This document discusses how SEO strategies have shifted from a focus on page views to quality content and engagement. It notes that the value of a page view has declined while competition and importance of off-page factors have increased. The document recommends focusing on quality over searchability by creating content that engages audiences and develops ongoing relationships. It provides examples of metrics like newsletter signups, social media followers, and time on site that better measure engagement and influence compared to page views alone.

1. SEO: Quality vs. Searchability

2. Who is this “Prescott” guy and what can he
teach me about SEO & B2B Media?
• VP, New Media for Primedia Business, Prism
Business Media and Penton Media (‟03 to „08)
• Brought SEO from About.com to PRIMEDIA
Business (now Penton Media) in 2002
– Grew traffic from 1.5 million page views to 7 million
page views in under a year
• Grew division from $3MM in digital revenues to
over $60MM and from 8 people in „03 to 147 in
„08

3. Today‟s discussion
• Why page view journalism is a waste of time
unless you have a network of low-cost content
creators
• Combat page view journalism with service
journalism
• How can you get management to focus on the
right metrics?
• What tools should I be looking at?

4. Quality vs. Searchability
Quality Searchability
• Attract the right • Content discovery
audience • Increased traffic
• Make an impression • Credibility with
• Reader wants more advertisers & readers
content from you • New users
• Creates influence • Steal market share

5. Can quality be measured as easily as
searchability?
• How do others quantify quality content?
– Google: PageRank
– Facebook: EdgeRank
• How do you quantify quality content?

6. SEO Impact: 2003 vs. 2002

7. SEO 2002 Gameplan
• Goal: massive page view growth
• Technology
– Pre-populated title tags with editorial ability to
override it with an optimized title
– Meta description and keywords
– Static url‟s
– Spiderbites
• Editorial Training
– Trained over 150 editors on SEO in three months
– Focus was on-page factors

8. SEO Gameplan 2012
• Goal: reach, engage and develop an ongoing relationship with
as many people in the industry as possible
• Technology
– Web Analytics
– Audience Management System (registration, paywall, etc.)
– Workflow
– Syndication
• Editorial Training
– Social Media
– Focus on understanding metrics
– Social media and link building
– Maintain on-page skills
– Tagging and meta data

9. What‟s changed in 10 years?
• Value of a page view has fallen to $0.01 or $0.02
• More competition for keywords
– Advertisers are blogging, tweeting, etc.
– Readers are blogging, etc.
– Events are blogging, etc.
• Off-page factors are becoming more important
• Rise of social media and social media
optimization (SMO)

10. Your website is your top
audience acquisition tool, but it isn’t set
up to attract and acquire
new users/readers.

11. 20% of Homepage Used for Conversions
1 2 3
4
5
6-15

12. 5% of Homepage Used for Conversions
1-5 6

13. Stepping over dollars to get pennies
• If page views are worth a penny or two, what is the
opportunity cost?
• Good content should create value beyond the page view
– Email newsletter subscription: $3 to $5
– Print magazine subscription: $5 to $50
– Webinar registration: $30 to $120
– Facebook Fan: $2 to $4
– Twitter follower: $2 to $4
• Lifetime values of the above number are much higher
• Email addresses can be used to market conferences and
trade shows

14. ABM Managing Profits Study
Channel Average Revenue Avg. Reach Margin Growth Rate
per User (ARPU)
Print $28 59,448 23% 2.3%
Web $29 56,000 31% 15.5%
Conference $1,327 412 31% 9.8%
Trade Show $191 12,717 52% 9.8%
Source: 2012 ABM Managing Profits Study

15. Who has more influence?
eHow.com nytimes.com
• 46M uniques • 23M uniques
• 110M total visits • 110M total visits
• 64M return visits • 87M return visits
• 280M page views • 370M page views
• 5:00 per visit • 8:00 per visit

16. Google Analytics Can Track These
Engagement Metrics

17. Tying Editors to Engagement Goals

18. Executive Dashboard
• Number of content assets
• Non-bounce visits (easy)
• Return visits (easy)
• Newsletter signups (talk to developer)
• Social media activity (talk to developer)
• Unique Visitors (easy)
• Page Views (easy)

19. Editorial Team Reports
• Top converting writers
• Top converting content types (video, article,
blog, podcast, review, how-to, news, etc.)
• Top converting content assets
• Top converting referrers (sites that send you
traffic)
• Top converting keywords
• Top converting tags (need developer)

20. KaPost.com
• Manage story pipeline
• Manage writers (fulltime and freelance)
• Analytics by writer
• Payments, etc.
• Licensing

21. Other Web Analytics
• Chartbeat: Real-time analytics for large, newsy
sites
• Scout Analytics: Paid content analytics
platform
• PublishFlow: Real-time analytics, competitive
analysis

23. SEOmoz
• Keyword targets
• Keyword rankings
• On-page analysis
• Off-page factors
• Link Development

24. Automated Tagging
• Temis
• Open Calais
• Inform
• OpenAmplify

25. Final thoughts
• Quality content leads to deeper relationships,
more influence
• Manage up… tell your boss what metrics to
follow
• Use tools to make content discoverability more
efficient
• Take time for content strategy