This document provides an audit and recommendations for improving the SEO and integrated marketing strategy for accredited-online-college-degrees.com. The audit found declining organic traffic likely due to a past Google penalty. It provides analysis of rankings, backlinks, page speed, social profiles, and competitors. Recommendations include adding weekly content, disavowing toxic links, improving trust flow, increasing in-content links, and developing an integrated strategy using content marketing, link building, social media, and paid traffic to build an engaged audience and gain high-quality backlinks to improve organic rankings over time.

1. FREE SEO REPORT
Accredited-online-college-degrees.com
gryffin.com
1-855-GRYFFIN
info@gryffin.com

2. Table of Contents
Part 1. Accredited-online-college-degrees.com Integrated
Audit
✔ Organic Marketing Audit
✔ Content Audit
✔ Social Media Audit
Part 2. Why You Need Integrated Marketing
✔ Overview
✔ The Vision
✔ iOM Strategy

3. Part 1: Accredited-online-college-degrees.com Integrated Audit
Organic Rankings Audit
Search Engine Traffic
Here we can see where the traffic has fluctuated over the course of one year. This helps us
determine your current standing and look for evidence of potential penalties or problems.

4. Organic Rankings ( 110 total keywords)
Keywords are sorted by most valuable according to Volume, showing which bring you the
most traffic. This is a random sampling as the list is extensive.

5. Page Load Speed
Inefficient load speeds affect customer’s bounce rates from both organic and paid search.
It may even affect organic rankings, particularly in Mobile. This is just one of the many
factors that can be easily corrected if noticed. Suggested baseline to have is 75% and
above.
Off-Page Overview
Backlinks is the total number of links pointing to your site. Referring domains collapses your
backlinks by unique domains. This chart gives you an overview of the unique links pointing to
your site, as well as basic social signals to your home page.

6. Evaluation of Backlinks
This list summarizes your top 20 most authoritative listed, as they are sorted by Ahrefs
“Domain Rank” algorithm.

7. SiteWide Links
In this list we sort your backlinks by number of sitewides, in order to evaluate and possibly
disavow sites that have a high number of links.

8. Anchor Text Distribution:
Watching your anchor text density is fundamental to avoiding penalties. This chart gives you
an idea of your anchor text word graph and densities.

9. Referring Pages
This graph shows the total number of referring pages . Abnormal growth in referring pages and
domains may throw up a red flag. Google’s algorithmic penalties can pick up on unnatural spikes
which can lead to page penalties or domain penalties.
Trust & Citation Flow
This is another overview of the quality of your backlinks, including Citation Flow and Trust Flow.
Citation Flow is a number predicting how influential a URL might be, based on how many sites
link to it. Trust Flow is a number predicting how trustworthy a page is based on the premise
that trustworthy sites tend to link to other similarly trustworthy sites.

10. Competitive Analysis
Top Competitors based on Research:
By using keyword and authority research we come up with a list of sites that are potential
competitors for the same keywords that you are targeting. Knowledge of these competitors
will be used in backlink profile comparisons as well as for benchmarking and analysis.
accreditedonlinecolleges.org
adultlearn.com
collegenetwork.com
onlinecollegedegrees.net
thebestschools.org
bestcollegereviews.org
guidetoonlineschools.com
geteducated.com
onlinecollege.org
affordablecollegesonline.org

11. Competitive Analysis Overview of Top Competitors.
Below you can see, at a glance, some of the metrics for your competitors, and you can see
how your site measures up against them.

13. Summary of Competitive Link Analysis
In this section of the report, we compare your site with 10 other sites in your industry that
have competitive rankings according to SEMrush.com and our own research. We then compare
your site with the average of the top 10, top 5, and top 3.
The key to understanding this is that your specific stats aren't significant in and of themselves;
what Google looks at is how your averages compare to your competitors. Once you identify
where your profile stands out when compared to competitors you know what areas to modify
on your link profile.

