Elevating SEO at Cleveland Clinic

Top-Ranked Hospital Sees 43% increase in traffic, 16% increase in appointment sessions, 2/3 of visitors from Organic

20,000+
pages to manage
97%
improvement in page load time

Elevating SEO at Cleveland Clinic

Top-Ranked Hospital Sees 43% increase in traffic, 16% increase in appointment sessions, 2/3 of visitors from Organic

THE PROBLEM

As recently as three years ago, Cleveland Clinic's focus on SEO for its 20,000+ page website was limited soely to the work of two employees. While SEO performance would grow steadily each year, they struggled to get the necessary traction to make the leap in visibility they felt could be achieved. The team based that sentiment on the amount of content that gets generated in-house on a daily basis by other colleagues within the Marketing & Communications Division. In order to generate that growth, they realized that empowering their fellow caregivers with better SEO knowledge and helping them understand why this was critical for long-term success became one of their top priorities.

THE SOLUTION

After adding on a new member to lead their search marketing efforts, they continued to develop their own skills through online learning, including BrightEdge certification. That was followed by developing and presenting a comprehensive series of ongoing in-house SEO training and measurement sessions that were attended by more than 90 coworkers in the organization over the past three years. These additions to their in-house SEO partners include colleagues from individual service line marketing teams, content marketing, web development, patient education, and website maintenance.

These groups also help spread the importance of the SEO mindset across the organization by connecting directly with clinical staff and leadership. This has been crucial in helping keep SEO as a primary topic when reshaping their content planning strategy. This strategy included gathering feedback that helped writers craft content in a manner used by actual patients instead of relying entirely on complex medical jargon. The approach directly mirrors the organization's "Patients First" mantra.

During this time, BrightEdge has remained a key compotent in their content creation and optimization strategy. BrightEdge Data Cube has been invaluable for keyword research, competitive benchmarking, content gap opportunity analysis, and prioritizing content refresh opportunities for "striking distance" keywords related to key clinical areas of importance. StoryBuilder provides enhanced reporting. ContentIQ helps eliminate redundant pages. BrightEdge also helped them restructure their entire library of health content during their responsive website design project, which ran from the end of 2016 through the first half of 2018.

THE RESULTS

Since spreading the importance of SEO across the organization, these efforts helped drive significant lift in search engine visibility, traffic, and patient acquisition, including the following:

  • Two out of every three visits to clevelandclinic.org comes from Organic search
  • A 43% increase in SEO traffic over past two years, including a 15% lift in Organic search traffic year-over-year in 2018 alone
  • Closed more than 150 content gaps within their Health Library
  • Boosted organic sessions by 3.5 million visits to their Health Library (19% year-over-year lift)
  • Increased image search visibility by 87% for targeted keywords (July 2018 vs. January 2017)
  • Improved page load time by a stunning 97% by completing their website redesign project
  • Lifted user sessions by 16% year-over-year for traffic to the online appointment request form after entering our website through organic search

Request a demo of the BrightEdge platform today!

Dumpsters.com Earns 38 Quick Answers with Single Page with BrightEdge

Learn how Dumpsters.com secured universal listings across multiple SERPs on a single URL using BrightEdge

230
page one rankings
52%
reduction in bounce rate

Dumpsters.com Earns 38 Quick Answers with a Single Page

Learn how Dumpsters.com secured universal listings across multiple SERPs on a single URL using BrightEdge

THE PROBLEM

Dumpsters.com launched in late 2016 with the goal of owning top SERP positions for high-value keywords. The primary challenge lay with its low domain authority compared to competitors, and they knew they had to get strategic and creative to generate quick wins for long-tail keywords that would then improve relevance for more impactful head terms. With that in mind, they prioritized the pages that could have the greatest impact in the shortest timeframe and started with the pricing page for their core business line: roll-off dumpster rentals. Their goal was to earn high-impact keyword rankings for the roll-off dumpster pricing page six months after launching a brand-new site.

