1.
WH SMITH – SEO PITCH (MOCK)
by Nick Samuel
4th October 2019

2.
0. Introduction

3.
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0.1 We are Ecselis – The performance marketing agency of
Havas Media
ABOUT
• We specialise in SEO, Paid, Search, Affiliate
Marketing, and Performance Display
• We have over 610 specialists across 41
markets globally
• Undergoing a rebrand in early 2020 to
Havas Performance

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0.2 We’re set-up to collaborate work with other channels
Havas Media
• Ecselis are part of Havas Media
• Havas Media offers EVERYTHING related to
Digital, Advertising and Marketing
• The goal is for “all disciplines to collaborate
under one roof”
Client
Planning
Specialist
Agency 1
Specialist
Agency 2
Specialist
Agency 3
Ecselis:
SEO & PPC

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0.3 WH Smith would certainly be in good company…
British Brands E-Commerce Local Presence

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0.4 Ecselis & WH Smith: Meet The Team
Head of
SEO
Nick –
SEO
Director
SEO
Manager
SEO
Executive
SEO
Manager
SEO
Executive
Content
Director
Content
Manager
SEO
Executive
Content
Manager
SEO
Executive
Key Points:
• Two sides to the SEO team:
Technical and Content (16
people)
• This proposal is based on a team
of 7 people working for WH
Smiths: 1 x Director, 1 x SEO
Manager and 1 X Executive for
both disciplines
• Additional resource to expediate
any requests; from additional sub-
teams to Ecselis India

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0.5 The Brief: WH Smiths & SEO
Hard Targets
1. Increase the overall organic visibility by
20% YoY
2. Reduce the reliance on PPC spend by
10-20%
Soft Targets
1. Modernise and future proof the website
for Organic Search
2. Benchmark and use digital to drive footfall
3. Identify content opportunities to be
optimised/created for display in answer
boxes
4. Show how SEO can be used effectively
alongside TV, radio and print

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0.6 The Brief: Our approach & response
1. State of Play
• Products on
sale
• Search Engine
Visibility
• Keyword
Rankings
• PPC Spend
2. Challenges
1. Indexation
2. Duplicate
Content
3. Competition
4. Strategy
Alignment
5. Brand Interest
6. SERP
Landscape
3. Quick Wins
1.Technical
2.Local SEO
3.UX
4.Site Speed
5.Linkbuilding
4. Proposal
• Strategy
• Approach
• Roadmap
• Scope of Work
• Forecast &Goal
Setting
“WH Smith require a strategy to reinvigorate their brick-and-mortar trade and ramp up their
digital operations in an already competitive space.”

9.
1. State of Play

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1.1 There are 332,000 pages currently indexed in Google
• From our initial crawl of the website
we found a minimum of 522,383
indexable pages, and 2 million URLs
• A few online sources suggest WH
Smith sells over 2 million products –
suggesting 1.5 million products can’t
be found organically
• There could be serious Product
alignment issues: stock inventory vs
Google Index
This makes WH Smith a “enterprise” website…

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1.2 Estimated Traffic: ~550,000 visitors per month
Positions Global UK UK -
Branded
1-3 14,356 8,648 1,447
4-10 34,582 20,828 629
11-20 42,781 25,760 513
21-100 266,281 159,617 1,898
Total 358,000 215,605 4,488
• Third party tools estimate that WH
Smith get approximately 547,763
organic visitors per month worth
$171,000
• The three biggest online competitors
by % common keywords are
Waterstones (15%), The Works
(13%) and Ryman (10%).
• The three biggest competitors in
terms of total common keywords
are Amazon (162,283), eBay
(108,336) and the Guardian (81,81).
Source: Ahrefs

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1.3 There has been significant traffic loss this year…
• Traffic peaked in January 2019
which matched previous point in
late Summer of 2013 when
there was the eBook content
scandal
• WH Smiths appear to be greatly
affected by the March 2019
core algorithm update
• Site was relaunched in early
June 2019 which reduced traffic
by approximately one third due
to a reduction in top rankings

