SEO – A B2B Marketer’s Best Friend - MarketingProfs kid in town – social media marketing...

SEO – A B2B Marketer’s Best Friend

May 4, 2010

Veronica “Niki” Fielding President/CEO

Introduction

If you could

Increase sales

would you?

Introduction

If you could

Increase Awareness

would you?

Introduction

If you could

Generate Interest & Inquiries

would you?

Introduction

You can, so why aren’t you?

SEO Is Misunderstood

• At one time it was the cool kid that everyone wanted to know


• Then it became that mysterious rebel - was it good? was it bad?


• Then it was something that everybody claimed to be doing


• And now it’s being overshadowed by the new kid in town – social media marketing

Social media is awesome!

Today We Will

• Examine what it takes to do “real” SEO

• Explode the myths

• Review how emerging search vehicles affect SEO – Real time search

– Personalized search

– Mobile search

– Local search

– Social media

• And help you determine if and how to get real SEO done for your website

SEO 101

1. Goals—What business benefit will you achieve from SEO?

2. Keyword selection—it all flows from here

3. Tags/Programming—

– Title tags, content descriptions, alt text, etc.

– Limited Flash, well placed java script

4. Onsite content—copy that works for humans & search engines

SEO 101

5. Links—in-bound from authority sites on each keyword

6. Multimedia content—it helps when all things are equal

7. Refreshed content—stale content is so 1999

8. New platform optimization--iPad, mobile phones, etc.

9. Measurement—are you achieving goals, how to improve

Real SEO Takes Real Work

• Average hours

– Getting a site optimized for 30 or so keywords typically takes ~70 hours

• 40-50 hours research/recommendations

• 15-20 hours copywriting/editing

• 8-10 hours programming

• Even if fully outsourced, there are decisions and approvals to be made by the client-side of the team

Real SEO Takes Real Teamwork

• It’s a team effort that typically involves:

– The optimizer (specialists who stays abreast of how search engines factor content, programming, and other components)

– Programmers to modify tags, coding, etc. in light of SEO recommendations

– Copywriters for on-website and link building content

– Social media writers trained in content distribution strategies

– Liaison with other marketing teams (paid search, social media, PR, offline marketing, etc.)

– The sales team for goal setting and ongoing success measurements

Real SEO Requires Real Attention

• To link building—it’s an ongoing process for at least 2 years for most sites

• To analyzing results—not just skimming a report but anticipating what it is projecting and what needs to be done next

• To fixing break downs—links broken, sites moved, pages need redirects

• To evolving influencers—personal search, mobile search, real-time search, etc.

Exploding Myths

Myth #1: Google gives higher rankings to sites that advertise with it

FALSE: This rumor has been around for as long as Google. It’s just not true, as has been shown time and again.

Exploding Myths

Myth #2: Google doesn’t like optimizers and will kick your site out if you optimize

FALSE: Google and the other search engines each have a set of guidelines on their sites for how they like optimizers to work with them to deliver great results for searchers. Google even has dedicated teams working with the search management community to drive towards best practices that benefit us all.

Exploding Myths

Myth #3: Google gives higher rankings to sites that get a lot of clicks

FALSE: If your strategy is to click on your own site repeatedly, you may start seeing your site appear higher up in the search results due to Google’s customization strategy – meaning, you are seeing your site higher in the results because Google, judging by what you’ve clicked on in the last 180 days, has decided that you value that site and will serve it up to you more often. Other searchers, though, will not see the same result.

Exploding Myths

Myth #4: Optimization “ruins” copy

FALSE: Tediously repeating keywords would ruin any copy. But that’s not real optimization. Real optimization involves understanding the brand, its messaging, its audiences and their behaviors AND THEN writing copy that first satisfies the audience’s need for information, and then raises its hand for the search engines to notice.

Exploding Myths

Myth #5: SEO is a one-time event

FALSE: Making a one-time event of optimizing the tags and text on your site and ensuring the search engines can read through your code will most likely give your site a modest bump in search engine traffic followed by a return to pre-“optimization” levels. Optimization requires an ongoing analysis of how the sites that are ranking are achieving success. Creating enticing content and generating quality links from authority sites requires an ongoing investment in the evolution of your website.

