1. MORE TH>N Business Case Study B2B: Measurability & ROI Dean Harvey Sept 2009
2. overview iCrossing UK has been working incredibly successfully with major insurance provider MORE TH>N on its natural search strategy since 2006. In 2008, the company turned to iCrossing to drive the natural search profile of its dedicated business division MORE TH>N BUSINESS.
3. objective The core objective of the campaign was to increase natural search traffic to, and business insurance policies sold via, www.morethanbusiness.com. In this massively competitive, yet low-interest sector, driving traffic from potential buyers of business insurance through natural search referrals was identified as a key goal to deliver low-cost, high-converting traffic.
4. Strategy iCrossing’s core strategy was to produce and disseminate strong, useful and unique content relevant to MORE TH>N BUSINESS’s potential customers. The content would make the MORE TH>N BUSINESS site a valuable resource for businesses by covering unique and specialised content; the kind that is usually missed by the major media outlets and so build the brand and drive traffic.
5. What is SEO? A guide to understanding the methodology of search engines “ Link by link, click by click, search is building possibly the most lasting, ponderous, and significant cultural artifact in the history of humankind: the Database of Intentions. ” - John Batelle , The Search 80% of all website visits start with a search engine
6. Search engine spiders comb the internet through links, looking for documents and their corresponding URLs. These documents and web addresses are collected and sent to the search engine’s indexing software, then to their databases where they are stored. Search spiders follow links Software compiles pages Pages stored in database Natural search retrieval process 3 url url url url url url url 1 2
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8. SEO FUNDAMENTALS iCROSSING APPROACH Useful and engaging content to address the user in their language. Can search engines find it? Reputation/credibility and relevance defined by the wider web Social User interaction and conversations Content Accessibility Links
9. Search engines do not treat flash in the same way as regular HTML elements. While links in Flash files are indexed, the anchor text is not, reducing the optimisation of high value top level pages. FLASH NAVIGATION Avoid Flash Navigation
10. FLASH BASED SITE Some search engines, such as Google, are able to index a limited amount of Flash content, but as a general rule, having a site created entirely in Flash poses numerous challenges. / A single file – limited optimisation / Poor usability / Reduces deep linking / Poor visibility on mobile devices (iPhone) / Poor visibility in search Mix HTML with Flash Create a Non Flash Version
11. Search engines will read the content in the order it appears within the HTML. This can cause issues where there’s excessive scripting and navigational code proceeding optimised content. This can reduce the impact of content. In extreme cases where a page is partially crawled, the real content may not be indexed and the page treated as duplicate Use layers to reposition priority content early on in the HTML CONTENT PRIORITY Prioritise content within the HTML
12. CREDIBILITY: LINKS Link Reputation and relevance Visibility in search results are based largely on the credibility of the site. Credibility is determined by the number and quality of external links to your site. Anchor text
13. iCrossing and MORE TH>N BUSINESS were keen to identify niche terms that were used – these were less competitive than the more obvious keywords and were also more business specific. For example, analysis has shown that terms such as ‘florist insurance’ have the potential to be just as powerful as more generic terms such as ‘shop insurance’.
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23. The SEO Tactics continued All content is optimised ( text, images, audio & video). Advertorials on third-party sites target new audiences and support link equity for specific products. Content development is synchronised with PR activity to complement new products - editorial and promotional content support each other in a legitimate and authentic way. Joined up activity with PR Advertorial for Van & Bus Car Optimised Podcasts
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30. The Detail NB Please note that due to the latest Google Update “Vince”, positions are currently fluctuating quite significantly, but we have started to see some great visibility for terms we have previously not been visible for (ie “landlords insurance”).
In this massively competitive, yet low-interest sector, driving traffic from potential buyers of business insurance through natural search referrals was identified as a key goal to deliver low-cost, high-converting traffic. Gaining profile for relevant terms in search engines would mean competing head on with traditional media outlets as well as MORE TH>N’s established competitive set. However, if successful, the project would help build a stronger relationship with existing and potential customers in a sector where cynicism is high, as well as drive valuable traffic to sales.
In the natural search space, securing valuable traffic from search listings requires a new approach to online marketing – one that focuses on building valuable content for users that is highly-targeted and expertly delivered, rather than ‘advertising’. Rather than just optimising the site structure and inserting relevant keywords, high-value content is important to attract both customers and search engines, leading to iCrossing’s content based approach to this project.
So – whilst this is not an lesson in SEO it’s important to understand a few basic principles – to understand how the More Than Business strategy differed from traditional SEO strategies. SEO or sometimes called NSO (read out) is full of jargon, it’s sometimes seen as a black art – however it’s importance is undeniable. 80% of all website visits start with a Search engine According to John Batelle...................
And so when looking at a NSO strategy the Best Practice can be broken down into 4 areas, Accessibility, Relevancy, Credibility and Measurability. And it’s a virtuous circle.
And the key ingredients to doing well in search engines is as follows. With MTB the accessibility aspect of the programme had long since been fixed – so what was going to “win” in the short term focussed on the other 3 areas.
And there’s are some big no-no’s in SEO – mention Hunterskil Howard. Here’s just a few snippets – as i said it’s not a lesson in SEO – we don’t have time for that – but some handy hints......
Looking at the quick wins – this is a competitive market place – were there Search terms which their competitors weren’t doing that well for OR were there search terms where we could quickly get higher place search term rankings? This is a process we call linguistic profiling – essentially this is search term research that then informs the strategy.
So here’s a search term results page – for the jargon minded – this is what’s called a SERP iCrossing’s work has established the site consistently in the top three Google listings for the critical term “small business insurance” and a constant presence for small business news on the Google News site, combined with thumbnail images. Visibility in Google has increased against all key terms.
And clicking through from the Google SERP – this is the home page of More Than Business (talk through the tabs and the navigation) As a result, total traffic from natural search referrals has increased by 6.5 times since the start of the project, including a five times increase from non-branded search terms.
2. All content search-engine optimised, including text, images, audio and video, to ensure maximum natural search visibility against identified terms. These terms are constantly re-evaluated to support new product launches, niche audience targeting and adapt to market changes and topical events. 3. Advertorials launched on third-party sites to target new audiences and support specific products 4. The use of linguistic profiling to identify the language used by target audiences, relevant terms and their content needs. 5. Also, content development has been synchronized with PR activity to complement new products and research to create a “virtuous circle” whereby editorial and promotional content are constantly cross-linked to support each other in a legitimate and authentic way
Over the course of 2008, the number of successful applications on the site delivered by natural listings has increased by 90%, almost double the target, and the value of sales by 70%. Considering the economic climate, particularly towards the end of the year, this has been a remarkable performance.