THE SOLUTION

bj bellamy dumpsters.com case study profile photo

Using BrightEdge’s Data Cube, the SEO team identified several target search terms that returned Quick Answers from competitors with specific prices for various dumpster sizes. Before launching any updates, the team set up a page-specific keyword group and used the Quick Answer filter within Keyword Reporting to keep an eye on progress for target terms. They also added a broader universal listing chart to their weekly StoryBuilder dashboard to capture any Quick Answer wins for keywords outside the primary group. Next, the SEO team worked with the in-house analytics group to calculate average prices across the country and displayed the proprietary size-specific pricing near the top of the page using a table. The choice to use an HTML table was based on several considerations:

  • Google likes to show featured snippets in the form of bulleted lists and tables and competitors were ranking with similarly structured content
  • By inserting the price information in an HTML table, the information would be crawlable and replicable directly in search results

The page launched with the new table in April 2017. Over the next few months, the page began to rank for much broader keywords than expected, and this caused the bounce rates to climb. To mitigate this, the team updated the above-the-fold CTAs in the hero image and on the table itself to drive customers to use the zip code search bar. This directed them to relatively high-converting local pages where location-specific content was available. The goal was to personalize the experience for customers while also encouraging them to move beyond the initial landing page. This update went live in Spring of 2018.

THE RESULTS

  • 22 Quick Answers by EOY 2017 and 35 Quick Answers by June 2018 (high of 38 in April 2018)
  • 134 page-one rankings by EOY 2017 and 230 page-one rankings by June 2018
  • Drove 25% of all organic sessions by EOY 2017 and 36% of all organic sessions by June 2018
  • Reduced bounce rates from 65% in February 2018 to 34% in June 2018

Request a demo of the BrightEdge platform today!

サイト ページネーションとSEO 【Erik Newton 2018年6月19日】

自社サイト上でページネーション(ページ分割)を用いているコンテンツでは、rel=”next”やrel=”prev”などのタグが適切に使用されているでしょうか?今回の記事では、ページネーションとSEOの関係性についてご紹介します。

サイト ページネーションとカスタマー エクスペリエンス最適化の関係

自社サイトの検索結果やファセット型検索結果において、ページネーションを導入していますか?例えば、サイト上にある動画の数が150件である場合は、各ページに10件ずつ15ページに分けるなどのページを分割するなどの対応方法をとっていますか?このような対応方法をとっている場合でも、これ自体に問題があるわけではありません。実にオンライン上のサイト大半では、リスティングの閲覧や選択がしやすいようにページネーションが実装されています。

クロール/インデックス化されたページは、オーガニック検索由来のビジターのエントリーポイントになります。しかし、ページネーションの途中からビジターがサイトに入ってくることになれば、ユーザーエクスペリエンスの観点からするとあまり好ましいとは言えません。理想的には、ページネーションで分割した最初のページをランディングページにするか、クエリで求められている内容に最も適切に一致しているページを指定するなどが考えられます。

ページネーションを導入する上で注意すべき点は、場合によってコンテンツ マネージメント システム(CMS) がページネーションのページを追加ページとせずに、自動的に発行してしまうことがあるため、結果的にタイトルタグや、デスクリプションタグ、H1タグなどのページ重複に繋がってしまう可能性があることです。このような重複が起きるのは、ページネーションを導入したページは、通常のページの作成方法やマークアップ実施のワークフローとは異なり、見えにくいからです。

サイト ページネーションとSEOの関係性がわかる2つの例

まずご紹介する1つ目の例では、自社サイト上に複数ページから構成される記事があると想定しましょう。Googlebotは全ページをクロールし、インデックス化します。通常サイト運営者は、ビジターがまず1ページ目を訪問し、その後順番にページを見ていくことを想定しているはずです。これによってページビューや広告インベントリの拡大につながるからです。
ニュース系サイト上でのサイトページネーションとSEOを表す図” width=

検索やユーザーエクスペリエンス意識して構造化されたページネーション コンテンツを最適化する方法

Googleでは、ページのHTML内で rel=”next” や rel=”prev” などのタグを用いることを推奨しています。具体的には、最初のページには rel=”next” を、残りのページには rel=”prev” を含めます。これらのタグを用いることによって、検索ユーザーが記事の1ページ目を見つけることができるからです。

  1. まず1ページ目(http://www.example.com/article-part1.html)の <head>のセクション内で、次のページに移動するためのリンクタグを含めます。以下をご覧ください。
    <link rel="next" href="http://www.example.com/article-part2.html">

