In-house search engine optimization for big brands

Big companies face special challenges when developing their own search engine optimization strategies, especially when it comes to integrating SEO in other marketing and IT activities. ‘

Nevertheless, there are lessons here that can be useful for small companies and organisations as well.

One of the first sessions on the New York April SES conference wan In-hose Big SEO chaired by Jeffrey K. Rohrs of Optiem, LLC. We listened in.

SEO must be integrated into the organization

Bill Hunt of Global Strategies made the first presentation, and made some very important points.

SEO must be integrated into the organization at the right level, he said. It must be planned and well organized, and integrated into Web development. This requires the implementation of internal procedures to minimize unexpected problems. One way of doing this is to develop style guides and “web rule books”.

This means bringing the relevant people together: The video teams, those working on press releases, ICT people etc., and it means that you have to sell the concept of search engine optimization (SEO) to all these people.

Check the content creation work-flow and deploy standards and best practices, was Hunt’s advice. Share knowledge with the rest of the organisation, for instance by using a wiki.

Different levels of activity

Organizations of this size have different levels of activities and you should segment your SEO program accordingly, Hunt argued.

He presented three levels: the brand level, the group level, and the corporate level.

To avoid duplication of work, it makes sense to do as much as possible on the widest, corporate, level. For instance, it makes sense to aggregate you keyword research for all your brands at the corporate level.

The need for numbers

All speakers underlined the need for metrics and analytics. To make the right strategic choices you need to know your numbers.

What’s more, statistics can be used to legitimize SEO efforts, convince management and others of the need for SEO and the effect of your SEO efforts.

Hunt argued that you should document what your current state is, for instance by delivering a report on the ranking of selected keyword phrases to the management. The fact that your competitors are doing better is a good motivator.

He argued for the need for “site wide algorithm compliance audits”. You may, for instance, build a template to identify problem items and then provide practice recommendations. Focus on the basics!

He gave one useful example of such a recommendation: Template changes have a wide impact. You should have the company name in title tags, but apart form that focus on the important keyword phrases.

Moreover, show continuous improvement. Document what has changed in the audit.

Another tip was to develop a preferred landing page scorecard. It doesn’t help to rank high for an important keyword phrase if the search engine result link does not point to the right page. Ranking high is not enough.

Prove the value of the program

You have to document the usefulness of SEO and prove the value of the program.

One way of doing this, Hunt said, is to develop a missed opportunity matrix. For instance: You can compare the number of searches with the number of people visiting your web site.

Or you may document how much money you would save if people clicked on regular organic, search engine listings instead of text ads you are paying for. Show what it costs not to rank organically.

Brendan Hart, Director of Customer Acquisition at National Geographic, explained how his team had demystified SEO. They had for instance made sure that SEO was included in all in-house marketing presentations. He now found that content managers are begging for SEO help.

Tanya Vaughan, Global SEO Program Manager for the Hewlett-Packard Company, said that people in her company are now buying in and are willing to learn more about SEO. They focus hard on education and the documentation of the impact of SEO.

Project and monitor success.

One important message from Hunt was the need for search effectiveness metrics. You need to know how many pages are indexed, how much traffic your search listings are generating etc. Such figures may give you early warning signs if you have problems.

SEO in the New York Times

Marshall D. Simmonds, the Chief Search Strategist of the New York Times, gave some interesting examples of problems facing a large site like theirs.

Among the challenges facing the newspaper was the large number of documents (some 11 million).

The email registration wall and paid subscription walls (i.e. that readers have to fill in forms to read the content) stopped the search engines from indexing NYT content. Moving the registration wall back five clicks had an enormous effect. Now the search engines can index all pages.

The New York Times has a “huge company ego”, he said, and it is hard to change journalists’ style of writing. There will be resistance to change.

However, there are also special advantages of having a large site like this. Even small changes to the template may give big results, search engine traffic wise.

Putting the company name at the end of the title had a huge effect. Changing the title tag of the NYT movie section to reflect movie reviews was also effective.

Focus on in-house SEO education

Like Hunt, Simmonds focused on the collaborative aspect of in-house SEO. You will need an on-site SEO program manager and an engaged team of people from marketing, technology, research, editorial and even sales.

Big brands can hire an in-house search specialist or a team to train these persons, but do establish an internal SEO team.

Continue to educate and teach SEO best practices, Simmonds argued.

Write a short fact sheet. Perform separate training session for the technical staff, designers, and the editorial staff. The SEO team does audits and gives the different departments different feed-back.

Measure results

Simmonds recommended that companies measure results on an ongoing basis.

You have to set base lines and track on a monthly basis. (Tracking on a weekly basis will drive your people crazy, he added).

You can for example use the metrics to predict what is going to happen, seasonality. Mothers day will give you so much traffic. Seasonal info will also prepare people for the inevitable decline in traffic.

Executives also understand these kinds of numbers, he said, which makes it easier to communicate the need for SEO inside the company.

Use solutions like Omniture, WebTrends, Hitwise etc. You can apply metrics to your revenue model.

More of Pandia’s Search Engine Strategies coverage.