Mattia Santin is the global SEO/social manager at the adidas Group. There, he leads the global SEO team responsible for delivering organic strategy for brands like adidas, Reebok, TaylorMade, Rockport and CCM.

I caught up with Mattia ahead of Share 14 to talk about how the adidas Group is evolving with the changes we've seen in the past year or so to the Web marketing landscape.

The SEO Landscape is Constantly Transforming

Andy Betts (AB): How much has the SEO landscape changed over the last year?

Mattia Santin (MS): SEO is constantly transforming. The changes in the last year (term not provided, Panda and Penguin updates, to name a few)  changed the industry. The level of impact of these changes  was dependent on the SEO approach each of us decided to take (and the willingness to do this properly without cutting corners). While a great level of flexibility was required (especially with  analytics - not having keyword data anymore) many of the  same white-hat SEO principles, we have been implementing for years, are still very much relevant (content, user experience, value of quality links.  These will continue to be relevant for years to come.

AB: What change has had the biggest impact for you and your company?

MS: The loss of keyword data forced us to look into a different approach to our SEO strategy (goal setting and prioritization). At the same time, we (as everyone else) should have been prepared - as we had quite some time before this change was rolled out globally. The secure search update forced many to look into different data sources and place more focus on page-level data, general site, and content metrics. Editor Note: BrightEdge was the first to anticipate this shift in market with Page Manager and enhanced  Page Reporting innovations. Google Webmaster Tools (GWMT) Integration also provides keyword data right within the BrightEdge platform.

AB: How do you see SEO and content evolving over the next year?

MS: Focus on your users first (the content they consume, how the get access to this, when and where). This, for many, is easier said than done. The mistake many companies make, in my opinion, is that they focus too much on content they want to produce (brand tone of voice, communication medium, and internal processes) and not enough on the needs and desires of the end user. Content should continue to be created with the user in mind (interesting, worth reading and sharing and useful), and published when and where the target users are more receptive to this. Speed of delivery and location (mobile) are, and will continue to be, major factors to consider.

AB: Do you have any tips to share on how marketers and businesses can adapt to the rapid shifts in our market?

MS: I would say that now, more than ever, (at least from an SEO perspective) businesses need to embrace change and set up a team that is prepared to react fast to such shifts. Focus on data and targeting personas will help in ensuring such changes are successful.

AB: What are you doing to shift focus from keyword to page performance strategies in light of secure search?

MS: The secure search update forced us to change the way we look at SEO data (forecasting and measuring its impact, define priorities and opportunities), but it did not change how we should approach it from a macro point of view (what ultimately will allow you to reach your goals). Organic keyword referral data has been a fantastic support for years, but many other data sources are still available (first and foremost page-level KPIs). BrightEdge quickly adapted to the industry shift, and supported us through the process. As with other updates, we have ensured all stakeholders (at all levels) understood the implication of such change and how we were going to react to this.

The Content Marketing Shift: Optimization, Measurement, Performance

Content Alignment is Always an Important (and sometimes difficult) Thing to Do!

AB: How are you aligning your content and search optimization efforts?

MS: In a large organization, content alignment is always an important (and sometimes difficult) thing to do. We have processes in place to handle the creation of different content types and the upload and measurement of its impact. This process changes depending if we are working on meta data (on-page) or more complex initiatives that involve video, user generated content or social integration.

AB: How critical is measurement of content in your organization?

MS: We try to use data in all aspects of the business and measure everything we do (including content). The goal is to embrace data while remaining flexible and driving fast campaign execution.

AB: Tell me more about your view on the convergence of content and SEO.

MS:  We should all ensure content creation is first and foremost driven by our users and data (pre and post creation).   Find the right balance between quality of content and SEO scale.

About Your Attendance at Share 14

AB: Tell me more about your session.

MS: This is my first time at Share, but hopefully I will be able to provide an insight into the way we do SEO at the Adidas Group.  In particular I will talk about how we treat global SEO in a large organization that includes multiple brands, stakeholders and sites across different languages and countries.

AB: Why Share – why do you attend? 

MS: I am looking forward to engaging and networking with other experienced SEO's - learning from their experiences and insights with them. Sharing is one of the best way to become a better SEO.

AB: What advice can you give Share attendees to make the most of their experience?

