learn from the past
live in the present
plan for the future
WELCOME TO
A step by step process on how to make SEO the most efficient channel
in your organisation
Enterprise level SEO
strategy and its execution
ABOUT THE SPEAKER.
02
Magdalena Sikora
MC Marketing Manager
In heart- SEO Specialist
I’ve worked with companies like
• Avis
• AutoTrader
• Expedia
• TripAdvisor
I currently work on a full time basis
@NewLook.com
SEO becomes more and more challenging:
- Google Updates
- Problems with tracking
- Competitiveness increase
ENOUGH TO KEEP US AWAKE AT NIGHT!
WHY THIS SUBJECT?
03
The below is a step by step process and methodology behind SEO strategy.
It is especially helpful when you deal with seasonal searches.
SEO WORK PROCESS
s
Discover
4
Build the Plan
o
Deploy
7
Grow & Measure
04
3
Create
Keyword Universe
STEP ONE
DISCOVER
ORGANISE A SESSION WITH YOUR SEO AGENCY
 no one in the company will know us much as they do!
1. LEARNABOUT THE PAST.
06
DISCOVER
MEET WITH TEAMS AND ASK THEM RELEVANT QUESTIONS
 Which product is the best seller?
 Which product is most important from business perspective- highest
margins, best conversion?
 Which product needs to sell
2. LEARNABOUT THE PRODUCT YOU SELL (!)
07
DISCOVER
STEP TWO
Keywords Universe are all possible terms relevant to your site that bring or could bring a
quality traffic to your website
ORGANISE: BUILD KEYWORD UNIVERSE
1. GATHERALL RELEVANT TERMS.
09
BUILDING KEYWORDS UNIVERSE
LIST ALL TERMS THAT CURRENTLY BRING TRAFFIC
 Omniture, Google Analytics
 Internal searches on your site
DISCOVER NEW KEYWORDS
 Use free tools: Google KW Adwords, PAID: Wordtracker,
Hitwise
 Research your competitors sites
GATHER THE FINDINGS FROM YOUR ‘DSCOVERY’ PROCESS
2. TAG EVERY TERM.
10
BUILDING KEYWORDS UNIVERSE
BY ‘CATEGORY’ (main themes on your site)
 clothing: dresses, outwear, accessories, shoes
 travel: hotels, flights, holidays
BY KEYWORD PATTERN,
 travel: hotels in {destination}, {destination} hotels, 4-star
hotels in {destination}
BY TYPE- GENERIC, SEASONAL, IMPORTANCE
3. CREATE THE FINAL FILE.
11
BUILDING KEYWORDS UNIVERSE
SAVE IT AND NEVER OVERWRITE THIS FILE- THAT’S YOUR BENCHMARK (!)
STEP THREE
It is all about maximising the potential knowing that we all have limited resources
BUILD THE PLAN
CREATE YOUR SEO ACTION PLAN
13
“COATS” category strategy
We start working on a term at least 4
months before the search peak starts!
You can create it on a category or keywords level.
Since we all have limited resources we focus all our activities based on
seasonal approach
MAY
ON- PAGE
OPTIMISATION
OCT
END OF
LINK BUILDING!
CREATE A STRATEGY
JUL
START OF
LINK BUILDING
SEP
BEGINNING OF
SEARCH PEAK
DEC
THE END OF
SEARCH PEAK
YOU WON’TACHIEVE YOUR GOALS ALONE!
MERGE YOUR PLAN WITHALL OTHER TEAMS
AND THEIR CALENDARS
14
CREATE A STARTEGY
“COATS” category strategy
We start working on a term at least 4
months before the search peak starts!
MAY
ON- PAGE
OPTIMISATION
OCT
END OF
LINK BUILDING!
JUL
START OF
LINK BUILDING
SEP
BEGINNING OF
SEARCH PEAK
DEC
THE END OF
SEARCH PEAK
PR
PPC
IF WE ARE
NOT HIGH
FOR SEO
YET
SOCIAL
START OF
ACTIVITIES
SOCIAL
END OF
ACTIVITIES
CHOOSE YOUR KEYWORDS
15
CREATE A STRATEGY
• Search volumes
• Competiveness of the term
• Who currently ranks? Am I relevant enough?
• Will it be in stock in 3 month time?
• Current conversion
• Profit margins?
When choosing terms take also other factors in to account (not only
seasonality):
STEP FOUR
DEPLOYMENTAND WORKING WITH TEAMS
1. INTRODUCE SEOAGENCYTOALL DEPARTMENTS
AND TREAT THEM AS YOUR INTERNALTEAM
17
DEPLOY
• Share everything you can!
• Meet at least once a week!
• Inform about crucial business
decision that might affect
them/ their work
• Sign them up to all relevant
internal distribution lists- it
will speed things up (!)
