Rackspace Increases Organic, Non-Branded KW Traffic 212%

Rackspace realizes gains through on-site changes and launching an earned media campaign

1100%
increase in keyword position
212%
increase in site traffic

THE PROBLEM

Rackspace’s SEO campaign has been active since 2011 and is driving a significant percentage of visitors to the company’s website. Rackspace’s overall goal is to increase revenue through lead generation and customer education. It can attain that goal by constantly improving search rankings on a large scale and continually increasing organic traffic to its website. Despite having hundreds of thousands of clients and an international reach, Rackspace still faces formidable competitors like Amazon Web Services (AWS), GoDaddy, Terremark, SOFTLAYER and Microsoft. These real-world competitors often translate to online competitors and can outrank Rackspace in the sheer volume of specific and targeted keywords. These heavy-hitters also can earn a greater share of voice for several targeted keywords. Using competitive analysis, Rackspace revealed a content gap with its largest competitor. The on-site content gaps are most acute with white papers, guides, videos, catalogs and FAQs.

THE SOLUTION

Increasing on-site production and launching an earned media campaign are necessary for Rackspace to realize movement on its chosen keywords. The earned media campaign leverages both syndicated and non-syndicated methods to place content across a wide variety of relevant online domains. Through targeted and persistent outreach, the PR team earns the placement of feature articles on blogs and other digital media outlets. This earned media is always relevant to the website’s content as well as its readership. The article usually features a link to Rackspace’s site and may include a brand mention. Other types of earned media can potentially include static or interactive infographics, social media mentions and shares, as well as traditional digital PR. PR specialists stay up to date on industry news in order to produce the most relevant content for both Rackspace and the audience of the site it is placed on. Specialists maintain regular correspondence with niche influencers in addition to identifying new opportunities; personalized outreach is done primarily through email and social networks. BrightEdge is used to help track the relationships established. It serves as an indicator that highlights specific sites where industry-specific audiences gather. Using BrightEdge, Rackspace is able to track more than 1,000 targeted keywords and determine share of voice for each keyword, receive recommendations for landing pages, and identify link-building opportunities.

David Whitworth, SEO Manager, Rackspace

THE RESULTS

Rackspace is an organization that already had a known brand, vast reach, and clientele, so moving keyword rankings to top 6 takes the right resources and expertise. Rackspace’s SEO and content campaign aims to rank for a wide range of keywords. Rackspace increased rank for 6 non-branded keywords an average of 61 positions, moved all onto the first page to average position 5.6, and increased traffic to their site by 212%.

We’re shifting from being very keyword-centric to focusing more holistically around the user experience and how the user interacts.

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