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Search Marketing Success Stories
03/09/10
Posted by RobOusbey
Search Engine Optimization covers a huge range of tactics – all of which can bring direct benefit to a website. In this post, I’ve shared examples of different tactics used at different websites, and the effects that have been seen. If you’re considering an SEO campaign for your site, or are trying to persuade someone else to invest in internet marketing, I hope this post will help demonstrate the potential of internet marketing.
The post includes real screen shots from Google Analytics (click any of them to enlarge) but the sites and data have been anonymized.
Target Your Target Terms
Remember that post about building a page with perfect keyword targeting? SEOmoz wasn’t kidding around.
A website that sells homewares had issues with site structure and on-page targeting. Their category level pages were at subdomains such as
- http://kitchenequipment.sitename.com
or
- http://livingrooms.sitename.com
whilst each sub-category was back on the main subdomain at:
- www.sitename.com/find_product2.asp?url1=living+room&url2=rugs+and+carpets
Category and sub-category pages had a distinct lack of semantic HTML or term targeting.
Getting appropriate H1 tags onto each page was a quick job, improving title tag structure took a bit longer, clean & friendly URLs and internal links with appropriate anchor text were also added.
The site saw ranking improvements across the board, which brought new traffic through head, mid and long tail terms. Can you guess when the changes were made? 
Getting sorted in Google Local
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of ranking factors for Local Search, dead simple tactics, etc, it’s important to get the basics right. A large chain of restaurants created a ‘bulk upload’ file with the correct data for each one of their locations. After uploading the file, they applied for it to be reviewed and ‘whitelisted’. Local data that’s been uploaded by the business owner and whitelisted is treated as authoritatively as locations that have been manually verified by postcard.
Despite various issues (Google’s best practice guidelines still aren’t quite the best solution in some cases) the traffic generated by visibility in Local Search has been significant and valuable. (The uploads were verified in late November when the traffic begins its steady rise.)
Architecture of Change
A current affairs magazine wanted to get more from their website. Because of falling advertising revenue, the publication was at risk of being closed down. They’d seen some growth from SEO already, but wanted to prove that the website had greater value.
Although the site had a good brand and some great content, it suffered from similar problems to many news-type websites, including badly archived content, duplicate issues and a CMS that hampered keyword targeting or promoting individual articles. Recommendations were made to improve the site’s architecture and migrate to the new structure.
The effect of the changes was immediate growth which took the organic traffic to 257% in three months. A month later, the magazine’s owner explained that the falling revenue from print advertising meant that they couldn’t continue to lose money publishing the mag, and closed it down.
Hook, Line, Sinker
An office cleaning company wanted to improve the profile of their site through SEO. Amongst other tactics, a member of staff spent a day writing a ‘linkbait’ post to publish on their blog. This generated huge amounts of traffic from social media sites (dwarfing their regular daily visitors) and was subsequently linked to from dozens of sites. This post, along with other content published on the site to attract links, helped the site grow in strength and authority, and it now ranks position 3 for ‘office cleaning’ in their country.
Paid In Full
This is SEOmoz, but I’d like to share a graph from a PPC colleague working on a site that sells scooters. They were initially bidding on very broad terms (scooter, scooters, buy a scooter, etc) but the campaign was adjusted to target more long tail terms, including descriptions, specifications, etc.
Over a period of around six weeks, the cost per click was reduced by 30% and the more targeted traffic converted increasingly well – this allowed the site owners to increase their ad budget and generated more sales than their paid search campaign ever had before.
If you’re new to SEOmoz and this post has inspired you to get involved in search marketing for your site, do browse the site for the PRO & free SEO guides and the SEO blog. If you’re a regular, do share any stories you’re particularly proud of in the comments.
A Guest Post by Mark Hayward.
What the hell am I supposed to write about, I own a {insert your small business here}?
Really, who cares about your flower shop, bike shop, auto parts store, or coffee house?
Answer: Your customers certainly care.
We all know by now that consistent small business blogging can drastically improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and overall web presence. Additionally, a small business blog can increase your opportunities to interact with (and highlight) your customers and provide an additional occasion for you to share your expert knowledge.
Unfortunately, nothing stops a would be small business blogger faster than a perceived lack of time, and the frustration that comes with a lack of ideas to blog about.
