seo state of the union 2015
TRANSCRIPT
The SEO State of the Union
Anirvan Chatterjee • Brian Turner • Leslie YuanClinical & Translational Science InstituteUniversity of California, San Francisco
Agenda
1. Why SEO works
2. How we tested SEO for 52 websites
3. The SEO leaderboard
4. Three things we learned from the results
5. How to boost your rankings
1. WHY SEO WORKS
Back in 2010…
Back in 2010…
Back in 2010…
Back in 2010…
Back in 2010…
UCSF Profiles launch promotion
• Email every single member of faculty
• Postcards to faculty• Free iPad contest
UCSF Profiles traffic
October 2010
• 5,185 visits
July 2015
• 97,864 visits
UCSF Profiles visits, 2010-2015
Sep-1
0
Dec
-10
Mar
-11
Jun-1
1
Sep-1
1
Dec
-11
Mar
-12
Jun-1
2
Sep-1
2
Dec
-12
Mar
-13
Jun-1
3
Sep-1
3
Dec
-13
Mar
-14
Jun-1
4
Sep-1
4
Dec
-14
Mar
-15
-
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
Daily visits to UCSF Profiles
UCSF Profiles visits, 2010-2015
Sep-1
0
Dec
-10
Mar
-11
Jun-1
1
Sep-1
1
Dec
-11
Mar
-12
Jun-1
2
Sep-1
2
Dec
-12
Mar
-13
Jun-1
3
Sep-1
3
Dec
-13
Mar
-14
Jun-1
4
Sep-1
4
Dec
-14
Mar
-15
-
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
Daily visits to UCSF Profilessearch vs. everything else
The dream
Latina breast cancer
The dream
The dream
The dream
!
The theory
Photo: Joseph Wu
The reality
Photo: Jim Deane
How search-driven users navigate
People search for names, e.g.:
• kristine yaffe • lawrence fong ucsf • eric vittinghoff • aaron fields ucsf • jack taunton • aimee kao ucsf • joe derisi • abul abbas
How search-driven users navigate
How search-driven users navigate
Homepage vs. search engine
Visits that start off on our home page…
Visits that go from search engine to a profile…
Homepage vs. search engine
Visits that start off on our home page…
• 68% look at 2+ pages per visit
• n = 3,222 in July 2015
• 2,190 visits of 2+ pages in July 2015
Visits that go from search engine to a profile…
• 18% look at 2+ pages in a visit
• n = 92,743 in July 2015
• 16,245 visits of 2+ pages in July 2015
Why does SEO matter?
• Usage• Usage• Usage
UCSF Profiles search traffic, 2010-15
Sep-1
0
Dec
-10
Mar
-11
Jun-1
1
Sep-1
1
Dec
-11
Mar
-12
Jun-1
2
Sep-1
2
Dec
-12
Mar
-13
Jun-1
3
Sep-1
3
Dec
-13
Mar
-14
Jun-1
4
Sep-1
4
Dec
-14
Mar
-15
-
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
Visits per day from search engines
We think we’re doing great
And other sites are too
2. HOW WE TESTED SEO FOR 52 WEBSITES
Inclusion criteriaWe picked 52 research networking sites that are…
• Associated with a single institution– exclude trade groups, collaborations, etc.
• Based in a majority English-language locale– exclude France, Germany, etc.
