Big Sites & Big Brand Search Engine Optimization

1. Big Sites & Big BrandSearch Engine Optimization Presented by: Bill Hunt

2. Times are a changing… • Search as we know it is over… • Big brands are tackling search • Multiple brand people attending SES • 150 job postings from large brands • 90% companies bringing in-house • 2007’s SEO Applications • Global SEO will be critical for companies • Ensuring new products represented at launch • Minimizing impact of merging sites of acquired companies • Integrating into all marketing

3. Search Maturity Lifecycle™ • 2005 - Phase 1: Search is a functional task • 2006 - Phase 2: Search has moved from functional task to tactical implementation • 2007 - Phase 3: Search is integral to the business & becomes a centralized solution • 2008 - Phase 4: Search is integrated globally with support for OEM partners. Search is Mission Critical to the business

4. Complexities of Big Sites & Big Brands • Corporate Complex • Multiple lines of business, brands and countries • Product Line Complex Millions of products and pages • Campaign Complex • Hundreds of thousands of keyword phrases • Organizationally Complex • Multiple owners and multiple agencies • Budget Complex • Sharing of budgets between IT, Marketing, etc • Managerially Complex • Dilbert-like companies

5. Segment the Program • Brand Level Programs • Focused on maximizing brand goals by attracting and engaging product centric searchers. • Brand site specific auditing and consulting • Keyword level auditing & benchmarking • Knowledge transfer and brand customized training • Corporate and Category Compliance Monitoring Brand • Group Level Programs • Focused on maximizing “Search Shelf Space™” by getting the entire portfolio ranked well to displace competitors • Keyword Research and Prioritization • Coordinate keywords across brands • Auditing and Process Management • Benchmarking & Monitoring Group Corporate • Corporate Level Programs • Focused on developing long and short-term strategies to maximize search as a marketing vehicle • Develop and evangelize enterprise-wide best practices through a knowledgebase, POV documents and search engine update alerts and tackle infrastructure issues.

6. Integrate SEO into entire workflow Stakeholders of each segment trained within their segment Content Editors & Brand Teams Internal: External Relations, and other Marketing Specialist IA Teams and Template Owners Corporate Webmasters

7. 1 Organization Current State Audit Standards and Best Practices 2 Processes, Forms, Checklists Business Case Dev Expectation Setting Defined Goals and KPIs Evangelism, Education, Communication Implementing the SEO Program 3 Site infrastructure Changes Content Audits Page Level Audting Context & Taxonomy Link Popularity Improvements Analytics and Reporting Tool Framework 4 Keyword Refinement PLP Monitoring Traffic Metrics Quality of Visitor Search Impact Metrics Steps to Effectively Deliver Search at Scale

8. Step 1: Current State Audit 1 Detailed Audit of Search Effectiveness Multi-Step Checklist Spiderability of the site Algorithm Compliance of the Key Pages on the Site Review Site Coding for bloat and traps Keyword Prominence & Density Map Keywords to Key Content Pages

9. Site Wide Algorithm Compliance Audit • Site Fix:Detailed recommendations for changes to make the site more search friendly • Page Fix:Detailed page level recommendations for changes to make specific pages rank higher • Keyword Modeling:Detailed review of keywords and their ranking and conversion performance Diagnostic Area Next Steps

10. Page Level Audit – Competitor Analysis Query: e-file Findings: Client site does not include the keyword in the title tag however, the top rankings sites do include it. Recommendation: Add “e-file” to the title tag of this page

11. Step 2 – Deploy Standards & Best Practices 2 Define & Deploy Standards & Best Practices Provide comprehensive training to all key stakeholders in the web content workflow create consistent processes & written standards create communication & collaboration protocols & expectations

12. Training the extended team is key • Explain why search is important—they all want the site to be successful and they all search themselves • The specialists on your extended search team need different training in their ownlanguages: • Copy writers: Keyword rich • Product Managers: Keywords • IT folks: Spider traps • Translators – keywords

13. Develop Rule Book - SEO Style Guide

14. Who is your searcher? Segmenting and profiling of searchers based on intent and position in the “Decision or Research cycle” is critical to a richer experience