While I can’t help you with your time issue, I can provide you with nine tips for creating more small business blogging ideas:
1. Keyword Tool
One of the best semi-secret sources of the more savvy small business bloggers are the free keyword tools that are available like Google Adwords and Wordtracker. If you are not familiar with searching for keywords, essentially you type in a word or phrase related to your small business and the tool shows you what people (your potential customers) are searching the internet for. You can easily get hundreds of new blog post ideas from a couple of keyword searches.
2. Your Backstory
Potential customers want to know about you and your business, it’s a cornerstone of trust building. One of the best ways to familiarize your customers with your business is to blog about your backstory and personal history. Backstory topics could include any of the following:
- Who you are?
- Where did you come from?
- Why did you choose your business location?
- What is it that makes you passionate about your small business?
- What have you done in your life that makes you unique?
- What struggles have led to the creation of who you are today as a business owner.
3. Customer of the Day
Presumably, if you are running a semi-successful business, you have customers coming in on a daily basis. If you are struggling for post ideas, why not make your customers the focus of your blog one or two days per week?
Not only will you get almost unlimited post material, but since customers like to feel special and appreciated, blogging about them is a great public relations tool. You could even give the participants an additional ten percent off of their purchase for their willingness to participate. Featuring your customers and telling their story gets them excited about your business and can help to establish a customer based community around your blog.
4. Create Resource Posts
Resource posts are great because they are fairly easy for you to put together and people love to read scannable and easily digested information. Ideas for small business resource posts might include:
- Top ten selling products in your store and why.
- Five reasons you love your business
- Twenty best ways to {insert business specific information here}.
- Eight reasons why customers loveÖ
5. Answer Customer Questions
Your customers have questions and you have expert knowledge. Do not take your knowledge for granted. If there is a specific set of questions that customers seem to ask on a daily basis then turn those queries into individual blog posts.
6. Tutorials
Similar to answering questions, tutorial posts that are specific to your industry (e.g. teaching customers how to change a flat tire, make better coffee, repair their fishing rod, etc.) might be a common task for you, but could really provide value your customers. One simple way to liven up tutorial posts is to add video or photo which can help enhance your instructions.
7. Mind Mapping
If you are not familiar with mind mapping, you can read Darren’s terrific mind mapping articles here, here, and here.
To create small business blog post ideas with mind mapping, draw a square in the center of a piece of paper and write the name of your business in the square. Begin jotting down ideas as you work out from the center. Do not stop to think, over analyze, and critique just get your ideas down on paper and you can refine them later.
8. Comparison Post
Take two similar items in your business and do a side by side comparison of the benefits, cost savings, and overall value of each. Own a bike shop, why would I buy a Cannondale over a Trek? Or, own a flower shop, what are the similarities and differences between roses and sunflowers?
9. Day in the Life
Many small business owners find it difficult to write about themselves. But your daily activities are truly unique and blog post worthy.
- What is a day, a week, or a even a month in your small business life like?
- Do you get up at 5:00a.m. and work until 10:00p.m.?
- What are you doing during the workday at your small business?
10. Your Suggestions
We have gotten you to nine tips for creating more small business blog posts and now it’s your turn to help get us to 10, 11, 12…. 100 suggestions. What are your tips for creating small business blogging ideas?
Mark Hayward hates the snow and cold! Luckily, he owns a small business in the Caribbean. Mark is passionate about helping other small business owners avoid the online mistakes he has made. You can follow Mark on Twitter @mark_hayward and you can subscribe to his RSS Feed for weekly small business social media marketing tips.
Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.
9 Tips for Creating More Small Business Blogging Ideas
How Search and Social Affect PR
03/01/10
Most marketers utilize search engine optimization in order to make it easier for customers to find them and, ultimately, buy their products. As search, social media, and public relations become more intertwined, marketers need to understand that journalists are essentially customers as well.
Lee Odden, the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, spoke with WebProNews at OMS and explained this idea. It is no secret that all companies want media coverage since it produces credibility, sales, search visibility, and more. So, what can marketers do to get noticed by journalists?
Based on survey conducted by TopRank, 91 percent of reporters, journalists, and editors used Google to help them find contacts in 2008. Of those surveyed, only 27 percent used social media. However, George Washington University and Cision released a report this year showing that 86 percent of the media use blogs and 64 percent use social media.
What does this tell marketers? According to Odden, marketers need to optimize their content in regards to what journalists are looking for. In other words, he suggests including terms such as “expert” and other credentials, specifications, and trends that journalists would use.