14. Link Status
Link Type

15. Link Location
Deep Link Ratio

16. Type of Site
Google Page Rank

17. TitleRank
Domain Authority

18. Summary of our Findings
Now that we’ve touched upon various aspects of your website, let’s review our findings.
Traffic:
Shows a decline on May 2013, indicative of a Google Penguin 2.1 penalty. We’ve already
discussed doing disavows, but I know you are concerned about the impact of removing links on
Yahoo and Bing. I would suggest doing some measured disavows - including the worst of the
toxic links and sitewides - then watching traffic growth to determine the point of diminishing
returns.
Rankings:
Although the site still holds over 100 rankings, most are 2nd page rankings due to the Google
algorithmic penalty. I believe that continuing with high quality links and disavowing the worst of
the links can help recover some of the traffic from the algorithmic penalty.
Off-Page:
You have a strong volume of sustained link growth, including some very high quality .edu links.
This gives you a strong foundation.
The trust flow is lower than the citation flow, so one of the first goals would be to improve the
trust flow so it increases and surpasses citation flow.
Anchor Density
You are not using money anchors, and the anchor text profile looks excellent. For link building
work, I recommend sustaining this strategy.
Referring Links
The trust flow is lower than the citation flow, so one of the first goals would be to improve the
trust flow so it increases and surpasses citation flow.

19. Competitive Analysis:
Most of your competitive ratios are on par with other industry sites, which protects your link
profile. I do recommend increasing the number of “in content” links as you have a high ratio of
“link list” links.
You also have a high ratio of links from pages that are no longer indexed in Google and do not
rank for their exact match title in Google, indicating potential penalties. The worst of these
should be identified and disavowed, with strict monitoring for the impact on traffic and rankings.

20. Content Audit
There are currently about 30 content pages on the site, all found from this page:
http://www.accredited-online-college-degrees.com/articles.html
Google currently only has about 200 pages indexed, including the degree landing pages.
I highly recommend adding content weekly, with optimized keyword titles, in order to improve
your long tail and gain traction with your content marketing strategy.
Social Media Audit
No social profiles could be found.

21. Part 2. Why You Need Integrated Online Marketing
Given the increasing difficulty of ranking on organic search and using organic as a viable means
of engaging your audience, it is now crucial that you make use of every channel, every medium
in order to reach out to potential customers.
This certainly doesn’t mean ‘overboard marketing’. It simply means that your customers will no
longer arrive at your door ONLY via organic traffic; some might come through social media,
others through reviews, some through blog content and others through guest posts. The key,
then, is to diversify the roads that lead to your site and capture your audience no matter where
they spend their time online.
Here are the key strategies:
● Diversify Audience Acquisition Channels to Build Engaged Communities
● Adapt your Google Organic Strategy to keep your site safe from penalties
● Content Marketing should be the foundation of your online marketing strategy
● Social Media helps build community around your content, products and services
● Paid Social helps to bring psychographically targeted audiences in at various stages of
the sales funnel
Diversify Audience Acquisition
For the last 10 years, Google has been most online marketers’ focus due to their utter
domination in online search. Getting ranked in the Top 3 in Google for money keywords has
always been the Holy Grail of online marketing. But Google organic has become a very
volatile proposition with new penalties being released year after year.
To move into the future we need to look at the online marketing models of the past and view
each search and social network as an independent marketing channel worthy of attention.
Google is still the uncontested King of Search, but HOW and WHERE people search is drastically
changing.
People are spending more time on social media sites on mobile devices and their searching and
buying patterns are directly and indirectly affected by their social surfing. Search has become an
increasingly social experience. You can no longer limit your growth by focusing on Google Paid
and Google Organic. Content Marketing & Social Media have to be a fundamental aspect of
your online marketing strategy.

22. Why you need Content Marketing
The first and key component of any online marketing campaign is content. Content Marketing,
after all, is the new buzzword. At every industry conference and SEO blog you hear the dogma
of content marketing constantly being preached. Some call content marketing the
New SEO.
Let me clue you in on something: EVERYONE IS DOING IT. What will make your content stand
out from every other Tom, Dick and Joe trying to compete?
Even though content marketing is the foundation of an integrated online marketing campaign,
you need to think Beyond Content Marketing. Not only does your content have to be unique,
comprehensive, and informative, it also has to engage your audience. Otherwise you’ll just be
another street vendor shouting his wares over the loud din of an overly crowded marketplace.
Direct Outreach: Fundamental and Unavoidable
To overcome the symptoms of Content Shock, where people are overwhelmed with the sheer
quantity of content being created, you need to promote your content assets so they get
noticed.
Say you create an amazing infographic on 15 Creative Ways to Save Money for College. Perhaps
you are one of the lucky few who can share it on their site and instantly get hundreds of
tweets, likes, comments and shares. Or you may be like almost everyone else, who don’t have a
massive built-in audience. How do you promote your content after you’ve already tweeted,
shared on Facebook, and pinned to Pinterest?
You need to reach out to other individuals through direct outreach or social media to let them
know about your content and encourage them to share it. This will create both links and social
signals, which will in turn lead to improved Organic rankings.

