How to-prioritize-in-seo-for-the-greatest-business-impact

2. How to Prioritize SEO Initiatives
for Greatest Business Impact
Ajay Rama
SVP, Products
#SEJWebinar
@iQuanti

3. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
About Me
Ajay Rama, SVP, Products, iQuanti
Notable Work: Built ALPS – Patented, Award winning
enterprise SEO platform that makes SEO predictable
Experience: 20+ years of experience in Marketing
Analytics, Data Science and Data warehousing.
Companies: Currently with iQuanti, earlier had
developed products for iFlex, Oracle, and AOL

4. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
What will you learn today?
In today's session you will find ways to:
Identify pages and parameters that matter to win for SEO
Increase like the likelihood of your page to rank better
Identify the opportunity that your SEO program can deliver
Identify topics that your website has a potential to win
This webinar will not teach you any more SEO than you already know
but will teach you how to get more from the SEO that you already know.

5. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Key SEO Initiatives
Plan
Evaluate SEO
opportunities that can
give maximum ROI /
Build business case
Strategic Projects
Run several strategic SEO
projects
Frequency
Strategic Impact
SEO Initiatives #1 SEO Initiatives #2 SEO Initiatives #3
Page Rank Improvement SEO Opportunity
Evaluation
Strategic SEO tasks like Domain
Consolidation, Site migration,
Global Technical Changes etc.
Optimize
Take measures to improve
page rank

6. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Key SEO Initiatives
Plan
Evaluate SEO
opportunities that can
give maximum ROI /
Build business case
Strategic Projects
Run several strategic SEO
projects
Frequency
Strategic Impact
SEO Initiatives #1 SEO Initiatives #2 SEO Initiatives #3
Page Rank Improvement SEO Opportunity
Evaluation
Strategic SEO tasks like Domain
Consolidation, Site migration,
Global Technical Changes etc.
Optimize
Take measures to improve
page rank

7. SEO Initiative 1:
Page Rank Improvement
#SEJWebinar
@iQuanti

8. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Page Rank Improvement – The Usual Way and Challenges

9. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Page Rank Improvement : The Framework
Decide Go/No-
Go based on
strategic
priority and
opportunity
Size
Score Yours
and
Competitors
Page
Benchmark
with
Competition
and Identify
gaps
Identify
changes to
cover the gap
Rescore pages
based on
identified
changes and
check if gap is
covered
Implement
Changes and
Measure
Results vis a
vis updated
score
Decide if the opportunity
is worth pursuing
Score pages on: Content,
Authority and Technical
Find Comparative score
For Content, Authority
and Technical
Find the parameters that
will close the gap
Assess the impact of the identified
changes before you commit
Check your assessment vs real rank changes
to improve accuracy of assessment

10. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Page Rank Improvement: Case Study I (Benchmarking)
4.6
5.2
6.5
4.9
6.5
5.0
3.2
7.9
6.9
4.5
6.2
5.3
4.7
7.1
8.1
Authority Content Technical
Keyword – Sample Keyword
20 K Annual Search Volume
Your Page Competitor 1 Competitor 2 Competitor 3 Competitor 4
Current Google Rank: 14
Your Page Score
Benchmarked Scores
• Looking at the individual score the focus area appears to be Authority
• Based on the benchmarked scores, a better focus area is Relevancy
URL: www.testrul.com/test

11. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Page Rank Improvement: Case Study II (Benchmarking)
7.0
6.2 6.5
8.4
6.2
5.0
9.3
6.7 6.9
8.7
6.1
5.3
9.1
6.8
6.0
Authority Content Technical
Keyword – Sample Keyword
50 K Annual Search Volume
Your Page Competitor 1 Competitor 2 Competitor 3 Competitor 4
Current Google Rank: 11
Your Page Score
Benchmarked Scores
• Looking at the individual score the focus area appears to be Relevancy or Technical
• Based on the benchmarked scores, a better focus area is Authority
URL: www.testrul.com/test

12. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Page Rank Improvement: Content Parameters
Content
PRIORITY
• Content’s Intent
• Subtopics Covered
• Elements Optimized

13. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Page Rank Improvement: Authority Parameters
Authority
PRIORITY
• Number of Relevant
Backlinks
• Types of Backlinks
• Authority of Linking
Pages/Domains

14. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Page Rank Improvement: Technical Parameters
Technical
PRIORITY
• Page load time
• How well the page
is maintained

15. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Page Rank Improvement: Case Study III (Forecasting)
4.6 5.2
6.5
4.9
6.5
5.0
3.2
7.9
6.9
4.5
6.2
5.3
4.7
7.1
8.1
Authority Content Technical
Keyword – Sample Keyword
20 K Annual Search Volume
Your Page Competitor 1 Competitor 2 Competitor 3 Competitor 4
URL: www.testrul.com/test
Current Google Rank: 14
Benchmarked Scores
• Look at the benchmarked scores
• Based on the recommended changes forecast the score and google rank change
6.0
8.1 8.2
Forecasted Google Rank: 4

16. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Page Rank Improvement : Key Takeaways
Get ideas and inspiration form ranking competitors to make
changes in the identified variables
Increase the likelihood of success by rescoring and
forecasting gains ahead of making changes live
Don’t go after everything, prioritize on the pages and parameters
that are most impactful.
2
RESEARCH
COMPETITION
1
PRIORITIZE
3
FORECAST

17. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Audience Poll
• Do you believe scoring pages, benchmarking competition, and simulating
score changes will help drive SEO results?
Options:
A. Strongly believe. My current tools and processes do this
B. Strongly believe. Want to implement something like this
C. Don’t believe. Happy with my current approach and tool

18. SEO Initiative 2:
SEO Opportunity Evaluation
#SEJWebinar
@iQuanti

19. #SEJWebinar
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SEO Opportunity Evaluation : The Framework and Output
Comprehensive
KW Research
Organize KWs
into Themes
Identify
opportunity by
Themes
Identify Difficulty
by Themes
Prioritize
Themes Quick
Wins
Build a plan
with Timelines,
Milestones etc.
Output
Relevant KW List
Output
List of Relevant Themes
Output
List of Themes With
Opportunity Size
Output
List of Themes With
Difficulty to Rank
Output
Prioritized list of Themes
by effort and reward
Output
SEO plan for Maximum
Business Impact

20. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Case Study: SEO Opportunity Evaluation - Keyword Research
Themes
and Sub-themes
Organic
Footprint
Business
Relevancy
Paid
Converting
Keywords
Competitive
Research
Search
Landscape
Existing keywords that the site
already ranks for on Google
Keywords that are relevant to the
business and products that the site
should be ranking for
Search queries/keywords that drive
high click through and conversions
on paid search
Keywords that competitors rank
for and are within their footprint
Keywords that trigger different
SERP features like answer
boxes, FAQs, videos, etc.
Unique
Keyword List

21. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Case Study: SEO Opportunity Evaluation - Keyword Research
Competitor’s
Organic Footprint
111K
Keywords
Business
Relevant Keywords
(not in footprint)
26K Keywords
Paid Search Terms
(keywords that have
high paid presence)
4K Keywords
Competitive Research
(keywords targeted
by competition)
520K Keywords
Search Landscape
(keywords triggering
rich snippets)
8K
Keywords
Your Organic Footprint
255K Keywords
Relevant Keywords
68.6K unique +

22. Case Study: SEO Opportunity Evaluation - Theming
#SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Retirement
Calculator
Investment
Retirement
Trading
Account
Mutual
Funds
Stock
Futures
ETF
Financial
Services
IRA
Online Trading
Accounts
Compare Trading
Accounts
What are
Mutual Funds?
Retirement
Plans
Roth IRA
Traditional IRA
yourdomain.com/retirement-
planningtools/retirementcalculator
Retirement Plans
for Companies
Roth vs Traditional IRA Calculator
Best Roth IRA
yourdomain.com/small-business-retirement-plans
yourdomain.com/ira/understand-
iras/ira-calculators/roth-vs-trad