MS: Be open to share your experiences, and don’t hold anything back.

Your Partnership with BrightEdge

AB: Tell us more about how you use BrightEdge to achieve your business objectives.

MS: BrightEdge helps us measure the impact of everything we do as an SEO team. It also helps educate all global stakeholders via reporting. In an organization the size of the Adidas Group ongoing education and alignment is key to ensure that all the different stakeholder,  that play a major role in our SEO development, have visibility and understand our strategy and success.

AB: What do you love about BrightEdge?

MS: We have been working with BrightEdge for a few years now. We really appreciate the flexibility the team, and platform, has demonstrated in supporting our different (and often changing) needs.

As part of our series connecting with leading brands and marketers ahead of Share 14, I caught up with Dave Lloyd, senior manager of global search marketing at Adobe Systems. Dave leads a team dedicated to organic and website search strategies, and he's got nearly 15 years in the digital and search marketing space. In this interview, Dave talks about the customer optimization strategy, the difference between demand generation and lead generation, and why search is content -- but content is not always search.

The SEO Landscape

Andy Betts (AB): How have you seen the SEO landscape change over the last year? 

Dave Lloyd (DL): This is my 14th year in the industry, and the pace of change has never been greater. The search marketing industry continues to evolve. Let’s face it: SEO performance relies on a business solid foundation and adapting regularly to changes in the industry.  

When the algorithms change to improve the overall user experience, top marketers must respond by aligning strategically and operationally to their company’s overall goals. And as always, continue learning and preparing for the next change, because change is the only constant.

That’s where we are with search engine optimization today. Things are in transition because customer behavior is moving more to mobile, social, and search activity. Where the customer goes, we go. SEO in many circles is almost a misnomer now.

While we will always optimize for search engines, I tend to think we optimize digital assets according to best practices for both humans and algorithms. We optimize for the customer experience because the search engine is now only a means to the end, a conversion. SEO must first optimize to your future customer where they increasingly spend their time on mobile, in social media, and in search engines. SEO must continue integrating with the broader marketing world, including many of the elements shown in the graphic below.

The old SEO days of running as fast as you can to keep up with search engines, algorithm changes, and dedicated link building strategies are no longer as effective if your goal is to leverage the value of an integrated SEO campaign. The new SEO, customer optimization strategy (COS), takes place above the shoulders in a well-thought-out content campaign that incorporates the old SEO (no, it is not dead), and also recognizes the new power of the customer to express what they want in social and digital media through user-generated content (UGC). The new foundation for COS is data and data analytics, including predictive analytics that enable content decisions based on customers’ future needs.

As customer sentiments and perceptions shift, content and marketing messages shift to stay fresh and relevant. The customer is telling us what they want. We just have to listen (collect data), pay attention (analyze data), and give it to them (make good decisions based on the analysis).

The Content Marketing Shift – Optimization, Measurement, Performance

AB: Tell me more about your view on the convergence of content and SEO.

DL: Search is content but content is not always search. What I mean by this is that search is obviously dependent on content both strategically and tactically. But the "early and often” opportunity for search to benefit and align closely with content strategy must be earned consistently at companies in order to be integrated and fully supported. Bottom line: there is often a gap between the ideal notions of search + content marketing, and what happens in the real world. In the most practical way, this is how the two could work together to improve lead generation:

1. Define a keyword strategy
2. Optimize your website to get found for both brand and non-brand competitive terms
3. Create blog and other marketing content  (inbound marketing)
4. Promote content and participate in social media (demand generation)
5. Convert site visitors into leads (lead generation)
6. Nurture leads with targeted messages (lead management)
7. Optimize your marketing for mobile
8. Analyze and refine strategies

So the back-end strategy at play is generating leads or sales through demand generation. I think of demand generation as an awareness effort designed to drive traffic to your website to cause potential customers to “inquire” about your products.

Demand generation is not lead generation. It’s an enabler for lead generation. Content marketing is often synonymous with inbound marketing, focused on the general marketing funnel effort.

Demand generation is driving those Web visitors further into the funnel thereby generating demand, from the perspective of sales value.

Demand generation is the sales side of inbound marketing; it comes complete with back-end goals related to conversion rates and revenue, whereas inbound marketing is a precursor to demand generation and leaves the ROI issues to the demand generation people in your organization.

