enewton@brightedge.com

M Posted 10 years 2 months ago

t 9 min read

"How many SEO keywords should I target?" is a common question SEOs and marketing departments consider as they try to maximize business results and ROI. For most companies, SEO has the highest ROI of any of the channels, and that is a fact that continues to grow as search gets better at understanding what the users want. At BrightEdge we are asked this keyword target question regularly by our customers, so we decided to formalize our answer with a webinar which we introduce in this blog post. We answer the question by considering the two key business factors: Opportunity and Constraints. We advise customers to build keyword sets using the following criteria:

1. Brands
2. Industry
3. Categories
4. Products
5. Plurals
6. Long-tail value
7. Funnel conversion and value
8. Seasonality
9. Languages
10. Geos
11. Mobile
12. Topics
13. Trends
14. FAQs

Using BrightEdge DataCube allows marketers to see the estimated query volumes behind each of these categories and even the singular and the plural of major keywords. Using BrightEdge Page Reporting helps marketers understand the keywords that the search algorithm has mapped to each page - a unique and proprietary solution in a "not-provided" world. We have also identified 7 constraints that guide how large a set of keywords to go after:

1. Query volume
2. Web and blog pages
3. Platform technology, ability to track at keyword and page level
4. Labor/Agency capacity
5. Competitive strength
6. Competing channels 
7. ROI targets

Only BrightEdge customers have the remedy to reduce the restrictions of these constraints. Any practitioner can see how these two lists will help fill and size the keyword bucket, but some of them have additional thinking and math behind them to get it right. Once the keyword set has been identified, then it is time to engage in content performance marketing to make the quality content that ranks. In this early February webinar, BrightEdge product experts will dive deep to explain how to use these criteria to maximize business value in a webinar on this topic.

Watch for webinar registration announcements for How Many SEO Keywords Should I Manage? on our webinars page and in an email from us. If you are interested in pre-registering for the webinar offer of a comprehensive keyword identification program we call Ignite Opportunities for customers, please contact jdewulf@brightedge.com or a Content Performance Report for future customers, contact btulloch@brightedge.com.  

enewton@brightedge.com

M Posted 10 years 3 months ago

t 9 min read

SEO has been around for more than a decade and a half and provides the majority of traffic for successful web sites (learn what is SEO). The following are some of the top reasons why SEO still matters a lot and provides substantial business value for SEO in 2016.

1. A trillion is big number. Google processes an estimated 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion per year. Take a look at the rolling query meter.
2. The majority of website traffic comes from search engines. A BrightEdge study found that on average 51% of the tracked channel traffic comes from natural search.
3. On average 83% of the traffic from search engines comes from SEO and 17% from paid search, according to BrightEdge research.
4. The quality of the search results are better than ever with the algo changes that punish spammers and reward real brands and authoritative, relevant sites. That and advances in artificial intelligence mean it will continue to command attention even with competition from social search platforms.
5. Though it accounts for the majority of channel traffic, most companies underinvest in SEO relative to its contribution or the opportunity, meaning it should provide higher returns for those who do.
6. SEO traffic converts better than other channels because of the research process, journey stage, and transfer of trust from the search engine sorting and ranking. SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads, such as direct mail or print advertising have a 1.7% close rate.
7. SEO requires an upfront resource investment, but successful content performance marketing benefits once earned have long-term duration or equity.
8. SEO traffic has no media cost and can provide a substantial ROI – higher than most other channels.
9. Proper SEO helps organize your website and makes it easier for your visitors to navigate and transact as topics will be more clearly delineated on pages and logically linked together.
10. SEO success secures a share of voice on the search engine results pages, and this can make your company look better-organized and more competitive. SEO is an integral component of your brand and brand trust.
11. Search engine results pages are landing pages for traffic that is generated by your other marketing channels. It is important to align those messages to capture the maximum amount of traffic and revenue.
12. SEO is a critical part of the research process, especially for long sales cycle products. People use search engines to create a list and then use them to collect opinions and input and make decisions. 44% of online shopping begins by using a search engine.
13. SEO leverages and compounds investment in social content because some queries are more sensitive to fresh and social content to determine positioning.
14. Focusing on SEO and legitimate link building leads you to develop relevant, useful content that people want to share and provides highly leveraged digital word of mouth.
15. SEO allows you to understand user interest and intent and build site content that addresses and captures that intent.
16. SEO has global reach and can even provide dynamic translation and localization that can bring in new and unexpected customers and opportunities from all corners of the world.

SEO in 2016 is more compelling and rewarding than ever. Make a strong case for expanding your content performance marketing and SEO in 2016 to drive more traffic and revenue.