Exploding Myths

Myth #6: If you put links in your comments on third-party blog posts you’ll get higher rankings for your website

FALSE: Nice try, but the search engines caught onto this about 4 years ago. And pay-per-posts aren’t popular with Google’s algorithm either, by the way. But wait, there’s more…bloggers don’t like you trying to shamelessly promote your brands this way either. Many blogs have “no follow” tags for this very reason

Exploding Myths

Myth #7: You don’t have to optimize for Bing and Yahoo if you optimize for Google since Google’s the most challenging for optimizers

FALSE: While Google’s algorithm is by far the most complex and places a heavy weight on keyword-rich in-bound links from quality sites, Bing considers a great number of on-page factors and Yahoo still looks at volumes of links more than link quality.

Real SEO is Kinda’ Hard

• Real SEO is a balance between art & science

• Real SEO isn’t just tags and it’s not a quick fix

• Real SEO is like any other investment: apply resources appropriately and reap the rewards

• Real SEO requires:

– Intuition and reliance on past experience

– Development of hypotheses and ongoing testing

– A strong commitment from Marketing, IT and others

• Real SEO is evolving…rumors of it’s imminent death have been circulating since it’s birth

The Benefits

• More traffic from people using keywords to search for exactly what they need

– These are qualified searchers

• If your website & SEO are aligned, you will generate actions from these highly interested seekers

• SEO done right makes a marketer the CFOs best friend

– It delivers people who are predisposed to buy from the website that draws them in and answers their need

Where is SEO Going?

• Real time search

– Businesses have the opportunity to appear in the real-time search results

– More importantly, their customers do

– Important to monitor the conversation – quick response is critical

• If you’ve waited 24 hours to respond to criticism, questions or controversy, you’re too late

Where is SEO Going?

• Personalized search

– Google customizes results based on search history using cookies

– A searcher who clicks a result and doesn’t bounce back indicates to Google that the site was valuable and it will be served up in a higher position for that user next time

– Websites must be well-branded and deliver on promises in order to remain relevant and attractive to searchers:

Where is SEO Going?

• Mobile search

– Push towards mobile has been heavily backed by the emergence of smartphones

– Sites must be formatted and searchable from these smaller browsing platforms

• Optimized for mobile search

• Easy to load

• Easy to navigate site from the mobile screen

Where is SEO Going?

• Local search

– Google search engine algorithms give high attention to the geographic location of a search query

– Make sure your business has its local profiles set up

– Make sure your website is optimized for local search queries, such as “Princeton business supplies” not just “business supplies”

Where is SEO Going?

• Social Media

– Social sites generate buzz that can result in inbound links

– LinkedIn profile links can be optimized

– Digital outposts drive traffic to the main site

– Digital outposts and multimedia content appear in SERPs resulting in potential for securing multiple top 10 positions

Where is SEO Going?

• Other emerging SEO tactics:

– Site load speed

• Matt Cutts, the head of Web spam at Google, told the PubCon Las Vegas audience that site loading speed may be used as a new ranking factor for 2010

– QDF (Query Deserves Freshness) Link Quality

• QDF refers to a search query that requires more recent results (like “Haiti Earthquake” or “Tiger Woods scandal”)

• Tactics used to meet this need include publishing blog content and press releases around a hot topic – this can quickly find its way into the SERPs

Larry Davis from PTS - Introduction

• About PTS

• Where we began:

– 17 top 20 positions – none on Google

– Organic search was just 26% of total site traffic

– Competitive share of 37%

– No social media initiatives

Larry Davis from PTS – The Strategy

• Classic SEO

– Keyword research

– Development of optimized content for each keyword

– Technical recommendations to create a search-engine friendly site

– Link building

– Includes ongoing optimization of new and updated keywords over time


• Paid Search

– Provided a presence while SEO was taking hold

– Reinforces value of natural listings

– Delivers high value leads


• Blog

– Provides additional optimization opportunities and establish PTS as cutting edge and a thought leader

