@jloomstein

In-House SEO Strategies

Presented by: James Loomstein, MBA

Digital Space Consulting

@jloomstein

Wait, About Me…

•  Digital  agency  with  over  10  years  experience  in  content,  crea8ve,  communica8ons,  and  analy8cs    

•  Passionate  about  the  tools,  pla>orms,  and  technology  used  to  connect  and  engage  consumers  

•  Focused  on  empowering  brands  and  customers  by  enabling  them  to  research,  relate  and  engage  with  each  other  

•  Extensive  experience  in  local  search,  PPC,  SEO,  conversion  op8miza8on,  targe8ng/segmenta8on,  and  marke8ng  strategy  

@jloomstein

Enterprise Experience

Agency level

Client level

@jloomstein

So a long time ago (2011) it was like this…

Source: http://moz.com/rand/first-existential-threat-seo/

Some  of  the  SEO  traffic  we  get  is  really  valuable.  I  wonder  if  we  could  get  more.  

C-LEVEL PERSON AT CORPORATE Great.  Here  are  some  resources.  

Get  to  work.  

Whoa.  It’s  working!  We’re  gePng  more  traffic  for  the  keywords  as  you  help  us  improve  rankings,  op8mize  our  lis8ngs,  and  target  content..  

Let’s  invest  more.  

Agreed!   CLIENT

I’m  on  it!  Look  at  these  ranking  reports!!!  

I  can  help!  

SEO PERSON

@jloomstein

And now it’s more like this…

I’ve  heard  good  things  about  SEO,  and  even  though  I  can’t  tell  what’s  helping  us,  it  seems  like  organic  search  is  a  good  channel.  Let’s  make  an  investment.  

C-LEVEL PERSON AT CORPORATE

I  can  help!  

SEO PERSON

Great.  Here  are  some  resources.  Get  to  work.  

I’m  on  it!    

OK,  here’s  the  deal.  We  really  can’t  tell  whether  your  efforts  are  the  ones  driving  value,  or  if  the  keywords  you’re  op8mizing  for  are  even  helping  us.   But  the  rankings  are  clearly  

going  up  /  organic  search  is  cri8cal  to  the  funnel.  

Yeah,  but  we  think  a  lot  of  that  is  probably  just  branded  search  for  our  name.  

@jloomstein

And now it’s more like this…

But  the  traffic  is  going  to  pages  that  aren’t  ranking  for  branded  terms  alone  –  some  of  that  has  to  be  coming  from  non-­‐branded  keywords  that  I’ve  helped  with.  

SEO PERSON

You’re  making  a  terrible  mistake.    

C-LEVEL PERSON AT CORPORATE

Well,  that  could  be  personaliza8on,  or  localiza8on,  or  something  else  we  don’t  know  about.  I’m  sorry,  but  we  need  to  invest  our  budget  in  places  where  we  have  solid  data.  Can  you  help  us  increase  our  Facebook  likes?  

@jloomstein

So what are we suppose to do now? •  We  need  to  think  for  ourselves    •  Realize  the  data  we  need  –  we  already  have  •  Understand  that  our  SEO  efforts  reach  is  far  greater  than  on-­‐page  and  off-­‐page  

Internal Technology - Competitive intelligence - Campaign Mgt. - Dashboards - SEO Analysis

Product Technology - UGC

- Social features - Digital products

External Technology - Email

- Landing pages - Interactive page - Search ads - Mobile marketing

- Behavioral targeting - Video

@jloomstein

What questions do we need to be asking?

ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL •  Finding  the  right  skills  to  match  in-­‐house  experience    •  Conflic8ng  interest  and  struggles  for  budget,  work,  and  crea8ve  freedom  •  Death  by  commi]ee  (“…..It  just  doesn’t  feel  right”)    

INTERNAL LEVEL •  How  do  we  train  and  support  our  internal  SEO  team?  •  How  do  we  show  SEO  value  in  the  wake  of  con8nual  Google  algorithm  changes?  •  How  can  we  show  value  to  other  parts  of  the  organiza8on?    •  What  should  we  be  measuring  and  who  should  reports  go  to?    •  What  sec8ons  of  our  site  are  working  harder  than  others?    •  How  can  we  improve  our  site  structure?  •  How  do  we  create,  organize,  and  distribute  our  content  strategy?    •  What  content  are  people  talking  about?  •  Is  our  link  building  working?    

??

@jloomstein

Think about how we need to THINK

–  Efforts  tracked  to  leads,  sales,  calls,  downloads,  etc.  

