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BECOMING RELEVANT IN THE .EDU SPACE THROUGH

YOUR ONLINE IDENTITY

PATRICK DAVIS@Slingshot_Pat

STEVEN SHATTUCK

@StevenShattuck

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AGENDA » Digital Relevance for .EDUs

Slide Overview

» Digital Relevance» How To Get It» Results of One Customer» Questions

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DIGITAL RELEVANCE

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BOOKSWhich brand is more digitally relevant?

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BOOKSWhich brand is more digitally relevant?

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RUNNING SHOESWhich brand is most deserving?

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Keyword Phrase Exactmasters degree 301,000 27,100online courses 201,000 9,900online degree 135,000 5,400mba programs 110,000 5,400engineering schools 110,000 3,600bachelor degree 90,500 18,100online education 60,,500 8,100mba rankings 49,500 12,100best universities 49,500 5,400engineering colleges 49,500 2,400engineering degree 49,500 1,900online universities 33,100 12,100finance degree 14,800 1,900

Keyword (continued)… Phrase Exactengineering programs 22,200 590top party schools 18,100 8,100marketing degree 18,100 2,400marketing degree 18,100 2,400best law schools 14,800 6,600top engineering schools 12,100 8,100top mba programs 12,100 5,400engineering degrees 12,100 1,900it degree 6,600 1,000

WHAT KEYWORDS ARE PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS USING ON GOOGLE?

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POSITION 1 »

POSITION 100 »

“You are relevant to this query, but there are better sites than yours.”

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RELEVANCE

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RELEVANCE

DIVERSITY

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CLASS METHODOLOGY FOR DIGITAL RELEVANCE

CONTENT / LINK PROFILE / ARCHITECTURE / SOCIAL / STRATEGY

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“Content Creation was found to be the MOST effective of all SEO tactics.”

- MARKETING SHERPA 2011 SEARCH MARKETING BENCHMARK REPORT

OWNED MEDIA

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“Now, agencies … must also attract, motivate, and engage specific audiences with a brand's content. Agencies have to "earn" media for their clients in addition to buying it. ”

- ADAGE DIGITAL (DEC. 2011)

EARNED MEDIA

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» Tags – Title, Meta, Description,

H1, H2, etc.

» Internal Linking Optimization

» Breadcrumbs

» Subdomains vs. Subdirectories

» Usability

» Site Load Time

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ONTENT

RCHITECTURE

INK GRAPHOCIAL

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EDU SUCCESS STORY

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CLIENTOnline educational institution based in Chicago (multiple online schools & programs)

CHALLENGES» Amidst a huge re-branding &

messaging project

» Had paid for links (in order to compete) and link graph was ‘unhealthy’

» Highly restrictive internal compliance

EDU SUCCESS STORY » BEFORE

BOTTOM LINE: Not considered ‘digitally relevant’ despite being an online school

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WHAT SLINGSHOT ACCOMPLISHED

» Helped them create overhaul the content on their site to match offline market research

» Aggressive outreach to create endorsements of this new content

» Distilled their compliance requirements into a management set for outreach

RESULTS AFTER 12 MONTH CAMPAIGN

» Average keyword ranking across the category: 11

» Ranking 7th on Google for “Online Education”

» Non-branded traffic increased by 228%

EDU SUCCESS STORY » AFTER

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WE STAY ON TOP OF BEST PRACTICES, EMERGING TRENDS, PEER REPORTING, & CHANGES IN THE SCIENCE OF THE INDUSTRY SO WE CAN RESPOND TO THE REALITIES WE ENCOUNTER.

Join SlingshotSEO.com/SEO-Buzz to stay in the loop

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PATRICK DAVISEnterprise Account Executive

Patrick.Davis@SlingshotSEO.com(512) 200-4626

@slingshot_patlinkedin.com/in/patrickhdavis

STEVEN SHATTUCKSenior Marketing Manager

Steven.Shattuck@SlingshotSEO.com(317) 575-8852 ext. 229

@stevenshattucklinkedin.com/in/stevenshattuck

QUESTIONS?

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QUESTION 1 »

WHAT GETS SEARCH APPROXIMATELY 114 MILLION TIMES PER MONTH ON BING?

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ANSWER »

GOOGLE

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QUESTION 2 »

WHAT ARE THE TWO ANIMAL NAMES OF GOOGLE’S MORE

RECENT ALGORITHMIC UPDATES / FILTERS?

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ANSWER »

PENGUIN & PANDA

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QUESTION 3 »

WHAT WAS GOOGLE'S (the search engine's)

ORIGINAL NAME?

1. SearchMasters 2. Webcrawler 2. 3. BackRub 4. Zorley

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ANSWER »

BACKRUBafter their unique approach

to analyzing 'backlinks'

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