– Additional PTS presence in the search engine results pages

– Refers 200-400 visitors to the website monthly

– Used to build optimized inbound links to website (blog hosted on separate domain)


• Social Media

– Generates buzz, leading to new inbound links

– Drives traffic to website

– Additional visibility via Real Time Search

– Ensures that PTS dominates the SERPs for searches on its name

– Positions PTS on the leading edge of technology and reinforce its place as a thought leader

– Establishes relationships with others in the data center community

Larry Davis from PTS - Benefits of SEO

• Where we are today:

– 132 top 20 positions, 92% of which are in the top 10, 25% of which are #1

– Organic search accounts for 65% of total site traffic

– Competitive share of 81% (PTSdcs.com and blog combined)

– Robust social media activities supporting SEO initiatives

Larry Davis from PTS – Benefits of SEO

• Increased Sales:

– The website is second only to outside sales in delivering new inquiries, accounts for more than a third of all inquiries (data

from end of 2009)

– The website is the #3 lead source for new sales, accounting for almost 20% of all new sales (data from end of 2009)


• Reputation Fortification:

– For many keywords, PTS holds 2 listings (one for the main site and one for the blog)

– For searches on the company name, all top 10 listings are PTS-generated content (either PTS digital outposts or press releases)


• Increased Awareness: – Robust social media program, including a blog, Facebook,

LinkedIn and Twitter promotes PTS as an industry thought leader and provides:

• Media opportunities (interviews, guest blogger spots)

• Networking opportunities

• Additional site traffic

• Opportunity to appear in Real Time Search

– By generating social media buzz, PTS gained inbound links from reputable websites

– PTS is also able to create optimized links back to its main website from its Blogspot-hosted blog

Larry Davis from PTS – Challenges

• Ongoing battle of visual appeal versus content

Who Wins? It All Depends.

Larry Davis from PTS - Challenges


• Ongoing battle of visual appeal versus content

• Who Wins? It All Depends.

Who is your target audience?

What are they buying?

Do they want content, education, products…? PTS focuses on Engineers

who visit the site to learn


• The task of writing technical content versus writing copy

– Difficult to educate a copywriter to write the content we need for page generation

– Tough for technical experts to write in a consistent and concise format


• Ranking well with content without educating the competition

– Our metrics show a significant number of competitors visit our site to “borrow” our process and service content

– How do we protect our intellectual property while still driving content for SEO?


• Limitations of Tracking Programs

– Sales closed off-line may not be captured as sales generated by SEO

Larry Davis from PTS – Going Forward

• Animation and Visuals Helping Rather than Hurting Rankings

– We would love to use more visuals on our site but the search engines don’t favor this for optimization

• Impact of Content Syndicated Web Pages on Ranking

– PTS will begin to deploy content syndicated or private labeled web pages from various OEM partners.

– How will this affect SEO?

Larry Davis from PTS – Going Forward

• Explore and Validate Spending on Social Media Outlets and their Impact on Ranking, Opportunity Generation and Revenues

• PTS will Continue to Drive Significant Business from Our SEO Initiatives

Where Can You Go With SEO?

• Increase sales

• Fortify your reputation

• Increase awareness

• Generate new inquiries

• Increase actions from site visitors

• Integrate with your traditional, paid search, and social media marketing initiatives

Getting It Done: In-House or Agency?

In-House Agency

SEO Expertise Great experts work in-house Great experts work in agencies

Doing Real SEO Challenge to stay current when only working on 1 brand, pulled into other

projects, meetings

Challenge to stay connected with all that is going on with each clients’ brands

Required HR Resources Management thinks “an optimizer” is sufficient

Excel at building teams and keeping them fluid

Cooperation Depends on where it sits—marketing and IT often at odds

Depends on the client team leader’s relationships in the organization

Funding Multiple players, $200,000+ in salaries & benefits

Segmentation of expertise in tiers, $100,000 per year for SEO including programming

resources typical

Build It In-House

• Take the E-Myth approach:

– Document all of the tasks associated with SEO

• Research, programming, content development, content distribution, project management, team liaison

