#seoweek: building a winning retail seo strategy
TRANSCRIPT
CREATING AN
SEO STRATEGY:
2017 AND BEYONDMARCH 17 2017
ABOUT NETELIXIR
2
OUR TEAM: 100+ fanatically analytical search
marketers, operating in three
countries.
OUR PARTNERSHIPS:We are a Preferred Partner of both
Google and Bing.
OUR VALUE: We combine our expertise and our
proprietary technology to help
businesses get found, convert visitors
to customers and acquire game-changing consumer insights.
PAID SEARCH& SHOPPING
MANAGEMENT
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
PAID SOCIAL MANAGEMENT
TECHNOLOGY{ }SERVICES CONSULTING++
LXR:MULTI-CHANNEL ONLINE
MARKETING TECHNOLOGY
LXR MARKETPLACE:FREE SEARCH MARKETING TOOLS
FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
LXR GUIDE:PAID SEARCH MANAGER FOR
SMALL BUSINESSES
WEB ANALYTICS
DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
ON DEMAND TECH SUPPORT
ABOUT HALA ALI
4
SEO Manager at NetElixir
Hala Ali has been in the digital marketing
field for more than a decade and
specializes in SEO with a focus on mid-
sized retailers.
Prior to joining NetElixir, Hala worked
with leading pharmaceutical firms and
sites like Club Wyndham.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/halaali
4 INTERACTIVE SESSIONS (2PM ET, EVERY DAY)
Tuesday 3/14: The 2017 State of SEO
Wednesday 3/15: Adopting a Mobile-First SEO
Philosophy
Thursday 3/16: The Role of User Experience and
Web Development in SEO
Friday 3/17: Building a Winning Retail SEO
Strategy
PHASE I:
UNDERSTANDING
THE SEO PATH
• Before creating an SEO Strategy
understand what SEO can do for
your business
• The SEO strategy must be
based on your brand voice and
corporate culture.
QUESTION TO THE
AUDIENCE:
WHAT TYPE OF TRAFFIC DO YOU WANT?
What is the quantification of SEO?.
• Is it more beneficial to focus on keyword based SEO
strategies that increase ranking in SERP’s?
Or
• Is there more strategic gain to increase the traffic through
brand awareness and quality of the website?
RESEARCH ON
IMPACT OF SEO
(Baye et al, Dec 2015), Search
Engine Optimization: What
Drives Organic Traffic to Retail
Sites? suggests that in the
current landscape it is not
necessary to be a big brand
name to succeed in SEO
however, consumers must
perceive your brand as one that
is of higher quality.
HOW DO
YOU ACHIEVE
SEO SUCCESS?
• SEO success depends on quality of the website and the
brand awareness of the site helps in increasing the click
through rate both directly and indirectly.
• The direct impact is obviously the consumer interaction
with the website.
• The indirect effect emerges from search engines giving
better ranking to the brand websites and creating a social
network.
• Demographics play an important role on search
optimization as well.
• The retailers brand equity increases as the perceived
quality of the website creates a form of brand awareness.
UNDERSTANDING
WHAT DRIVES ORGANIC CLICKS
• The first is obviously the rank of the ecommerce website
within the search results.
• The statistics show that if the retailer is not within the
range of the first 5 pages the clicks are reduced by 90%.
• Every 1% improvement of ranking leads to 1.3%
improvement in click through rate for organic clicks.
• The secondary value of brand quality is search engines
prefer ‘brands’ versus the unknown ecommerce retailers.
• Here we see search results of the word “dresses” the number one
SERP is Lulus.com however, the website is SEO’d but not branded.
• The second SERP result is the well known department store
Macys.com.
• Which will be the more likely to get clicked on?
SERP: BRAND VS SEO
BRAND OR SEO?
• In SEO ecommerce retailers will
never get an advantage they can
sustain through only ranking
improvements. They will only be
participants in the zero sum
game defined by Wikipedia as:
“…a mathematical representation of
a situation in which each
participant's gain or loss of utility
is exactly balanced by the
losses or gains of the utility of
the other participants.”
• For long term SEO growth, brand equity becomes the underlining value of success of the
retailers' SEO strategy.
