This webinar will unpick the success behind the Passport to Trade 2.0 (www.businessculture.org) project (from 2011 to 2013). In particular, it will focus on organic SEO and content marketing strategy development and implementation. The aim of the campaign was to maintain visitors’ flow to the website during and beyond the project duration. The project website was able to attract over half a million organic search visitors since its launch in September 2013 to January 2015. The results of the campaign were recognised by multiple awards: the European Search Awards 2014, Big Chip 2014, UK Search Awards, Social Media Communications Awards 2014 and The Digitals 2014. A number of lessons can be learned from this project for any organisation in particular the following will be focused during the webinar: Developing organic SEO objectives Understanding “buyer persona” – online and offline methods Integrating SEO and Social Media Using Word Press plugins Creativity in content development Crowdsourcing content

1. Delivering award
winning SEO
objectives and
implementation: case
study of Passport to
Trade 2.0
SEMRush webinar 26th February 2015
Dr Aleksej Heinze
@AleksejHeinze

2. Centre for Digital Business
Providing research
and advice to
business leaders in
the constantly
changing digital
society
www.salford.ac.uk/business-school/business-services/centre-for-digital-business

3. How did we get here?
http://blogs.salford.ac.uk/business-school/european-search-awards-2014-shortlist-businessculture-org/

4. How did we get here?
Source: http://www.semrush.com Organic search positions data for US Market

5. 5
The overall aim of the Passport to Trade 2.0
project was to research and raise awareness to
a global audience of differences in business
culture, including use of social media for
business, across 31 European countries, thus
helping to improve international trade with these
countries.

6. 6

7. Key lessons from Passport to Trade 2.0
7
• Developing organic SEO objectives
• Understanding “buyer persona” – online and
offline methods
• Integrating SEO and Social Media
• Using WordPress plugins
• Creativity in content development
• Crowdsourcing content

8. Developing organic SEO objectives
8
• a) Increase the number of organic search
visitors to the main website from about 50 per
month in 2012 to 3,000 per month post project
launch.
• Result:
• an average of 8,549 visitors in the months post
project completion until mid-January 2014
• Feb 2015 - 67,322 visitors per month

9. Developing organic SEO objectives
9
• b) Improve organic ranking on Google for
strategically important keyword terms such as
‘international business culture’ ‘business culture
+[Country Name**]’, and ‘business etiquette in
+[Country Name**]’. In the three months from the
end of the official project (September 2013) to
achieve at least 1,000 visitors per month for first
page organic search traffic.
**Where [Country Name] is one of the 31 countries
being researched by this project.

10. Organic ranking objective 2:
Visits 19th Dec 2013 to 18th Jan 2014 Visits 24th Jan 2015 to 23rd Feb 2015

11. Developing organic SEO objectives
11
• Make clear that all team members – even those
not so technical - understand what these mean
• Clear measure of success relevant for your
needs
• Set up measurement mechanisms –
– Google Analytics
– SEMRush
– Social Media profiles engagement

12. What do you typically include in your
SEO objectives?
12
• Visitors
• SERP position
• Conversions
• Time on site
• Pages visited
• Repeat visits
• Other

13. Questions about SEO objectives
13

14. Understanding “buyer persona” – online
and offline methods
14
• Focus groups with students
• Focus groups with companies
• Online survey
• Extensive content peer review

15. Understanding “buyer persona” – online
and offline methods
15
• Understanding the terminology and areas of
interest
• Simple search preferences – Video vs text
• Extensive keyword research
• Key social media and search behaviour
understanding

16. Questions on buyer personas
16

17. Integrating SEO and Social Media
17
• Businesses: using SlideShare, LinkedIn and
Twitter – #P2T2 as amplification platforms for the
content.
• Students: YouTube short informative animations
based on the ‘Did you know?’ theme. A Facebook
page was also used to share updates.
• Educational institutions: A Massive Open Online
Course (MOOC) was produced which summarised
the search and social media aspects of the website
through a series of 12 x 15-minute long tutorial
videos.

18. Integrating SEO and Social Media
18
• Targeting related keywords across channels
• Integrating links from all profiles to main site
• Low need for maintenance of resources

19. What Social Media platforms do you usually
integrate with your SEO campaigns?
19
• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Blog
• SlideShare
• YouTube
• Other

20. Questions about integration of SEO and
Social Media
20

21. Using WordPress plugins
21
• WordPress SEO – great for non technical
editors
• Google Analytics – keeps GA on all pages
• Tweet, Like, Google +1 and Share – consistent
call to action on all pages
• Language Bar Flags – international audiences
with multi lingual needs
• Facebook Members – keeps the Facebook
community on the site

22. WordPress Plugins
22

23. Creativity in content development
23
• Video animation
• SlideShare
• Educational training material
• Text
• Original content – ca 2000k words per country
specific landing page

24. Creativity in content development
24

25. 25
Comments on Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByNcj6b3Fzo

26. Questions about creativity and content
development
26

27. Crowdsourcing content
27
• International team to start the project
• Online survey
• Participation in focus groups
• International peer reviewers and advisory board
members

28. Questions on crowdsourcing
28

29. Key lessons
29
• Have clear organic SEO objectives
• Develop “buyer persona”
• Integrate SEO and Social Media
• Use SEO / SMO focused WordPress plugins
• Content is king – be creative in your content
development
• Don’t have to produce it all - crowdsourcing
content can work for you

30. “Mediocrity will
never do. YOU are
capable of
something better”
Gordon B. Hinckley

32. There are no
shortcuts to
a winning
campaign

33. Further questions?
33