– Give each task a box on an org chart

– Determine the # hours/month/task

– In your organization

• Can you fill the box with an existing person who has bandwidth available

• Do you need to hire

• Do you need to supplement with external resources

Keyword Research

Update Management

on Results

Share info/content with Marketing

Add /Modify HTML Tags

Adjust programming on website

Write web releases

Write feature articles

Write news articles

Write web copy

Analyze Competitors’ Performance

Manage Web

Analytics

Get brand manager

buy-in

Distribute Content

Research in-bound

linking opps

Analyze CRM

& Report Results

Keyword Research

Update Management

on Results




Write web releases


Write news articles

Write web copy


Manage Web

Analytics

Distribute Content

Research in-bound

linking opps

Analyze CRM

& Report Results

Get brand manager

buy-in

Keyword Research

Update Management

on Results




Write web releases


Write news articles

Write web copy


Manage Web

Analytics

Distribute Content

Research in-bound

linking opps

Analyze CRM

& Report Results

Get brand manager

buy-in

Keyword Research

2

Update Management

on Results 2


3


2


1

Write web releases

5 Write feature articles

10

Write news articles

6

Write web copy

2


3

Manage Web

Analytics 7

Distribute Content

10

Research in-bound

linking opps 5

Analyze CRM & Report Results

7

Get brand manager

buy-in 1

Keyword Research

2


3


1

Write web copy

2

Manage Web

Analytics 7

Distribute Content

10

Research in-bound

linking opps 5


7

Get brand manager

buy-in 1


10 Write news

articles 6 Write web

releases 5


3


2

Update Management

on Results 2

Keyword Research

2


3

Adjust programming on website 1 = $150

Write web copy

2

Manage Web

Analytics 7

Distribute Content

10 = $650

Research in-bound

linking opps 5


7

Get brand manager

buy-in 1


10 Write news

articles 6 Write web

releases 5


3


2

Update Management

on Results 2

$1,000

$1,500 $2,000

Build It In-House

• If full time, what else can/will that person do?

– How will job be funded?

• Add training, meeting time, tools required, etc. to cost of the job

Utilize an Agency

• If you decide to go outside, here are some key things to consider:

– Experience in your industry vs. working for competitor

– Black hat vs. white hat optimization approach

• Short-term tech tricks or long-term content strategy

• Risky vs. risk free

– References on:

• Quantifying REAL results

• Process

• Communications

Utilize an Agency

• Ask the hard questions

– Employee turnover

– Client retention

– Certifications

– How do they stay current with best practices?

– Are they a next practices solution?

• Check out their work – Most SEOs don’t optimize their own sites

– Check out the work they’ve done for their clients

• See the sample RFI handout provided for this session

Questions?

Veronica Fielding

Twitter: @VFielding LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/veronicafielding

Or Call Toll Free: 866/651-6767

There have been misconceptions floating around about search marketing—especially search engine optimization (SEO)—for years. Here are 25 of the top myths that we frequently encounter and why they are true or false according to the best practices being developed by the SEO experts here at DBE.

1. SEO is a one-time event

FALSE: Making a one-time event of optimizing the tags and text on your site and ensuring the search engines can read through your code will most likely give your site a modest bump in search engine traffic followed by a return to pre-“optimization” levels. Optimization requires an ongoing analysis of how the sites that are ranking are achieving success. Creating enticing content and generating quality links from authority sites requires an ongoing investment in the evolution of your website.

2. Anyone can manage a paid search program—it’s easy TRUE, BUT: It’s true, paid search programs are easy to set up and easy to maintain. The trick is maximizing your investment. Remember, paid search is a key avenue for revenue generation for the search engines. It’s their business to get you to spend on your campaigns. It’s not in their best interest to get you maximum clicks for minimal spend. That’s where certified paid search specialists come in. They understand how to set up and manage campaigns to YOUR benefit. They also stay on top of the frequent changes the ad networks make that can affect program performance.

3. Reputation management is only for companies that have enemies FALSE: You don’t have to have a crisis in the search results to leverage reputation management. Sometimes old news creeps in to the search results, creating a current day impression of your company based on information that could be several years old.