15. Mindset > Goal > Keyword > Projection • Searchers Mindset: • Brand Enthusiast • Functionality Adaptor • Brand Aware • Brand Agnostic • All searchers either… • Own a compatible phone • Own a non-compatible Phone • Own a competitors phone • Do not own a phone

16. Centralized Keyword Management • Align keywords to business goals • Manage centrally with local input • Local markets can leverage existing work • Decide which are the “global pages”

17. Keyword Tiers & Resource Allocation • Tier 1 keywords get 60% of budget • Tier 2 keywords get 30% of budget • Tier 3 keywords get 10% of budget • Ensures important words get most exposure • Focus efforts around Tier 1 copy & metrics • Review English and local versions of the phrases

18. Step 3: Show Continuous Improvement 3 Ensure Continuous Improvement Ongoing SEO Execution Audit Pages for keyword attributes ensure organizational & tactical alignment Refine Templates and Content … by coordinating the ongoing SEO efforts of internal departments, agencies, IT, web dev teams, & 3rd party vendors

19. Leverage Templates for Scale • Maximize reach across the organization & globe • Focus on top level templates • Optimize the templates when developed • Ensure the optimal page elements are pulled into the template correctly • Leverage Style Guides and Business Rules • Forces overseas offices to comply with optimized formats • Give you way to monitor implementation of the program

20. Exponential Changes from fixing templates Used the full search term Converted image to text so search engine can “read” and score with prominence Linked to SWG’s PLM page which helped push it to #2 Content is more relevant & compelling 85% of all traffic to page is from search engines and After optimization: #1 or #2 in all Google and Yahoo countries

21. It is not the quantity but the quality of links… Improve the relevance of your site… • Link Popularity: Number of links pointing to a site • Link Authority: Quality of those links • Relevancy: What are those links about?

22. Monitor the infrastructure w/SE Tools • Google site maps are required for larger complex programs • Alerts problems before they get too bad • Ensures all content pushed into index

23. Step 4: Prove the value of the program 4 Define & Deploy a Tool Framework for Analytics, Management, Reporting Create Benchmarks to monitor improvement Monitor Preferred Landing Page Performance find insight & drive action via data analysis Create Feedback loop to content workflow integrate with marketing information systems, portals, executive dashboards Optimize Searcher Continuum

24. “Search Health Report” Are our pages indexed by the Search Engines? At-a-glance view of search engine performance for all domains in a brand % of Traffic driven by Search Engines “Gold Word” performance Gold Words Per Domain Domain Performance

25. Projection Summary Missed Opportunity Matrix Validates the opportunity in terms management can understand

26. Project and Monitor Success Understanding the searcher allows us to accurately project future traffic Focus on the Tier 1 Keywords Demonstrate the incremental value of this traffic

27. Focus on KW/Page Combinations • Does “any” URL return for this keyword? • Is it the Page we want to show up? • If not then conduct an audit of the page • Include in paid search program

28. Brand Performance Scorecard • Monitor pages ranking for specific keywords • Creates a monthly “to do” list of pages to be audited for optimization • Workflow management focusing on highest value keywords and pages first

29. 5 Steps to success for big sites • Leverage the business case • Education & Communication • Remove crawl barriers • Leverage page templates to fix multiple pages • Leverage your size for links

30. IBM Current Results • Over 12.5 million pages in Google • Over 15,000+ termsin top 5 • Over 27% of all traffic now • What’s new • Keyword research for ALL marketing • Expanded global roll out by region • 22 modules of training by role • Global Search Council • Deeper integration of paid and organic Pages Indexed Keyword Ranking Traffic from Search Conversions

31. It’s all in the book… well… most of it… • Learn how to… • Manage a search marketing program in your company • Develop a strategy that supports your Web site’s goals • Get conversions, not just rankings • Execute your program step by step "A very comprehensive, yet light hearted guide for internet managers that demystifies search engine marketing and provides practical advice for success." Piers Dickinson, Global Internet Marketing Manager British Petroleum.

32. Who we are… • Global Search Marketing consultancy helping large organizations effectively integrate global optimization methodologies into their business process. • Locations - US, China, Japan, Sweden, and UK

33. Big Sites & Big Brands Bill Hunt Partner/SEM Strategist Global Strategies International eMail: bill@globalstrategies.com Tel: 860.674.8191