1 Big Site/Big Brand SEO Making search engine marketing work for large companies Marshall Simmonds...

1

www.DefineSearchStrategies.com

Big Site/Big Brand SEOMaking search engine marketing work for large companies

Marshall SimmondsCEO and Co-Founder, Define Search Strategies

Chief Search Strategist, The New York Times Company

2


Overview1. SEO powerhouse meets international media

conglomerate…

2. Basics that work for big brands with proven results

3. Key learnings you can implement today

3


About joins The New York Times What happens when a mega content site with SEO deft is

purchased by the world’s largest newspaper company? SEO best practices are applied to every property

About.com 1227% increase in organic search engine referrers

since SEO initiative began1

The International Herald Tribune (iht.com) 45% YOY growth in search engine referrers2

The New York Times (nytimes.com) 93% increase in organic search engine referrers3

The Boston Globe (boston.com) 83% YOY growth in search engine referrers2

1Dec. 1999 through July 2006 2Dec. 2005 vs. 2004 3July 2006 vs July 2005

4


How did we get these results? We organized

Established an on-site SEO program manager at each NYTCo property responsible for leading cross-functional team to push optimization agenda

• Engaged team of marketing, technology, research, editorial, and even sales

We analyzed Broke down an otherwise unwieldy project into prioritized buckets

• Some prioritized for revenue opportunities, others for brand reasons• Allowed us to think section by section, property by property• For each identified bucket, performed deep analysis of what was being

done correctly, and where we needed to improve– From analysis, on-site project managers pushed teams to solve

issues Identified areas where small changes could generate major results,

affecting vast majority of pages• Moved NYT registration wall back to 5 pageviews• Made template changes that affected entire sections• Cleaned up our code• Global search-and-replaces to remedy spam problems• Fixed redirects• Pushed site names to end of title tags

5


Creating NYT success, continued We educated, and CONTINUE to educate!

Conduct ongoing in-depth training sessions for editorial staff and content producers

• Teach veteran newspaper professionals how to write for the web• Instruct producers on building crawler-friendly pages and

sections Perform separate training sessions for technical staff

• Work in partnership with IT to assure smooth implementation• Act as a sounding board for server, CMS, and other tech-related

issues

We execute strategy and measure results on an ongoing basis METRICS SAVES JOBS! Established baselines from which longitudinal data can be derived

• Essential for identifying trends, seasonality, and problems• Gives visibility into major program successes and also failures• Motivates staff: provides search teams with a sense

of accomplishmentBonus: executives and Wall Street understand them

6


Methodology that works for big brands

I. OrganizeII. AnalyzeIII. EducateIV. ExecuteV. Track your results

Has driven success for Large content networks Publishing companies Fortune 100 brands Targeted commerce sites

7


Success not exclusive to NYTCo CBS.com

Search referrers increased 500% in three months

Everyday with Rachael Ray (rachaelraymag.com) Up as high as 428% in five months

Readers Digest (RD.com) Search referrers up 158% over six-months

National Geographic Search referrers up 13% in three months

TVGuide.com Search referrers up 62% in six months

Hewlett-Packard World-wide SEO training program, Major technical overhaul,

Audits of high monetizable/low traffics sections

ClubMom.com Search referrers increased 50% in three months

8


What can big brands do today? Organize

Hire an in-house search specialist or SEO project manager• Should be strong communicator and leader, not to mention

well-schooled in SEO Establish internal SEO team

• Include at least one person from technology, marketing, editorial/content production, product development, strategic planning, and sales

– Goal: SEO buy-in across the company to ensure fluid execution

Analyze If you don’t have the expertise to perform this thorough

analysis in-house, hire a third party teach you• Experts should ideally teach your SEO project

manager/team everything they know – Goal: do NOT become beholden to SEO consultants

Educate Ensure the “front lines” (producers/editors) and “back end” (IT

group) of site production are all on the same page when it comes to SEO

• May take some work, but is well worth the time and effort– Goal: steer everyone touching SEO in the same

direction

9


More to implement today Execute

Even if your site is millions of pages, bucket off your project and optimize piece by piece

• Start with issues uncovered in your analysis, and make sure to prioritize the small changes that can have big impact

– Goal: show results in a short amount of time

Track your results Using solutions like Omniture, WebTrends, HitWise, etc Monitor spider visits – cozy up to IT and do some logfile analysis Use those results to manage up!

• Think about metrics that make sense across the company: – Publishers: Increased search traffic = more ad inventory – E-Commerce: Increased search traffic = more total sales – etc.– Goal: buy-in from senior management, more resources,

overall success

10


Big Brand MethodologyI. OrganizeII. AnalyzeIII. EducateIV. ExecuteV. Track your results

11


THANK YOU!Marshall SimmondsCEO and Co-Founder, Define Search StrategiesChief Search Strategist, The New York Times [email protected]

1 Big Site/Big Brand SEO Making search engine marketing work for large companies Marshall Simmonds...

Documents

Transcript of 1 Big Site/Big Brand SEO Making search engine marketing work for large companies Marshall Simmonds...