23. Fitting Google Organic into the Audience Acquisition Puzzle
Once you have a strong foundation of fascinating content and outreach, here are a few of the
most important Google ranking signals:
● Usage of target and semantically relevant keywords throughout your site, including
keyword mentions in the URL, Meta Title, Header Tag and Body.
● Great on-page SEO (fast load time, clean code, canonicals where necessary, XML site
maps, etc.).
● High quality links from relevant authority sites, preferably contextual.
● On-going backlink profile monitoring and auditing, with monthly low quality link
removals.
● Maintaining an updated Disavow file with potentially toxic links to your site.
● Google Authorship setup.
● Social Signals, including likes, +1’s, and relevant social followers.
● Great audience engagement, including low bounce rate, high time on site, high
number of pages visited, and other key usability metrics.
● Strong clickthrough ratios from Google Search.
● High link velocity ratio
We incorporate all of these aspects into our integrated marketing campaigns.
Link Building: Guest Posting
Despite the buzz about guest blogging, hiqh quality, targeted guest posts are still a valuable way
to create industry connections, build links, and improve social signals and relationships.
High Quality guest posts are:
● Written on high quality, authoritative sites
● Few or no money keywords in anchor text
● Include editorial links
Guest Blogging can be an effective tactic when incorporated into a cohesive integrated
strategy. If all you’re doing is guest posting, the ratio of manually acquired links will be skewed
and your site may end up in the Penguin penalty box. Using guest posts is still valuable but has
to be carefully implemented and monitored.

24. Link Building: Infographic Outreach
High quality, well-researched, informational and entertaining infographics, the kind you see on
Mashable or Business Insider, have become all the rage in online marketing.
People love sharing infographics. If you do outreach in conjunction with your infographic
marketing you can take your infographic promotions to the next level. Writing custom
introductions for each audience will mark each infographic as unique content and lead to a valid
attribution link.
Link Building: Interviews with Industry Authorities
Once you become an authority in your industry, getting bloggers to conduct an interview with
you is another way to get those highly coveted editorial links that don’t have your name in the
author bio. We use interviews as a method for valid, high quality link building.
Link Building: Scholarship
Combining scholarships with outreach will also help to create high quality links and social signals.
Once a scholarship is created, we use outreach to email, call, or socially connect
with influencers to announce the scholarship which increases visibility.
Link Building: Competitor and Industry Research
Given the importance of natural looking link profiles, we also dedicate time to link building the
old school style. This means analyzing competitor backlinks and looking for natural link
opportunities. We do comprehensive research, based on organizations in your niche, industries,
etc to identify phenomenal link building opportunities.
Using Social Media to Build an Engaged Audience
In the past you could cheat your way to an audience by buying links and ranking in Google
Organic. Moving forward, the risk is too great. Trying to recover a website from a penalty is a
difficult, lengthy, sometimes impossible feat. At Gryffin we’ve conducted dozens of link audit
and link recovery campaigns and I can tell you from personal experience it’s a nightmare.
If you want to continue having visibility within Google organic, you need to consider building an
audience OUTSIDE of Google Search that helps you gain the links and social signals that you
need to rank well in Google Organic.

