Big Sites & Big BrandSearch Engine Optimization

Presented by:Bill Hunt

Times are a changing…

• Search as we know it is over…

• Big brands are tackling search Multiple brand people attending SES 150 job postings from large brands 90% companies bringing in-house

• 2007’s SEO Applications

Global SEO will be critical for companies Ensuring new products represented at launch Minimizing impact of merging sites of acquired companies Integrating into all marketing

Search Maturity Lifecycle™

• 2005 - Phase 1: Search is a functional task

• 2006 - Phase 2: Search has moved from functional task to tactical implementation

• 2007 - Phase 3: Search is integral to the business & becomes a centralized solution

• 2008 - Phase 4: Search is integrated globally with support for OEM partners. Search is Mission Critical to the business

Complexities of Big Sites & Big Brands• Corporate Complex

Multiple lines of business, brands and countries

• Product Line ComplexMillions of products and pages

• Campaign Complex Hundreds of thousands of keyword phrases

• Organizationally Complex Multiple owners and multiple agencies

• Budget Complex Sharing of budgets between IT, Marketing, etc

• Managerially Complex Dilbert-like companies

Brand

Group

Corporate

Brand Level Programs Focused on maximizing brand goals by attracting and

engaging product centric searchers. – Brand site specific auditing and consulting – Keyword level auditing & benchmarking– Knowledge transfer and brand customized training– Corporate and Category Compliance Monitoring

Group Level Programs Focused on maximizing “Search Shelf Space™” by

getting the entire portfolio ranked well to displace competitors

– Keyword Research and Prioritization– Coordinate keywords across brands– Auditing and Process Management– Benchmarking & Monitoring

Segment the Program

Corporate Level Programs Focused on developing long and short-term strategies to

maximize search as a marketing vehicle Develop and evangelize enterprise-wide best practices

through a knowledgebase, POV documents and search engine update alerts and tackle infrastructure issues.

Integrate SEO into entire workflow

Stakeholders of each segment trained within their segment

Content Editors & Brand Teams

Internal: External Relations, and other Marketing Specialist

IA Teams and Template Owners

Corporate Webmasters

Steps to Effectively Deliver Search at Scale

Organization Current State Audit11

Standards and Best Practices

Expectation Setting

Processes, Forms, Checklists

Evangelism,Education,

Communication

BusinessCase Dev

Defined Goals and KPIs

22

Implementing the SEO Program

Page Level Audting

Content Audits

Context & Taxonomy

Link Popularity Improvements

Site infrastructure Changes

33

Analytics and Reporting Tool Framework

PLP Monitoring

Traffic MetricsQuality of

VisitorSearch Impact

Metrics

Keyword Refinement

44

Step 1: Current State Audit

Detailed Audit of Search EffectivenessDetailed Audit of Search EffectivenessMulti-Step Checklist Multi-Step Checklist

Spiderability of the siteAlgorithm Compliance of the Key Pages on the Site

Keyword Prominence &

Density

Review Site Coding for bloat and traps

Map Keywords to Key Content Pages

11

Site Wide Algorithm Compliance Audit

• Site Fix: Detailed recommendations for changes to make the site more search friendly

• Page Fix: Detailed page level recommendations for changes to make specific pages rank higher

• Keyword Modeling: Detailed review of keywords and their ranking and conversion performance

Site SpiderabilitySite Spiderability Detect any barriers to spiders Review page inclusion and frequency of updates

Link PopularityLink Popularity

Quantity & Quality of links to the site

Algorithm ComplianceAlgorithm Compliance

Template layout Keyword Prominence Unfriendly design attributesPreferred Landing Page Development

Diagnostic AreaDiagnostic Area Next Steps Next Steps

Page Level Audit – Competitor Analysis

Query: e-file

Findings: Client site does not include the keyword in the title tag however, the top rankings sites do include it.

