In House SEO & Leadership - Dave Lloyd, Adobe - Pubcon 2014

In-House SEO and Leadership

Presented by: Dave Lloyd@davelloyd1

Team Charter

In-House SEO and Leadership 1

Deliver industry best practices

Drive KPI-focused results

Showcase Adobe Marketing Cloud products

http://www.howtoplaychess.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/22.jpg

Adobe.com – from an SEO perspective

#6 most linked-to web domain

+15% YoY Visitor & Conversion increase

Ownership of adobe.com, Support, TV, and Blog subdomains

Monitor 20,000 SEO keywords, 60 languages, 250 subdomains or regional sites, & 210 competitors

In-house SEO and Leadership 3

With stakeholders: Maximize SEO, your most cost effective channel

Strategic Integrated Comprehensive Focus on customers

through competitive & audience analysis

Focus on top business priorities & KPIs

Align Search best practices with major Content Marketing goals

Global market opportunity of brand & non-brand keyword focus

Reduce risk whenever possible



PO

WE

R

artnership Mindset

ptimize Team to Algorithm

orldwide Focus

ngage Effectively

eporting & Results

slideshare.net/dalloyd

The SEO mix


Site Architecture & TechnicalTRUST

Content & LocalizationRELEVANCE

Linking & SocialIMPORTANCE

@davelloyd1

Partnership – SEO Engagement Model


Search Center of Excellence

SocialPaid

SearchGlobal Teams (Loc)

Analytics

IT

ExecsUser Interface

Store Teams

Direct Mktg

BU & Product

Mktg

Web Strategy

Web Production Align Strategy & Schedules1

3 Agree on Process & Metrics

2 Engaged Early & OftenCentralize all best

practices, processes, and measurement

Moving to Content Management System (CMS) Templates


Challenge Validate advantage of moving to CMS

templates (Adobe Experience Manager)

Implementation Moved pages from non-CMS to CMS

template pages Changed to SEO-friendly URLs

Data Rankings (BrightEdge Data Cube),

visits & conversions (Adobe Analytics)

Impact Smaller page size (43% lighter), faster PLS (2.5 vs

4.7 seconds), well-structured code, improved content prominence

Increase in visits, conversions, rankings

401 36517 8

1550

583392

218

Total Organic Keywords

Ranked on Page 1 Ranked on Page 2 Ranked on Page 3

Original Template CMS Template

91%97%

25%14%4% 1%

Optimize the Team Focus


15%

10%

25%

15%10%

20%30%

15%

10%

15%

30%

5% 5%

SEO Algorithm Team priorities

Product Support

Reporting

Linking

Content Optimization

Internal:

Localization

External:

@davelloyd1

From Feature List to Feature Detail Pages


Challenge One product feature page had 30+ features/snippets listed

but no detailed feature pages

Implementation

Search volume was increasing for non-branded keywordsData

Defined strategy based on data, get buy-in Created pages focusing on each feature and incorporated

non-branded keywords; produced quality content 15 page pilot Leveraged visits, conversions, rankings, Share of Voice

metrics to track progress

From Feature List to Feature Detail Pages


Impact

Growth in traffic and conversions Adobe has greater Share of Voice on non-branded terms In the first year, contribution of new pages to overall SEO visits grew from 0 to 8% 63% of all SEO visits attributed to the new pages (~30 pages) and SEO is 58% of total visits

Next: Expanded project based on pilot findings

Test Brand messaging at front of Meta Descriptions


Challenge Identify impact of branded keywords in the beginning of

Meta Description tags

Hypothesis Branded messaging to the left of SERPs will increase CTR

and SEO visits

http://pages.mediative.com/SERP-Research

Branded Messaging in Meta Descriptions


Implementation

Data

Change Meta Description between test and original

Leveraged CTR (GWT), visits (Analytics) for test & control pages

Significant increase in CTR and visits

Impact

Original meta desc: Electronic signature software online…New meta desc:

Next: Test further branded messaging in meta description

Worldwide – Geo & Localization


In-country keyword research

Each keyword mapped to preferred

landing page

Content localized using keywords (content, video, images, links)

Reviewed by Editorial & SEO &

added to Sitemaps

Localized & optimized content

goes live

Geo Targeting (Href Lang)


Challenge Geo Targeting issues; US pages ranking

in Google UK

Implementation Href Alternate Language XML sitemaps Pilot in UK to quantify impact

Data Used rankings, visits, revenue to track

performance

Impact (UK Pilot) Significant ranking improvement Average Daily Visits: +720% Average Daily Revenue: +416%

Next: Expand to other geos, web properties

Category % Complete SEO Weight Components

Domain Health / Site Architecture

50% 25% Domain value, site architecture, PLS, XML Sitemaps, indexing, 404 issues


50% 15% Content Quality, Keywords in Title, Headers & Content, non-brand keywords in body copy

Localization 20% 5% Global keyword research, optimization, & QA

Other Digital Assets 10% NA PDFs, Images, Videos

Internal Linking 20% 10% Anchor text links from Adobe.com, Blogs, AdobeTV

Social Media 0% 15% Blogs optimization/linking, PR optimization, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube optimization

External Linking 0% 30% Content syndication, Social outreach, links from 3rd party sites

Reporting 0% NA Analytics & SEO Dashboards

Engage – Project Plan Summary (2 months from launch)

@davelloyd1

Category % Complete SEO Weight Components

Domain Health / Site Architecture

90% 25% Domain value, site architecture, PLS, XML Sitemaps, indexing, 404 issues


80% 15% Content Quality, Keywords in Title, Headers & Content, non-brand keywords in body copy

Localization 70% 5% Global keyword research, optimization, & QA

Other Digital Assets 90% NA PDFs, Images, Videos

Internal Linking 60% 10% Anchor text links from Adobe.com, Blogs, AdobeTV

Social Media 70% 15% Blogs optimization/linking, PR optimization, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube optimization

External Linking 30% 30% Content syndication, Social outreach, links from 3rd party sites

Reporting 60% NA Analytics & SEO Dashboards

Engage – Project Plan Summary (3 weeks from launch)

Benefits• Adaptable• Collaborative• Accountable• Organized• Address Hurdles Quickly• Celebrate Quick Wins Weekly

Twice-weekly “stand up” meetings1. what you did? 2. what you’re doing? 3. challenges?

Use Agile Scrum if possible

SEO overhaul of significant subdomain


Challenge Adobe TV (content-rich instructional

videos) content underperforms despite huge potential

Implementation Keyword expansion Strong internal linking Each Site Search query became a dedicated URL

Data Used rankings, visits, conversions

Impact

Significant ranking improvement 48%+ Visits 50%+ Free Subscribers over 9 months

Optimize Site Search SERPs (each query become a URL)


Added meta-description with keyword

H1 H2, bold keyword

Non-brand tag clouds

Search-friendly URL

Internal linking for relevance and improved user experience

In-house SEO and Leadership 21@davelloyd1

Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.

Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769

Reporting results – Making it actionable


Avoid making decisions based on a small data sample or biased data (i.e. seasonality)

Focus on the right data and know when you’ve analyzed enough (analysis paralysis)

Align reporting to the right stakeholders

Predict the next questions of stakeholders

Pre/Post analysis – measure impact and tell the story

Prioritize SEO recommendations (Impact vs. Effort)

Provide actionable insights whenever possible


PO

WE

R

artnership Mindset

ptimize teams to algorithm

orldwide Impact

ngage Effectively

eporting & Results

@davelloyd1

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week. – George S. Patton

slideshare.net/dalloyd

In House SEO & Leadership - Dave Lloyd, Adobe - Pubcon 2014

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Transcript of In House SEO & Leadership - Dave Lloyd, Adobe - Pubcon 2014