25. Google says you should earn links by creating compelling content. We’ve discussed a few
strategies to create link building opportunities, but the safest way to build visibility in Google
Organic is to naturally attract editorial links. What most webmasters then ask is: “how do I
EARN these links if nobody knows I exist? I need traffic to earn links! How do I get these
viewers who will link to me if I’m not found anywhere online?”
There are two primary ways: Build an Engaged Audience through Social Media Channels,
and Pay for Traffic through Adwords and Paid Social Media.
Build an Engaged Audience through Social Media Channels
Generation Y is increasingly social and mobile. They send an average of 20 text messages a day
and 14 hours on their mobile phone. What are they doing most of the time? Are they searching
on Google.com? If you said no, you’re right. They’re chatting on Facebook, Twitter, checking in
to Foursquare, uploading pictures to Instagram and videos to Vine and YouTube.
Other generations are jumping on the bandwagon too. Why take a blind leap and purchase
products that haven’t been endorsed when you now have a highly connected network of friends
who can make suggestions based on experience? Think of the last time you booked a hotel
room. Have online reviews swayed your decisions?
Search is now Social. Products, experiences and even individuals will continue to be rated and
scored online and people’s decisions and spending power will continue to be greatly influenced
by these ratings. You don’t have to be everywhere on social but you have to be where your
audience hangs out. Social is not only influencing sales but it is also a means of driving targeted
customers as well as influencing organic algorithms.
Pay for Traffic through Adwords and Paid Social Media
Most people already use Adwords so there’s little to say on the topic. What most don’t know
is how to use Paid Social to place your content and products in front of the right audiences. If
you sell fishing rods, did you know you can target audiences on Facebook of people who are
into fishing, yachting, boating, etc?
Using lateral thinking and in-depth research, we create paid social campaigns to amplify your
content and go beyond literal targeting to interest targeting. Our campaigns use a variety of
social channels to reach the right audience, at the right time, in the right places.

26. The Results: Integrated Marketing at its Best
By working with Gryffin Media, we help you grow online across all channels. From sharing
content on all of your social profiles, to sharing and engaging with your audience in the social
sphere, to monitoring your rankings and keywords, to creating content and building the links
and social signals you need for organic success - we do it all.
Elements of an Integrated Marketing Campaign:
● Infographic Design: We create high quality, engaging, and interesting infographics that
will be used as the foundation of link building and social promotions.
● Infographic Links: We perform outreach to create visibility for your infographics. Every
link will have a custom introduction creating unique content. Links are high quality,
targeted, editorial, and relevant.
● Guest Blog Links: We perform outreach relevant to your industry to write content
including editorial link placements. All guest post placements are rigorously checked,
including a Min. Pagerank (2) and Domain Authority (20).
● Content Outreach: We use social media and email to reach out to individuals who
might be interested in sharing your content, using targeted and personalized pitches.
● Giveaway Marketing: We create, promote, and publicize giveaways which result in
both social signals and links. These might be interchangeable with Guest Blog or
Infographic links in order to create a natural looking link profile.
● Link Profile Monitoring: Monthly backlink reports help us monitor the ratio of links
and anchor text in order to prevent your site from acquiring a Google penalty.
● Google Plus Marketing: The growing importance of social signals to organic rankings
makes Google Plus paramount to any online marketing campaign. We create, curate,
and share relevant content. Our strategy results in a rapid increase in your audience and
profile authority, which helps improve your rankings in Google Plus as well as Google
organic.
● Facebook Marketing: Facebook is the largest social network out there, and it’s one of
the best for not just building a following, but a true community. Here is where you want

27. to focus your most “social” social activity, and convert customers to fans and brand
ambassadors.
● Pinterest Marketing: Pinterest is one of the largest growing social media sites, with
massive popularity and sales potential. We manage your Pinterest account by creating
optimized boards and pins, and growing your audience with promotions and
engagement.
● Twitter Marketing: Twitter is all about conversation. It’s good for establishing visibility
and connections through @mentions and retweets. You cannot simply Tweet and hope
the followers will come to you; if so, you’ll be lost in the void. Your content needs to be
relevant and in-tune with current events and trending topics.
● Paid Social / Social Media Promotions: Using highly customized audiences based on
extensive psychographic research, we amplify your content and social promotions using
paid social, primarily Facebook ads.
Integration is key! Being successful in today’s crowded marketplace
requires leveraging your content to promote your social to promote your
organic. Make all of your marketing initiatives work hand in hand - and
watch your audience GROW.

28. Thank you
gryffin.com
1-855-GRYFFIN
info@gryffin.com