Recommendation: Add “e-file” to the title tag of this page

<TITLE> tag   Client IRS.gov efile.com IRS.com

Number of Titles 1 1 1 1

First tag in the <HEAD> tag Yes Yes Yes Yes

Characters in Title 72 35 97 62

Words in Title 10 6 15 10

Stop words in Title Yes Yes No Yes

Keyword frequency in Title   0 0 1 1

Keyword prominence in Title   - - 76.7% 55.0%

Keyword weight in Title   0.0% 0.0% 13.3% 20.0%

Step 2 – Deploy Standards & Best Practices

Define & DeployDefine & DeployStandards & Best PracticesStandards & Best Practices

Provide comprehensive training to all key stakeholders in the web content workflow

create consistent processes & written

standards

create communication & collaboration protocols &

expectations

22

Training the extended team is key

•Explain why search is important—they all want the site to be successful and they all search themselves

•The specialists on your extended search team need different training in their ownlanguages:

Copy writers: Keyword rich

Product Managers: Keywords

IT folks: Spider traps

Translators – keywords

Develop Rule Book - SEO Style Guide

Who is your searcher? Segmenting and profiling of searchers based on intent and position in

the “Decision or Research cycle” is critical to a richer experience

Mindset > Goal > Keyword > Projection

• Searchers Mindset: Brand Enthusiast Functionality Adaptor Brand Aware Brand Agnostic

Mindset Goal QueryGlobal

Demand

Brand Enthusiast Download Conversions nokia 6630 software 2,255

Functionality Adopter Thought Leadership cell phone search 15,120

Brand Aware Handset Switch nokia cell phone 49,701

Brand Agnostic Brand Switch/Start cell phone 2,906,351

All searchers either… • Own a compatible phone• Own a non-compatible Phone• Own a competitors phone• Do not own a phone

Centralized Keyword Management

• Align keywords to business goals• Manage centrally with local input• Local markets can leverage existing work• Decide which are the “global pages”

Keyword Tiers & Resource Allocation• Tier 1 keywords get 60% of budget• Tier 2 keywords get 30% of budget• Tier 3 keywords get 10% of budget

• Ensures important words get most exposure • Focus efforts around Tier 1 copy & metrics• Review English and local versions of the

phrases

Step 3: Show Continuous Improvement

Ensure Continuous ImprovementEnsure Continuous ImprovementOngoing SEO ExecutionOngoing SEO Execution

Audit Pages for keyword attributes

ensure organizational &

tactical alignment

… by coordinating the ongoing SEO efforts of internal departments, agencies, IT, web dev teams, & 3rd party

vendors

Refine Templates and

Content

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Leverage Templates for Scale

• Maximize reach across the organization & globe

• Focus on top level templates Optimize the templates when developed Ensure the optimal page elements are pulled into the

template correctly

• Leverage Style Guides and Business Rules Forces overseas offices to comply with optimized formats Give you way to monitor implementation of the program

Exponential Changes from fixing templates

Used the full search term

Converted image to text sosearch engine can “read” and score with prominence

Linked to SWG’s PLM page which helped push it to #2

Content is more relevant & compelling

85% of all traffic to page is from search engines and

After optimization: #1 or #2 in all Google and Yahoo countries

It is not the quantity but the quality of links…

  PR0

PR1

PR2

PR3

PR4

PR5

PR6

PR7

PR8

PR9

Total PR6+

%PR6+

app server 450 15 149 96 537 148 23 6 0 1

1425 30 2%

Google #1

701 27 204 57 63 96 41 23 4 0

1216 68 6%

Google #2

223 10 45 31 36 145 143 30 11 28

702 212 30%

Google #3

613 38 120 191 100 121 35 3

0 0 1221 38 3%

• Link Popularity: Number of links pointing to a site

• Link Authority: Quality of those links

• Relevancy: What are those links about?

Improve the relevance of your site…

Monitor the infrastructure w/SE Tools• Google site maps are required for larger complex

programs Alerts problems before they get too bad Ensures all content pushed into index

Step 4: Prove the value of the program

Define & Deploy a Tool FrameworkDefine & Deploy a Tool Frameworkfor Analytics, Management, Reportingfor Analytics, Management, Reporting

Create Benchmarks to

monitor improvement

Monitor Preferred Landing Page Performance

integrate with marketing information systems,

portals, executive dashboards

find insight & drive action via data

analysis

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Create Feedback loop to content

workflow

Optimize Searcher Continuum

At-a-glance view of search engine

performance for all

domains in a brand

Are our pages indexed by the

Search Engines?

