learn from the past

live in the present

plan for the future
WELCOME TO
Enterprise level SEO
strategy and its execution
A step by step process on how to make SEO the most efficient channel
in your organisation
 02

ABOUT THE SPEAKER.

I’ve worked with companies like

• Avis
• AutoTrader
• Expedia
• TripAdvisor

I currently work on a full time basis

Magdalena Sikora
@NewLook.com
MC Marketing Manager
In heart- SEO Specialist
 03

WHY THIS SUBJECT?

SEO becomes more and more challenging:

- Google Updates
- Problems with tracking
- Competitiveness increase

ENOUGH TO KEEP US AWAKE AT NIGHT!

 04

SEO WORK PROCESS

The below is a step by step process and methodology behind SEO strategy.
It is especially helpful when you deal with seasonal searches.

s 3 4 o 7
Discover Create Build the Plan Deploy Grow & Measure
Keyword Universe
STEP ONE
DISCOVER
 06
DISCOVER

1. LEARN ABOUT THE PAST.

ORGANISE A SESSION WITH YOUR SEO AGENCY

 no one in the company will know us much as they do!
 07
DISCOVER

2. LEARN ABOUT THE PRODUCT YOU SELL (!)

MEET WITH TEAMS AND ASK THEM RELEVANT QUESTIONS

 Which product is the best seller?
 Which product is most important from business perspective- highest
margins, best conversion?
 Which product needs to sell
STEP TWO
ORGANISE: BUILD KEYWORD UNIVERSE
Keywords Universe are all possible terms relevant to your site that bring or could bring a
quality traffic to your website
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BUILDING KEYWORDS UNIVERSE

1. GATHER ALL RELEVANT TERMS.

LIST ALL TERMS THAT CURRENTLY BRING TRAFFIC
 Omniture, Google Analytics
 Internal searches on your site

DISCOVER NEW KEYWORDS

 Use free tools: Google KW Adwords, PAID: Wordtracker,
Hitwise
 Research your competitors sites

GATHER THE FINDINGS FROM YOUR ‘DSCOVERY’ PROCESS

 10
BUILDING KEYWORDS UNIVERSE

2. TAG EVERY TERM.

BY ‘CATEGORY’ (main themes on your site)

 clothing: dresses, outwear, accessories, shoes
 travel: hotels, flights, holidays

BY KEYWORD PATTERN,
 travel: hotels in {destination}, {destination} hotels, 4-star
hotels in {destination}

BY TYPE- GENERIC, SEASONAL, IMPORTANCE

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BUILDING KEYWORDS UNIVERSE

3. CREATE THE FINAL FILE.

SAVE IT AND NEVER OVERWRITE THIS FILE- THAT’S YOUR BENCHMARK (!)
STEP THREE
BUILD THE PLAN
It is all about maximising the potential knowing that we all have limited resources
 13
CREATE A STRATEGY

CREATE YOUR SEO ACTION PLAN

You can create it on a category or keywords level.
Since we all have limited resources we focus all our activities based on
seasonal approach

MAY JUL SEP OCT DEC

ON- PAGE START OF BEGINNING OF END OF THE END OF
OPTIMISATION LINK BUILDING SEARCH PEAK LINK BUILDING! SEARCH PEAK

We start working on a term at least 4

“COATS” category strategy
months before the search peak starts!
 14
CREATE A STARTEGY

YOU WON’T ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS ALONE!

MERGE YOUR PLAN WITH ALL OTHER TEAMS
AND THEIR CALENDARS
MAY JUL SEP OCT DEC
ON- PAGE START OF BEGINNING OF END OF THE END OF
OPTIMISATION LINK BUILDING SEARCH PEAK LINK BUILDING! SEARCH PEAK

We start working on a term at least 4

“COATS” category strategy
months before the search peak starts!

PPC PR SOCIAL SOCIAL

IF WE ARE START OF END OF
NOT HIGH ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES
FOR SEO
YET
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CREATE A STRATEGY

CHOOSE YOUR KEYWORDS

When choosing terms take also other factors in to account (not only
seasonality):

• Search volumes
• Competiveness of the term
• Who currently ranks? Am I relevant enough?
• Will it be in stock in 3 month time?
• Current conversion
• Profit margins?
STEP FOUR
DEPLOYMENT AND WORKING WITH TEAMS
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DEPLOY

1. INTRODUCE SEO AGENCY TO ALL DEPARTMENTS

AND TREAT THEM AS YOUR INTERNAL TEAM
• Share everything you can!
• Meet at least once a week!
• Inform about crucial business
decision that might affect
them/ their work
• Sign them up to all relevant
internal distribution lists- it
will speed things up (!)
• Give them access to your
internal tools (Omniture etc.)

Keep them as a part of your business

- you have the same goal!
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DEPLOY

2. SEO AND SOCIAL ARE BETTER TOGETHER.

• Organise meetings on a monthly basis
with both SEO agency and social
teams

• Review campaigns together each

month and agree which social
campaigns could be supported by SEO
activities

• Social teams are usually less tech

savvy- suggest to support them
(advise on measurement tools etc.)

• Run brainstorm meetings on at least

quarterly basis
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DEPLOY

4. SEO AND PPC ARE ALSO BETTER TOGETHER.

You both have the same goal- increase website’s visibility in SERP.

They should not be pitted against one another in competition, but each one
should be recognised that they have strengths when trying to achieve a
common goal.

These strengths should be utilised to their fullest and intelligence (keywords

and usability) from PPC should be fed back into the SEO campaign.

This holistic approach to search engine marketing should ensure that you
are getting the most from both your SEO and PPC campaigns, rather than
treating them as completely isolated marketing channels.
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DEPLOY

3. ORGANISE INTERNAL SEO TRAININGS!

Make others excited about SEO (Yes, you can!:)

Run these trainings individually with each team as each team has different
focus and repeated it every 6 months (teams change):

SOCIAL PR TEAM CONTENT

You can help them increase
mentions!
You can share our bloggers
contact detils!
You can help them to
increase bloggers outreach!
You will make sure that your PRs are Teach them how to use keywords
fully optmised, so send them over! tool!
You will help to make them popular Explain what is meta title, description
online, so they are seen by the right etc.
audience!
STEP FIVE
MEASURE
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MEASURE

1. MEASURE YOUR RANKINGS

• Check your Keyword Universe rankings at least

twice a month
• Check your quarterly targeted terms twice a
week
• Monitor competitors at least on a monthly
basis(!)
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MEASURE

2.1. BE AWARE OF THE HEADWINDS

Chrome v.25 went fully live in Jan (with encrypted for all possible searches).
In April, Chrome v.26 was launched with encrypted searches fully rolled out
 24
MEASURE

2.2. BE AWARE OF THE HEADWINDS

New Apple iOS6 as well as Android 4+ completely strip away the referring
source, as a result:

• You not only not seeing keywords that bring you this traffic, but

• Organic search and all the search traffic is being bucketed as Direct site
traffic (!)
NEXT
Discussion
Any questions?