brightedge 2013 search marketer survey results

An Industry-wide SEO Overview

2013 Search Marketer Survey

An Industry-wide SEO Overview

2013 Search Marketer Survey

Letter from the CEO

Welcome to the 2013 Search Marketer Survey from BrightEdge. The goal of the survey is to clarify the prior-ities and needs of the top search marketers around the globe. With over 500 search algorithm changes in the past year, this survey seeks to offer guidance n how leaders continue to stay ahead in the competitive search marketing industry.

We’re in an industry that is now 15 years old and growing rapidly. SEO is forecast to be a $2.2 billion industry, according to the Forrester U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast 2011 to 2016. As search has grown, BrightEdge has grown and changed as well. In the past year, we have more than doubled our business and our customer base. I am happy to announce that we now serve over 500 companies and 4,500 brands from our of!ces in San Mateo, New York City and London.

As we look forward to 2013 we wanted to hear from the best minds in Enterprise SEO about their expectations for this year. Given the size and diversity of our customer base, it was clear that understanding the priorities of our customers would provide great insight into the impact of the changes we observed last year and where the search market is headed in 2013.

What you’ll !nd in this survey are leading trends for 2013 as seen through the lens of some of leading minds in search market. We use this insight to direct our investment in technology and people so we deliver what matters to our customers. I hope you will !nd these results as informative and insightful as we do.

Here’s to a great 2013!

Regards,

Jim YuFounder and CEO, BrightEdge

Index | Contents

Global Enterprise SEOGlobal Enterprise SEO & Rankings

Global Enterprise SEO & Keyword DiscoveryGlobal Enterprise SEO & Competitive Analysis

The Business of Enterprise SEO — Forecasting Rank Improvement The Business of Enterprise SEO — Forecasting Return

Enterprise SEO & the C-level ExecutiveEnterprise SEO & Integrated Marketing

Enterprise SEO & Local SearchEnterprise SEO & Video Optimization

Enterprise SEO, Mobile, and TabletsEnterprise SEO & Analytics on Mobile and Tablets

Enterprise SEO & Universal Search - SERP ChangesEnterprise SEO & Blended Rank

Enterprise SEO & Social SharingEnterprise SEO & Social Media — Sharing, Pages and Rank

Enterprise SEO & Social Media Topics And TrendingEnterprise SEO & Social Media Channels

Enterprise SEO & PandaEnterprise SEO & Content Creation / Management

Enterprise SEO & Content MarketingPage Centric Enterprise SEO

Enterprise SEO - On-page and Off-page OptimizationEnterprise SEO & Penguin Violation Flags

Enterprise SEO & Link Building — Internal LinksEnterprise SEO and Data — Integrity and Security

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Ten Key Takeaways from the 2013 Search Marketer Survey

Mobile and tablet search is the next frontier

Local search is bigger than ever

Video offers search and social opportunities

It’s time to quantify and communicate SEO value

ROI across multiple channels like search and social is what truly matters

The C-level is paying more attention to SEO

SEO metrics need to keep up with SERP changes as they happen

Social for SEO is big; so is SEO for Social

Content Marketing is back, and in a big way

Page-centric SEO makes its mark

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https://www.facebook.com/seoplatform

https://plus.google.com/108763901610089905972/posts

http://www.linkedin.com/company/brightedge

https://twitter.com/brightedge

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GLOBAL ENTERPRISE SEO

How important will ranking Global Search Engines be in 2013, compared to 2012?

source: www.brightedge.com

GLOBAL ENTERPRISE SEO & RANKINGS

How important will ranking in Baidu (China) be in 2013, compared to 2012?


Overview and Analysis

SEO marketers at global companies aspire to reach customers worldwide, and drive leads, revenue and traf!c through global SEO initiatives. Looking beyond a single country also helps them demonstrate a greater ROI on marketing investments. Not only does this boost marketing ROI but also maintains global brand consistency while accommodating local nuances. A global concerted approach to SEO marketing addresses these needs.

Survey Results


With roughly 540 million internet users, 900 million mobile users and 388 million mobile internet users, China is the world’s largest internet market. Baidu, China’s dominant search engine, is one of the mostvaluable gateways to this large internet user base.

Survey Results





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GLOBAL ENTERPRISE SEO & KEYWORD DISCOVERY

How important will discovering keywords relevant to global audiences (such as Bing users in France) be in 2013, compared to 2012?

GLOBAL SEO & COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

How important will discovering competition for keywords relevant to global audiences (such as Bing users in France) be in 2013, compared to 2012?


User intent in search,expressed in terms of keywords used, varies by country and search engine. One of the key challenges marketers face in their global SEO initiatives is identifying the keywords that are relevant to speci!c global audiences and country-speci!c search engines such as Bing searchers in France.