    このページは、シーケンスで最初のURLであるため、rel="prev"のマークアップは必要ありません。

  2. 2,3ページ目では前のページに戻るためのリンクや次のページに進むためのリンクもシーケンスに追加します。例えば、以下の文字列を2ページ目のシーケンスに加えることができます。
    <link rel="prev" href="http://www.example.com/article-part1.html">
    <link rel="next" href="http://www.example.com/article-part3.html">
    
  3. 最後のページ(http://www.example.com/article-part4.html>)には、前のページに戻るためのリンクを含めます。以下の文字列を見てみましょう。
    <link rel="prev" href="http://www.example.com/article-part3.html">

    このページはシーケンス内で最後のURLであるため、rel="next" のマークアップは必要ありません。

次にご紹介する2つ目の例では、1万件のカテゴリーそれぞれに100個ずつ製品があり、合計100万個の製品を扱うEコマースサイトを運営していると想定しましょう。サイト上では、ユーザーがコンテンツを閲覧しやすいように、製品グループを10ページに分割(ページネーション)し、各ページには10個の製品を表示します。Googlebotは、サイト上の合計101万ページをクロール/インデックス化する可能性が高いと考えられます。その内訳は、製品ページ100万ページと、カテゴリーページ1万ページです。カテゴリーページが意図的に作成された場合、カテゴリーページはカテゴリー別に最適化され、製品の順番(例:ベストセラー、最高評価、最大利益)別のロジックで表示されます。企業側としては、ユーザーにページネーションの途中のページではなく、1ページ目を最初に見てほしいからです。適切にページネーションを導入しなければ、分割したページ同士がかち合ってしまい、価値が分散されてしまうのです。

効果的に構造化されていない/全く構造化されていないページネーション コンテンツを最適化する方法

この場合は、ページ分割したページネーショングループ10ページのHTML内でrel=”next” や rel=”prev”を用います。これによってページネーショングループ途中のページに一致するクエリであっても、グループの最初のページにリンク付けすることを希望する旨を明確にすることができます。

カテゴリー ページがCMSで作成したダイナミックコンテンツである場合、グループの1番目のページと同じ重複したタグがデフォルトで使用されます。このような場合は、クエリの内容にもっとも関連度の高いのはページネーショングループ中の最初のページだとは必ずしも言えないため、ページネーショングループの各ページで タグを使用することをお勧めします。こうすることによって、価値の分散を防ぎ、またGooglebotによるクロール バジェットをより重要なページに振り分けることができます。BrightEdgeでもCMSとしてDrupalを使用してページ分割した動画ページをサイト上で公開した際には、同様の対策をとっていました。

example of noindex tag on paginated category page meta section

 

ページネーションを導入したユーザー

BrightEdgeユーザーであるSweetwater社は、テクニカルなSEOの一環で、自社製品を扱う自社サイト(合計ページ数:12万5千ページ)にページネーションを導入しました。Sweetwater社では想像通りの成功を収めることができました。rel=”prev” や rel=”next” を導入が功を奏して、サイトパフォーマンスの改善に成功しました。Sweetwater社のSEO担当チームが実践したSEOやその結果に関しての詳細は、 BrightEdgeリソース最新のケーススタディー でご覧いただけます(英語のみ)。

Sweetwater社で実施したサイトページネーションとSEOのケーススタディー
Sweetwater社のケーススタディーはこちらからご覧いただけます

 

Ecommerce Retailer Sweetwater Tackles Technical SEO

Learn how ecommerce retailer Sweetwater increased organic-assisted transactions by 38%

20%
increase in new organic sessions
39%
increase in ranked keywords

Ecommerce Retailer Sweetwater Tackles Technical SEO

Learn how ecommerce retailer Sweetwater increased organic-assisted transactions by 38%

BACKGROUND

Since 1979, Sweetwater has been committed to giving music makers the ultimate shopping experience. As a pioneer of ecommerce in the early '90s, Sweetwater has methodically leveraged the Internet to expand the business. As a result, Sweetwater.com now serves as the #1 online retail destination for music gear in the United States. Whether it's Sweetwater's human approach to building personal relationships with their customers, the numerous free value-adds, or their unparalleled "too-good-to-be-true" customer service, Sweetwater.com continues to be the preferred shopping destination for music makers — beginner and rock star alike.