23. #SEJWebinar
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SEO Opportunity Evaluation - Difficulty and Opportunity
Authority Score
Themes Keywords Examples
Monthly
Search
Volume
Avg. Rank
Current
Traffic
Potential
Traffic
Your Score Competitor* Gap
Theme 1 KW1, KW2, KW3 37K 76 500 9.25K 7.5 9.8 -2.3
Theme 2 KW1, KW2, KW3 10K 42 200 2.5K 6.4 9.2 -2.8
Theme 3 KW1, KW2, KW3 80K 65 800 20K 4.2 8.6 -4.4
Theme 4 KW1, KW2, KW3 60K 67 600 15K 4.6 9.1 -4.5
Theme 5 KW1, KW2, KW3 45K 100 90 11.3K 0.9 8.7 -7.8
Theme 6 KW1, KW2, KW3 30K 57 250 7.5K 3.2 8.8 -5.6
Theme 7 KW1, KW2, KW3 5K 100 130 1.25K 1.5 9.0 -7.5
Theme 8 KW1, KW2, KW3 13K 4 2700 3.25K 8.3 9.1 -0.8

24. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Case Study: SEO Opportunity Evaluation - Opportunity Analysis
Branded,
781K
Non-Branded,
1.5M
Branded,
781K
Non-Branded,
284K
Branded,
761K
Non-Branded,
118K
CURRENT ANNUAL TRAFFIC REALISTIC OPPORTUNITY
All branded terms on position 1 & all non-branded
terms currently ranking on position 1-100 are
elevated using ALPS Forecasting Matrix
OVERALL OPPORTUNITY
All non branded terms on pg-1
& Branded on Position 1
Traffic based on current branded,
and non branded SERP rankings
Annual
Traffic
879K
Annual
Traffic
1.1M
Annual
Traffic
2.3M
Over all
1.3X
1.03X Branded
2.4X Non-Branded
Over all
2.6X
1.1X Branded
12.7X Non-Branded

25. #SEJWebinar
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SEO Opportunity Evaluation : Prioritization
Difficulty
to
Rank
Opportunity Size
Don’t Commit
Long Term
Goal
Niche
Experiment
Immediate
Priority
• Theme 1
• Theme 2
• Theme 3
• Theme 1
• Theme 2
• Theme 3
• Theme 1
• Theme 2
• Theme 3

26. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
SEO opportunity Evaluation: Key Takeaways
Identify topics to build authority around, new content that
needs to be developed and existing content to be optimized
Identify traffic potential and business value that SEO can drive
2
1
ROI
PRIORITIZED
ROADMAP

27. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
About ALPS
Analyze, Simulate & Take Action
ALPS assesses SEO health, provides competitive
benchmarking and simulates the impact of changes to help
prioritize action.
Award Winning Platform
ALPS has received recognition from the SEO industry for its
innovative roadmap and unprecedented data-driven insights
Driven by Predictive Analytics &
Machine Learning
ALPS leverages data science and machine learning to reverse
engineer Google’s algorithm.

28. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
THANKS
To YOU for listening and answering thoughtful questions!
To our host Heather, Search Engine Journal for organizing the webinar!
To our Product Marketer Shashwat and iQuanti’s ALPS Team!
Please feel free to connect to me on LinkedIn or email me directly at ajay.rama@iquanti.com
For more information on ALPS, contact our VP of Sales, Michael Carle, at michael.carle@iquanti.com

29. #SEJWebinar
@iQuanti
Audience Poll
• Do you know the addressable market size (or max opportunity) of your
SEO for your business?
Options:
A. Don’t know. Our current calls cannot address this
B. Don’t know. Don't care to know
C. Yes. We have a similar approach to arrive at the opportunity
D. Addressable market size is not important to us.

30. Thank You
#SEJWebinar
@iQuanti