Challenges of Big Brand SEO and Finding the Right Partners for Success

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SEARCH MARKETINGAT FLIGHT CENTRE

Search Challenges| Richard Greenwood | @expressseo| 05/10/2011

OUR BRANDSOur core search team manages SEO and SEM for three of Flight Centre Ltds largest retail brands.

FLIGHT CENTRE

ESCAPE TRAVEL

STUDENT FLIGHTS

03Search Challenges| Richard Greenwood | @expressseo| 05/10/2011

MEET THE SEARCH TEAM Our search team has separate specialists for both SEO and SEM and feeds into senior management and site managers for each brand .

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JORDAN PAYNE

Online Marketing Manager

RICHARD GREENWOOD DAVID TAIT ONLINE EXECS

FC: Fran CurroET: Michelle BianchiSF: Dan Shaw


SEO Manager SEM Manager

SEARCH TEAM ROLES

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SEO MANAGER

SEM MANAGER

• SEO Strategy for each brand• Manage relationships with SEO agencies and link builders• Provide input on improvements on site architecture, coding, content and design.• Reporting to management and other business areas• Help source additional linking opportunities

• SEM Strategy for each brand•Reporting to management and other business areas•Input on ad creative and account structure to improve QS/QI•Managing creation of landing pages•Management of budgets across a portfolio of accounts•Analysis of marketing activity to improve ROI•Manage relationship with SEM agencies


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SETTING THESCENE


SEARCH IS NOT STANDALONE


• Don’t treat search as an ‘add on’ or as ‘someone else's’ job.• Search should be an integral part of your entire marketing mix. • Keep search in mind throughout the business • e.g. If you sponsor an event, ask for link.

• Starting with search in mind – Better results when thinking of search from the start of any new web project than trying to fix things up afterwards.

SEARCH SHOULDNOT BE ANAFTERTHOUGHT{ }

KEEP YOUR FINGER ON THE PULSE


•Search constantly changing• What worked a few years ago might not work now – e.g. meta keywords

• Don’t get complacent: • Don’t rely on outdated knowledge • Don’t assume others will already know . e.g. developers• In house experience critical to drive projects and keep your agency to

task.

• Be prepared to change the way you do thingsA few blogs to follow..

econsultancy.com seomoz.org searchengineland.com

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THE CHANGING FACEOF SEARCH


GOOGLE PANDA REALLYCHANGES THE WAY A LOT OF US NEED TO APPROACH SEO FOREVERRAND FISHKIN - SEOMOZ

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THIN CONTENTTens of thousands of pages of thincontent on product pages, legacycontent and strategies.DUPLICATE CONTENTContent duplicated across brandsand other suppliers.

LEGACY SITE ISSUESContent on multiple systemscausing messy site architectureand crawl errors.

PANDA MEETS FLIGHT CENTREImpacts of Panda and preparing for further waves


CUSTOMISED RESULTSTraditional ads across top and side plus ten standard organic results becoming less common.

GOOGLE FLIGHTSHuge impact on travel sector.Similar things rolling out in othercompetitive industries.SOCIAL DRIVEN SEARCHSocial signals influencing search results and changing how people find what they want and need.

LOOKING AHEAD


MOBILE SEARCHGoogle taking into account mobileaccessibility plus impact of apps.

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LIFE ON THE INSIDE


PROS AND CONS OF BIG BRAND SEARCH

IN HOUSE RESOURCES

EXPERTISEBIGGER BUDGETS

BRAND STRENGTH

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MANY PLATFORMS & SYSTEMSHARD TO BE NIMBLE

CONFLICTING INTERESTS

COMPLEX ORG STRUCTUREOFTEN COMPETITIVE INDUSTRY

LEGACY CONTENT


PROS CONS

GOOGLE ACCOUNT MANAGERS

A big brand name and organisation lends some advantages to search marketing but also presents many challenges in keeping up with smaller, nimbler online only competitors.

BUREAUCRATIC PROCESSES

HOW WE’VE TACKLED THESE ISSUESAnd how you can too..

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

CONSOLIDATE SYSTEMS

SITE OWNERSHIP

KNOWLEDGE SHARING

INCREASED RESOURCES

SEO FROM THE START

Shared project management tools such asBasecamp and JIRA for tracking tasks.

Two way knowledge sharing among other teams and to senior management.

Moving content away from legacy systems. For example, moving most content onto a single CMS.

Allocated additional budgets for contentcreation, development and link building.

SEO no longer treated as an after thought. Feedback provided from the start for newsite sections and redevlopment in the works.

Currently hiring a webmaster who will bebe responsible for site issues such as crawlerrors found in Google Webmaster Tools.


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TIPS FOR PICKING YOURNEXT SEARCH AGENCY


PICKING YOUR SEARCH AGENCYShort description of the page content

1 2 3RESEARCH SELECT MANAGE

• Experience• Resources• Technology• Reporting• Inclusions• Transparency (it’s not magic)

• Client Retention• Client Case Studies• Agencies own results• Value / ROI

•Terms of contract - include a get out clause• Set expectations and service standards• Establish key contacts

• Monitor performance of agency results and responsiveness.• Do they delivery what was promised?• Ensure transparency is maintained.• Don’t let yourself be forgotten once the honeymoon period ends.


A FEWPITFALLSTO AVOID


5 Keywords

Analytics Setup

Monthly Report

BasicPremium

Regular

10 Keywords

Directory Submissions

Monthly Report

BuyBuy

Buy

29995$mo. 49995$

mo.

39995$mo.

20 Keywords

Monthly Report

Account Manager

THE COOKIE CUTTER WON’T CUT ITPicking your own package is often ineffective for client and agency

Competitor Analysis 2 Hours Consultancy5 Hours Consultancy


BEWARE OF SEO GUARANTEES, THEY ARE NOT ALWAYS IN YOUR INTEREST

• No one can actually guarantee organic Google rankings• Can push focus onto secondary terms so agency meets terms of guarantee rather than focusing on the harder to achieve high traffic terms.

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STAY IN CONTROL

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EQUIVALENTS FOR OTHER SEARCH ENGINESGOOGLE ADWORDS ACCOUNTGOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS ACCOUNTGOOGLE ANALYTICS ACCOUNT


EXAMPLES

Make sure you own your key accounts rather than your agency to avoid being trappedor losing vital data if you ever change providers.

THANK YOUFOR LISTENINGANYQUESTIONS?

Slide deck available via Slideshare link via Twitter @expressseo

Richard Greenwood | Follow me: @expressseo

Challenges of Big Brand SEO and Finding the Right Partners for Success

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