Modern SEO: Integrating Programs for Success - A Farmers Insurance Case Study

1. Modern SEO May 22, 2014

2. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Modern SEO: Aligning Search, Social, Content and Local Into a Customer Focused "Program” A Case Study with Farmers Insurance How a national insurance company is building its brand, and improving its bottom line, through integrated, bottom up, program design and management Hear from senior level Farmers Insurance marketing executives about their journey, significantly lifting web and local office traffic, while improving engagement and conversion, through an integrated digital marketing approach centered in strong audience understanding and content strategy guiding execution of organic and local search, social and content marketing. Learn how a mix of internal teams and agency partnerships help the Insurance firm innovate to maximize brand awareness and grow the customer base. #ModernSEO

3. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Takeaways Attendees of the session will take way the following: 1. Why program integration is a must, from the user and search engine point of view 2. What true integrated program looks like, satisfying user and search engine needs 3. A methodology for aligning staff and partners 4. How to measure the impact, and the potential program improvements that can be achieved #ModernSEO

4. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Presenter and Moderator Mike Corak, Executive Vice President, Strategy | ethology As Executive Vice President of Strategy, Mike Corak leads the strategic planning and agency services teams. An agency veteran, Mike has developed and implemented winning digital and integrated strategies for hundreds of companies; including Coca-Cola, ConAgra Foods, ConocoPhillips, FedEx, Fujitsu, Nike, Office Depot, and Walt Disney. Prior to ethology, Mike led the interactive services, strategy and client management at Off Madison Ave, serving a variety of Fortune 500 companies. Previously, he served as a senior strategic planner at iCrossing, working with most of the agency’s largest clients. Mike’s peers have recognized him for his results-oriented work. His awards include “Email Campaign of the Year” from the Email Experience Council (EEC) a division of the DMA, and “Best Consumer Products Website of the Year” by the American Business Association (ABA). Mike serves as a SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) board member, helping drive the search and social industry’s trade group initiatives in research and education. @MikeCorak

5. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Today’s Speakers Sarah Karpinski, SEO Specialist, Digital Marketing | Farmers Insurance Group Sarah Karpinski manages Search Engine Optimization for Farmers Insurance, a national insurance group which provides auto, home, life, small business, financial services and other products to approximately 10 million U.S. households. Sarah began her SEO career at top digital agencies, including Razorfish Healthware, before transitioning to a client-side SEO role at Farmers in 2013. There, she is accountable for all SEO efforts, and works cross-functionally to execute integrated digital strategy. Sarah received her B.A. in Political Science and Economics from Temple University. Brian Borkowski, Director, Digital Marketing | Farmers Insurance Group For over 10 years, Brian Borkowski has been on the forefront of an ever-changing digital marketing industry and taking advantage of opportunities that many others struggle to find success in. Currently, Brian is the Director of Digital Marketing at Farmers Insurance, a leading multi-line insurance company with over 12,000 exclusive agents across the country. Prior to joining Farmers, Brian successfully launched his own digital marketing company and helped a startup search engine achieve record growth.

6. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology About Our Participants About ethology Ethology is a full-service digital marketing agency that helps Fortune 1000 and challenger brands connect with their customers through the integration of research, strategy, and execution at all points of brand engagement. For more information about ethology, go to www.ethology.com About Farmers Insurance Farmers Insurance Group of Companies is a leading U.S. insurer group of automobiles, homes and small businesses and also provides a wide range of other insurance and financial services products. Farmers Insurance is proud to serve more than 10 million households with more than 20 million individual policies across all 50 states through the efforts of over 50,000 exclusive and independent agents and nearly 22,000 employees. Visits Website at www.farmers.com or at www.Facebook.com/FarmersInsurance.

8. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Search Was… Keyword Research Keyword Usage Page elements: Titles, headings, meta, body copy, links including anchor Keyword Rankings *Keyword data via analytics 8 Research Tactical Execution Measuring Performance #ModernSEO @MikeCorak

9. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Search Is… Keyword Research Keyword Usage – Page elements: Titles, headings, body copy, links including anchor Keyword Rankings *Keyword data via analytics • Biz objectives • Social listening • User personas • Analytic insights • Keyword research by THEME • All of which feeds content strategy • Search • Content planning • Site hierarchy • Social posting • Display messaging • Email messaging • Local messaging • PPC AdGroups • Content focused media (Native) • Standard KPIs (real world) • Theme performance (segmentation, attribution) 9 Research Tactical Execution Measuring Performance #ModernSEO @MikeCorak

10. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology The Plan: Content Strategy Guided Search 10 3. Gap Analysis Categories & Topics 4. Plan Creation Tactics & Prioritization 2. Content & SEO Audits Technical, Quantitative & Qualitative 5. Plan Execution Implement, Test & Revise 1. Audience Intelligence Vernacular & Demand #ModernSEO @MikeCorak

11. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Content Strategy: Quantitative & Qualitative 11 Content Inventory • Content Types & Metadata • Website Analytics Quality Review • Accessible • Findable • Consistent • Useful Structurally Sound Relevant & Effective Usable & Shareable Supports Brand & Users • Flexible • Brand-appropriate • Accurate • Balanced #ModernSEO

12. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethologyConsumers. The big idea. ethology FARMERS USERSROBOTS Supports business objectives Findable by search engines Fulfills audience needs 12All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. The Output: Purposeful Content #ModernSEO @MikeCorak

13. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology The Future of SEO 13 Ingredients: • 1 Part technical consultation • 1 Part content strategy and planning • An overpowering part of integration and coordinated execution across channels #ModernSEO @MikeCorak

14. Case Study

15. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Integrated Program Overview 1 Understand Discover Prioritize Plan Optimize Monitor Understand • Business Objectives • Target Audience • Internal governance Discover • Identify Technical Issues • Competitive Landscape • Build Content Inventory & Identify Goals • Identify Content Purpose & User Needs Prioritize • Efforts by Business Objective Value • Coverage Gaps by Product Line • Content Gaps by User Intent Plan • Map Specific optimization efforts to product lines based on (prioritized) business objectives • Match user intent to content goals Optimize • Page-level optimization • Technical remediation • Content refinement • Content development/deployment & promotion Monitor • Review of implemented technical solutions • Monitor server & indexing issues • Analyze content performance • Measure efficacy of efforts & re-prioritize Phase I Phase II Phase III #ModernSEO @MikeCorak

16. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Custom Program Team Organic Search Content Strategy & Creation Analytics Farmers & Partners Media (PPC)Exec Mgmt Creative Dev Social UX #ModernSEO @MikeCorak

17. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Understand & Discover 17 Content & User Needs 1. Strengthen existing content 2. Broaden topical coverage 3. Deepen supporting content 4. Informed by audience segments 5. Content distribution (< 50% HTML; 63% non-product driven) 6. Content find-ability 7. Improve social sharing #ModernSEO @MikeCorak

18. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Top Technical Search Priorities 18 ANALYSIS SCORE EFFECT EFFORT OWNER Extraneous Crawl Depth ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ Farmers URL Structure ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ Farmers URL Canonicalization ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ Farmers Orphaned page authority: 302 & 404 Errors ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ Farmers Inaccessible Navigation on Subpages ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ Farmers Duplicated Title Tags ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ethology Duplicated Heading Tags ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ethology Duplicated Meta Descriptions ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ethology #ModernSEO @MikeCorak

19. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Topical Coverage Themes 824,320 318,896 244,827 193,094 101,482 100,207 74,557 32,265 25,191 24,176 10,568 7,530 5,374 2,037 25 182 206 211 130 211 191 78 101 143 42 30 49 18 general car autolife insurancerenters/condo hom eow ner hom e m otorcycle flood business property um brella bundle earthquake relevant categories by keywords & search demand based on 1600+ terms relevant and prioritized for Farmers total search demand # of keywords 19#ModernSEO @MikeCorak

21. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Results 21 Organic Traffic: +25% Program ROI: +384% Note: corresponding increases achieved in site engagement and conversion through content quality improvements #ModernSEO @MikeCorak

22. 22 Farmers Q&A

23. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Program Q&A 23 What were the biggest barriers to selling this approach internally? The end solution didn’t obviously match the RFP.Brian Borkowski #ModernSEO

24. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Program Q&A 24 What recommendations would you make to others looking to develop a similar program? What do you think the future search RFP contains? Brian Borkowski #ModernSEO

25. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Program Q&A 25 What programs do you feel are the most important for integration? Sarah Karpinski Search Engine Optimization Content Strategy & UX/UI PPC (Media) Social Dev Creative Analytics #ModernSEO

26. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Integrated Local Search 26 Local Search Organic Search Paid Search Social Content Demand INCLUSION ACCURACY ENRICHMENT #ModernSEO @MikeCorak

27. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Program Q&A 27 Describe your partner and internal team ecosystem. Why do you keep certain tactics in-house v. working with partners?Brian Borkowski #ModernSEO

29. All Rights Reserved © ethology, Inc. Consumers. The big idea. ethology Program Q&A 29 How do you see the program evolving over time? Tactical expansion, integration, and operational staffing Sarah Karpinski #ModernSEO

30. 30 Questions

31. Mike Corak @MikeCorak EVP, Strategy Mike.Corak@ethology.com m: 602.570.6601 Thank You