MarketingSherpa's Top 5 SEO Practices for 2011

Top 5 SEO Practices for 2011

Managing the Evolving Search and Social Climate
for Optimal Results
Follow Conversation on Twitter #SherpaSEARCH

Top 5 SEO Practices for 2011
Jen Doyle Sergio Balegno
Senior Analyst Research Director
MarketingSherpa MarketingSherpa
@JenLDoyle @SergioBalegno

 Actual benefits of integrating social media into SEO campaigns
 Real impact of search innovations
 Effectiveness of SEO and social media on various business objectives
 Top 5 SEO Practices for 2011
 Case study – Acoustics by Design
 Research based on MarketingSherpa’s
2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
 Follow Conversation on Twitter #SherpaSEARCH

Top 5 SEO Practices for 2011 - Agenda
 Perceptions of SEO

 Top 5 SEO Practices for 2011
1. Define objectives
2. Select target keywords Building a strong SEO foundation
3. Develop a strategic process
4. Integrate social media
5. Optimize for search innovations
 Mobile search
Managing the evolving search and
 Real time search
social climate
 Personalized search
 Video search


Perceptions of SEO
Which statement best describes how SEO is perceived by your organization
at budget time?
The value of SEO is
 67% of organizations are unknown and
something we do
increasing SEO investments only as time
permits. Why
either liberally or invest more?
13%
conservatively SEO is a promising
tactic and will
eventually produce
SEO is basically ROI. Let's increase
 Which organizations are free. Let's keep it
that way.
budget but do it
conservatively.
most likely to increase 20% 43%

their investment? SEO is producing
 Mature SEO marketers measurable ROI.
Let's increase
 Organizations that integrate budget liberally for
continuous
social media into search improvement.
24%
campaigns
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194


Best Practice #1: Define Objectives

 Have to know where you’re going
in order to get there

 Record key metrics

“We establish our objectives and ensure that they are in line with the overall
corporate and sales objectives.”

“I will set up a strategy and objectives road map for the year that will include who is
to do what and how certain things are to be accomplished.”


Define Objectives
In your experience, how effective has SEO been at accomplishing these
marketing objectives for your organization?

 SEO is perceived as an Very effective Somewhat effective Not effective

effective tactic in Increase website traffic 57% 40% 2%

achieving a number of Increase brand or
42% 51% 7%
product awareness
impactful marketing Increase lead
objectives generation
35% 58% 7%

Improve brand or
29% 55% 15%
product reputation
 Improvements in Improve public
27% 51% 22%
soft metrics leads to relations

improvements in Increase online sales
revenue
26% 54% 20%

bottom-line metrics Increase offline sales
17% 55% 28%
revenue



Define Objectives - Questions
1. Does my company need increased sales, website
traffic, improved reputation, lead generation or
some combination of all of the above?

2. Can we define revenue per visit?

3. Does my website accept ecommerce
transactions?

4. Does my company have a reputation of
authority?

4. Is my company receiving or subject
to receive negative PR that needs to be
managed?

Best Practice #2: Select Target Keywords

 Just like other marketing tactics, SEO requires effective targeting

“We speak with customers to understand the keywords they use when searching for
solutions similar to ours. We also check competitors' sites to get insight into their
strategies.”

“(We) Identify keywords from competitive research, web analytics, and our on-site
search engine.”


Select Target Keywords

 Keyword research was rated as
THE most effective tactic for SEO

 Out-ranked link building and on-
page content optimization


Select Target Keywords – How to
 Speak your customer’s language
 Use social media
 Partner with Customer Service & Sales
 Analytics
 On-site search engine

 Aim for relevance and mix broad & targeted
terms

 Conduct competitive research
 Visit competitor websites
 Utilize online tools

 Use a keyword research tool

 Repeat!

Best Practice #3: Develop a Strategic Process
 Recent research indicates that organizations with formalized SEO
processes receive the greatest benefits from their SEO practices

“HIPPO (Highest Paid Person's Opinion) - that would be me. It is all done by gut and
needs to be revised. Considering outsourcing to specialized agency.”

“Identify opportunity keywords optimize sit back and watch the love roll in.”

“Our strategy has been largely reactive at this point. We are evaluating options now
to change that.”


Develop a Strategic Process
Please select the statement that best describes the process your
organization uses to perform SEO practices.

