Digital Growth Day: September 18, 2014 8 WAYS TO MAKE SEO WORK ON A BUDGET Are you working to a small budget but yet finding it difficult to achieve results? Find out how to maximise your budget and exceed expectations. Jo Turnbull, Founder, SEOJoBlogs

1. 8 Ways to Make SEO Work on a
Budget
#DigitalGrowthDay
Presenter Jo Turnbull
@SEOJoBlogs September 2014

2. @SEOJoBlogs
Who is SEO Jo Blogs?
• Jo Turnbull started in SEO while
working for a mobile tech company
• Moved agency side 2009
• Organiser of Search London since
October 2010
• Editor and Events Organiser for
State of Digital since June 2012
• Freelance online marketing
consultant, helping small and
medium sized businesses with their
marketing since 2010

3. How Can I do SEO on a Budget?
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

4. 1. Brilliant Basics incl Technical Audit
2. Conversion Rate Optimisation
3. Content Marketing Plan
4. Networking Events
5. Social Media
6. Outbrain
7. Integrate SEO with Traditional Media
8. Sponsorship
@SEOJoBlogs
SEO on a Budget
#DigitalGrowthDay

5. @SEOJoBlogs
SEO With No ££
#DigitalGrowthDay

6. 1. Brilliant Basics is Very Important
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

7. Site and Technical Audit
@SEOJoBlogs
• Screaming Frog
• URLs
• Meta data
• Redirects
• Sitemap
• Robots.txt
• Google Analytics
• Page Speed Insights
#DigitalGrowthDay

8. Google Analytics and Google
@SEOJoBlogs
Webmaster Tools
• Check for messages
• Crawl Errors
• Check sitemap
• Look at Search queries
• What are people typing in
• How is the site ranking?
#DigitalGrowthDay

9. Google Analytics and Google
@SEOJoBlogs
Webmaster Tools
#DigitalGrowthDay

10. @SEOJoBlogs
Toolbars and Tools
• Redirects
• SEO Quake
• Firebug Lite
• Tag manager
• Majestic SEO
• SEM Rush
• (Searchmetrics)
#DigitalGrowthDay

11. • Benchmark Report
• Traffic to site
• Home and Main Landing Pages Speed
• Error Codes
• 301 and 302 redirects
• Robots.txt
• Sitemaps
• Meta Data – eg Duplicate/Long Page Titles
• Duplicate/Long Meta Descriptions
@SEOJoBlogs
Checklist
#DigitalGrowthDay

12. 2. Conversion Rate Optimisation
• 68% of shoppers abandon
shopping carts
• Where are your customers
dropping off?
• In 2014 there will be $1.5
trillion dollars worth of e-commerce
transactions
• $3.17 trillion dollars lost
due to cart abandonment
@SEOJoBlogs
(Study by Emarketer)
#DigitalGrowthDay

13. Why are People Dropping Off?
• 25% of navigation too complicated
• 24% website crashed
• 21% process was taking too long
• 15% website time out
• 15% item them wanted out of stock
• Test out the site yourself and share with client
• Look at sessions to the shopping cart URL
against check out completions
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

14. Where Can You Make a Difference?
#SearchLondon @SEOJoBlogs

15. • Look at Conversion Funnel – where people are
dropping out?
• 62% of online shoppers think it’s important for
an ecommerce to have sections for special
priced items
• Offer discount with exit intent pop ups – 27% of
people who abandoned their carts went to look for a coupon
• Offer free return - 2/3 shoppers said they would buy more
online if returns were free
• Remarketing campaigns – Abandoners spent 55% more
@SEOJoBlogs
when remarketed
Fix The Site
#DigitalGrowthDay

16. #SearchLondon @SEOJoBlogs

17. 3. Content Marketing Plan
Photo from being30.com
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

18. Don’t be the Bull in the China Shop
Photo from being30.com
@SEOJoBlogs

19. Work with the Marketing Department
@SEOJoBlogs
• Make Their KPIs your KPIs
• Content Calendar
• Incorporate plan around sales
• And email campaigns
• Record Results and share good news
• Discuss SEO assisted conversions
#DigitalGrowthDay

20. Key Components of Plan
• Short, medium and long term goals
• Prioritise key products
• Focus on landing pages
• Use your expertise – what are competitors
doing?
• What are your customers looking for ? - Use
insite search
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

21. How To Make Content Stand Out
Photo from being30.com
@SEOJoBlogs
#SearchLondon

22. • Is it practically useful? Top 10 Tips?
• Does the content inspire a high-energy emotion
like awe, anger, or anxiety ?
• Did your tone convey emotion?
• Is it practically useful?
• Is it interesting?
• Is it surprising?
• Does the author have fame/credibility?
• If it’s supposed to be funny, is it actually funny?
@SEOJoBlogs
Source:Moz
And Go Viral
#DigitalGrowthDay

23. @SEOJoBlogs
Content Matrix
Source: https://www.distilled.net/blog/the-content-matrix/
#DigitalGrowthDay