• Accessible to the public and search engines– exclude systems behind a firewall
• Running on a host on port 80– exclude 54.213.177.247 or hostname.edu:8080
InstitutionsAlbert Einstein College of Medicine
Arizona State University
Boston University
Case Western Reserve University
Clinical Translational Science Institute at Children's National
Cornell
Duke University
Georgia Regents University
Harvard University
Indiana University
Johns Hopkins University
Michigan State University
Montana State University
Northern Arizona University
Northwestern University
Ohio State University
Oregon Health & Science University
Penn State
Scripps Research Institute
Stanford University
Temple University
Texas A&M
Thomas Jefferson University
University of Arizona
University of California, Davis
University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Francisco
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Colorado Denver
University of Florida
University of Hawai‘i
University of Illinois - Chicago
University of Iowa
University of Maryland-Baltimore
University of Massachusetts
University of Melbourne
University of Miami
University of Minnesota
University of Montana
University of Nebraska
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
University of Nevada, Reno
University of Pennsylvania
University of Rochester
University of South Africa
University of Southern California
University of Utah
Wake Forest
Washington State University
Wayne State University
Western Michigan University
Platforms
• 21 SciVal Experts• 13 VIVO• 11 Profiles RNS• 4 Elsevier Pure• 3 Home Grown
Methodology, step 1 of 4Get a list of ~every profile
Methodology, step 2 of 4Pick 500 random users per site
Methodology, step 3 of 4Search Google for “name institution”
Methodology, step 3 of 4 cont’dHow we picked institution names
1. First, look at the domain name of the homepage for the institution– profiles.ucsf.edu → www.ucsf.edu → ucsf– vivo.experts.scival.com/indiana → www.iu.edu → iu
2. If the site’s not on the main domain, and the RNS URL includes a common variation of the name, use that– vivo.experts.scival.com/indiana → indiana
3. If #1 and #2 give different results, use both (with OR)– indiana OR iu
Methodology, step 4 of 4:Record the search ranking position
#1
Methodology, step 4 of 4 cont’d:Why only consider the top 3 results?
The first 3 organic search results made up 71% of all non-mobile Google organic clicks.
Source:“Google Organic Click-Through Rates in 2014”Philip Petrescu, Advanced Web Rankinghttps://moz.com/blog/google-organic-click-through-rates-in-2014
Methodology
• Looked at search rankings for 24,583 profile pages across 52 sites
• Used the RankTank keyword rank checker tool to automate the process– http://www.ranktank.org/
In summary:
What % of a site’s profiles appear in the top
3 Google results for“First Last Institution”?
(e.g. “brian turner ucsf”)
3. THE SEO LEADERBOARD
The Top 101. findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au (95%)2. profiles.umassmed.edu (91%)3. profiles.ucsf.edu (88%)4. vivo.med.cornell.edu (81%)5. profiles.ucdenver.edu (76%)6. profiles.bu.edu (74%)7. connects.catalyst.harvard.edu (72%)8. gru.pure.elsevier.com (67%)9. experts.umn.edu (64%)10. profiles.psu.edu (63%)
Between 25-60%11. scholars.opb.msu.edu (59%)12. vivo.scholars.northwestern.edu (55%)13. scholars.northwestern.edu (55%)14. ohiostate.pure.elsevier.com (54%)15. experts.scival.com/unisa (45%)16. experts.scival.com/ctsicn (44%)17. profiles.ucsd.edu (42%)18. vivo.colorado.edu (42%)19. profiles.stanford.edu (38%)20. profiles.tsi.wakehealth.edu (38%)21. umaryland.pure.elsevier.com (37%)22. www.icts.uiowa.edu (35%)23. profiles.sc-ctsi.org (35%)24. experts.scival.com/uic (30%)25. hawaii.vivo.ctr-in.org (27%)
26. experts.scival.com/cwru (23%)27. profiles.jefferson.edu (23%)28. experts.scival.com/jhu (22%)29. vivo.scripps.edu (20%)30. unlv.vivo.ctr-in.org (20%)31.
experts.scival.com/wayneresearchconnect (19%)
32. experts.scival.com/wsu (18%)33. vivo.upenn.edu (17%)34. umt.vivo.ctr-in.org (16%)35. experts.scival.com/wmich (15%)36. scholars.duke.edu (15%)37. www.urmc.rochester.edu (15%)
Between 15-25%
Under 15%38. vivo.ufl.edu (14%) 39. msu.vivo.ctr-in.org (13%)40. experts.scival.com/nebraska (13%)41. unr.vivo.ctr-in.org (12%)42. temple.pure.elsevier.com (11%)43. experts.scival.com/nau (11%)44. experts.scival.com/arizona (10%)45. experts.scival.com/asu (9%)46. experts.scival.com/ucdavis (9%)47. experts.scival.com/miami (7%)48. experts.scival.com/einstein (4%)49. experts.scival.com/utah (2%)50. vivo.library.tamu.edu (1%)51. experts.scival.com/indiana (1%)52. experts.scival.com/ohsu (1%)
4. THREE THINGS WE LEARNED
#1. Use your own domain
Institutional domain? (e.g. vivo.cornell.edu)• average score = 49%
Unrelated domain? (e.g. experts.scival.com/asu)• average score = 21%
#2: Software counts
1. findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au Custom2. profiles.umassmed.edu Profiles3. profiles.ucsf.eduProfiles4. vivo.med.cornell.edu Vivo5. profiles.ucdenver.edu Profiles6. profiles.bu.edu Profiles7. connects.catalyst.harvard.edu Profiles8. gru.pure.elsevier.com Elsevier Pure9. experts.umn.edu SciVal Experts10. profiles.psu.edu Profiles
#2. Software counts
• Custom software average score = 56%
• Profiles average score = 56%
• Elsevier Pure average score =
42%
• Vivo average score = 26%
• SciVal Experts average score = 23%
#1+2: Software and domain matter!