We have no
process for
performing this
 66% of organizations indicated 20%
We have a formal
process we
that they do not have a formal routinely perform
34%

process for executing SEO
that can be routinely
performed We have an
informal process
we randomly
perform
46%



Develop a Strategic Process
In your experience, how effective have the following SEO tactics been
in achieving higher rankings?
Phase I: Trial Phase II: Transition Phase III: Strategic

60%
Keyword research 61%
 Organizations On page content 33%
71%

59%
optimization 71%
in Phase III receive Title tag optimization 39%
50%
63%
greater benefits Link building 28%
38%
61%

from most SEO tactics Meta tag & meta
description…
40%
41%
55%

than organizations Competitive research 22%
23%
52%
50%
in phases I & II Blogging 31%
42%
Integrating social 17%
37%
media 37%
Online press release 20%
15%
distribution 25%
Creating an XML 0%
13%
sitemap 38%



Develop a strategic process – 4 key components
 Research and targeting

 On-site optimization
 On page content & code

 Off-site optimization
 Generate inbound links

 Test, measure, test again


Best Practice #4: Search and Social Media
Integration
 Research of search and social marketing practices
 Two-year study of 4200 social media marketers
 This year’s study of 2200 search marketers
 Key finding: Search and social have incredible synergy
 The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
 But integration strategy critical to achieving optimal effectiveness

“First, we identify the social media platforms that our target
audience is using. Then, we research what our primary and
secondary competitors are doing in terms of SEO and Social
Media.“


Majority Integrating Search and Social Media
Does your organization integrate social media with search engine marketing?

 Not currently integrating search
and social? You’re in the minority
No
36%
 Marketers in strategic phase
much more likely to integrate

 What’s the pay-off? Yes
64%



Individually, Search and Social Very Effective
In your experience, how effective has SEO and social media been at
accomplishing these marketing objectives for your organization?

Very Effective Social Media Objectives Very Effective SEO Objectives
 SEO perceived as more
Increase brand or 37%
effective accomplishing hard product awareness 42%

objectives: traffic, leads, sales product reputation
Improve brand or
29%
37%

Improve public 36%
 Social perceived as more relations 27%

Increase website 33%
effective accomplishing soft traffic 57%

objectives: branding and PR Increase lead
generation
18%
35%

Increase offline 10%
 As social matures, sales revenue 17%

Increase online 9%
perception will change sales revenue 26%



Together, Search and Social a Very Powerful Pair
What is your organization’s conversion rate for organic traffic?
Social Media Users Non-Social Media Users
 Search marketers who integrate 27%

social media achieve a 59% better
rate of conversion. Also…
 Increase the amount of SEO 17%

friendly content on the web
 Generate inbound links
 Increase the number of listings
in the SERP’s
 Improve the quality of your
website’s traffic
Organic search traffic



MarketingSherpa Case Study:
Integrating Social Media to Reap SEO Gains

 Acoustics by Design

 Acoustical consulting firm with
limited marketing resources
•Healthcare
•Education
•Industrial

 How they developed a blog
strategy and corralled multiple
authors to write timely posts


Integration Campaign Objectives

 Create keyword rich content
to improve SEO performance

 Establish reputation as an
industry though leader

 Increase lead generation and
conversion


Campaign Tactic: Planning Editorial Targets
 Identify target audiences

 Create keyword list for
blog content that fills
gaps in current web SEO

 Create editorial calendar
for a year of blog posts
on keyword related
topics


Campaign Tactic: Recruiting Authors
“After I pulled all the knives out of my  Creating sufficient volume
of content a big challenge
chest and started talking about
doing blogs for which everyone would
only need to prepare a post once  Enlisted engineering team
every 6-8 weeks, the conversation went to write blogs and gain
a lot better. ” thought-leadership status

– Kenric Van Wyk, President  Won acceptance by
and Principle Acoustical Engineer,
minimizing workload
Acoustics by Design


Campaign Tactic: Streamlining Content
 Allowed authors to select
from a list of relevant topics

 Provided writing guidelines to
streamline process

 Assigned an editor to review
writing and optimize posts


Campaign Tactic: Share Results

 Recognize thought-leadership
status of bloggers with bylines

 Analyze comments, inbound links,
and other SEO gains

 Include exceptional blog posts in
company newsletter for
recognition


Campaign Results
 Blog generating 53% of
natural search visits

 Shared content positioning
Acoustics by Design as
thought leader on industry
social media sites

 Lead volume and rate of
conversions increased


Best Practice #5: Optimize for Search Innovations
 Major search engines are responding to the rapidly growing popularity
of social media as a marketing tactic by developing and releasing
various search engine innovations to improve the experience of end
users and advertisers alike
 Mobile search
 Real time search
 Personalized search
 Video search

“Our greatest challenge is getting high rankings for generic
terms within our industry. Personalized search could have a
ld
large impact as well.”


Optimize for Search Innovations
How do you think the following search innovations will impact your business In the
next 1 – 5 years?