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1.4 Paid Search Spend: ~£18K per month or ~£600 per day
• The number of keywords WH Smith bid
on appears to be fairly consistent over
time; between 230 and possibly rising
to around 300 depending on
seasonality
• There appears to be a spike in PPC
traffic in around June/July this year –
probably to offset traffic loses from
Website Migration
• Average CPC is approximately 47
pence; highest is £4.00 photo album
online and lowest is a 5p for Smith WH
and typos.
PPC Metric Amount
Unique Ads 71
Landing Pages 21
Average CPC £0.47
Total Keywords 308
Search Volume 39,110
Generic 42.4% and Branded 57.56%

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2. Challenges

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2.1 Crawling & Indexation: ~2.3 million potential URLs
• WH Smith website defeated
us; we were unable to crawl it
in 1 week and it routinely
crashed our PCs
• We got to 90% and identified
2,343,397 million URLs with
my crawl file totalling 140 GB
• Google isn’t as motivated as
us, and doesn’t have infinite
resources either
How can WH Smiths optimise for crawl efficiency?

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2.2 Product Feeds: ~282,000 Duplicate Product Pages
How can WH Smiths enhance product pages and become rank worthy?

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2.3 High Competition: Online and Offline across all verticals
WH Smiths
Stationery
The Works
Ryman
Paper Chase
Office
Viking Direct
Office
Monster
Staples
Art & Craft
Hobby Craft
Baker Ross
The Range
Books
Amazon
Waterstones
Guardian
Gifts,
Cards &
Home
High Street
One 4 All
Voucher
Express
Magazines
Magazines
Direct
Readly
Magazine UK
Gaming
Game
Argos
Planet
Games
Music, Film
&
Television
HMV
CEX
Music Magpie
How can WH Smiths target and prioritise competitor keywords?

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2.4 Strategy & Alignment: Integrating SEO with Marketing
• One study at Brighton SEO
2019 estimated that Organic
Search continues to delivers
the highest proportion of traffic
to websites ~52%
• SEO continues to offer the
highest return on investment in
marketing spend
• But it’s not a complete silver
bullet – the best search
campaigns and strategies tie in
with wider business and
marketing objectives
How can WH Smiths fully align SEO with the wider marketing mix?

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2.5 Google Trends: WH Smith online popularity peaked in
2006
• WH Smiths ranks for 2% branded keywords approximately 4,000
• Brand isn’t a direct ranking factor but brands help convey strong signals to Google that
certain websites are “rank worthy”
How can SEO to offset a reduction in brand interest with SEO?

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2.6 The changing SERP landscape: 49% of searches don’t
result in a click
• Google’s Mission Statement is to
“Organise the world’s information
and make it universally
accessible and useful”
• The evolution of Google’s Search
Engine has seen a shift away
from traditional 1-10 text-based
Search Engine Results Pages
• Organic CTR is directly impacted
by new SERP Features, rich
snippets and of course,
advertisements.
How can WH Smiths offset a reduction on Organic CTR?

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3. Quick Wins

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3.1 Technical SEO: Remove ~100,000 pages pre-populated
search pages
• Author names contain a link to a
prepopulated search query e.g.
https://www.whsmith.co.uk/sear
ch?q=Johnny%20Marr
• In theory these pages aid
discoverability and help with
crawling but actually do the
opposite as they contribute to
page bloat ~400,000 URLs!
• Instead we should look to add a
“By author” carousel or simple
text links further down the page

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3.2 Local SEO: ~1,300 Store pages are currently no-indexed
• Local store pages are currently
no-indexed which seems like a
heavy handed approach
• First position is a shopping
centre and store locator ranks
third
• There’s also suggestion that the
local my business hasn’t been
verified; would definitely make
sense to verify this!