Incidentally, the survey found that TV and online journalists were more apt to use social media to find information.
| | Comments (0)Posted by randfish
Today I have two very big announcements. First, SEOmoz is exiting the consulting business to focus exclusively on our software model. And, second, we have an expanded partnership with Distilled (new US site: Distilled LLC), who’ll be taking over many of our consulting clients and opening offices here in Seattle. I’m going to talk briefly about both of these below, then add detail on why we’re so bullish about the SEO software market.
SEOmoz started in 2004 as a blog where I could post my struggles and learnings about search engine optimization. By 2005, the business was taking real consulting clients under the SEOmoz name. In 2007, we launched PRO membership, our self-service SaaS product and by the end of the year, PRO was 50% of our revenue. As I noted in the post on our venture capital process, that number has grown dramatically (to 85% of revenue) and in 2010, our goal is to make it the sole focus of the company.
As part of our exit from consulting, we’ve worked hard over the past 6 months with Distilled (note how Will Critchlow has been in a lot of Whiteboard Fridays of late) to help take over our existing clients and transition the handling of consulting leads. As part of this, we determined that Distilled could do the most good by opening an office in Seattle, WA. Duncan Morris is out in Seattle this week (and yes, we’re making him watch the Superbowl next Sunday) to help scout locations and begin hiring. If you’ve got SEO experience and are in the Seattle area, please drop them a line!
What Does this Partnership Mean?
- Distilled will continue to contribute regularly to the blog, Q+A and WB Fridays on SEOmoz (we’ve dealt with the fact that their accents make every piece of advice sound more credible)
- We’ll continue to work jointly in organizing the London and Seattle PRO Training Seminars each year
- Distilled will be helping the SEOmoz product & engineering teams to design, build and test great tools and software (thanks for the help on OSE!)
- Our internal SEO team will be transitioning to focus on product & content development as well as marketing for the SEOmoz site (we’re like the cobbler’s children over here and that needs to change)
- SEOmoz’s active consulting contracts will be 100% complete by June of 2010; however, we’ll continue to provide informal service to non-profits like the United Nations & Seattle Children’s Hospital.
- We’ll be recommending Distilled to many of the folks who ask us for consulting (when there’s a good fit), but will NOT be changing our protocol of continuing to suggest companies on our Recommended List
Why Software?
In the late 1990’s, companies who wanted detailed reporting on their visitor analytics turned to consultants for sophisticated log file analysis or individual installations of code to track data. At the same time, the field of email marketing was dotted by thousands of individual, hard-to-scale, non-standard solutions. Today, SEO is the same way. Whether you’re an external consultant or a in-house operator, you’re almost certainly mashing up dozens of web-based tools, possibly with home-grown software and self-built spreadsheets to produce an SEO process that works. While many of us have found ways to do this effectively, there have been no platforms of SEO software to set the standards. That’s what we’re trying to change.
At SEOmoz, we believe that the promotion of ideas on the web needs to be simplified and that it starts with SEO. Small and medium businesses, web-based startups and consultants of all sizes need tools to help make their lives easier and processes that track important data for them, identify actionable metrics and report externally the missed opportunities and competitive landscape we all face. Just look how dollars are spent in the search marketing sphere:
(sadly, no 2009 numbers yet, but the distribution is likely very similar, though spending now exceeds $14B)
Now compare that to where growth is expected in online marketing over the next few years:
This summer, SEOmoz will be releasing our new software platform (and in the meantime, there will be plenty of other releases including an update to Open Site Explorer, a new Keyword Difficulty tool, a dramatically upgraded mozbar and more). We hope you’ll join us for this exciting journey.
p.s. I also wanted to call out Jon Henshaw’s terrific post on software vs. services. After working hard to develop this partnership over the last few months and transition out of consulting, we couldn’t help but ponder the old adage of great minds thinking alike. 
Update from Will: My post on the deal is now live as well over on the Distilled blog.
Thanks to everyone who entered this week’s ‘win a book’ competition here on ProBlogger.
It’s been a while since I ran any kind of competition so to have over 1500 entries was a real rush (and quite overwhelming).