 Personalized search has
Will have a great impact on our business
Will somewhat impact our business

created much speculation Will have no impact on our business

among the SEO industry Personalized search 33% 57% 11%

 Real time search and
social marketing Real time search 33% 56% 10%

 Social media users Video search 26% 47% 28%
anticipate the greatest impact
from all search innovations
across the board Mobile search 24% 47% 29%

Follow Conversation on Twitter #SherpaSEARCH Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194

Optimize for Search Innovations – Mobile Search

 Mobile search refers to the use of web
search functionality on mobile devices 29%

with wireless internet connections

 Mobile search has increased the reach 47%

of search engines by adding another
point of access for search engine users

 Mobile search is still in it’s 24%

infancy as a marketing tactic Will have a great impact on our business
 56% of respondents indicated that they Will somewhat impact our business
Will have no impact on our business
had not yet received any impact from
mobile search Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April,
2010 N=2,194


Optimize for Search Innovations – Mobile Search
 Know your apps
 Research apps on major device manufacturers websites, and
the websites for phone operating systems
 Optimize more types of content
 Mobile search applications are accepting more than text-
based queries
 Shazam
 SnapTell
 Signal your location
 Attract local business
 Include address in website code using hCard microformatting
 Optimize your current site
 Take advantage of the history with search engines, current
traffic and inbound links
 Original content will out rank duplicate content
 Keep sites clean and simple
 The mobile web is not yet sophisticated enough for complex
websites
 Keep keywords short


Optimize for Search Innovations – Real Time Search
 Real time search refers to a search 10%

engine’s ability to index newly published
web content as it is being published with
virtually no delay, or in real time 56%

 Real time search can have a great
impact on organizations by allowing search
engine users to access newly created and
published content. 33%

 Promotions & time sensitive content can
now be distributed through organic
search Will somewhat impact our business
 Social media content
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April,
2010 N=2,194


Optimize for Search Innovations – Real Time Search
 Develop keyword optimized content for social media

 Join the conversation
 Research hot topics and latest trends
that are relevant to your business

 Post frequently
 Utilize social tools to schedule tweets or
status updates ahead of time

 Recruit brand advocates


Optimize for Search Innovations – Personalized Search

 Personalized search refers to a search 11%

engine’s capability to personalize search
results based on the last 180 days of a
search engine users’ search habits 57%

 Previously visited sites
 Interpreting search queries

 Personalized search is expected to 33%
have a negative impact on SEO by limiting
the number of impressions their organic Will have a great impact on our business

listings receive
Will somewhat impact our business

2010 N=2,194


Optimize for Search Innovations – Personalized Search

 Drive more traffic to your
site – now!
 Email blasts
 Encourage bookmarking
 PPC
 Etc.

 Engage web visitors
 Relevant, useful, engaging content
 Frequently add a new variety of
content

 Rank checking is even less
reliable


Optimize for Search Innovations – Video Search
 Search engines have responded to
the growing popularity of video being
utilized for marketing and business 28%

purposes by developing video search, or
the capability to crawl and index video
content.
47%
 Video content is now being indexed and
ranked on the first page of the search
results when relevant

 Video search is in it’s infancy as a 26%
marketing tactic
 52% of organizations indicated that they had
not yet received any impact from video Will somewhat impact our business
search Will have no impact on our business

2010 N=2,194


Optimize for Search Innovations – Video Search
 Create great content
 Relevance and usefulness
 Keep it short

 Optimize video content with target
keywords
 Video sharing sites
 On-page content & surrounding HTML
 Links

 Attract viewers & maximize views
 Video thumbnails
 Enable sharing

 Encourage comments and ratings


Top 5 SEO Practices for 2011 - Review
 Define objectives •Optimize for search innovations
 Questions to ask yourself •Mobile search
 Does my company need increased sales, traffic, improved reputation, lead •Know your apps
gen, or all of the above? •Optimize for more types of content
 Can we define revenue per visit? •Signal your location
 Does my website accept ecommerce transactions? •Optimize your current site
 Does my company have a reputation of authority? •Keep it clean and simple
 Is my company receiving negative PR? •Target shorter keywords
 Select target keywords •Real time search
•Optimize social content
 Speak your customers language •Join the conversation
 Aim for relevance and mix broad & targeted terms •Post frequently
 Conduct competitor research •Recruit brand advocates
 Use a keyword research tool •Personalized search
•Drive traffic now
 Repeat •Engage web visitors
 Develop a strategic process •Encourage bookmarking
•Rank checking is less reliable
 Research & targeting •Video search
 On-site optimization •Create great content
 Off-site optimization •Optimize video content
 Test, measure, test again •Attract viewers and maximize reviews
•Encourage comments and ratings
 Integrate social media
 Need to have an existing social marketing plan in place
 Increase the amount of SEO friendly content
 Increase inbound links
 Increase the number of listings in the SERP’s
 Improve conversion rates


MarketingSherpa's Top 5 SEO Practices for 2011

MarketingSherpa's Top 5 SEO Practices for 2011

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