% of Traffic driven by Search

Engines

Gold Words Per Domain

Domain Performanc

e

“Gold Word” performance

“Search Health Report”

Missed Opportunity Matrix

Est 1Monthly Visits

Added Visits

Est 2Monthly Visits

Added Visits

camera phone 149,378 5,453 3.65% 3 5% 7,469 2,016 10% 14,938 9,485 camera cell phone 50,175 0 0.00% none 2,509 2,509 5,018 5,018 camera phone pic 20,094 0 0.00% none 1,005 1,005 2,009 2,009 mp3 phone 18,350 0 0.00% none 918 918 1,835 1,835 camera phone picture 17,356 0 0.00% none 868 868 1,736 1,736 mp3 cell phone 16,294 0 0.00% none 815 815 1,629 1,629 camera cellular phone 12,156 0 0.00% none 608 608 1,216 1,216 free camera phone 11,856 0 0.00% none 593 593 1,186 1,186 camera f lip phone 6,269 0 0.00% none 313 313 627 627 cell phone w ith mp3 player 6,088 0 0.00% none 304 304 609 609 mp3 player phone 2,356 0 0.00% none 118 118 236 236 mp3 mobile phone 1,631 0 0.00% none 82 82 163 163 mp3 cell phone ringtone 1,331 0 0.00% none 67 67 133 133

Total 313,334 5,453 1.74% 15,667 10,214 31,333 25,880

$1.00SE Visits

for Words Listed

Monthly Revenue

Annual Revenue

Potential Increase

Current SE Traffic 5,453.00 $5,453.00 $65,436.00

5% 15,666.69 $15,666.69 $188,000.25 $122,564.25

10% 31,333.38 $31,333.38 $376,000.50 $310,564.50

Value of a Visit

% Increase

187.30%

Highlighted fields are variables that can be manipulated to create other scenarios.

Projected Visits

KeywordCurrent

SE Traffic

Current Rank at Google

Percent

Est. Searches

per Month

474.61%

ProjectionSummary

Validates the opportunity in terms management can understand

Project and Monitor Success

KeywordGlobal

DemandSE

Visits

% of Global

Demand

SE Visits

% of Global

DemandEst % Visits

Added Visits

Added Visits

Opp. Realized

% Gain

free mobile software 15,508 0 0.00% 53 0.34% 3% 465 465 53 -89% 100.00%

nokia mobile software 3,195 18 0.56% 66 2.07% 7% 224 206 48 -77% 72.73%

free nokia software download 1,850 0 0.00% 102 5.51% 8% 148 148 102 -31% 100.00%

free nokia n70 software 1,448 0 0.00% 63 4.35% 10% 145 145 63 -56% 100.00%

mobile search 1,320 4 0.30% 175 13.26% 3% 40 36 171 380% 97.71%

Total 23,321 22 0.09% 459 1.97% 4.38% 1,021 999 437 -56%

$1.00

SE Visits for

Words Listed

Monthly Annual Gain

Beginning 22 $22 $264

Projected 1,021 $1,021 $12,255 $11,991

Current 459 $459 $5,508 $5,244

Projected RealizedStart Current

1986.36%

Value of a Visit

% Gain

4542.16%

Understanding the searcher allows us to accurately

project future trafficFocus on the Tier 1

Keywords

Demonstrate the incremental

value of this traffic

Focus on KW/Page Combinations

Does “any” URL return for this keyword?

Is it the Page we want to show up?

If not then conduct an audit of the page

Include in paid search program

Brand Performance Scorecard

•Monitor pages ranking for specific keywords

•Creates a monthly “to do” list of pages to be audited for optimization

•Workflow management focusing on highest value keywords and pages first

5 Steps to success for big sites

1. Leverage the business case

2. Education & Communication

3. Remove crawl barriers

4. Leverage page templates to fix multiple pages

5. Leverage your size for links

IBM Current Results

• Over 12.5 million pages in Google • Over 15,000+ terms in top 5• Over 27% of all traffic now

• What’s new Keyword research for ALL marketing Expanded global roll out by region 22 modules of training by role Global Search Council Deeper integration of paid and organic

Keyword Ranking

Traffic from Search

Conversions

Pages Indexed

It’s all in the book… well… most of it…

• Learn how to… Manage a search marketing

program in your company Develop a strategy that supports

your Web site’s goals Get conversions, not just

rankings Execute your program step by

step

"A very comprehensive, yet light hearted guide for internet managers that demystifies search engine marketing and provides practical advice for success."

Piers Dickinson, Global Internet Marketing Manager

British Petroleum.

Who we are…• Global Search Marketing consultancy helping large

organizations effectively integrate global optimization methodologies into their business process.

• Locations - US, China, Japan, Sweden, and UK

Bill Hunt

Partner/SEM Strategist

Global Strategies International

eMail: bill@globalstrategies.com

Tel: 860.674.8191

Big Sites & Big Brands