BRAND VALUE IS THE PATH TO SEO SUCCESS
HOW DO RETAILERS
CREATE AN
SEO STRATEGY
FOCUSED ON
BRAND?
If you are interested in creating a successful SEO
strategy answer these questions:
• Are you looking for immediate short term growth or long
term sustainable growth?
• Do you have the budget to sustain growth and foster the
changes necessary in a dynamic SEO environment where
there are up to 200 algorithm changes annually?
• Do you have a myopic tactic in mind i.e. manipulating the
search engines until they catch up with you or are you
focused on growing your business consistently?
• Finally and the most important: Do you have the vision
and patience to successfully navigate the SEO landscape
of today?
CREATING A
SUSTAINABLE
SEO STRATEGY
• With rankings being fickle it makes more sense to
focus on long term sustainability of SEO.
• Algorithms are changing to make the UX better so
focus only on your user. Forget the ranking and
forget the position change.
• If your strategy focuses on the factors of SEO like
page titles that have a brand voice and descriptions
that optimize brand value, while integrating elements
of keywords then sustainable advantage is gained.
• Be technically optimized in terms of website
architecture.
• Understand every other retailer will be aiming for the
same competitive edge. To gain the competitive
advantage, your business website has to
stay ahead of the algorithm curves.
• Google advises businesses to base:
“...optimization decisions first and foremost on what's best for the
visitors of your site. They're the main consumers of your content
and are using search engines to find your work. Focusing too
hard on specific tweaks to gain ranking in the organic results of
search engines may not deliver the desired results.”
• Unlike SEO efforts designed to improve rankings in a search
engine, SEO efforts to improve a retailer's brand equity can
improve the clicks it receives from searches in these other
channels.
USER EXPERIENCE: THE FOCAL POINT
CREATING
THE SEO STRATEGY:
BROAD VIEW
• Once you understand that SEO in 2017 cannot create a
sustainable advantage through the keyword approach you will
be well on your way towards SEO success.
• So what do you focus on when creating the SEO strategy?
1. Rank of Keywords
2. Brand Voice
3. Demographic Understanding
4. Attribution of SEO
• Focusing on competitive keywords that have high search
volume will not provide your consumers with the right value
proposition.
• Search terms should be chosen for their value (CTR, ROI)
• The retailer value for ranked keywords will emerge from
search queries that identify your Unique Selling Proposition
that sets you apart from your competition.
• Research has proven that the narrower search query provides
better value than the broader search term.
RANK OF KEYWORDS
• Research has shown that when consumers are actively
searching for a specific shopping product they are more likely
to focus on brand related searches.
• That us why it becomes essential to create a positive brand
voice for the consumer.
• However, while users familiar with a brand may focus on
brand searches; users who search within specific category
segments search for brands within the category.
What does this mean for the small and mid-sized retailer?
Retailers should create a three tier SEO strategy.
• Focus on the brand keywords e.g. “Brand Name keyword”
• Focus on long tail keywords e.g. work dresses
• Focus on head keywords e.g. dresses
BRAND VOICE
• Know your Audience: It is essential to know your audience and speak
to them in the correct voice.
• Age Demographics: Research suggests that the age group 55-75
tends to click more on the paid ads in search engines while more savvy
users between 22-45 tend to click more on organic results.
• Paid User: The digital strategy should then be tailored in a way that
when the paid as is clicked the user goes to a specific landing page
that speaks to that specific age demographic.
• Organic User: When users click on the organic rankings the SEO
strategy should be optimized such that specific search queries allow
the consumer to land on the corresponding landing page within the
website.
DEMOGRAPHIC UNDERSTANDING
SEO ATTRIBUTION:HOW DO YOU DETERMINE
YOUR SEO PROGRAM'S REAL PERFORMANCE?
MEASURING THE
IMPACT OF SEO
Can the search engines find your website?
• Search engines need quality content to find your website
• Optimize your content with proper meta data
Is the website accessible for indexing?.
• Content has to be user friendly and written is semantic language (Rank Brain)
• The site should be technically optimized for changing algorithms.
Can people find your content?
• Marketing of the website through paid ads and social media.
Is the UX good?
• UX When Users come to the website they should stay and interact.
• User Friendly site architecture
Is the website valuable for search engines?
