Tom Wigley's super-useful presentation on pitching SEO. How to approach the topic, how to understand potential traffic, and some key points to remember about your presentations

1. 1
PreparingForA Pitch
ResearchTechniquestoImpressClients

2. 2
Some quick tips and tricks to get rapid data for a pitch that
will impress clients and show that you have gone the extra
mile towards understanding their particular SEO issues

3. WhenItComesToPitching–ThingsGetStressful
Pressure of
tight
deadlines!
Added
pressure on
resources!
Pressure to
win new
business!

4. 4
We’llBePitchingAgainstAgenciesOffering
POSITION 1 RANKINGS
PAYMENT ON RESULTS
FREE OF CHARGE WORK
GAME-CHANGING IDEAS
IMPROVED ROI
COMPLETELY NEW APPROACHES

5. 5
AgainstAllThis-WeNeedToStandOut

6. 6
WeHavetoDemonstrateAClearResultsDriven
Strategy
From here
To here

7. 7
#1
The State Of Play

8. 8
DifficultToGaugePerspective

9. 9
ComparingAgainstCompetitorsAddsClarity

10. 10
InformOfDecreasingBrandSearches

11. 11
IncreasingInterestinGenericGrowth

12. 12
ShowTotalPlaceInTheMarket–AllChannels
*Source – Hitwise, Avg Monthly Visits 2013

13. 13
#2
Quantify Performance

14. 14

15. 1. Take all the keywords we want to target – estimate traffic
2. Calculate where we can get them to – estimate traffic
3. Work out the difference
15
ThisBasicallyMeans

16. The key to calculating the return on a campaign is to identify the websites
existing rankings.
You can use
 Google Webmaster Tools – Export for your region/web only.
 Google Analytics – may be integrated with GWT data.
 SearchMetrics – Run a report.
 Manual ranking checks – Not ideal particularly for larger numbers
16
GettingStarted–WhereDoTheyRank

17. 17

18. You wont want to project every keyphrase they rank for.
Try the following:
1. Do you have PPC keywords automatically categorised? Use these actual
categories
2. Use excel to choose keywords that contain a certain phrase
3. Use “allintitle:keyword” to identify competitiveness
4. Look at the clients website – are they more relevant for a certain market?
18
IdentifyCampaignFocus

19. “We’ll improve your
visibility in the 4x4 and
hybrid car markets”
19
TheseTargetsDefineThePitchStory
“We’ll improve your
visibility for these random,
high volume keywords”
Nicer story that resonate more with the
client – Try to use categories

20. 20
RunEveryKeywordThroughGoogleKeywordTool
Sign in to increase the keyword limit to 2500

21. 21
AlignThisNextToYourKeywords

22. 22
MultiplyByCTRAtThatPosition
An easy way to
do this is add
CTR for
Positions onto a
new tab and
use VLOOKUP
to get
corresponding
CTR.
The total of these estimated traffic volumes is your benchmark.

23. 23
RepeatTheSameButForAProjectedPosition
The total of these projected traffic volumes is your target.

24.  From these two figures you can then easily calculate the ROI dependant on
the proposed cost.
 Calculating the % visibility, rather than using traffic numbers can make a
more compelling story.
 You may want to annualise these figures if traffic volumes are low.
Note – Remember the projections are target monthly volumes, meaning you
wouldn’t expect to receive this level of traffic until the end of the campaign.
24
FinishingItOff

25. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnwC2yfsObkSdFVsZFF
ac2RZbDVFNXE5U1dNUXpsbFE&usp=sharing
25
GoogleDocsTemplate

26. 26
Toyota.co.ukCaseStudy

27. 27
Toyota.co.ukCaseStudy

28. 28
#3
Taking The Initiative

29.  Keyword research
 Competitor analysis
 Link building
 Ranking reports
…are all phrases they will have
heard before
29
WeNeedToGoBeyondJustFundamentalSEO
Clients want ideas on how to
make things better.

30. ContentInitiativesEnhanceGreatFundamentals
Fundamental SEO Content Initiatives
 Technical optimisation
 Slow burn, on-going
improvement
 Build a broad range of
links
 Content led initiatives
 Something that people
really want to use
 Much more likely to be
shared and linked to

31. 31
ContentInitiatives
Landmark content
initiatives should allow us
to take their campaign to
the next level

32. BringSpecificIdeasThePitch

33. Upload on site
o2.co.uk/tools/widgets
Distribute
Create
WithAPlanForDistribution

34. 34
#4
Real Quick Wins

35.  Find pages with link equity that produce 404 errors.
 Find areas of their website that are redundant and could be integrated back
into the main website.
 Find title tag improvements and prove the potential traffic that comes from
aligning them to something else.
 Find technical opportunities (such as canonicals) that could be fixed very
easily.
Try to always keep things positive. Opportunities not issues.
35
SomeRealQuickWins

36. 36
O2Example–LinkEquity

37. freesim.o2.co.uk www.o2.co.uk/freesim
Reverse proxy
O2Example–ReverseProxy

38.  Do we demonstrate total expected revenue from markets/improvements?
 Is there an explicit breakdown of costs?
 Is there an explicit breakdown of potential revenue?
 Does it tell a coherent story?
 Are we being committed, impactful, honest?
 Does it instil values of being better than average?
 Demonstrate the bigger picture?
 Is language simple?
 Transparency - what we will do, what we have done?
38
QuestionsToAskYourself