experience
A creative solution: one brand supporting many user intentions, including search engine traffic
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 47
Search drives the experience
Interest: Supplemental Insurance Interest: Supplemental Health Insurance
Specific branding and content
Multiple points of entry reflect the expressed intent of a users’ search
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 48
Action-based vernacular reflects user goals
Find > Browse > Learn > Connect
THE PERFORMANCE RESULTS
designing for visibility
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 50
YOY Interactive Results – 2008 to 2009
• Unique visitors = up 34%• Search Visits = 35% of all traffic (NSO represented 20%)• Natural Search Optimization efforts increased keyword
visibility YOY by 46%– Breakout by type
Branded keywords up 47% Non-branded keywords up 84%
– Top non-brand keywords – supplemental insurance, disability insurance and accident insurance
• 25K+ on-line applications captured in the new Applicant Tracking System (June 8 through December 31, 2009)
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 51
Paid Search
Increased keyword click-through rate by (CTR) by 45% YOY while reducing cost per acquisition (CPA) by 40%
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 52
Search - “supplemental insurance”
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 53
Search - “supplemental insurance”
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 54
Ranking visibility – before and after
Ranking visibility for sample terms, old site
Ranking visibility for sample terms, new site
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 55
Takeaways and discussion points
• “Top down” vs. relational approach• Market research• Findability as a usability issue• Search analytics• Personas and journeys• Challenges of search informed design• Business cases for search in design
THANK YOU ANA Digital Marketing and Social Media Day
January 27, 2010
Hope RossAccount Director
Rob GarnerStrategy Director
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 57
Appendix – Specific Deliverables
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 5858
Initial Keyword Research
Before any work begins, research should be done to determine the “core” keywords that are relevant to the site.
These should be the terms that will give the client the greatest return on implementation; either based on traffic or previous conversion data.
Research should come from a mixture of Paid data (if available), conversion data, and search volume.
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 5959
Linguistic Profiling
Ideally, full linguistic profiling will be done on the site to determine how searchers are searching for the products/services offered by the client.
One useful takeaway of this is the nomenclature map, which helps to break out common things people are searching for when looking for your client’s products/services.
This document along with the Linguistic Profile findings should be utilized when creating the Site Roadmap.
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 6060
Roadmap Review (pre-client)
When the Roadmap is close to finalized, but has not been reviewed by the client yet, the SEO strategist should review the Roadmap to ensure a number of things:
1.Categories exist for key term types identified in Linguistic Profiling
2.Categories and Sub-Categories are named in the way that users are searching for these
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 6161
Wireframe Review
During this time, the IA’s should be developing site wireframes. These are a visual representation of where things will be laid out on the different templates of the site.
NSO should review these and perform Template Optimization recommendations on the wireframes.
(This process can possibly be avoided if you have worked with the tech team to understand the core page elements that are important to search. However, it seems best to just do the template analysis to ensure that the information is not forgotten)
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 6262
Recommendation: Wrap page header in Heading Tags. If Page Header is text, wrap this Header in <H2> tag. Otherwise, place in <H1>. Will perform keyword research for Heading Text.
Recommendation: Wrap page header in Heading Tags. If Page Header is text, wrap this Header in <H2> tag. Otherwise, place in <H1>. Will perform keyword research for Heading Text.
Heading
Alt Text
Recommendation: Add Alt Text to images, utilizing keywords where possible.
Recommendation: Add Alt Text to images, utilizing keywords where possible.
Alt Text
Alt Text
Alt Text
Heading
Will this be Text or Image? If Text Header, place in <H1> Tags.
Recommendation: Ensure that custom Meta Data (Description and Keywords) can be entered for the Events page.Custom Meta Data will be researched for the Events page.
Recommendation: Ensure that custom Meta Data (Description and Keywords) can be entered for the Events page.Custom Meta Data will be researched for the Events page.
Meta Data
Wireframe Review: Example
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 6363
Roadmap Review (post-client)
Once the client has approved the Site Roadmap, the SEO strategist should then review the Roadmap and assign keywords based on the page “theme”.
It may not be possible to assign keywords to all pages, but there will be many pages where the most relevant keyword will be fairly apparent based on the theme of the page.
This information will then be passed to whatever group will be creating the copy deck for the client to ensure that these words are featured heavily within the copy and headings.
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 6464
Copy Deck
After the Copy Deck is created, incorporating your identified keywords (hopefully), the NSO will review this to determine if any further modifications need to be made to ensure copy is optimized.
This is also a good time to re-evaluate pages that keywords were not found for during the Roadmap review. Now that these pages have copy available, there may be more opportunities for optimization available.
Depending on what was scoped, this would also be the time to create Meta Descriptions. This may have already been done by the client or the web dev copywriters, though.
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 6565
Concepts / Comps
Concepts are a visual representation of how the site map look. These are images, not HTML.
The review of these can be tricky. Since there is no code, it is not possible to determine what will be proper HTML and what will be Flash, Images, etc.
I’d recommend reviewing and asking questions, however the people creating these may not have any idea how this will be coded.
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 6666
URL Structure
iCrossing will consult with the client to determine the ideal URL structure for the site.
NSO will need to work closely with the tech team to determine if there are any constraints from the CMS system.
COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 6767
Redirects
Once all pages of the site have been identified, redirects will need to be established. This may be done by iCrossing or the client.
Redirects should be setup on a 1-to-1 basis.
EVERY page on the client’s website should be redirected to a corresponding page. If no page corresponds, it is recommended that these be redirected to the homepage.
This process can be handled by iCrossing or the client.