–  A]ribu8on  model    –  Conversion  path    –  Compe88ve  intelligence  –  Is  this  is  the  best  place  to  

spend  my  dollar  –  Is  my  boss  going  to  fire  

me    

–  Relevant  pages  matched  to  intent    

–  Concise/organized  naviga8on  

–  Quality  up  and  down  the  page    

–  Off-­‐site  valida8on    –  Search  pa]erns    

–  Crawlability    –  NAP  cita8ons    –  Site  speed    –  Content  op8miza8on  –  Link  velocity    –  Page  views  /  bounce  rates    –  Social  amplifica8on    

LIKE A CONSUMER LIKE OUR BOSSES LIKE A SEARCH ENGINE

@jloomstein

Dig deeper into our customer data

DIGITAL  AUDITS    –  Direct  visits    –  Referral  sites    –  PPC  traffic    –  Conversion  

path  –  Heatmaps    –  Site  goals    

PERSONA  DEVELOPMENT    –  Loca8on  –  Demographic    –  Referral  traffic    –  Social  engagement  –  Top  pages  visited  

Tools for audits/personas

PAGE  LEVEL  TESTING    –  Find  a  product    –  Find  a  contact  form  –  Read  a  review  –  Download  a  

whitepaper    

–  Time  of  day  –  Top  content  –  Conversion  

path  –  Likes/dislikes      –  Search  intent    

@jloomstein

Build the right toolbox

Business Insights SEO

Highrise   Pocket   SpyFu   Whitespark   LinkChecker  

Basecamp   Trello   Moz   Hi]ail.com   Xenu  

Join.me   Callrail   Fliptop   MySeoTool.com   SEOQuake    

Evernote   HipChat     Rapleap   Screaming  Frog   PageSpeed  Insights    

Rappor8ve   Boomerang   CrazyEgg   Moz  /  Mozbar   Majes8c  SEO  Plugin    

Followerwonk   Google  /  Bing  Webmaster  Tools   WooRank  

Builtwith.com  

@jloomstein

Get MORE out of your in-house team Focus  on  content   Determine  which  sec8ons  of  

your  site  are  working  harder  than  others  

Op8mize  page  structure    

Review  internal  search  data   Learn  what  pages  people  are  talking  about    

Inves8gate  your  link  building    

Build  on  what’s  working  /  improve  on  what’s  worth  

improving  on  

evergreen  vs.  local

Hierarchy,  landing  pages,  category  pages,  clicks  to  content,  alt  text,  

clean  URLs  

Conversion  tracking

@jloomstein

What to remember

Instead, find out what your competitor isn’t doing, and do it

better

Executing the same strategy as your

competitor will not make you successful

REMEMBER

The research tools you need are already in your

hands

Select high value activities – then stay

organized and on-track

Realize that not every page is an SEO landing page

TAKE AWAYS -­‐  Use  Google  Analy8cs  (Conductor,  BrightEdge,  etc.)  to  drive  SEO  decisions  -­‐  Always  be  able  to  8e  your  ac8vity  back  to  revenue  -­‐  Keep  reports  simple,  clear,  concise,  brief  and  persuasive  -­‐  SEO  is  as  much  art  as  science    

@jloomstein

What 2014 holds

•  Redistribu8on  of  influence  and  the  further  integra8on  of  search  and  social  •  Rise  of  the  marke8ng  technologist    •  Adop8on  of  agile  methodologies  into  marke8ng  opera8ons  and  management    •  More  educa8on  from  the  ground  up  •  Pla>orm  partnerships    

@jloomstein

SEO      

Industry  Trends      

Code    

Keyword  Research    

Stay Smart

@jloomstein

Stay Smart

Join local organizations

Sponsor events

Attend conferences

@jloomstein

Set your in-house teams up for success

Build on what’s working – improve upon what is worth improving upon

Reliable    Authorita8ve    

Trustworthy    Engaged    

Con8nually  RATE  your  site.  Keep  it:    

Build customer personas

Educate & Evangelize from the ground up

Stop chasing shiny objects

Create platform partnerships

Complete digital audits

Track to metrics that matter

@jloomstein

Digital Space Consulting

Create. Connect. Engage.

 Thank  You.  

@jloomstein

DigitalSpaceConsulting.com

James@digitalspaceconsulting.com

Linkedin.com/in/Jloomstein

Slideshare.net/jloomstein/presentations

Twitter.com/jloomstein

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