Simply, inbound marketing is front-end awareness whereas demand generation also includes back-end nurturing and closing. SEOs today must continue to focus on aligning to content strategy and inbound marketing while striving and innovating to add value to the lead quality being driven through the funnel.

About Your Session at Share 14

AB: Tell me more about your session at Share 14.

DL: I’m honored to be speaking at two sessions – one on global search marketing and the other on in-house SEO operations. In both, I plan to cover strategic and operational topics important to the SEO leader or practitioner with a slant on strategy alignment, process excellence, a focus on data and results, and practical takeaways.

AB: Why Share? Why do you attend?

DL: I attend Share to connect with industry leaders, learn and return with both innovative and practical tips. Our industry changes so quickly that even a few new insights or connections can make a significant difference in results. Share is a world-class event where I can learn about the latest strategies and best practices from search and digital marketing leaders.

AB: What advice can you give Share 14 attendees to make the most of their experience?

DL: As Woody Allen said long ago, “80 percent of life is showing up.” So make the business justification to do that, and then have in mind a few objectives to fulfill at the event – and prepare to share your takeaways with colleagues when you return to the office. Maybe it’s to meet 20 new people plus learn five new things and implement at least three of them within a month.

Takeaways from events like this come from both session topics and hallway discussions, so go out of your way to meet new people and keep in touch. And be sure to take action when you get home.

We can’t wait to enjoy the summertime weekend, either - but before you ditch those laptops for sunscreen, get caught up on what happened this week in the marketing world.

Spotlight on BrightEdge

If you’ve visited the blog lately, it’s kind of hard to miss that we’ve completely revamped the look and feel.

We’re excited about the future of the BrightEdge blog, which we’re planning right now. Stay tuned for more blog posts on a more consistent basis, including thought leadership pieces from top brands, BrightEdge insight on digital marketing topics, inside looks at the company and much more, coming soon.

SMX Advanced

BrightEdge is a Gold Sponsor of SMX Advanced in Seattle, June 11 to 12, where we’ll be exhibiting (Booth 22) and speaking. In his presentation, CEO Jim Yu will talk about what advanced SEOs should be doing about mobile.

Find out more about SMX and Jim's session below:

http://searchmarketingexpo.com/advanced/2014/full_agenda#1449

Share14 is coming

On August 20 to 22, BrightEdge hosts its annual Share14 digital marketing event in San Francisco, bringing together many of the Worlds top brands to talk about what’s hot in digital marketing right now. Discounted pricing ends August 7. 

Stay tuned for the official Share14 micro-site launch, announcements and blog insights starting next week!

Check out last years Share13 video featuring brands such as Adobe, SAP, Microsoft and and Hilton - It's time to get excited !

Marketing Tips and In-Depth Articles From The Search Marketing Community

Content from the CEO: May

Check out these in-depth articles and tips from BrightEdge’s CEO, Jim Yu, for the month of May:

The Marketer Role is Changing. What You Need to Succeed - Marketing Land

Do marketers practice what they preach? And are they being rewarded for it? In an industry where best practices are constantly shifting as a result of new technology and trends, marketers need to keep up.

MoCo: Mobile, Content and Advanced SEO: How to Prepare - Marketing Land

What does it mean to be “mobile ready”? You might say having a mobile responsive site — and that’s certainly part of it. But there’s much more that goes into ultimately creating an excellent website experience for your ever-expanding and ever-discerning mobile user base.

5 Ways to Sell SEO to Your CMO - Search Engine Watch

If I came to you and asked to borrow $40,000 for a business venture I'm considering, and I said that you needed to trust the idea was going to work based on my knowledge and experience, what would you say?

3 Essential Questions You Should Be Asking Your CMO - Huffington Post

The marketing landscape has changed drastically over the years, and it's only fitting that the role of the CMO at any company has followed suit. CMOs are now pulled in dozens of different directions, between social, content, mobile and digital marketing movements.

Think Like a Publisher Act Like a Business - Huffington Post

If you were told five years ago that your company needed to get serious about publishing, you probably wouldn't have taken that advice to heart. Today it is the complete opposite. If a strong publishing strategy isn't part of your marketing repertoire then you are missing out on fruitful opportunities for customer engagement.