4. Google doesn’t like optimizers and will kick your site out if you optimize FALSE: A thousand times false. Google and the other search engines each have a set of guidelines on their sites for how they like optimizers to work with them to deliver great results for searchers. Google even has people assigned to working with the search management community to drive towards best practices that benefit us all. Check out the guidelines: Google, Yahoo, MSN

Real SEO, No Myths Allowed

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http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/basics-18.html�

http://help.live.com/Help.aspx?market=en-US&project=WL_Webmasters&querytype=topic&query=WL_WEBMASTERS_REF_GuidelinesforSuccessfulIndexing.htm�

5. Google gives higher rankings to sites that advertise with it FALSE: This rumor has been around for as long as Google. It’s just not true, as has been shown time and again. For some more on this topic, visit Google Groups and Webmaster World

to see what optimizers around the world have been discussing about this.

6. Google gives higher rankings to sites that get a lot of clicks FALSE: Yes, stop sitting there clicking on your site listings in a desperate attempt to get Google’s attention. If, by doing this, you actually start seeing your site appear higher up in the search results, know that this is due to Google’s customization strategy – meaning, you are seeing your site higher in the results because Google, judging by what you’ve clicked on in the last 180 days, has decided that you value that site and will serve it up to you more often. Other searchers, though, will not see the same result. What you can do is invest in real optimization—nothing attracts a search engine spider like lots of keyword-rich content in the title tags, description tag, body copy and in-bound links from authority sites.

7. If you put links in your comments on third-party blog posts you’ll get higher rankings for your website UGH – NO: Nice try, but the search engines caught onto this about 4 years ago. And pay-per-posts aren’t popular with Google’s algorithm either, by the way. But wait, there’s more…bloggers don’t like you trying to shamelessly promote your brands this way either. Many blogs have “no follow” tags for this very reason.

8. You don’t have to optimize for Bing and Yahoo if you optimize for Google since Google’s the most challenging for optimizers. FALSE: While Google’s algorithm is by far the most complex and places a heavy weight on keyword-rich in-bound links from quality sites, Bing considers a great number of on-page factors and Yahoo still looks at volumes of links more than link quality. To win on all three, your optimizer needs to prioritize and balance the recommendations to ensure the copywriters, programmers and designers are applying their resources strategically.

9. Optimization is an art TRUE: Because it’s not fully a science, it requires intuition and reliance on past experience.

10. Optimization is a science TRUE: Because you have to develop hypotheses and test them constantly.

http://groups.google.com/group/adwords-help-basics/browse_thread/thread/f1249ff832ce467e�

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum81/3545.htm�

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11. Optimization is going away FALSE: Doomsday profits have been predicting this since 1995 when SEO first came on the scene. It will keep evolving. Now we’re seeing universal results and sites with tagged multimedia elements taking top rankings in many cases. Mobile search will grow. Optimization is changing—always—but it’s not going away anytime soon especially when its ROI is so readily demonstrable.

12. If you start protecting your reputation now, no bad listings will get in the Top 10 results. FALSE: Negative information can always get through the fortified front you create, but by having a game plan implemented, you are in a much better position to combat negative listings if they arise-- forewarned is forearmed.

13. Every company should enable their employees to post to blogs and social media sites—it’s a free and transparent world FALSE: Every company should have procedures and protocols in place, even if they are to prohibit employees from wading into the social media space without full armor. Some companies, e.g., those in financial services and pharma, can be held accountable for misinformation placed by employees or even for information they fail to address as incorrect once they stumble upon (pun intended) it….

14. Link building isn’t necessary for search engine rankings FALSE: If you want to succeed in MSN, optimize for all 100+ SEO elements and then watch nothing happen on Google because no other sites recognize you as an authority…and Yahoo and MSN factor in-bound links too, so good luck with that “optimization is a one-time event” scam someone’s trying to talk you into.

15. Visibility is the only measurement you need to monitor FALSE: You need to be measuring what you set out to achieve, be it leads, sales, or requests for more info. And remember, as personalized search takes hold, the engines are going to deliver different results to different searchers—so deciding what to measure will be mission-critical.