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3.3 UX – Offer an additional CTA e.g. click and collect
• There needs to be a much
stronger call to action,
reinforcing the idea of click and
collect
• Not currently aligned with soft-
target of footfall and the way the
high-street is evolving
• Argos and DIY stores such as
Homebase are excellent at
doing this and WH Smith could
easily do the same

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3.4 Site Speed – Save 19.74 GB of bandwidth by optimising
images for product pages
• Homepage could save 1MB –
marketing possibly haven’t
Optimised images
• Product pages seem to be able to
save around 70KB per page along
with footer which all adds up
(282,000 x 70KB = 19.74 GB).
• Lazy Loading can be enabled for
further initial user experience stuff

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3.5 There are potentially 84,120 broken links following CMS
migration
One example is Stephen Fry’s own website
e.g. http://www.stephenfry.com/store/
Old URL
• https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/more-
fool-me/product/9780718179786
New URL
• https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/more-
fool-me-unabridged-edition/stephen-
fry/stephen-fry/audio-
book/9781405919579.html

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4. Proposal

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4.1 Our Strategy: Technical SEO always come first
Links
Content
On-Page
Optimisation
Keyword Research
Technical SEO
• Technical SEO is the most important
as without this WH Smith will
struggle to rank
• Keyword Research and on-page
optimisation combined with the
creation of unique and high value
content are the next steps to
unlocking SEO gains
• High-value and engaging content
then natural earns links which further
reinforces to Google the site is “rank
worthy”

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4.2 Our Approach: Break the SEO puzzle down into focused
activities
1. How can we
optimise for crawl
efficiency?
Technical SEO
Audit
Server Log
Analysis
Indexation
Tweaks
2. How can we
enhance product
pages with unique
content and become
rank worthy?
Hygiene
Content
Hub Content
Hero Content
3. How can we
target and prioritise
competitor
keywords?
Keyword
Research
Competitor
Analysis
Competitor
Benchmarking
4. How can we fully
align SEO with the
wider marketing
mix?
Local SEO
UX
CRO
5. How can we
target generic
keywords to offset a
reduction in brand
interest?
Keyword
Research
On-Page
Optimisation
Linkbuilding
6. How can we
offset a reduction on
Organic CTR?
Schema Mark-
up
Voice
Optimisation
Video + Image
SEO

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4.3 Our Response: Three distinct SEO phases…
Phase 1:
Technical SEO
Technical SEO
Audit
Keyword
Research
Benchmarking +
Analysis
Phase 2:
On-Page + Content
Hygiene Content
On-Page
Optimisation
Local SEO
Phase 3: Test, Learn &
Repeat
Schema Mark-up
Voice
Optimisation
Hub Content
The easiest way of dividing WH Smith is into 8 product categories + 1 other pages…

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4.4 Our Proposal: Monthly Breakdown
Phase Focus Month Hours SEO Tools Total
Cost
Phase 1
Technical
SEO
Oct 135 £xx,xxx £xxx £xx,xxx
Nov 135 £xx,xxx £xxx £xx,xxx
Dec 135 £xx,xxx £xxx £xx,xxx
Phase 2
On-Page
+ Content
Jan 115 £xx,xxx £xxx £xx,xxx
Feb 115 £xx,xxx £xxx £xx,xxx
Mar 115 £xx,xxx £xxx £xx,xxx
Phase 3
Test,
Learn &
Repeat
April 98 £xx,xxx £xxx £xx,xxx
May 98 £xx,xxx £xxx £xx,xxx
June 98 £xx,xxx £xxx £xx,xxx
July 98 £xx,xxx £xxx £xx,xxx
Aug 98 £xx,xxx £xxx £xx,xxx
Sep 98 £xx,xxx £xxx £xx,xxx
Total 1,320 £xxx,xxx £xx,xxx £xxx,xxx
Position CPH Weighting
Head of
SEO
£xxx x%
Director* £xxx x%
Manager* £xx x%
Executive* £xxx x%
Blended* £xxx ~£xxx*
2019 Rate Card

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4.5 Phase 1: Technical SEO Excellence - £xx,xxx pm
Category Activity Oct Nov Dec Total
Account
Management
Project Management 8 8 8 24
Planning + Meetings 16 16 16 48
Core SEO
Health Checks 15 15 15 45
Reporting + Data 18 18 18 54
Insights + Strategy 28 28 28 84
PPC PPC Synergy 2 2 2 6
Ad-Hoc Ad-Hoc requests 8 8 8 24
SEO Projects
1. Technical SEO Audit 40 40
2. Keyword Research 40 40
3. Benchmarking +
Competitor Analysis
40 40
Total 135 135 135 405