THE SOLUTION

With over 30,000 products and more than 125,000 pages on Sweetwater's website, page taxonomy, navigation, and site search help connect Sweetwater customers to products that meet their needs. Sam Dickinson, Sweetwater's Data Strategy and Analytics Manager, leverages the BrightEdge SEO platform to organize Sweetwater content for both customers and search crawlers. Organic search is one of Sweetwater's largest sources of traffic, so gains in SEO have a profound impact on the business as a whole.

Three Technical Solutions

sam dickinson sweetwater case study profile photo

Taxonomy – Sam and the Sweetwater Content Team (led by Jon Schafer) identified high-potential concepts using BrightEdge Data Cube and BrightEdge Ignite Analysis, reorganizing Sweetwater.com content to better align with search behavior. BrightEdge served as an objective reporting source while Sam and the Sweetwater Web Team (led by Josh Gustin) rolled the resulting SEO-optimized internal linking strategy out across Sweetwater.com.

Pagination – Sam noticed individual component pages of multi-page categories competing for SERP placements in his BrightEdge reporting and worked alongside the Sweetwater Web Team to establish rel="next" and rel="prev" relationships for all multi-page Sweetwater.com results, eliminating competition between individual parts of a single concept.

Prioritization – BrightEdge continues to provide the SERP context necessary to prioritize Sweetwater.com organic search concepts via Data Cube and tracked keywords as well as the long-term SERP and site structure reporting with which Sam gauges the success of his modifications via ContentIQ and StoryBuilder.

RESULTS

Comparing Project Start to End:

  • +63% Sweetwater.com Page 1 Ranked Organic Keywords
  • +39% Sweetwater.com Overall Ranked Organic Keywords
  • +38% Sweetwater.com Organic Search Assisted Transactions
  • +20% Sweetwater.com New Organic Sessions

 

Tahoe South Organic Mobile Traffic Increases 345%

LTVA and Noble Studios capitalize on organic with content strategy targeted high-intent travelers

102%
increase in mobile page views
14%
increase in overall desktop traffic

Tahoe South Organic Mobile Traffic Increases 345%

LTVA and Noble Studios capitalize on organic with content strategy targeted high-intent travelers

BACKGROUND

Set high in the Sierra Nevada mountains on the border between California and Nevada is Lake Tahoe. Its most vibrant area is the south shore, better known as Tahoe South, which is marketed by the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority. LTVA's longstanding agency is Noble Studios of Reno, Nevada.

Together, LTVA and Noble Studios work to increase visibility of South Lake Tahoe's business stakeholders and, ultimately, drive tourist traffic and revenue to the region.

THE PROBLEM

A recent BrightEdge Research channel performance report re-validated that over 51% of most trackable website traffic is from the organic search channel. This means that all other digital marketing channels pale in comparison.

LTVA understands this priority, and started its quest to improve the site traffic for TahoeSouth.com: the need for quality web visitors who would eventually convert to real-time destination visitors, which means an increase of revenue for local businesses.

carol chaplin lake tahoe visitors authority case study profile photoTHE SOLUTION

With the use of its proven methodology along with BrightEdge, Noble Studios identified the key topics that the people who are most serious about visiting Lake Tahoe are interested in. Next, it set out to develop content tailored to them.

Using BrightEdge's content performance marketing platform to generate and validate opportunities, Noble identified dozens of long-tail search terms specific to the area (e.g. "Best Tahoe Aprés Ski") with lower traffic but tons of relevance and aggregate traffic potential.

Noble used these findings to identify opportunities to both create new content and expand optimize content for long-term results.

RESULTS

Leveraging the BrightEdge SEO platform to analyze mounds of search data, Noble quickly realized that local events drove the most qualified traffic to TahoeSouth.com. These visitors had a lower bounce rate, spent more time on more pages, and converted more often than other visitors.

After optimizing these event pages, the keywords quickly rose in rank. For example, "Dierks Bentley Events" moved from the 101 spot in the SERP to the 16th spot after it was optimized and the number one "Dierks Bently Tahoe" rank was owned by TahoeSouth.com; beating out sites like livenation.com, ticketmasters.com, and Facebook.