16. Click-throughs are the only measurement you need to monitor FALSE: You need to be measuring everything that matters to you—and setting up your programs to deliver real information so you can do more of what works and avoid what doesn’t.

17. Companies with in-house capabilities don’t need the help of search marketing agencies FALSE: Even Yahoo outsources some if its SEO projects to agencies. It is estimated that 80% of in-house SEO’s time is spent in meetings about the program vs. 20% actually implementing the program.

18. There is no way to measure the ROI of social media programs FALSE: It’s not exact, but you can benchmark interactions with your brand before launch vs. after 1 month, 2 months, etc.; tag links from digital outpost content back to your website and follow visitors to your site—track them through completion of an action; make assumptions about the increasing number of visitors your site traffic software captures coming from social media sites—where on the site do they go? Shopping cart? Orders rising?

19. There are no certification programs for search marketers FALSE: All three search engines provide certification for managing their paid search programs. And the SEMPO Institute recently started offering classes for certifying optimizers.

20. You should be monitoring social media outposts even if your company doesn’t have a blog. TRUE: How else are you going to find out what’s being said about your brand ”out there?”

21. Meta tags are obsolete and no longer need to be used FALSE: Your meta description is the main mechanism search engines use to provide a summary of your site page to prospective site visitors browsing its search results. View it as the sub-headline and sales description of your site. An accurate description communicates to prospective visitors the make-up and content relevancy of the page, and compels (or not) that visitor to click through and visit your site page. If you fail to include a description of the page, search engines are likely going to fabricate a description of their choosing by returning a snippet of text from your page, and often times it turns out be an unappealing summary for the searchers. To prevent this from happening, make sure you always include a relevant and enticing description (usually less then 155 characters) in your header Meta content.

22. Having paid listings for the terms you are ranking for organically is smart—so is buying your brand name. TRUE: Research continually proves that when paid listings appear along with natural listings, they reinforce each other. Better yet, in study after study it is the organic listings that get clicked, so you get the benefit of paid search visibility without the per click cost.

23. Optimization “ruins” copy. FALSE: Tediously repeating keywords would ruin any copy. But that’s not real optimization. Real optimization involves understanding the brand, its messaging, its audiences and their behaviors AND THEN writing copy that first satisfies the audience’s need for information, and then raises its hand for the search engines to notice.

24. Frequently updating the content of a page will improve its ranking FALSE: A page's position in the rankings is determined on other merits, such as its inbound links, along with on-page factors like keyword placement in the body copy, title tags, headlines, and so forth. On the other hand, adding new content pages in the form of articles, resources or blog posts can increase your search engine traffic. You create more indexable content for the search engines to crawl, as well as attract more links. And remember, it's very important that the content be interesting enough to attract links on its own.

25. The more content my site has, the higher it will rank FALSE: Content is about quality, not quantity. Whatever amount of content is needed to clearly communicate is “the right” amount. Putting up pages just for the sake of putting up content, especially if that content is not unique, well-written or necessary, isn't going to boost search engine rankings.

www.DigitalBrandExpressions.com

1

SAMPLE

Request for Information: Paid search Engine Optimization Program

Explain your company/brand’s positioning and what the website conveys. Explain how you expect the SEO activities to lead the appropriate people to your website so that they have smooth experience with your brand, from the first information about it they encounter on a paid search or website linking to your site through the site to the conversion of the initial inquiry into something more.

Overview & Scope of Work

Tell the potential optimization firm if the site to be optimized is live and if so, when it went live and what is the URL. If the site is going to be optimized in tandem with its development, state the expected launch date and if the site development has begun (and if so, what stage of development the site is in)

Background Information on Your Company:

Public, private or not-for-profit Revenues, annual donations, number clients, etc. any numbers that will be relevant, of course have an NDA signed before you disclose confidential information List websites where they can find more info about your firm, e.g. are there other websites, do you have sister companies, do you have an active Facebook Page for the company, etc. State if you have done SEO work in the past on this or other sites and if you are already running or plan to run paid search and/or social media initiatives as these will need to integrate with the optimization work. Assignment Details: State what you are looking for: an optimization agency of record, one agency to work on a particular brand, an agency to complement your internal resources, etc. Is the SEO to be at the corporate level, for corporate and some/all brands? Who will be the point people on the project? Will the optimization firm need to work with multiple stakeholders or have one point of contact in your firm? How will decisions be made/who is the final authority in your organization? Measurements for Success

2

1. How will success be judged? Examples:

a. 50% increase in sales from SEO after month 5? b. 25% increase in top rankings? c. Increased conversions from leads to sales? d. Etc.