Survey Results


To drive higher rank and conversions across geography-speci!c search engines, marketers need competitive intelligence speci!c to each of these search engines. They seek granular insight into the competition for every keyword and keyword group to devise strategies that help increase their Share of Voice against competition.

Survey Results







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THE BUSINESS OF ENTERPRISE SEO — FORECASTING RANK IMPROVEMENT

How important will forecasting rank improvement for targeted keywords and keyword groups be in 2013, compared to 2012?

THE BUSINESS OF ENTERPRISE SEO — FORECASTING RETURN

How important will forecasting the projected return from SEO be in 2013, compared to 2012?


Projecting rank improvement for targeted keywords and keyword groups gives marketers deeper insight into speci!c keywords and keyword groups that promise the greatest return. SEO marketers can use these projections to create keyword opportunities that target rank improvement for the most lucrative keywords and keyword groups.

Survey Results


Forecasting the return on SEO projects by projecting the revenue and conversions from keyword opportuni-ties matters to marketers. These projections help marketers understand the ultimate impact of SEO on their business. This enables them to make a business case to executives for SEO investments while allowing them to prioritize opportunities that promise the maximum returns.

Survey Results







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ENTERPRISE SEO & THE C-LEVEL EXECUTIVE

Does the SEO function have a greater strategic importance at the C-level of your organization in 2013, compared to 2012?


Organic search is now proven to deliver hard business results such as revenue and conversions to business-es of all size across industries in a cost effective manner. To drive even greater results from organic search, marketing organizations needs to increase their investment in SEO. A key driver for channeling further SEO investment is the visibility of organic search bene!ts at the C-level and executive support for SEO programs.

Survey Results


ENTERPRISE SEO & INTEGRATED MARKETING

In 2013, how important will it be to integrate marketing data across channels and measure cross-channel ROI, compared to 2012?


The online marketing ecosystem has fragmented dramatically as innovation in digital drives demand for a number of search and social media marketing platforms. In 2013 consumers and brands look towards inte-grated marketing across multiple disciplines to better understand productivity of each channel as well as interaction between each channel to drive conversions.

Survey Results






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ENTERPRISE SEO & VIDEO OPTIMIZATION

How important will optimizing for video be in 2013, compared to 2012?


ENTERPRISE SEO & LOCAL SEARCH

How important will optimizing sites for localized search results (such as Google results for searches by users in London) be in 2013, compared to 2012?


YouTube is the world’s second biggest search engine so it is no coincidence that the importance of video optimization is on the rise. Video and its intrinsic social sharing options also ha a great impact on rankings. Video offers SEO marketers the opportunity to expand their footprint on the SERP by seeking placement among the universal results pack, in addition to text, image, places and news results.

Survey Results


Search engines seek to enhance user experience by delivering more relevant and personalized search results. They increasingly serve results that are customized to the location of the users. This offers a huge opportunity for marketers optimizing their web properties and SEO campaigns to local search results and preferences.

Survey Results






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ENTERPRISE SEO, MOBILE, AND TABLETS

In 2013, how important will optimizing your site for mobile/tablet search be compared to 2012?


Mobile search is growing as the adoption of mobile and tablet devices surges. Many brands a more searches come from mobile devices, making it imperative that marketers understand

the differences in how people search on mobile devices compared to desktop search. Following best practices to ensure a site’s mobile content can be properly viewed by search engines is a key priority.

Survey Results


ENTERPRISE SEO & ANALYTICS ON MOBILE AND TABLETS

In 2013, how important will SEO analytics on your mobile or tablet be compared to 2012?



Mobile and tablet usage is surging. At the same time, the workforce is becoming increasingly mobile. Mar-keters are no exception to these trends and accessing SEO analytics on the move is of growing importance to them.

Survey Results





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ENTERPRISE SEO & BLENDED RANK

In 2013, how important will it be to understand your true SEO performance by measuring blend-ed rank among all search results including image, video, places, news and social results?


ENTERPRISE SEO & UNIVERSAL SEARCH – SERP CHANGES

In 2013, how important will it be to adapt your SEO metrics to SERP changes such as results pages with 7 results, as these changes occur?



SERPs no longer feature just text-based results and have evolved to include image, video, social, and local results. Marketers now need to know the rank of their pages among all types of results including image, video, social, and local. Metrics and strategies based on blended rank and not just text results alone allow marketers to devise SEO strategies based on true measure of SEO performance.

Survey Results


In 2012, Google made more than 500 algorithmic changes including signi!cant updates to the SERP. These changes include results pages with seven organic listings instead of ten, different placements for Google+ pro!le pages and transition to Google Product Listing Ads. Adapting SEO metrics to re"ect the changes made to the SERP as these changes are rolled out help marketers exploit opportunities faster.

