MKT 420 Week 8

Agenda

• Final Project Guidelines

Final two projects merged

• Organizational SEO strategic plan• Paid (AdWords) and organic• one paper with presentation• 10 page report (22 points)• 10 minute presentation (8 points pass/fail)• Working in teams of two• Due last day of class at 6:10 PM (Week 10, December 1)• Email report (word doc) and slide deck (PPT or pdf) to

professor and cc your teammate. No paper work accepted!• If you want feedback deadline is FIRM (Friday November

27th by midnight)

Strategic Planning

• Roadmap for a business process that lead to an objective

• Looks at current state of affairs internally (SWOT) and externally (competitive analysis)

• Considers tactical choices that make most sense given capabilities and desired results

• Must be realistic and achievable!

Your assignment (Report and Presentation)

• 10 Sections:

1. Introduction2. Objective3. SWOT4. Competitor Analysis5. Tactic one: Organic Keywords6. Tactic two: Content7. Tactic three: Social Media8. Tactic four: Links9. Tactic five: Paid/AdWords10. Timeline

Report

• 10 pages max• Must cover each of these sections thoroughly• Write for content not length!• You have such limited space…don’t waste it on vague

statements or irrelevant data• Keep language professional and neutral/clinical; Think

unadorned and austere• Writing business reports is a skill—brevity is valued but

so too are clarity and content!• Use headings, bullets and charts liberally

Introduction

• Short statement of business and the role of search• This should be a few sentences• What does the business do and how does search

benefit them• Max 1/4 page; 1 point

Objective

• Statement of what is going to be achieved by the plan; Probably need at least 2

• Plan must be written specifically to the objectives • SHORT; If you are taking a full paragraph to explain

your objective you are not getting the job done…• You could literally bullet out a list of strategic goals• For an organization level SEO strategy raw traffic at

website should be one goal• What would be another?• 1/2 page MAX; 1 point

SWOT

• Internal environment• SWOT analysis in a chart is nice but…• You need description and explanation!• Use data from SEMRush and Moz as well as SERP pages to show the

current state of affairs for this business and search• Should introduce many of the things you will do deeper into in later sections

including competition, social media, inbound links, keywords, content, paid search as well as developer issues

• Need things like raw traffic, discoverability on branded and non-branded words

• Where is search coming from? • What is working? What is not?• Strategy should be tied to mitigating threats and/or overcoming weaknesses

and/or capitalizing on opportunity and/or leveraging strengths• Think of this as a mini-mini-audit• 1.5 pages; 2 points

Competitor analysis

• Analyze at least 2 competitors• Base competition on SERPs (who else comes up?)• What makes them more discoverable? Do they have

more traffic (check SemRush) are they more trusted (MOZ) what keywords are they using (SEMRush)? Paid and organic? More links? Must be analytical…why are they better or worse?

• This section is important! Shows what the business is up against in terms of external threats…

• Think of it as external environment analysis• With charts and images this should easily be 2 pages;

2 points

Organic Keyword Strategy

• What are all of the short and longtail search words/phrases that should bring this company up?

• No one has been exhaustive here; This could easily be a one page chart with discussion; Think expansively; The list should be exhaustive not just suggestive

• Use keyword analysis of competitors as well as own webpage and come up with an exhaustive list of keywords

• Use keyword planners for ideas of words• Rank your keywords on a scale of 1-5• Note which keywords are currently optimized and which ones are

not!• Note whether lack of content is impacting current optimization • Think of this section as a chart with multiple columns…what would

columns be?• 1 page; 3 points

Content Analysis/Strategy

• Should be one of the most important parts of your report!

• Should take the most time!• Analyze content for uniqueness, credibility, & creativity• Score existing content and rank it in terms of

effectiveness• Recommend additional content that supports specific

keywords• Be specific!• Write clinically, objectively and professionally• 1 page; 3 points

Social Media Strategy

• The role of social on search is foggy• Not really clear what the impact is• There are some areas of clarity (links for example) that

should be exploited• Others like engagement are strong indicators of search• Which platforms? What content? What levels of

engagement needed? • Not all social is created equally! Twitter, Facebook,

Tumblr/blog and YouTube are main concern here• Focus on these and be specific!• Chart?• 1 page; 3 points

Link Strategy

• Examine current links (inbound and outbound)• Look at trustedness scores from places like Ahrefs,

Moz etc.• Target specific links from trusted sources• Be exhaustive not suggestive• Similar to keyword strategy section but with links• Provide a coherent and organized set of

recommendations for building inbound links over time• Be specific! Chart with multiple columns? What would

it look like?• 1 page; 3 points

Paid Search/AdWords

• Keep this section simple• Simply describe what paid keywords (short and long

tail) you are targeting (they better be good since AdWords can be pricey!) and why

• Explain which types of ads you will focus on (1-2 only)• Show sample ad copy for those ads• Review the video• Email me for a copy of AdWords manual • 1 page; 3 points

Timeline

• This should be easy but that doesn’t mean you fake it!

• Timelines are important• Most important aspect of timeline: Order! • List activities that need to happen in the order of

them happening as well as how long each stage will take as well as overall project

• ¼ page; 1 point

Presentation

• Short; 10 miniutes• No more than 9 slides • Focus on tactics• What tactics does the report suggest are needed?• Slide 1 Cover and intro• Slide 2 Objective• Slide 3 Internal environment• Slide 4 External environment• Slides 5-8 tactics (keywords, content, social media, links,

paid/Adwords)• Slide 9 Timeline • 8 points pass/fail; Should not be stressful• Prefer no reading but understand these concepts are new so there

will be leniency on this element

Next Steps?

• Questions?• What will you do if you have questions in future?• This is 30 points/30% of grade; if in doubt, ask!