Weekly News Round-up

Here are BrightEdge’s top picks for action-oriented articles and in-depth analysis of some of the topics on the minds of marketers.

"The Myths & Realties of How The EU's New 'Right To Be Forgotten In Google Works"

Can anyone really be "forgotten" on Google? The EU thinks they can. With all the hype around the EU’s newest “Right to be Forgotten” law, how will this movement affect search around the world?

Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land deep dives into burning questions about how the ruling may pan out.

Some of those Q&As include:

1. Can anyone have anything removed from Google? Sullivan says there are no guarantees that items will be removed, but anyone can ask
2. Will the ruling always uphold in every situation? The answer here is no. The ruling states that content can’t be removed if it will interfere with the “preponderant interest of the general public in having, on account of its inclusion in the list of results, access to the information in question.”
3. What happens with the content in question on other search engines? Sullivan suspects the ruling doesn’t cover all search engines, and if someone wanted that same content off Bing, for example, that person would need to “make a request to each and every search engine they want material removed from,” he said.
4. If something is removed in one country, will it be removed in others? The answer here is still unclear, but if prior history is any indicator, the content removal under this ruling will be for the search engine version of the country the request is being made in (Google.de, for example).

"How to Create a Marketing Plan"

Oftentimes, companies create marketing plans in their heads – and keep them there. So, what should a marketing plan look like? What’s the relation between your marketing plan and your business plan? Who should see your marketing plan? How long should you spend on creating it? These are some of the questions this article in Entrepreneur.com tackles.

Here are just a few ideas from the post and its accompanying video:

• Documented marketing plans are essential to their longevity. It’s not wise for one person to hold all the marketing knowledge in the company; documented plans help any newcomer get up-to-speed on the marketing vision.
• Writing and reviewing marketing plans on a regular basis gives a big-picture overview of the business. The day-to-day hustle and bustle of business can cause you to easily lose sight of goals and progress; documented marketing plans help put that into perspective over time.

"5 Reasons to Include Polling in Your Social Media Strategy"

On social media, engaging with your audience is a No. 1 priority. But how can you gauge exactly how they’re feeling? Here are five reasons to use polls in your social media marketing by Travis Bernard at Search Engine Watch:

1. Free product feedback
2. Deep understanding of customers
3. Community building
4. Content generation
5. Traffic lift

In his article, Bernard also gives his Top 3 picks for polling tools, including Poll, Wedgies and Poptip.

“Infographic: User Generated Content To Boost Sales"

At the end of the day, sales are what make a company run. Did you know about the potential impact that user-generated content (UGC) can have on your sales? This infographic courtesy of Marketing Land by Offerpop dives into how to turn UGC into big-time ROI. In it, we learn some facts:

• UGC is 20 percent more influential than other types of media.
• Brand engagement rises by 28 percent when consumers are exposed to professional content and UGC product videos.

Here are some tips, too:

• Incentivize customers to share photos and videos of purchases on social.
• Promote sweepstakes via social media, ads, in-store and on packaging.

Search Marketing News

Bing Shutting Down Webmaster Forums

“Over the last few years, we’ve had our Webmaster forums up and running. They’ve been around a while now in a few iterations, and like any community, the goal is to grow it to be vibrant and engaging. To foster the deep involvement of experts who help others, creating a community that contributes to improvements and makes its own gravity,” Bing's Duane Forrester said in an announcement.

“There comes a time, however, when you sometimes need to re-evaluate, and once in a while, regroup. Thus as of the end of May (or early June), we’re taking down our Bing Webmaster Community Forum, allowing us time and resources to focus energies in other directions.”

Where to next? Bing said there are several ways to stay connected:

• Help and How-To sections
• Webmaster Guidelines content
• Webmaster Blog
• Email support
• WebmasterWorld

Matt Cutts on Links, Anchor Text and PageRank

Over at the Google Webmasters channel on YouTube this week, Google’s Matt Cutts answers the question:

“If you’re telling me that the most important thing for your SEO strategy is knowing what two links from one page do – you know, I understand if people are curious about it – but you might want to step back at look at the higher mountain top of SEO, and your SEO strategy and the architecture of your site, and how is the user experience and how’s the speed of the site and all that sort of stuff,” Cutts said.