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4.6 Phase 2: On-Page Optimisation & Content - £xx,xxx pm
Category Activity Jan Feb March Total
Account
Management
Project Management 8 8 8 24
Planning + Meetings 8 8 8 24
Core SEO
Health Checks 15 15 15 45
Reporting + Data 18 18 18 54
Insights + Strategy 6 6 6 18
PPC PPC Synergy 2 2 2 6
Ad-Hoc Ad-Hoc requests 10 10 10 30
Content + SEO
Projects
1. Hygiene Content
Creation
24 24 24 72
2. On-Page Optimisation 16 16 16 48
3. Local SEO 8 8 8 24
Total 115 115 115 345

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4.7 Phase 3: Test, Learn and Repeat - £xx,xxx pm
Category Activity Q2 - 2020 Q3 - 2020 Total
Account
Management
Project Management 24 24 48
Planning + Meetings 24 24 48
Core SEO
Health Checks 45 45 90
Reporting + Data 54 54 108
Insights + Strategy 18 18 36
PPC PPC Synergy 6 6 12
Ad-Hoc Ad-Hoc requests 24 24 48
Content + SEO
Projects
1. Hygiene Content 72 72 84
2. On-Page, Schema + Voice 24 24 72
3. Hub Content 24 24 60
Total 294 294 588

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4.8 Addressing The Brief: Hard Targets
PPC – “Reduce the reliance
on PPC spend by 10-20%”
Is there a reliance on PPC
spend?
What does reliance
actually mean?
Is this linked to SEO
Synergy?
SEO - Increase the overall
organic visibility by 20% YoY
How are we defining
visibility?
What about clicks, CTR
and average position?
Where does sales and
conversions come into
play?
Short Answers
PPC
£600 per day; savings of
£60-120.00. Pause Photo
album online CPC of £4.00
+ Brand misspellings.
SEO
4,166 keywords from page
two to page one to boost
page one terms by 20% ~
112 per month or 28 per
week

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4.9 Forecast (Medium): ~300K additional visitors per year
720,000
740,000
760,000
780,000
800,000
820,000
840,000
Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Low – 1% Medium – 2.5% High – 4%
425,000
475,000
525,000
575,000
625,000
April May June July Aug Sep
Phase Focus Month
Additional
Traffic
Phase
1
Technical
SEO
Oct 32,130
Nov 29,605
Dec 31,397
Phase
2
On-Page +
Content
Jan 32,038
Feb 29,837
Mar 29,044
Phase
3
Test, Learn
& Repeat
April 24,257
May 23,137
June 17,899
July 18,411
Aug 17,457
Sep 22,127

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4.10 We will need to redefine Goals: SEO is multi-faceted &
KPIs should reflect this
Visibility
How much
impressions do
we get per
month?
How many
keywords do we
rank for?
How many first
page keywords
do we have?
Clicks What is the
CTR?
What is the
average
Position?
What is the
proportion of
organic to paid
clicks?
Conversions
What is the
average order
value &
conversion rate?
What are the
monthly sales
figures?
What’s the
proportion of
online vs click
and collect?

38.
5. Final Summary

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5.1 – WH Smiths & Ecselis: Summary
1. State of Play
• Products on
sale
• Search Engine
Visibility
• Keyword
Rankings
• PPC Spend
2. Challenges
1. Indexation
2. Duplicate
Content
3. Competition
4. Strategy
Alignment
5. Brand Interest
6. SERP
Landscape
3. Quick Wins
1.Technical
2.Local SEO
3.UX
4.Site Speed
5.Linkbuilding
4. Proposal
• Strategy
• Approach
• Roadmap
• Scope of Work
• Forecast &Goal
Setting

40.
Thanks for Listening
Please direct any questions to
Nick Samuel – Technical SEO Director