After combining seasonal and long-tail keywords with a proven ongoing optimization methodology, the year-over-year results were incredible. Overall traffic to the mobile version of TahoeSouth.com has jumped by 134%, while page views are up 102%. The mobile site also saw a 345% increase in organic search traffic. Overall traffic to the desktop site increased 14% and page views are up 32%. Desktop traffic saw a 38% increase in organic search.

Working with Noble Studios and BrightEdge has helped us better understand what's working, what's not working, and where we have opportunities. This has focused our SEO efforts on the most effective content in order to 'own' the destination in organic search.

Request a demo of the BrightEdge platform today!

Delta Education Increases Organic Traffic by 230% in 4 Months

Delta Education used Data Cube and StoryBuilder to design an effective content strategy

330%
increase in indexed organic keywords
230%
increase in organic traffic to CDL.com

Delta Education Increases Organic Traffic by 230% in 4 Months

Delta Education uses Data Cube and StoryBuilder to craft an effective content strategy

THE PROBLEM

Founded in 1998, Delta is an educational services company that is comprised of several career colleges with campuses across the United States. Delta offers degree and diploma programs in some of today's fastest-growing fields, including Business, Legal & Protective Services, Healthcare, Skilled Trades, Beauty & Wellness, Technology, Design & Education, and Commercial Driving License or CDL. Delta's passion is evident in every classroom and department. The faculty and staff of Delta's schools provide students with support throughout their entire educational journeys, with a focus on hands-on learning, small class sizes, and ongoing academic support.

THE SOLUTION

Unkel believes in mapping the right content to the right stage in the customer journey. Within the BrightEdge SEO platform first, she used the BrightEdge Data Cube to identify the attractive keyword opportunities and segment the visitors they represent, based on the intent that each keyword represents. Then she developed content for the topics by considering a few factors.

  1. The first was what content type is ranking on the top of the SERP? Data Cube's Content Strategies gave her clear insights to segment keywords into different content types, like the Quick Answer box and Local 3-Pack
  2. The second factor was what stage of the buyer's journey is this topic? If the topic is more suited for the awareness stage, the content was written in a more informational style, such as including details about "what is..." or "how do I become CDL certified?"
  3. The last factor was CTA (call-to-action). Unkel made sure to include a primary CTA for each new page to guide site visitors towards taking the next step, like "Request Information," for those ready to apply

To make this content creation process scalable, Unkel used StoryBuilder to organize these new content topics along her buyers' journeys. Unkel combines the power of SEO and content to elevate the business impact from the organic channel.

THE RESULTS

carrie unkel delta education case study profile photo

Indexed organic keywords have increased 330%, while organic traffic to CDL.com increased by 230%.

BrightEdge helps us identify valuable topics to build content mapped to our customer journey.

Request a demo of the BrightEdge platform today!

Intent Signal Helps Digital Publisher Stack.com Increase Traffic

Learn how Stack.com grew SEO site traffic by 61% for high-value terms

61%
increase in site visits
73%
reduction in bounce rate

BrightEdge Intent Signal Helps Stack.com Increase Site Traffic

Digital publisher Stack.com grew site traffic by 61% for high-value terms

THE OPPORTUNITY

Digital publisher STACK Media delivers authoritative content on stack.com to help athletes meet their training goals. The editorial team, which leads content development for the site, faced a challenge familiar to digital marketers: how to prioritize their content and SEO efforts to maximize impact. In their quest to acquire new and engaged visitors, and to improve related KPIs (including ranking #1 on SERP), the team turned to the latest BrightEdge innovations to identify keywords that would deliver the best results in the quickest time possible.

THE SOLUTION

The STACK team followed a simple process to find the keywords with the highest potential. Within one month, they launched new, high-performing content by leveraging rich data about opportunities and threats – data they lacked prior to using the BrightEdge SEO platform.

1. Initial target keywords. First, the team used BrightEdge Data Cube to identify 120 keywords that had high search volume and were relevant to the fitness category.

2. SERP visibility. Then, they turned to BrightEdge Intent Signal to analyze the SERP visibility of these keywords. Intent Signal is the first and only solution that tells you whether a keyword has any organic result above the fold on SERP, and whether your content ranks above the fold for that keyword. Within minutes, Intent Signal revealed a subset of keywords with the most promise: keywords with organic listings above the fold where STACK’s content was also within striking distance of ranking above the fold. These keywords were assigned to the “Optimize” category in the Intent Signal dashboard.