24. Example
• SoD SEM Rush Tool post
• http://www.stateofdigital.com/semrush-review/
@SEOJoBlogs
(185 shares)
• http://www.stateofdigital.com/use-paid-tools-solve-
provided-google-analytics-problem (253
shares)
• http://www.stateofdigital.com/7-ways-deliver-roi-
seo/ (159 shares)
• http://www.stateofdigital.com/start-career-seo/
#DigitalGrowthDay
n

25. @SEOJoBlogs
Share Tally
#DigitalGrowthDay

26. @SEOJoBlogs
Topsy
#DigitalGrowthDay

27. Be Clear and Report Results
@SEOJoBlogs
• Check Social profiles – increased?
• FB, Twitter and Google +
• Screengrabs are great visualisation
• Graph it
• Look at revenue attributed to SEO
• Increase in online visibility
• ROI of SEO
#DigitalGrowthDay

28. @SEOJoBlogs
4. Networking Events
Photo from being30.com
#DigitalGrowthDay

29. “Search London” Grew
• Networking group for those in search
• Jan 2012 – 592 members
• 5 meetups 2012
• January 2013 – 1100 members
• Increase 86%
• Sept 2014 – 1357 members
• Meetup.com/Search-London continues
@SEOJoBlogs
to grow
Photo from being30.com
#DigitalGrowthDay

30. How Did Search London Grow?
• Strong domain - www.meetup.com
• Good speakers – don’t be afraid to
@SEOJoBlogs
ask
• Catchy titles each presentation
• Guest posts
• Interact with others at the event
• Email members
• Tweet before, during and after
• Central venue
Photo from being30.com
#DigitalGrowthDay

31. Integrate Off and Online
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

32. Tweets Matter

33. @SEOJoBlogs
Tweets Affected Traffic
#DigitalGrowthDay

34. No Finance = Use Your Networks
• Jo Turnbull attended a Search Conference the week
@SEOJoBlogs
before Search London took place
• Jo spoke to many search professionals at the
conference and let them know about “SEO at the Heart
of Google”
• She wrote a post on her blog – SEOJoBlogs about
Search London taking place at the Google Campus
• She published the post, tweeted it and shared with
others
• Sharing is caring – other people retweeted it and there
were 650 visits to SEO Jo Blogs in one day
#DigitalGrowthDay

35. 5. No Budget, Use Social Media
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

36. @SEOJoBlogs
Promoting via Twitter
#DigitalGrowthDay

37. • Ben Holbrook wrote a post about his favourite
things to do in Barcelona
• He then scheduled tweets to promote it every
day for a couple of weeks
• He added the #lp (Lonely Planet) hashtag when
tweeting
• Lonely Planet then retweeted the post to their
1M+ followers
• 10,000+ unique visitors to Driftwood Journals, 33
re-tweets and 128 “favourites”.
@SEOJoBlogs
Tweets Work
#DigitalGrowthDay

38. Traffic Affected Rankings
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

39. That Post is Still Driving Traffic
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

40. Use Facebook – It works !
#DigitalGrowthDay @SEOJoBlogs

41. Use Different Headings for Facebook
• Include a teaser
text
• Attract attention
of the readers
• Include an image
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

42. @SEOJoBlogs
Results
• Ben “liked” the Facebook pages of each place
mentioned in the post
• Emailed places he had written about, suggesting
shares
• Ben also contacted the Madrid tourist board
• 2.1k Facebook likes
• 100 tweets
• Almost 4,000 unique page views within a week
#DigitalGrowthDay

43. #SearchLondon @SEOJoBlogs

44. @SEOJoBlogs
SEO £0 to £2,500
#DigitalGrowthDay

45. 6. Content Amplification - Outbrain
• Digital media channel devoted exclusively to
content amplification
• Platform recommends articles and videos to
relevant audiences across a network of premium
publisher sites
• Outbrain can help promote content and raise
brand awareness through publisher sites
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

46. 6. Content Amplification - Outbrain
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

47. @SEOJoBlogs
6. Outbrain Results
• The campaign generated 199 clicks and 773,166
impressions
• 37.19% increase in sessions
• 44.63% increase in users
• 53.72% increase in new users
• 16.05% increase in referral traffic
• 20,700% increase in traffic to the landing page
• Cost £54.00 CPC 27p
#DigitalGrowthDay

48. 7. Integrate SEO with Traditional Media
• Newspapers still work
• Compliment Relationships
• Networking + SEO
• SEO + PR = Great Results
• Long lasting effect
Photo from being30.com
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

49. @SEOJoBlogs
Be Creative
• Don’t Forget about Offline
• Melville Jewellers moved to a new location in
Perth, Australia
• Opportunity to attract new visitors
• Official launch party of Jewellery Store
• Off site promotion in newspapers
• 4 adverts in lead up to the event
• Flyers distributed in store and local surf club
#DigitalGrowthDay

50. #DigitalGrowthDay @SEOJoBlogs

51. Be Active in the Promotion
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

52. @SEOJoBlogs
Maximise Your Circles
#DigitalGrowthDay

53. @SEOJoBlogs
Sell the USP
• Leaflets, advertisement in local paper
• Emphasised the “local” and “well established”
jewellery store
• Offered Incentives eg $500 Pearl Necklace to be
won
• Customers would win from a prize draw
• Opportunity to collect customer details
• Cost = $2,250 AUD promotion (plus cost of wine
on the day)
#DigitalGrowthDay

