An Analytics-Based Approach to SEO Best Practices& Website Strategy

July 16, 2014

Welcome to the Sparkroom Best Practices Webinar Series

3

Transparent, Analytics-Based Enrollment Marketing Solutions

Sparkroom Marketing Services

• PPI Vendor Management• PPC Enrollment Marketing• Email Marketing• SEO• Social Media• Targeted Display

Sparkroom Marketing Software

• Performance-Based Automation

• Data Integration• Reporting & Analytics

Transparency • Marketing Analytics • Multi-Platform Mindset • Compliance

Oral SeymourSparkroom SEO Strategist

Agenda

1. What is SEO?2. How Analytics Drive SEO Strategy3. Common SEO Misconceptions4. Commonalities Among Schools with Low SEO 5. The Sparkroom Approach to SEO

Why SEO?

• 1 – 17%• 2 – 10%• 3 – 8%• 4 – 5%• 5 – 4%• 6 – 2%• 7 – 1%• 8 – 1%• 9 - .04%• 10 - .05%

Source: Catalyst Search Marketing 2013 Study

Search engine optimization (SEO): The process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's natural or un-paid (organic) search results.

Benefits/Drawbacks of SEO

Benefits Drawbacks

More Traffic Organizational Buy-In

(Free) Time & Resources

Trust and Credibility Algorithm Changes/Features/Updates

Evergreen

How Analytics Drive SEO Strategy

Data Points to Analyze

Keyword/Phrase Search Traffic

• Google Keyword Planner – google.com/sktool/

• Google Trends– google.com/trends/

Keyword Data

• Webmaster Tools– Google & Bing– Impressions– Click-Through Rate (CTR)– Average Position

Data Points to Analyze

Search Engine Use

Data Points to Analyze

Demographic/Behavioral Data

• Age• Gender• Interests• User Flow

Data Points to Analyze

Common SEO Misconceptions

“I’m already ranking #1…”Same keyword search… two locations…

“My site structure is planned…”

Accounting

Marketing

Home

Graduate

Undergraduate

Accounting

EntrepreneurshipMBA

School of Business

“I have a guy that does title tags…”

“I’m producing awesome content…”

“It’s all about links…”

“I don’t need to worry about mobile…”

“I’ve already done SEO…”

Commonalities Among Schools with Low SEO Visibility

Information that prospective students want is not easily accessible.

Terms that faculty/staff use differ from student search terms

Competition

IT department overload

The Sparkroom Approach to SEO

Targeted Local Campaigns and Rankings

• Make sure your site is accessible– Crawled– Indexed– Sitemaps– Health

• Clean-up link profile– Audit and remove/disavow

potentially bad links

• Content

Content Marketing

For each, identify:• Groups• Influencers• SMEs

Q&A

Oral Seymouroral.seymour@nelnet.net

Sparkroom.comwebinars@sparkroom.com877.423.1366