• Give them access to your
internal tools (Omniture etc.)
Keep them as a part of your business
- you have the same goal!
2. SEOAND SOCIALARE BETTER TOGETHER.
18
DEPLOY
• Organise meetings on a monthly basis
with both SEO agency and social
teams
• Review campaigns together each
month and agree which social
campaigns could be supported by SEO
activities
• Social teams are usually less tech
savvy- suggest to support them
(advise on measurement tools etc.)
• Run brainstorm meetings on at least
quarterly basis
4. SEOAND PPC AREALSO BETTER TOGETHER.
19
DEPLOY
You both have the same goal- increase website’s visibility in SERP.
They should not be pitted against one another in competition, but each one
should be recognised that they have strengths when trying to achieve a
common goal.
These strengths should be utilised to their fullest and intelligence (keywords
and usability) from PPC should be fed back into the SEO campaign.
This holistic approach to search engine marketing should ensure that you
are getting the most from both your SEO and PPC campaigns, rather than
treating them as completely isolated marketing channels.
3. ORGANISE INTERNAL SEO TRAININGS!
20
DEPLOY
Make others excited about SEO (Yes, you can!:)
Run these trainings individually with each team as each team has different
focus and repeated it every 6 months (teams change):
Teach them how to use keywords
tool!
Explain what is meta title, description
etc.
CONTENT
You can help them increase
mentions!
You can share our bloggers
contact detils!
You can help them to
increase bloggers outreach!
SOCIAL
You will make sure that your PRs are
fully optmised, so send them over!
You will help to make them popular
online, so they are seen by the right
audience!
PR TEAM
STEP FIVE
MEASURE
1. MEASURE YOUR RANKINGS
22
MEASURE
• Check your Keyword Universe rankings at least
twice a month
• Check your quarterly targeted terms twice a
week
• Monitor competitors at least on a monthly
basis(!)
2.1. BE AWARE OF THE HEADWINDS
23
MEASURE
Chrome v.25 went fully live in Jan (with encrypted for all possible searches).
In April, Chrome v.26 was launched with encrypted searches fully rolled out
2.2. BE AWARE OF THE HEADWINDS
24
MEASURE
New Apple iOS6 as well as Android 4+ completely strip away the referring
source, as a result:
• You not only not seeing keywords that bring you this traffic, but
• Organic search and all the search traffic is being bucketed as Direct site
traffic (!)
NEXT
Any questions?
Discussion

Sikora seo planning-semcamp_2013

  • 2.
    learn from thepast live in the present plan for the future
  • 3.
    WELCOME TO A stepby step process on how to make SEO the most efficient channel in your organisation Enterprise level SEO strategy and its execution
  • 4.
    ABOUT THE SPEAKER. 02 MagdalenaSikora MC Marketing Manager In heart- SEO Specialist I’ve worked with companies like • Avis • AutoTrader • Expedia • TripAdvisor I currently work on a full time basis @NewLook.com
  • 5.
    SEO becomes moreand more challenging: - Google Updates - Problems with tracking - Competitiveness increase ENOUGH TO KEEP US AWAKE AT NIGHT! WHY THIS SUBJECT? 03
  • 6.
    The below isa step by step process and methodology behind SEO strategy. It is especially helpful when you deal with seasonal searches. SEO WORK PROCESS s Discover 4 Build the Plan o Deploy 7 Grow & Measure 04 3 Create Keyword Universe
  • 7.
  • 8.
    ORGANISE A SESSIONWITH YOUR SEO AGENCY  no one in the company will know us much as they do! 1. LEARNABOUT THE PAST. 06 DISCOVER
  • 9.
    MEET WITH TEAMSAND ASK THEM RELEVANT QUESTIONS  Which product is the best seller?  Which product is most important from business perspective- highest margins, best conversion?  Which product needs to sell 2. LEARNABOUT THE PRODUCT YOU SELL (!) 07 DISCOVER
  • 10.
    STEP TWO Keywords Universeare all possible terms relevant to your site that bring or could bring a quality traffic to your website ORGANISE: BUILD KEYWORD UNIVERSE
  • 11.
    1. GATHERALL RELEVANTTERMS. 09 BUILDING KEYWORDS UNIVERSE LIST ALL TERMS THAT CURRENTLY BRING TRAFFIC  Omniture, Google Analytics  Internal searches on your site DISCOVER NEW KEYWORDS  Use free tools: Google KW Adwords, PAID: Wordtracker, Hitwise  Research your competitors sites GATHER THE FINDINGS FROM YOUR ‘DSCOVERY’ PROCESS
  • 12.