Survey Results





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ENTERPRISE SEO & SOCIAL SHARING

How important will social sharing of content as a means to improve rank be in 2013, compared to 2012?


Enterprise SEO requires looking across traditional SEO techniques and social media channels. Social is a productive channel since search engines increasingly rely on social media traction for pages in order to decide how to rank them. The more the search and social teams work together, the greater the synergies in terms of rankings and sharable content. What is shared ranks, and what ranks is shared.

Survey Results


ENTERPRISE SEO & SOCIAL MEDIA — SHARING, PAGES, AND RANK

How important will it be to understand the correlation between social sharing of your pages and rank for these pages in 2013, compared to 2012?



Understanding the exact correlation between social sharing of your pages and rank is essential as market-ers further integrate social media and SEO strategies. Identifying this correlation and analyzing the content being shared helps marketers reinforce what’s working while adjusting social sharing activities that do not have a positive correlation.

Survey Results





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ENTERPRISE SEO & SOCIAL MEDIA TOPICS AND TRENDING

In 2013, how important will it be to identify topics trending in social media in order to drive social sharing for pages relevant to these topics and drive rank?

ENTERPRISE SEO & SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS

Which social media channel(s) will you be focusing on in 2013?


Understanding topics that matter to social media users and sharing relevant content as these topics are trending is critical for engaging these users. The key is to identify user interests as they are expressed in social media and catch their attention by providing content targeting these interests. This triggers sharing of

content in social media and in"uencing its rank in search results.

Survey Results


Search engines are increasingly using social media activity like Twitter weets and Facebook Likes and Shares to determine which pages are most relevant for keyword searches. Depending on the goals for social engagement, different marketing organizations prioritize different social media channels.

Survey Results







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ENTERPRISE SEO & PANDA

In 2013, how important will it be for your SEO technology to automatically !ag Panda viola-tions and provide recommendations that ensure compliance?

ENTERPRISE SEO & CONTENT CREATION / MANAGEMENT

In 2013, how much time will you spend on content creation and management, compared to 2012?



Google rolled out over 23 major Panda updates in 2012. This has driven a change and focus in marketing strategies and hence shift content production as part of the SEO process. It is very important to identify thin content, duplicate content and practices such as keyword stuf!ng

Survey Results


Google updates in 2012,such as Panda, combined with the convergence of search. social and content marketing strategies has meant that implementing a planned, detailed, and holistic approach to content and SEO across all digital media channels is essential. Producing, managing, and sharing quality and relevant content is going to be a key priority for enterprise search marketers.

Survey Results



Nicole Lopuch




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ENTERPRISE SEO & CONTENT MARKETING

In 2013, what type(s) of content will be most valuable for your digital marketing?

PAGE-CENTRIC ENTERPRISE SEO

How important will a page-based SEO approach (as opposed to a keyword-driven approach) be in 2013, compared to 2012?


Survey Results


A page-based approach involves a 360 degree analysis of all SEO factors affecting the rank of a page for targeted keywords and then optimizing these factors. Making pages the center of the SEO universe enables marketers to take a holistic approach toward optimizing and driving rank for each targeted page.

Survey Results






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ENTERPRISE SEO — ON-PAGE AND OFF-PAGE

In 2013, how important will it be for your SEO technology to provide both on-page and off-page recommendations for every targeted page?

ENTERPRISE SEO & PENGUIN VIOLATION FLAGS

In 2013, how important will it be for your SEO technology to automatically !ag Penguin violations and provide recommendations that ensure compliance?


A holistic page-based SEO approach requires analysis of all parameters affecting rank for a page including on-page and off-page, and optimizing them. As the number of pages on the site increases, technology that automatically provides recommendations will prove to be extremely invaluable.

Survey Results


With Penguin, Google continues to evolve its algorithm to promote great content and discourage web spam through practices such as anchor text stuf!ng, buying links and acquiring too many low-quality links. Mar-keters need to automatically monitor compliance with Penguin guidelines and take corrective action fast, if needed, to preserve their SEO performance and good standing with Google.

Survey Results







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ENTERPRISE SEO & LINK BUILDING — INTERNAL LINKS

How important will it be to analyze internal links for every page in your domain in 2013, compared to 2012?

ENTERPRISE SEO & DATA — INTEGRITY AND SECURITY

How important will integrity of SEO data be in 2013, compared to 2012?


Internal linking is an important part of SEO strategy to help search engine spiders reach pages, signal im-portance of a website’s most important pages and simplify navigation. Analyzing internal links for each page helps marketers get the most out of internal linking while also watching out for over-optimization.

Survey Results


Enterprise search marketers are among the most data-driven professionals. They make important decisions around keywords, pages, content, link building and social media activity based on the data they have on hand. Clearly, they must have access to data and analytics that they can trust.

Survey Results







brightedge 2013 search marketer survey results

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