Budgeting Do you have a budget in mind or are you expecting the agencies to propose pricing? Assignments Key factors for winning this assignment will be the successful communication of the understanding of the industry and how to modify paid search engine optimization strategies and tactics to align completely with the requirements of our brand for which every marketing message and presentation must completely match the target audiences’ expectations for the brand. The purpose of the following request for information (RFI) is to learn more about your organization’s approach to SEO and to determine if our business philosophies and work styles are compatible. Companies with whom we believe there is a good fit will be invited to make a presentation to our selection committee.

3

SAMPLE Instructions & Next Steps

Please respond to all of the following questions regarding your company and its approach to SEO and related services that you might be asked to provide. The agency review team will be assessing the responses and selecting 3-4 companies to make formal presentations to the selection team at our offices at [address]. If you are selected as a finalist you will be invited to participate in a face to face presentation with the selection team. At that time you will be asked to provide two case studies you believe will be the most relevant to the work you would do for our brand. The case studies will need to provide actual numbers, i.e., not just percentage increases in traffic but actual numbers along with the expectations that were established at the beginning of the assignment and measurements at early junctures as well as later in the process. We do not need references at this point but will be asking you to provide 3 relevant references if you are selected as a finalist. We invite you to direct any questions to [name] who is managing this agency paid search. Contact for [name] is [name].

Please do not contact the corporate team or any other employees directly.

Responses are due back no later than 4:00 p.m. ET on Day, DATE.

Please send your responses to [name] at: VIA EMAIL VIA US or Express

Mail VIA FAX

Email Address Subject: SEO Agency Response

Name Address

Attention: Name Subject: SEO Agency Review Response/ At Fax #[number]

Please feel free to contact ___to confirm receipt so you are ensured we have received your information on time.

4

SAMPLE Request for Information: Questions For Your Response

Project Overview & Definitions

Please refer to the information provided on pages 1-4

About Your Organization and It’s SEO Services

1. Please indicate the name of your firm: _________________________

2. How long has your firm been in business? _____________________years a. How long has your firm been providing SEM services

____________years

3. How many employees do you have? a. How many employees handle SEO services?

4. How many clients do you have?

a. How many of them use your SEO services?

5. Does your firm provide the paid search engine services shown below? For each service that you provide, please indicate how many years you have been providing it. If you do not provide the service, please leave the space empty:

SEO__ paid search(PPC)__ Reputation management __ Social media marketing __

6. Do you consider your firm an SEO company that also does paid search, a paid

search company that also does SEO, a company that does both, or a company that provides other interactive services along with SEO?

7. What percentage of your non-media revenue is from SEO?

8. If your firm provides other interactive services, please indicate which ones and the

length of time you have been providing each. If your firm does not provide other services, please leave the spaces empty:

Website design ____ Email Marketing ____ Hosting ____ Banner ads ____ Podcasts ____ Videocasts ____ Copywriting/Content development ____ Webinars ____ Web-based PR ____ Blog development ____ Blog maintenance ____ Social media consulting __ Social media marketing __ Other (please explain) _________________________________

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6. To which professional marketing and/or interactive associations does your firm belong? (Please list)

7. Please describe your firm’s experience with our industry. Please also list your

clients in our industry that are current vs. past. Are the people who have worked on these brands currently members of the firm?

About Your Organization’s Approach to SEO

1. What do you think is the most challenging aspect of developing an SEO program for a brand like ours, and how, if at all, do you envision SEO for us will differ from the work you have done for other brands?

