Embrace the chaos of integrated search and content strategies
-
date post
17-Oct-2014 -
Category
Marketing
-
view
1.135 -
download
2
description
Transcript of Embrace the chaos of integrated search and content strategies
London • 10–13 February 2014 • #SESLON @SESConf
Embrace the chaos of integrated search and content strategiesDavid FreemanHavas MediaHead of SEO
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
@davefreeman
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
Embrace the chaos and provide direction…@davefreeman
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
And have clear objectives for what you want to achieve
@davefreeman
Maximise efficiency
Maximise performance
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
Was September 2013 the end of PPC & SEO synergies?
No, encrypted search changes everything, but integration is
still possible @davefreeman
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
But, in this new world, you can only run integrated search strategies with Google
When Referrer data passed
Can you run integrated search
September 2013 Yes Yes
January 2014 No No
January 2014 (optional)
Not with encrypted search No
Yahoo! and Bing don’t pass referral data – in site analytics referrals will appear as
direct visits@davefreeman
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
And the basics become even more important than ever
Analyse paid search keyword data on a regular basis
Teams should meeting on a weekly and monthly basis to discuss integration
Use technology like SearchMetrics for insight
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
The key challenge is moving from exact keyword level accuracy to page level correlation
Tactic Pre encryption Post encryptionTesting incremental value of brand bidding strategies
Testing incremental value of brand + product bidding strategies
Testing incremental value of generic bidding alongside strong organic performance
Testing keywords using Paid Search then rolling out to organic
Research using Paid Search keyword data
Easily spotting when Paid Search URLs are not tagged for site analytics
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
At first, not having exact keyword level data is
scary
OMFG!
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
By embracing page level testing and data correlation, there is no need to worry
Page XDate Organic visits Paid visits Search visits
PPC On 11/01/2014 2,508,180 267,318 2,775,498PPC Off 12/01/2014 2,775,198 300 2,775,498
Page XDate Organic Revenue Paid Revenue Search Revenue
PPC On 11/01/2014 £6,780,274 £155,749 £6,936,023PPC Off 12/01/2014 £6,920,449 £15,574 £6,936,023
Ensure you run tests for a significant time period i.e. 1 month
We have lost keyword level data and, with it, data precision
But, we have page level data!
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
It’s really easy to get this data and export it to Excel for analysis
Use the landing page report with
custom segments for
organic search, paid search and
search visits
Pages report
You will need custom segments for each traffic source
Apply visits and conversion metrics
Or use report builder if you have it
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
This all equates to this, right?
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
So - set expectations. Stay agile, iterate quickly and succeed/fail faster
Iterate through a number of tests
Easier to measure and you won’t get bogged down in planning overkill
You will fail faster, learn quicker and adapt and perfect the process sooner – it’s better to hit issues on a small test
Keep tests small
London • 10–13 February 2014 • #SESLON @SESConf
But first…
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Get stakeholder sign-off at every stage and agree:
The aims
The test strategy
The keywords
The measurement framework
Timeframes
Set expectations
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Understand what to test by building a picture of search performance
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Plan a small number of well defined tests
Target page
Keywords
Length of test
Type of test i.e.day on day off with weekly
rotation
Launch date
Results feedback
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Create and agree a measurement framework
Measuring visits is generally not good enough to get reliable results
Measure revenue and/or conversions as well
Conversion rates can have a sizeable impact on incremental value
Visits Revenue+
Consider whether you want to look further than last click and consider attribution
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Plan how you will measure
Use site analytics – fully de-duplicated data
Ensure your site analytics is correctly configured – if unsure, get it checked
Agree how often the results will be analysed
Let all stakeholders know when results will be shared
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Analyse your results, agree next steps with stakeholders and implement changes
accordingly
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Tip: Hire maths/statistics grads or data scientists as part of your team
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Integrated strategies work Travel client case study
45% reduction in paid search budget
Paid search revenue down 50% - almost completely picked up by organic search
On top of the recovered paid search revenue, organic search revenue grew 5%
Only incremental paid search left on
Overall revenue from search up 4% with reduced costs
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Don’t take risks with your SEO performance
Never stand still – strong organic search is vital to an integrated strategy
Focus on a content led strategy
You will need to prove the value of content
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Great content is key – put your audience first and SEO/SMO second
Content is and always has been king
Rubbish content = poor user experience = no engagement
Don’t pollute the web with rubbish content under the banner of SEO
Don’t waste time measuring how effective poor content is
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
When planning content, always have clear goals and KPIs
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
And keep in mind that different types of content have different impacts and should be measured accordingly
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Create an Excel measurement matrix based on your KPIs – not knowing what success looks like is huge
point of failure for content
Over time, understand what success looks like and build in success thresholds
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Evolve your content based on results
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
As with Search integration, stakeholder sign-off is vital
Initial brainstorm on the idea and theme and development of the design briefResearchApproval on research sources Design#1 draft delivery - Creative development paused#1 round of feedback Design#2 draft delivery - Creative development pausedContent is presented to internal teams for approval: Legal and Risk feedbackAdditional Stake holders feedback if required Feedback is collated and fed back#2 round of feedback to be deliveredDesign time for any additional amends (last round) #3 draft delivery - Final design submittedPR and Social teams informed of launch dateOn-site developmentContent LiveReport on progress of content first weekResults measurement - first cutResults measurement - second cut
6 stages of stakeholder approval for each piece
of content
3 stages of results analysis
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Insight and data are vital at all stages to build and seed great content
Understand what people search for
in each market
Recommend relevant content
for the website and outreach
Build citations and links to your
content
Monitor performance
against defined KPIs i.e. links,
rankings, visits
Customers find what they were
looking for
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Yes, it’s an infographic, but great content works
3,000 links and 1,872 shares
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
You can even use survey data to get great coverage in major news publications such as The Telegraph, The
Independent, and The Daily Mail
Over 260 links and shares
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
Content should be at the heart of collaboration between teams
It brings all the teams together around campaigns or events and will help drive more effective content
London | 10–13 February 2014 | #SESLON | @SESConf
@davefreeman
So in summaryIntegrated strategies are still absolutely possible post encryption
Data sits at the heart of search and content integration
Make sure your analytics platform is configured correctly. Bad data = bad decisions
Stay agile and iterate quickly
Collaboration is key – content binds disciplines and gets everyone working to a common goal
London • 10–13 February 2014 • #SESLON @SESConf
Thank youDavid [email protected] MediaHead of SEO