• There should be a consistent brand voice
• Social media mentions
• Natural back links to content
• No technical errors
• Discoverability has to be understood as an eco-culture, not just a form
of technology.
• Impact of the various channels must be understood and the impact
resonance then maximized within the SEO strategy.
• To achieve this discoverability and maximize on the value, retailers
must think beyond keywords when thinking of SEO.
• They must see SEO as the link to all aspects of digital advertising.
• The shift has to be towards creating a culture of discoverability and
then working towards cohesively binding the various digital channels to
create one roadmap towards success.
DISCOVERABILITY OF YOUR RETAIL WEBSITE
ROADMAP FOR A
PRACTICAL STRATEGY
• What is the role of the SEO
agency?
• How do you start the process of
SEO with an SEO agency?
• What is the advantage of a SEO
agency?
• Help you identify the technical issues your website may have
in terms of accessibility and indexing.
• Do the competitive research and identify the search queries
and optimize the website for the relevant queries.
• Keep SEO consistent with the brand voice.
• Keep you updated with all algorithm changes.
• Create relevant data attributions to track ROI
for organic search.
THE SEO AGENCY WILL…
NO REALLY,
WHAT CAN AN
SEO AGENCY DO?
The SEO agency will conduct an
audit and identify the SEO roadmap
moving forward.
CASE STUDY
SEO Technical Audit:
• Citation and Trust Flow
• Back-link Analysis
• Organic Traffic
• Comparative Traffic Sources
• Mobile Audit
• Mobile Audit Analysis
• Importance of Speed and
Performance Snapshot
• Algorithm Impact Graph
• Algorithm Impact Analysis
CITATION FLOW AND TRUST FLOW
BACKLINK AUDIT
YOY COMPARISON
KEYWORD DECLINE
TIME OF DECLINE AND EFFECT ON REVENUE
ALGORITHM IMPACT
MOBILE AUDIT ANALYSIS
Development Issue NetElixir Client Google Baseline
Java Script 42 <10 (not including pixels)
Page Weight 3.8 1 MB
CSS 8 <5
Images 62 <30
Font 4 0-3
Total 116 100
• Various Google Algorithm updates have taken place in the past few
years. Tracking the effect of the algorithm on the traffic for the client can
identify any automatic or manual penalties.
• Penguin: Looking at the graph we see that the traffic dropped early
Jan/Feb 2015. That is around the time a Penguin update took place
penalizing spam links. This could have been one cause of the decline
(traffic does not immediately decline after an algorithm update as the
algorithm rolls out even before any announcement).
• Secure site: Dec 2015 saw the introduction of the HTTPS algorithm
check and could have been a cause of the further drop in traffic. Though
no penalties are being given preferences are set for https sites. Another
update took place late 2016.
• Panda: There was some recovery seen when some structural updates
took place but the Panda roll out around July 2015 again gave the site a
negative hit. The algorithm is automatic now and not manual so any
negative effects can easily be improved..
• Penguin/Mobile: The flatline growth can further be attributed to the next
Penguin 4.0 update and the mobile first update both of which began to
be rolled out during spring/summer of 2016.
ALGORITHM ANALYSIS
SEO STRATEGY
ANALYSIS
Competitor Based Strategy:
• Identify the key competitors and analyze their links. Where do
they have the quality links coming from? What type of links are
they? Are they from within your targeted demographics?
Custom Strategy:
• The best way to conduct a custom analysis is understanding
your customer? Why do they choose your website? What
differentiates you from other companies?
• Based on the information gathered use tools like
Buzzstream.com and other content curating tools to identify
the authority bloggers and socially active figures in the industry
(Twitter, FaceBook, Pinterest etc.) and reach out them to guest
blog.
HOW TO IMPROVE THE TRUST AND
CITATION SCORE
• A complete analysis of the back-links has to be done. Compile
through various tools and manually the current back links to
the website.
• Ascertain the toxic links and the potential links that may cause
harm.
• Compile and create a disavow file to be uploaded in Google
and Bing Webmaster consoles.
IMPROVING THE BACK-LINK PROFILE
• All technical issues with the website have to be cleared. As an
example there are various HTML issues, JSS improvements
and image optimizations to be made.