2. Which search engines do you typically optimize for and why? 3. Would your work for our website follow your typical process or deviate? If it would

be different, please explain. 4. Do you make the changes necessary to the site or does the client make them?

5. From the time the project is assigned to the time the recommended changes are

implemented, how long do you envision it will be we see SEO results on a corporate level? On a brand level?

6. Do you use bulk search engine submission programs? 7. Which method(s) do you employ in the site optimization process? Check all that

apply: Keyword research and analysis Copywriting/content creation Meta-tag Development and Optimization Cloaking and IP Delivery Paid search results Paid search engine submissions Doorway/Hallway/Informational Pages Spider Pages Landing Pages Link Building Link Baiting

8. How much of your process for SEO will you share with us? Will you inform us

if/when your approach changes? 9. How does the competitive environment affect your recommendations? 10. What is your general approach to SEO? Does your firm generally take a black hat,

white hat, or some other type of optimization approach? What would you consider a “gray” area?

11. Does your approach vary by client or is your methodology fixed and followed

systematically for each client?

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12. Please overview your initial process for optimizing websites. For example, if you were assigned the optimization program for our site, what would be your initial steps in the process and your first set of deliverables?

13. For how many terms can a page be optimized and do you limit the overall number

of keywords for which you optimize sites? 14. Do you believe there is a role for managed feeds for our SEO program? 15. How engaged in the initial process is the client team? 16. What do you believe are realistic commitments required by the client team in terms

of their time resources during the initial stages and throughout the course of a “typical” first year? Please describe the commitments of the programming and design teams as well as the project management teams, copywriters, etc.

17. In a typical engagement, do you make the changes to the client site or does another

programming team (client or third-party) make the recommended changes? Who is responsible for quality control/checking that the recommendations have been properly implemented?

18. Please describe ongoing SEO services you provide. 19. Are ongoing services a standard part of your methodology or are they the

exception? 20. Do you provide link building services? Do you consider them to be a part of SEO or

a separate, optional service? 21. Please describe your in-bound link generation process. 22. Do you recommend reciprocal links? 23. Do you use link brokers and/or link farms? 24. Will you recommend paid links for our SEO program? 25. How frequently will you be making SEO recommendations for the site? Is there a

“typical” amount of work that will need to be done to the site each month to keep its optimization competitive?

26. Are recommendations for mobile paid search part of your standard methodology or

do you view them as a separate project? 27. How do you leverage social media as part of the SEO process? 28. What certifications does your SEO staff have? 29. Will you outsource any aspects of the SEO program? If so, please detail and

include how you will ensure adherence to standards of procedure and process that could negatively impact the brand if they are not met.

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Measurement

1. How do you attach an ROI to SEO? Do you have technology to help us tie direct

revenue generated through SEO to the SEO program? 2. How will you be measuring success?

Reporting

1. How frequently do you report progress and provide recommendations for

improvement to SEO? 2. Do you use the web traffic reporting tools provided by your clients’ hosting

companies/teams or do you require files to be run through a system hosted by your firm?

3. Do you provide customized reporting for clients or is it built off a standard template?

Please provide a sample report if possible and explain how it can be modified to accommodate our needs.

4. How are these reports delivered? Email? Online client download in secure area?

Other? 5. Is there a separate charge associated with reporting?

Pricing & Guarantees

1. Please describe how your organization would approach pricing the SEO program.

On what factors are your fees based, e.g., competition, site size, touch points within client organization, # of keywords, etc?

Please provide a price range for one-time and ongoing services. If you are selected

as a finalist you will have the opportunity to adjust your estimates based on additional information you may receive.

2. Do you guarantee results? Will you make projections for top rankings increases?

Traffic increases? Sales increases? Other?

Your Team for This Project If your firm is selected as a finalist, who (titles) will attend the presentation meeting? How will you determine which of your team members to assign to this project?

Next Steps Please submit your responses to ____ by the deadline date. He/She will confirm receipt of your responses to this RFI. We will be back in touch regarding next steps shortly.

SEO – A B2B Marketer’s Best Friend - MarketingProfs kid in town – social media marketing...

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