The document discusses growth hacking using SEO. It begins with an introduction to SEO, covering on-site and off-site optimization techniques like keywords, links, and content creation. Rules for growth hacking with SEO are then presented, such as understanding your audience and competitors, applying technical fixes, analyzing keywords and pages for improvement opportunities, testing and optimizing pages, and creating different types of content to drive traffic. The presentation emphasizes using multiple digital marketing channels along with SEO to drive more customers.

1. GROWTH HACKING
WITH SEO
Speaker: Alex Rascanu
Director of Marketing & Operations, Conversion
Founder, Marketers Without Borders
www.alexrascanu.com l @alexrascanu
Date: August 15, 2014
Audience: students in Ryerson University’s
Master of Digital Media class

2. GROWTH HACKING IS
DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING

3. THIS IS NOT A GROWTH CURVE

4. THIS IS A GROWTH CURVE
Period of strategic,
sustainable growth
Rapid, unsustainable
tactical growth

5. 1. BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO SEO

6. Search engines (Google, Baidu, Yahoo, Yandex, Bing, etc.)
are now a core resource for people looking for an
organization, product or service.
As business leaders, we need to adapt to the changing
consumer search landscape and ensure that our brands
are found by our target audience through Search Engine
Optimization (SEO).
BACKGROUND ON SEO

7. ON-SITE SEO
1. Find the best keywords around which to focus each page
Image source: Google AdWords Keywords Planner

8. Image source: Rand Fishkin at Moz
2. Make it clear to
search engines that
the page you’re
trying to rank is
highly relevant to
people searching
for that word/phrase

9. OFF-SITE SEO
“Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic
nature of the web when other sites find your content
valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors.”
(Google)
Generate links for your website because:
1. Links increase the authority and trustworthiness of a page to
search engines => increased overall authority for the website
2. Links help search engines connect the relevancy of a page
with specific keywords (based on the keywords used in a link’s
anchor text)

10. HOW NOT TO BUILD LINKS:
- Directories
- Paid links
- Article marketing
HOW TO BUILD LINKS:
- Blog
- Visual content
- Product/campaign launches
- Build a community
- Social media
Image source: HubSpot

11. 2. GROWTH HACKING WITH SEO

12. RULES
1. KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE: what they are looking for, what
problems they have or what opportunities they want to take advantage of,
their level of awareness about your brand, what online newspapers/blogs
they read, what style of writing connects with them
2. KNOW YOUR COMPETITORS: who is targeting the same keywords in
organic search, which sites is your target audience most likely to visit
when they leave yours
3. KNOW YOUR GOAL FOR THE SITE TRAFFIC YOU’RE ABOUT TO
GET. Traffic doesn’t matter, customers do. That’s why you should get them
to take action when they’re on your site.

13. 1
APPLY TECHNICAL SEO FIXES.
THEY CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN TRAFFIC.
Image source: John Doherty

14. 2
USE CUSTOM REPORTS IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS TO
UNDERSTAND WHICH KEYWORDS ARE CONVERTING WELL.
Image source: Dirty Analytics

15. 3
SPOT OPPORTUNITIES TO GET BETTER RANKINGS, CLICK-
THROUGH-RATES AND CONVERSIONS.

16. 4
CREATE PAGES FOR EVERY KEY ASPECT OF YOUR
PRODUCT/SERVICE & YOUR MOST IMPORANT LOCATIONS
Remember to add a
Call to Action button!

17. 5 USE A/B TESTING AND CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION
Page A – The Obama team tested several
combinations of visuals and CTAs to identify the
most effective pair
Page B – The winning combination engaged emotion
with the image of the Obama family in conjunction with
the Learn More button
Improvement: 40% increase in sign-up rate, resulting in $60 million additional donations
Source: Unbounce

18. 6 MAKE SURE ALL YOUR PAGES LOAD IN LESS THAN 1 SECOND
Loading time affects
your bottom line.
Image source: Pingdom

19. 7
EVALUATE YOUR BOUNCE RATE AND UPDATE THE PAGES
WITH THE HIGHEST BOUNCE RATE
Image source: KISSmetrics

20. 8
LET THE MEDIA KNOW WHAT YOU’RE UP TO
(WHEN YOU HAVE REAL NEWS TO SHARE)
Compile a media list
yourself, but you may also
want to use a PR tool like
www.pitchpigeon.com
($49 per pitch)

21. 9
SEND TARGETED CONTENT TO USER.
WATCH YOUR ENGAGEMENT INCREASE.
Image source: John Doherty

22. 10
WRITE ONE OR MORE OF THESE TYPES OF CONTENT
TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE
1. Infographics
2. Memes
3. Videos
4. Guides
5. Book reviews
6. Opinion articles
7. Product reviews
8. How-to articles
9. Lists
10. Link pages
11. Ebooks
12. Case studies
13. Podcasts
14. Interviews
15. Research & original data
Source: QuickSprout

23. 11 TELL YOUR STORY INSTEAD OF JUST TALKING ABOUT YOUR
PRODUCT (PERSOANAL, HISTORICAL OR “MEET THE GURU” STORY)

24. Growth hacking is using marketing
channels to drive more customers and/or
upsell current ones.
Your approach should involve SEO, but it’s also
important to use content, social media, or other
digital marketing channels.

25. Alex Rascanu
Director of Marketing & Operations, Conversion
Founder, Marketers Without Borders
www.alexrascanu.com
@alexrascanu
THANK YOU