• SciVal Experts + institutional domain average score = 59%
• Profiles + institutional domain average score = 58%
• Custom + institutional domain average score = 56%
• Elsevier Pure + unrelated domain average score = 42%
• Profiles + unrelated domain average score = 35%
• Vivo + institutional domain average score = 31%
• Vivo + unrelated domain average score = 18%
• SciVal Experts + unrelated domain average score = 14%
#3. Get incoming links:inside pagerank
#3. Get incoming links:search engine ranking factors
#3. Get incoming links:search engine ranking factors
Links to the page
Links to thesubdomainor domain
#3. Get incoming links:linking root domains
A linking root domain is a domain under a public suffix that includes links to your sites.
• *.cnn.com CNN• *.ox.ac.uk Oxford
University• *.anoka.k12.ca.us Anoka School
District, Minn.
#3. Get incoming links:the top 3 sites
1. findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au (95%)
2. profiles.umassmed.edu (91%)3. profiles.ucsf.edu (88%)
#3. Get incoming links
findanexpert.unimelb.edu.auhas 488 linking root domains:
• newscientist.com• f1000.com• anl.gov• duraspace.org• electionwatch.edu.au• and 483 more root domains…
#3. Get incoming links
profiles.umassmed.eduhas 249 linking root domains:
• en.wikipedia.org• grants.nih.gov• theguardian.com• bloomberg.com• nih.gov• and 244 more root domains…
#3. Get incoming links
profiles.ucsf.eduhas 858 linking root domains:
• sourceforge.net• harvard.edu• ucsf.edu• universityofcalifornia.edu• ucsfhealth.org• and 853 more root domains…
#3. Get incoming links:why (diverse) incoming links matters
1 10 100 10000%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Linking Root Domain Countvs. Google Top 3 results %
# Linking Root Domains (log)
% o
f "N
am
e [
School]
" in
top 3
searc
h
resu
lts
5. HOW TO BOOST YOUR RANKINGS
Photo: Ryan McFarland
1. Be worthy of love
• Most people care about people, not generic information-finding site
• Make profile pages beautiful and chock-full of information, so people will want to link to them
2. Establish benchmarks
• Install Google Analytics on every page
• Learn how to use it– read Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash
Kaushik
3. Get good with Google
• Add a sitemap.xml (sitemaps.org)
• Register on Google Webmaster Tools to:• register your sitemap• catch indexing errors early• link to your Google Analytics account
4. Look good with Google
<title> tag
<meta name="description">
Schema.org people metadata
URL
Virtuous cycle
1. Some people link to you2. You show up on Google3. More people see you, and link to
you4. You do even better on Google
5. Show the world you’re worthy of love• Get campus sites to link to your
homepageas a trusted campus resource
• Get campus sites to link to individual profiles from departmental profiles, news stories, directory, etc.
• Encourage reuse of your data via APIs, and ask for a link back as attribution
If that works…
• Some researchers will link to their profile pages on their own sites
• Some blogs and social media will link to your profile pages as authoritative sources
• Some departments may link to your profiles because your data is more current than theirs
The state of
the union is
strong.
The state of
the union is
weak.
The state of
the union is
mixed.
Thank you.Anirvan Chatterjee· @anirvan
– profiles.ucsf.edu/anirvan.chatterjee– [email protected]
Leslie Yuan· @leslieyuan– profiles.ucsf.edu/leslie.yuan– [email protected]
Brian Turner– profiles.ucsf.edu/brian.turner– [email protected]
Eric Meeks– profiles.ucsf.edu/eric.meeks– [email protected]
Find this online
bit.ly/rnsseo