MarketingSherpa's Top 5 SEO Practices for 2011

Managing the Evolving Search and Social Climate for Optimal Results

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Top 5 SEO Practices for 2011

Actual benefits of integrating social media into SEO campaigns

Real impact of search innovations

Effectiveness of SEO and social media on various business objectives


Case study – Acoustics by Design Research based on MarketingSherpa’s

2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition



Jen Doyle Sergio BalegnoSenior Analyst Research DirectorMarketingSherpa MarketingSherpa@JenLDoyle @SergioBalegno

Top 5 SEO Practices for 2011 - Agenda

Perceptions of SEO

Top 5 SEO Practices for 20111. Define objectives

2. Select target keywords

3. Develop a strategic process

4. Integrate social media

5. Optimize for search innovations Mobile search

Real time search

Personalized search

Video search


Building a strong SEO foundation

Managing the evolving search and social climate

Perceptions of SEOWhich statement best describes how SEO is perceived by your organization

at budget time?

67% of organizations areincreasing SEO investmentseither liberally or conservatively

Which organizations are most likely to increase their investment? Mature SEO marketers Organizations that integrate

social media into search campaigns


SEO is a promising tactic and will

eventually produce ROI. Let's increase budget but do it conservatively.

43%

SEO is producing measurable ROI.

Let's increase budget liberally for

continuous improvement.

24%

SEO is basically free. Let's keep it

that way.20%

The value of SEO is unknown and

something we do only as time

permits. Why invest more?

13%

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 ObjectivesIn your experience, how effective has SEO been at accomplishing these

marketing objectives for your organization?

SEO is perceived as aneffective tactic in achieving a number of impactful marketing objectives

Improvements in soft metrics leads to improvements in bottom-line metrics


17%

26%

27%

29%

35%

42%

57%

55%

54%

51%

55%

58%

51%

40%

28%

20%

22%

15%

7%

7%

2%

Increase offline sales revenue

Increase online sales revenue

Improve public relations

Improve brand or product reputation

Increase lead generation

Increase brand or product awareness

Increase website traffic

Very effective Somewhat effective Not effective


Define Objectives - Questions1. 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

We have a formal process we

routinely perform34%

We have an informal process

we randomly perform

46%

We have no process for

performing this20%


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

66% of organizations indicated

that they do not have a formal

process for executing SEO

that can be routinely

performed


Develop a Strategic ProcessIn your experience, how effective have the following SEO tactics been

in achieving higher rankings?

Organizations

in Phase III receive

greater benefits

from most SEO tactics

than organizations

in phases I & II


38%

25%

37%

42%

52%

55%

61%

63%

71%

71%

13%

15%

37%

31%

23%

41%

28%

39%

59%

61%

0%

20%

17%

50%

22%

40%

38%

50%

33%

60%

Creating an XML sitemap

Online press release distribution

Integrating social media

Blogging

Competitive research

Meta tag & meta description …

Link building

Title tag optimization

On page content optimization

Keyword research

Phase I: Trial Phase II: Transition Phase III: Strategic


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 MediaDoes your organization integrate social media with search engine marketing?

Not currently integrating search

and social? You’re in the minority

Marketers in strategic phase

much more likely to integrate

What’s the pay-off?


Yes64%

No36%


Individually, Search and Social Very EffectiveIn your experience, how effective has SEO and social media been at

accomplishing these marketing objectives for your organization?

SEO perceived as more

effective accomplishing hard

objectives: traffic, leads, sales

Social perceived as more

effective accomplishing soft

objectives: branding and PR

As social matures,

perception will change


26%

17%

35%

57%

27%

29%

42%

9%

10%

18%

33%

36%

37%

37%

Increase online sales revenue

Increase offline sales revenue

Increase lead generation

Increase website traffic

Improve public relations

Improve brand or product reputation

Increase brand or product awareness

Very Effective Social Media Objectives Very Effective SEO Objectives


Together, Search and Social a Very Powerful Pair What is your organization’s conversion rate for organic traffic?

Search marketers who integratesocial media achieve a 59% better rate of conversion. Also…

Increase the amount of SEO 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


27%

17%

Organic search traffic

Social Media Users Non-Social Media Users


MarketingSherpa Case Study: Integrating Social Media to Reap SEO Gains

Acoustics by Design

Acoustical consulting firm withlimited 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 chest and started talking about

doing blogs for which everyone would only need to prepare a post once

every 6-8 weeks, the conversation went

a lot better.”– Kenric Van Wyk, President

and Principle Acoustical Engineer, Acoustics by Design


Creating sufficient volume of content a big challenge

Enlisted engineering teamto write blogs and gain thought-leadership status

Won acceptance by minimizing workload

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


ld

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

Optimize for Search InnovationsHow do you think the following search innovations will impact your business In the

next 1 – 5 years?

Personalized search has created much speculationamong the SEO industry

Real time search and social marketing

Social media users anticipate the greatest impact from all search innovations across the board


24%

26%

33%

33%

47%

47%

56%

57%

29%

28%

10%

11%

Mobile search

Video search

Real time search

Personalized search

Will have a great impact on our business

Will somewhat impact our business

Will have no impact on our business


Optimize for Search Innovations – Mobile Search

Mobile search refers to the use of web search functionality on mobile deviceswith wireless internet connections

Mobile search has increased the reach of search engines by adding another point of access for search engine users

Mobile search is still in it’s infancy as a marketing tactic 56% of respondents indicated that they

had not yet received any impact from mobile search


24%

47%

29%

Will have a great impact on our businessWill somewhat impact our businessWill have no impact on our business

Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194Source / 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 searchengine’s ability to index newly published web content as it is being published with virtually no delay, or in real time

Real time search can have a great impact on organizations by allowing search engine users to access newly created and published content. Promotions & time sensitive content can

now be distributed through organic search

Social media content


33%

56%

10%



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 engine’s capability to personalize search results based on the last 180 days of a search engine users’ search habits Previously visited sites Interpreting search queries

Personalized search is expected tohave a negative impact on SEO by limitingthe number of impressions their organic listings receive


33%

57%

11%



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 beingutilized for marketing and business purposes by developing video search, or the capability to crawl and index video content.

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 marketing tactic 52% of organizations indicated that they had

not yet received any impact from video search

26%

47%

28%


Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 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

Questions to ask yourself Does my company need increased sales, traffic, improved reputation, lead

gen, or all of the above? Can we define revenue per visit? Does my website accept ecommerce transactions? Does my company have a reputation of authority? Is my company receiving negative PR?

Select target keywords Speak your customers language Aim for relevance and mix broad & targeted terms Conduct competitor research Use a keyword research tool Repeat

Develop a strategic process Research & targeting On-site optimization Off-site optimization Test, measure, test again

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


•Optimize for search innovations•Mobile search

•Know your apps•Optimize for more types of content•Signal your location•Optimize your current site•Keep it clean and simple•Target shorter keywords

•Real time search•Optimize social content•Join the conversation•Post frequently•Recruit brand advocates

•Personalized search•Drive traffic now•Engage web visitors•Encourage bookmarking•Rank checking is less reliable

•Video search•Create great content•Optimize video content •Attract viewers and maximize reviews•Encourage comments and ratings

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