ground_up_seo_content_development_-heather_lloyd-martin.ppt

Profiting Through The Search Marketing Sales Cycle:

Turn Words Into Action!

Presented By:Heather Lloyd-Martin, SuccessWorks

SuccessWorks Overview

• Pioneers in SEO content since 1999

• Train clients in SEO copywriting best practices

• Develop strategy, new content and edited content

• Founders of SEOCopywriting.com

What We’ll Discuss Today

• SEO content through the sales cycle

• Why build content – AmsterdamEscape case study

• Why focus on content – BusinessWeek case study

• Thinking about budget

• In-house or outsource

Why Care About Content?

How the text is written can have a

tremendous impact on search

positions and conversions

It’s not enough to “just have content”

The Importance of SEO Content

Why Focus on SEO Content Development?

“Last year (2006) marketers spent eight times more money on paid search than they did on organic search.

In essence, marketers spent nearly $6 billion on a minority of their search traffic while they nearly

ignored the majority.”- DMNews

Control

Your Main Advantage

Case Study – Amsterdam Escape

Past Issues

• #1 Specialty Lodging – Trip Advisor

• “Bad” SEO created duplicate content, which…

• Caused AmsterdamEscape to be banned from Google

• Was paying $4,000/month in PPC to fill the gap

Creating Content Across the Sales Cycle

Travel to Amsterdam Hotels in Amsterdam

Amsterdam vacation rental dam square things to do in Amsterdam Amsterdamrestaurants

what’s the currency in Amsterdam Amsterdam nightlife Amsterdam

shopping Amsterdam apartments vacation rental rembrandtplein Travel packages Amsterdam

Content Page Example

Ranking Examples

• “Amsterdam nightlife” - #7 in Google• “Amsterdam shopping” - #16 in Google• “Amsterdam red light district” - #13 in Google• “Amsterdam apartments” - #2 in Google• “Amsterdam Nieuwmarkt” - #11 in Google• “Vacation rentals Amsterdam” - #7 in Google

Plus, scads of rankings for long-tail keyphrases!

Cost Savings Through Content Development

$48,000

BusinessWeek.com - OverviewOverview: • Online since 1995• Majority of content is available for free• Advertising based model: more page views => more revenue

Site receives high traffic referral from search, above industry average

SEO Role for Publisher SiteSince 2006, BusinessWeek focuses on more traffic from search

Goal: Traffic increase from search engines: More page views = more advertising revenue

Initiatives:Evangelize SEO concepts by:- Optimizing templates & customized pages- Publishing more free content pages – accessible to SE- Conducting regular SEO training for Editorial team

Results:More than doubled traffic from SE over the last two years

SEO Copywriting Outsourced: Results Examples – pages optimized in 11/07

“Economy” Overview page

“Game Room” Overview page

Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07 Jan-08 Feb-08

Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07 Jan-08 Feb-08

=> 1,150% traffic increase from SE

Customized keywords:

Customized keywords:

=> 405% traffic increase from SE

SEO Copywriting – The Real Scoop

What SEO Copywriting is NOT

SEO Content Across the Sales Cycle

Purchase

Research

AwarenessGeneral overarching keyphrases

Digital camera reviews, blog posts, brand/features

comparison

Make/model search

Plethora of “Consideration” Keyphrases

SEO Copywriting Basics

• Keyphrases in headlines and subheadlines• Keyphrases in hyperlinks• Keyphrases throughout the content• Keyphrase-rich Title• 2-3 keyphrases per page• “Longer” copy (250 words is a rule of thumb,

but it depends on page content and the page templates.)

Leveraging Keyphrase Intelligence

“Site search”

Keyphrase research

Seasonal/trend

“Ego” keywords

Highly competitive phrases

Create new pages if search terms not represented

Create and/or edit new pages. Think of buy cycle!

Create pages

Create pages and/or edit new pages

Create pages and/or edit multiple pages

How to Strategize Content

Page type

Product pages

Subcategory pages

Articles/FAQs

Seasonal

Blogs

Applicable keyphrases

Brand keywords, category keywords, SKUs, unique features

Brand keywords, category keywords

Brand keywords, category keywords, research/ consideration keywords ***long tail

Seasonal keywords

Brand keywords, category keywords, research/consideration ***long tail

Developing a Strategic Plan

Everyone’s Doing It! Articles on CircuitCity.com

Everyone’s Doing It! Zappos.com Blog

A word about budget….

Good content costs money….but…

There are ways to manage costs

In-House or Outsourced?

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and

expecting different results.”

Whether In-House or Outsourced

If your copywriter is writing sales-related copy, look for direct response copywriting experience…

If your copywriter is writing informational copy, look for journalism experience

Either way, the writing – and how it flows on the page – is crucial. Don’t pay low dollar for bad writing!

In-House or Outsourced?

In-house/Partnership approach

Outsourced

Copywriting Responsibilities

• Keyphrase research

• Develop per-page keyphrase strategy

• Write new content

• Edit existing content

•Develop editorial calendar

•Liaison with SEO/SEM department and IT

Partnership, In-House or Outsourced?

• No writing staff

• No time

• No editorial calendar

• No clue

Solution: outsource the work to build content

Cons: ExpensiveFinding the “right” firm Training writers in your tone and feel

Outsourced

How to Decide?

• Have existing writers on staff

• The writing team has time for SEO content development and training

OR

Writers create content, and outsourcekeyphrase editing

Cons: Explaining tone, feel and parameters to the training/content strategy

In-house/Partnership approach

Heather Lloyd-Martinheather@searchenginewriting.co

mBlog: SEOcopywriting.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/heatherlloyd

SEO Copywriting Success Seminar

January 21, 2009Portland, OR