• Google webmaster guidelines has to be used as the baseline
and scripting and development improved.
• An in-depth audit has to be done to identify issues beyond
those listed.
• On page strategy should be improved targeting specific
keywords for specific landing pages.
• Content strategy needs to be implemented.
• On page content must be refreshed.
HOW TO IMPROVE THE
ORGANIC TRAFFIC
• Mobile First is the key to growth and organic success.
• The website must meet the baseline performance values for
Google to ensure growth.
• The client must focus on mobile users and move forward with
a mobile first web-design.
• Speed and performance on mobile must be improved.
MOBILE AUDIT
ORGANIC GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES
Desktop & Mobile Search Emphasis • Organic keywords have significant room for growth with our current SERP rankings and positions• Mobile First Algorithm Change requires a focus on mobile rankings as well, with the number of
mobile searches rapidly increasing, and even surpassing, desktop searches. • Mobile & Desktop ranking positions are often not the same • As Mobile First rolls out in 2017, Mobile Optimization is progressively becoming more important.
Google will soon penalize desktop sites in the SERP for not having a mobile optimized design
Desktop organic positions
Mobile organic positions
PRIORITIZE
WEBSITE REDESIGN
& MOBILE FIRST
2017 Goals
• Ensure optimized mobile first user experience, and overall user
experience (as SEO is progressively becoming more about
Search Experience Optimization)
• Expand organic traffic share with industry targeted landing pages
• Ensure a smooth transition across all marketing channels,
including paid
• Use analytics to understand user experience, behavior, patterns
and research/competitive analytics to gauge our industry position
& how to expand further
• Minimize traffic decline by taking all precautionary steps
throughout the redesign and transition process
EXPANDING
ORGANIC
TRAFFIC SHARE
• Analytics and Insights Needed to better understand the customer
journey
– Research and analysis resources needed for analyzing competitors,
industry, user experience
• Identifying key opportunities via competitor analysis of keywords
that we can optimize for and may have missed out on (custom
flags for example, this can be done across other channels as well)
• Better optimization of meta tags
• Analysis of landing pages that lost the most organic traffic (how
does this compare to direct and referral also?)
– Were changes made to these pages that caused the dip?
– Google Analytics to be annotated for all website changes, major and
minor (for NetElixir and HPB)
• Seasonal trends that we can expect traffic to fluctuate
• Pruning indexed pages
• Identifying strategic link building opportunities
• Constant Monitor of backlinks
– Competitive link building for opportunities
• Better Internal Linking Structure
EXPANDING
KEYWORD TARGETING
• Opportunity to target high search
volume keywords and expand
our visibility and market share in
organic search
• Examples of search queries
listed to the left along with
current position, search volume
& keyword difficulty index
• Search volume varies dependent
upon mobile and desktop search
• Overall integrated traffic trends – marketing channels work together to
support each other as shown in conversion paths
• Combination of Direct, Referral & Organic Traffic Sessions,
Transactions & Revenue (Overall)
– Month over month and year over year
– Broken down by individual channels as well
– Quarterly look at details of top referral paths
• Organic Visibility - Number of keywords ranking on a monthly basis in:
– Top 3
– Top 10
– Top 20
– Top 100
– (vs competitors for our target keywords)
• Keyword Ranking Reports
• Benchmarking in GA - Industry Growth Compared to Competitors
HOW DO WE MEASURE SUCCESS FOR
SEARCH MARKETING?
OUR
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the website and competitor
analysis we strongly recommend to
leverage Facebook to drive more traffic
and conversions. We basically
recommend a focus on
• Acquisition Campaigns to drive new
traffic to website.
• Retargeting Campaigns to convert the
traffic to customers
• Engagement Campaigns to build a
stronger and loyal community on
Technical Audit
LSI Keywords
Detailed Backlink Audit
Page Load Speed Analysis
Link Building
Keyword Density Analysis
Content Generation
ACCOUNT SERVICES/TASKS
Increased pace in removing toxic backlinks
Articles for the blog
Generating links from quality websites
Content generation for the website in place of on-page recommendations
Deep dive into technical aspects of the website
DAILY AND WEEKLY MONTHLY
Join the conversation:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/university