54. @SEOJoBlogs
Example of Adverts
#DigitalGrowthDay

55. @SEOJoBlogs
Example of Adverts
#SearchLondon
&' LM+LL' #N' / ' LL' ( $##
) %M' #&" M' O
! " #$!%&&' ( $#$) " * * +, - #. ' , ! ( ' #
. %, , +, - #) / 0
! " #$%&" #' " ( #%' ) #" *+,-,' . #/%' . " 0#12#3,4&" /#%' ) #5 14) #
6" ( " 44" /7#%44#%-#08" +,%4#18" ' ,' . #8/,+" 09
38"%: #-1#1; /#( %-+$< %: " /#21/#%44#71; /#! %-+$#=#6" ( " 44" /7#
>" 8%,/0#%' ) #/,' . #) " 0,. ' 0?#%44#( 1/: #,0#5 ; %/%' -" " ) 9
! " # $%&' ( %) *+*, %- +%, " ( &.
$123#456#$758 8 9:; #$1233<=>#. 9=7:9#
?@4#. 5==<=>#) AB6#* 5C8 B:5
AAAD8 9CE<CC9F9A9CC9:; DG28 D5H#
* 12=9#I JJI #JKI J

56. Do something different – for your clients
• Loyal customer of 13
years wins star prize
• $500 pearl necklace
• Further 10 prizes
won
• Happy customers at
Melville Jewellers
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

57. @SEOJoBlogs
Long Term
• Doubled Turnover on the Day
• Increase in sales MoM 20%
when industry sales dropped
• SEO is important part of
#DigitalGrowthDay
marketing plan
• The following year, no SEO and
sales dropped

58. 8. Sponsorship
#SearchLondon @SEOJoBlogs

59. SEO For £20,000 - £30,000
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

60. Increase Brand Awarness
• A financial services company
sponsored a sporting event in a
@SEOJoBlogs
capital city
• The aim was to increase brand
awareness and traffic
Photo from being30.com
#DigitalGrowthDay

61. Worked with Marketing Dept and
@SEOJoBlogs
Bloggers
• Education with Marketing Department
• Encompassed the Sponsorship within the Content
Marketing Plan
• Content Written in the lead up to the event
• Blogger outreach with The Remarkables
• Arranged for 2 bloggers to write up and take part in run
• Post run content
• Activation on the day – Fruit Stand and Chillout Zone
#DigitalGrowthDay

62. Impact on Traffic and Social Media
• Organic traffic: Up 100%
• Direct: Up 41%
• Referral: Up 9%
• 22% Increase in Conversions
• 463% Increase in blog traffic referrals
• 1,723 new Facebook fans gained on non-paid
digital efforts alone
• 5% increase in Twitter followers in one month
• 46% growth in FB likes
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

63. SEO has a Positive Experience on
@SEOJoBlogs
Brand
• 68% participants agreed about leaving with a
more positive view of the brand
• 50% participants more likely to buy from the
company
• 96% participants agreed the company was a
great fit for a sponsor
• 65% participants viewed the company as a
genuine brand
• 90% participants can’t wait for the next event
#DigitalGrowthDay

64. There Will Always be a Cost to SEO
Photo from being30.com
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay
• Time
• Money
• What will you
choose?

65. 1. Building Relationships Takes Time
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

66. @SEOJoBlogs
How To Maximise Time
• Brainstorm ideas for content
• Buzz monitoring tools – buzz numbers (free
trial)
• Topsy (what is trending)
• Google Keyword Tool (yes still useful)
• Google Instant Search – don’t click enter
• Google Insights/Trends
• Be prepared to address negative mentions on
FB
#DigitalGrowthDay

67. Create Content Users
Want to Read
@SEOJoBlogs
Photo from being30.com
#DigitalGrowthDay

68. A Picture Tells a Thousand Words
Photo from driftwoodjournals.com
@SEOJoBlogs
#DigitalGrowthDay

69. Use the Tools to Maximise Exposure
@SEOJoBlogs
• Twitter
• Networking
• Creating good content
• Facebook
• Outbrain
• PR and newspapers
• Sponsorship
#DigitalGrowthDay

70. 2. Don’t Be Afraid of the Finance Director
Finance
Director
Photo from being30.com
@SEOJoBlogs

71. @SEOJoBlogs
Work with Your Agency
Photo from being30.com
#DigitalGrowthDay

72. @SEOJoBlogs
Love What You Do
Photo from being30.com
#DigitalGrowthDay

73. Shout About Your Results
Be Proud of Them and then Chillax (but not too long)
@SEOJoBlogs
Photo from being30.com

74. Share Great
Content
@SEOJoBlogs
Get in Touch
http://SEOJoBlogs.com
Turnbull.Jo@gmail.com
Thank You
Photos from Being30.com and DriftwoodJournals.com
Photo from being30.com