I’ve just closed off the competition and randomly drawn the winners. They are:
- Susan Geene – Yes: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
- Chris – Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for effective Internet Marketing
- Sandra – Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success
- Stephen – Blog Blazers: 40 Top Bloggers Share their Secrets to Creating a High-Profile High-Traffic and High Profit Blog
- Randy Hawes – Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What it’s Becoming and Why it Matters
- Donna – ProBlogger the Book
If you share a name with one of these people check your email to confirm if it was you – I’ve emailed all 6 to get their delivery addresses.
Thanks again everyone – to the 1506 people who didn’t win – better luck next time!
Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.
Competition Winners – These 6 People Won a Book
OK – I have a pile of books that is growing beside my desk (and on my desk… and on my bookshelf) made up of books that I’ve either finished with or that I have multiple copies of.
I’d like to do a bit of a giveaway today of a few of them and all you need to do is leave a comment saying which one you’d like.
Below I’m listing 5 6 books (I’ll link to them on Amazon so you can read more about them) and I’m asking you to nominate ONE (not more than one…. just one) that you’d like to be in the running for.
This Wednesday I’ll randomly choose a winner for each book, contact you to get your mailing details and pop them in the mail for you (I’ll pay for the shipping).
Here are the 5 books:
- Yes: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
- Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for effective Internet Marketing
- Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success
- Blog Blazers: 40 Top Bloggers Share their Secrets to Creating a High-Profile High-Traffic and High Profit Blog
- Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What it’s Becoming and Why it Matters
Oh and for a little extra I’ll throw in a copy of ProBlogger the Book as a 6th Alternative.
Remember – you can only choose 1 – just use the name of the book in the comment – (this way I’ll know you’re getting a book you don’t have) so choose carefully!
Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.
WIN a Book By Commenting on This Post
Online Marketing Inside Out
11/19/09
Since the online marketing space is still relatively new for so many businesses, SitePoint approached Brandon Eley and Shayne Tilley about writing a book on the subject. The book called Online Marketing Inside Out provides an introduction to Internet marketing and explains why it is important for businesses to embrace.
WebProNews caught up with Brandon Eley who discussed specific elements of the book. Each chapter covers an area of online marketing such as search engine optimization, pay per click marketing, email marketing, social media, and more. In the end, the book ties all the areas together and offers advice for creating an online campaign and tracking the results.
Many businesses have a website but do not know how to make it visible to their audience. Eley said this is one of the biggest challenges businesses face. The book provides answers to this challenge and also gives tips that encourage customers to act.
If you would like to learn more about Online Marketing Inside Out, you can purchase it at any major bookstore or on Amazon.
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One of my favorite WordPress themes – Thesis – has in the last week released an update with some pretty cool features.
My strategy with blog design is like this. I generally aim towards a completely customized blog design that will give my blog a distinct look and brand – but before I work towards that I almost always start with a more affordable option because I like to test to see whether the blog is going to work or not.
As a result I’ve always been on the look out for great themes and when Chris Pearson and Brian Clark started DIYthemes and released the Thesis theme I was keen to test it.
I used Thesis as the first theme on TwiTip and have been very happy with it.
I’m actually about to release a complete overhaul of the design of that blog (completely custom) but in the year or so since TwiTip’s release I’ve been more than satisfied with Thesis. It’s been easy to use, it’s set up really well by default for Search Engine Optimization and it’s been easy to add extra things in (like advertising spots etc).
I never did much with changing much of the default design on TwiTip but many bloggers use Thesis as the basis for quite impressive customizations. You wouldn’t know it to look at but blogs like Chris Brogan, CopyBlogger, Laughing Squid and Rae Hoffman all use Thesis as the basis for their blog design.
The new update for Thesis (you get all these updates for free if you’ve already got it) takes the version up to 1.6. It includes new navigation menus with drop down menus and the ability to change colors throughout the themes without having to get into the code.
I’m told also that Thesis 2.0 is also being worked on and promises to be a fantastic update.
PS: here’s a cool video that shows just some of what Thesis is like to use – in it Chris Pearson plays around with changing the default layout in a number of ways to shot you how you can begin to customize it.
Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.
Thesis Theme for WordPress Upgrades to Version 1.6
Posted by Sam Niccolls
To identify the most linked to pages on some of the world’s most popular sites, we used SEOmoz’s Linkscape powered Top Pages Tool and compiled a list of the most linked to pages on the web.