Enough said, right? But what’s the real answer, according to Google? Referencing Google’s original document on PageRank, Cutts said if you have two links from one page to another page, both links would flow PageRank.

More on that in the video here

Have a great weekend all!

At BrightEdge our top value is customer success. Since our inception in 2007, we have dedicated ourselves to the SEO community by developing the most innovative SEO technology that increases visibility, uncovers competitive insights, and elevates SEO to a C-level imperative. Our customers have been able to successfully demonstrate SEO is the predominant digital channel for their organizations and advance their careers.

At Share13, we were proud to share stories of how several of our long-term customers have been promoted from SEO Specialist to SEO Director, and others from Director of SEO to VP of Customer Acquisition. At Share14, you can look forward to more inspiring stories, fantastic research, and networking opportunities.

SEO practitioners and digital marketers are truly our favorite people! The features in our latest release are designed to help our customers make an even bigger impact within their organizations.

Channel Reporting

With our new Channel Reporting, we’ve empowered you to up-level the communication to your CMO by showing the importance and strength of SEO in relation to other digital marketing channels, in a data driven way.

Gain Complete Visibility Across Your Marketing Channels

• Communicate the importance of SEO – Highlight the contribution of organic search to your total business performance and make a case for additional investments
• Track performance across multiple channels – Understand which channels are performing and how to best allocate resources
• Analyze trended, comparative metrics in a single view – Gain a complete view into Organic, Social, Paid, Direct, and Other channel performance in a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or flexible date range view
• Drill into pages driving performance - Analyze which pages are driving organic revenue, conversions, and traffic in a seamless reporting flow to Page Reporting

Content Optimizer

Also in this release we’re introducing new technology to help you partner with your content team more closely than ever. With the latest version of Content Optimizer, we bring the most powerful features and intelligence of the BrightEdge S3 platform seamlessly into Adobe Experience Manager through an enterprise ready integration. Be sure to check out our Press Release from Adobe Summit.

BrightEdge + Adobe

BrightEdge is an Adobe Accredited Application Partner, with a history of developing powerful integrated technology offerings. BrightEdge Content Optimizer brings the most powerful features and the intelligence of the BrightEdge S3 platform seamlessly into Adobe Experience Manager through an enterprise ready integration.

Content and editorial teams can leverage an out-of-the-box integration with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), allowing them to easily create content that is optimized for maximum traffic, conversions, and revenue without breaking or slowing down their content creation flow.

Content Optimizer provides organizations with recommendations that evolve along with the search landscape and are compliant with the complex structure of large websites.

Key benefits for digital marketers:

• Optimal Content Structure: SEO managers are now able to determine the optimal structure for effective content, set guidelines and policies within the BrightEdge S3 platform, and instantly share these guidelines in Adobe Experience Manager, connecting SEO know-how with the content creation process.
• Policy Compliance Across an Organization: Manage policies with out-of-the-box support for multiple teams, templates, and SEO policies. Set SEO guidelines for all site-wide content and enforce compliance across multiple teams and templates.
• SEO Checklist for Succes: Focus on what matters with up to 16 on-page recommendations that have the most impact on search performance. Access recommendations based on their rank, on-page elements, social media traction and backlink profile.

BrightEdge Global Data Cube

We’re also excited to announce that our Data Cube is Generally Available. For customers in the UK working with our London team, we’re happy to announce the BrightEdge Global Data Cube with UK coverage. With the Data Cube, customers now have access to the industry’s largest, most accurate and actionable SEO dataset. 

The Largest, Most Accurate Database

The BrightEdge Data Cube is a massive content repository, the industry’s largest data set made up of billions of pieces of information which includes: keywords, search terms, rich media, and content, along with its performance on the web.

BrightEdge processes over 100 terabytes of data each week. We do so because we realize today’s marketers need a massive data set to be able to understand their entire organic search footprint and take action off of that data.

Hear Our Story About the BrightEdge Data Cube

How the Data Cube Works

Within one centralized view, marketers may perform either URL-based or Keyword-based research in real-time. BrightEdge provides two ways to access the Data Cube. With Goal Based Research we help marketers quickly identify the data that matters most, aligning SEO with business outcomes. With Freeform Search marketers can enter in a keyword or URL in the same way a Google search is performed.