3. Competitive research. They then used BrightEdge Share of Voice to analyze the competitive landscape of these keywords, inspecting the content themes and content structure of the page URLs that ranked high on SERPs.

4. Implementation. Next, the team embarked on a clear and manageable action plan. They redesigned the page template to include a new content structure, based on the competitive research. In this new structure, every fitness page would provide readers with comprehensive information on the topic, including performance tips, common mistakes, how-to instructions, and training videos. Then, they launched new web pages with fresh content for their “Optimize” keywords and redirected old pages to the new ones to preserve historical SEO equity.

THE RESULTS

In just one month, the results proved the success of their approach. The keywords in this optimization project increased site visits by 61%, with average bounce-rate-by-page reduced by 73%. Some keywords jumped in ranking significantly. For example, stack.com didn’t rank for the keyword “hip thrust” in March; by May, the company had gained the #1 organic web listing on the SERP for that term.

BrightEdge Intent Signal is a huge time saver for us. Within minutes, you can identify the organic ranking opportunities you're missing and take prioritized actions to win in the moments that matter the most.

Request a demo of the BrightEdge platform today!

 

Yosemite Tourism Bureau Sees 54% Increase in Organic Traffic

Tourism bureau experiences increase in organic after site migration with BrightEdge and Noble Studios

235%
of partner referral goal met
400%
of signup goal met

Non-Profit Yosemite Tourism Bureau Sees 54% Increase in Organic Traffic After Site Migration

Tourist bureau experiences gains increase in organic after site migration with BrightEdge and Noble

BACKGROUND

Noble Studios began its engagement with the Yosemite/Maripossa County Tourism Bureau in 2016 as the Destination Marketing Organization was merging its two sites: Yosemiteexperience.com and Yosemite.com. The goal was to consolidate traffic under a single domain while driving more traffic to the region -- including Yosemite National Park -- in a traditionally slower season.

THE PROBLEM

With a strong desire to increase visits to its business stakeholders, particularly during slower seasons, Yosemite Mariposa County brought Noble Studios on to help establish KPIs and a strategy for improving organic traffic performance.

The primary goal was to increase traffic to its partners -- both digitally and in person. The DMO's secondary goals included increasing organic traffic, newsletter signups, and enticing potential visitors to download a Yosemite Mariposa County vacation planner.

By tapping into BrightEdge's SEO platform and Data Cube, Noble quickly identified keywords competitors were ranking for that Yosemite.com was not. Noble also began grouping these keywords into four distinct categories for better targeting: dining, lodging, things to do, and general partner referrals.

THE RESULTS

Noble's plan involved a combination of new content creation to capture net-new demand along with the optimization of existing content that was already ranked on the second or third page of Google and was of high quality. BrightEdge's in-depth keyword tracking tool ensured Noble's plan went off without a hitch. At the start of 2017, many of Yosemite's high-priority keywords weren't even ranked in Google. Today, 91% of those keywords rank on either page 1 or 2 of Google's SERPs with 73% of them on page 1.

In June 2017 Yosemite.com saw a 25% spike in organic traffic, then a 54% jump in July. For new users there was a 41% increase in July. By the end of summer, Yosemite.com reached 235% of its annual partner referral goal, 127% of its annual organic traffic goal, and roughly 400% of its annual email signup and vacation planner download goals.

 

Our partnership with Noble Studios and BrightEdge has allowed us to quickly uncover opportunities to dramatically increase organic traffic to Yosemite.com!


- Terry Selk, CEO/Executive Director, Yosemite/Mariposa County Tourism Bureau

 

Yosemite Mariposa Tourism share of voice storybuilder chart

As Noble began to see substantial ranking improvements and traffic gains with its content optimization, it turned to BrightEdge’s StoryBuilder tool to visualize results for the client. By providing this executive-level snapshot, Noble was able to quickly show the client a direct correlation between the SEO strategy being implemented, the boost in traffic, and increased visits to the DMO’s stakeholders.

Yosemite Mariposa Tourism total ranked keywords view
Request a demo of the BrightEdge platform today!

 

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