    2. TAG EVERYTERM. 10 BUILDING KEYWORDS UNIVERSE BY ‘CATEGORY’ (main themes on your site)  clothing: dresses, outwear, accessories, shoes  travel: hotels, flights, holidays BY KEYWORD PATTERN,  travel: hotels in {destination}, {destination} hotels, 4-star hotels in {destination} BY TYPE- GENERIC, SEASONAL, IMPORTANCE
  • 13.
    3. CREATE THEFINAL FILE. 11 BUILDING KEYWORDS UNIVERSE SAVE IT AND NEVER OVERWRITE THIS FILE- THAT’S YOUR BENCHMARK (!)
  • 14.
    STEP THREE It isall about maximising the potential knowing that we all have limited resources BUILD THE PLAN
  • 15.
    CREATE YOUR SEOACTION PLAN 13 “COATS” category strategy We start working on a term at least 4 months before the search peak starts! You can create it on a category or keywords level. Since we all have limited resources we focus all our activities based on seasonal approach MAY ON- PAGE OPTIMISATION OCT END OF LINK BUILDING! CREATE A STRATEGY JUL START OF LINK BUILDING SEP BEGINNING OF SEARCH PEAK DEC THE END OF SEARCH PEAK
  • 16.
    YOU WON’TACHIEVE YOURGOALS ALONE! MERGE YOUR PLAN WITHALL OTHER TEAMS AND THEIR CALENDARS 14 CREATE A STARTEGY “COATS” category strategy We start working on a term at least 4 months before the search peak starts! MAY ON- PAGE OPTIMISATION OCT END OF LINK BUILDING! JUL START OF LINK BUILDING SEP BEGINNING OF SEARCH PEAK DEC THE END OF SEARCH PEAK PR PPC IF WE ARE NOT HIGH FOR SEO YET SOCIAL START OF ACTIVITIES SOCIAL END OF ACTIVITIES
  • 17.
    CHOOSE YOUR KEYWORDS 15 CREATEA STRATEGY • Search volumes • Competiveness of the term • Who currently ranks? Am I relevant enough? • Will it be in stock in 3 month time? • Current conversion • Profit margins? When choosing terms take also other factors in to account (not only seasonality):
  • 18.
  • 19.
    1. INTRODUCE SEOAGENCYTOALLDEPARTMENTS AND TREAT THEM AS YOUR INTERNALTEAM 17 DEPLOY • Share everything you can! • Meet at least once a week! • Inform about crucial business decision that might affect them/ their work • Sign them up to all relevant internal distribution lists- it will speed things up (!) • Give them access to your internal tools (Omniture etc.) Keep them as a part of your business - you have the same goal!
  • 20.
    2. SEOAND SOCIALAREBETTER TOGETHER. 18 DEPLOY • Organise meetings on a monthly basis with both SEO agency and social teams • Review campaigns together each month and agree which social campaigns could be supported by SEO activities • Social teams are usually less tech savvy- suggest to support them (advise on measurement tools etc.) • Run brainstorm meetings on at least quarterly basis
  • 21.
    4. SEOAND PPCAREALSO BETTER TOGETHER. 19 DEPLOY You both have the same goal- increase website’s visibility in SERP. They should not be pitted against one another in competition, but each one should be recognised that they have strengths when trying to achieve a common goal. These strengths should be utilised to their fullest and intelligence (keywords and usability) from PPC should be fed back into the SEO campaign. This holistic approach to search engine marketing should ensure that you are getting the most from both your SEO and PPC campaigns, rather than treating them as completely isolated marketing channels.
  • 22.
    3. ORGANISE INTERNALSEO TRAININGS! 20 DEPLOY Make others excited about SEO (Yes, you can!:) Run these trainings individually with each team as each team has different focus and repeated it every 6 months (teams change): Teach them how to use keywords tool! Explain what is meta title, description etc. CONTENT You can help them increase mentions! You can share our bloggers contact detils! You can help them to increase bloggers outreach! SOCIAL You will make sure that your PRs are fully optmised, so send them over! You will help to make them popular online, so they are seen by the right audience! PR TEAM
  • 23.
  • 24.
    1. MEASURE YOURRANKINGS 22 MEASURE • Check your Keyword Universe rankings at least twice a month • Check your quarterly targeted terms twice a week • Monitor competitors at least on a monthly basis(!)
  • 25.
    2.1. BE AWAREOF THE HEADWINDS 23 MEASURE Chrome v.25 went fully live in Jan (with encrypted for all possible searches). In April, Chrome v.26 was launched with encrypted searches fully rolled out
  • 26.
    2.2. BE AWAREOF THE HEADWINDS 24 MEASURE New Apple iOS6 as well as Android 4+ completely strip away the referring source, as a result: • You not only not seeing keywords that bring you this traffic, but • Organic search and all the search traffic is being bucketed as Direct site traffic (!)
  • 27.