The results, broken out by website and by category, are not all what you might expect. From Google to GaGa the internet’s most linked to pages offer a look at your favorite domains that will leave you both scratching your head and laughing.
en.wikipedia.org
5 Things You Didn’t Know About Wikipedia:
- Twitter is more linked to than global warming.
- Search Engine Optimization is almost 2x more linked to than Barack Obama.
- Series of tubes is more linked to than computer.
- Google is more linked to than world wide web
- Sarah Palin is more linked to than Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, or North America.
www.youtube.com
Most Linked to Videos:
- Susan Boyle Performs on Britain’s Got Talent
- Rick Astley – Rick Roll
- Judson Laipply – Evolution of Dance
- Work at Home Infomercial (in Polish)
- Web 2.0 The Machine is Us/ing Us
- Free Hugs Campaign
- OK Go on Treadmills
- Michael Jackson – Thriller
- Rick Astley – Rick Roll (Sadly, this is not a typo. It really is on the list twice…)
- Battle at Kruger Between Lions, Buffaloes, & Crocodiles
www.dictionary.com
Most Linked to Words:
Interesting:
- Pedophile is more linked to than friend.
- Anime is more linked to than America.
- Football (American) more linked to than love.
www.craigslist.org
Most Linked to Items for Sale:
Most Linked to Editorials:
- Hey Crackhead
- Why Geeks and Nerds Are Worth It
- Star Wars Guide to US Presidential Candidates
- Vasectomy
- Advice to Young Men From an Old Man
www.facebook.com.png)
Most Linked to Groups:
- The Great Nationwide Kiss-in
- Fair Copyright for Canada
- A G-A-Y Foamparty
- "Hey Facebook, Breastfeeding is Not Obscene! (Official petition to Facebook)"
- Nouveau Riche Nationwide Community
www.myspace.com
Most Linked to Bands:
twitter.com.png)
Most Linked to Companies:
Most Linked to Celebrities:
www.imdb.com
Most Linked to Actors:
Most Linked to Movies:
www.hulu.com
Most Linked to TV Shows:
www.perezhilton.com
Most Linked to Celebrity Categories (tags):
- Heidi Montag
- Michael Jackson
- Britney Spears
- Lady Gaga
- Lindsay Lohan (Warning: You cannot unsee this page.)
www.icanhascheezburger.com
Most Linked to Cat Pictures:
- I Can Has cheezburger 3
- I Has a Bucket
- In Depth Analysis by David Mcraney
- Oldest Lolcat Ever Found
- Lol Kitteh as a Second Language
www.cracked.com
Most Linked to Articles:
www.collegehumor.com
Most Linked to Videos:
- We Didn’t Start the Flamewar
- Font Conference
- The Matrix Runs on Windows
- 24 Unaired 1995 Pilot
- Minesweeper the Movie
www.allrecipes.com
Most Linked to Recipes:
- Sausage, Apple, & Cranberry Stuffing
- Creole Cornbread Stuffing
- Brownie Mix in a Jar
- Ham & Cheese Picnic Bread
- Candy Coated Chocolates
www.webmd.com
Most Linked to Health Ailments:
www.foxnews.com
Most Linked to Stories:
- Hundreds of WMDs Found in Iraq
- Cost of Freedom Recap (Dec 2004)
- America’s Debt Rises
- Transcript / Video of Bush and Kerry Debate
- US Consumer Credit Card Debt May Crash the Economy
www.whitehouse.gov
Most Linked to U.S. Presidents:
Most Linked to U.S. First Ladies
Source: All data for this post has been pulled from Linkscape, which is SEOmoz’s index of the world wide web.
Contributors: This post was a collaborative effort with help from both Scott Willoughby and Danny Dover.
What is true virality? According to Ben Huh, CEO and Founder of The Cheezburger Network, it is the concept that people reach when they come to the conclusion that they understand something “collectively” and not “explicitly.” The idea behind “true” is thinking about other people’s wants and needs and fulfilling them.
The Cheezburger Network does this by producing content that is funny and enjoyable. When a business focuses on others instead of itself, the “true” will come out and will also result in viral content.
One aspect of “true” is simplicity. Whether it is search engine optimization, social media, advertising, or in this case, content publishers, users want simplicity. The Cheezburger Network tries to produce “everyday” content that will withstand the long-term.
To further incorporate this concept of “true,” Huh suggests utilizing platforms that encourage this idea such as WordPress, YouTube, and others.
Does your business model include the philosophy of “true”?
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