What is Agile SEO?

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1 CREATING AGILE SEO CAMPAIGNS a publication by 1

2 Authors Suggested by Sarah Bundy, Founder & CEO of All Inclusive Marketing, is an award winning leader in the performance marketing space. Sarah drives the vision and direction of AIM and actively contributes to the advancement of the performance marketing industry through education, training, effective leadership and strategic Sarah teaches at The School of Internet Marketing and the Online Marketing Institute, speaks at industry shows such as Online Marketing Summit, Affiliate Summit and Performance Marketing Insights and writes for periodicals such as Small Business Trends, ReveNews, and FeedFront Magazine. Strategy & Design by Julia Stanescu, who drives Business Strategy & Development at All Inclusive Marketing. Julia s passion lies in identifying companies needs and challenges to create smart solutions that achieve desired results. Julia identified a gap that many businesses have ecommerce businesses that need to increase their overall sales, engagements, and captures while lowering marketing costs. This need often comes from limited time, resources, connections or expertise. This ebook was created to help address those needs and help your ecommerce businesses become more 2

3 Foreword Is this ebook useful for me or my business? Most marketers are familiar with the buzzword of 2013 Agile Marketing and are taking steps to adapt current marketing practices to this model. The practicality and versatility of the agile approach has led to its application in a variety of marketing initiatives, including social, lead generation and SEO. Intermediate Level Organically, Agile SEO makes sense. With the constant addition of new web pages and the influx of new buzzwords every day, it seems only natural to continuously revise the content and keywords that are generated in order to optimize searches for services, products or content. This How-To Guide defines Agile SEO, the reasons to engage in Agile SEO campaigns and the key components of the Agile SEO approach. 3

4 Contents In this ebook you ll explore What is Agile SEO? / p. 05 Reasons to engage in Agile SEO /p. 07 What is the right Agile SEO Approach /p. 10 Action Plan Strategy /p.12 Conclusion /p. 29 4

5 5 What is Agile SEO?

6 What is Agile SEO? When people talk Agile SEO, they normally discuss the benefits of a procedural department-wide shift to the agile framework, or the development of technical tools to approach SEO problems with more of a programmer s mindset. [ ] At the core of agile SEO development, the concept is to develop a system of releasing content through repeated cycles (iteration) and in smaller portions at a time (incremental). In this framework, the iteration is done with the early release of content and subsequent updating and nurturing of this content. - source: Agile Marketing is the application of a simple process popularized by software developers of build, measure and learn to marketing practices. The Agile SEO approach recognizes that SEO is more effective when it is continuous and ongoing. Content on the web is always in flux, and Agile SEO matches the dynamic nature of the web. This approach calls for many iterations of incremental content change, fine tuning between each pivot to achieve optimal performance. 6

7 Reasons to Engage in Agile SEO Campaigns? 7

8 Agile SEO Campaigns Reasons to Engage in Agile SEO Campaigns If you re not formally conducting SEO, then adopting the agile approach to it is simple. If you re switching from traditional SEO planning to an agile approach, it may seem like a daunting task. However, the effort to create Agile SEO campaigns will yield practical benefits and immediate ROI. The top reasons to utilize the agile approach for SEO are: 1. Stay Competitive Remaining current on your keywords/content will allow you to build a solid foundation to protect from competitors seeking out similar keyword searches. Competitors will work tirelessly to rank #1 for their top keywords so it is important to keep a watchful eye on your rankings as well. Likewise, consistently monitoring keywords and content allows you to find opportunities to exploit via search engine marketing. 8

9 Agile SEO Campaigns Reasons to Engage in Agile SEO Campaigns? 2. Continual Testing & Learning The agile SEO method encourages testing of new ideas and concepts. This creates an atmosphere of experimentation for content development and generates an efficient way to build long-term keyword success. 3. Decrease Rate of Failure The core of the agile approach diminishes the concept of failure. By continuously planning, testing, and evaluating SEO campaigns in short increments; you are constantly improving on your SEO strategy over time. 4. Adapt Quickly to Change A great strength of Agile SEO is that it enables a quick response to changes. The continuous cycles of this approach provide ample opportunity to implement and measure fully integrated campaigns. 9

10 10 Agile SEO Approach

11 Agile SEO Approach The Agile SEO approach implements a cyclical method of testing, applying and evaluating. Utilize the action plan we ve outlined on the next page to learn how to implement Agile SEO as part of your workflow. The Agile SEO process workflow is simple. Workflow SEO Process Plan Implement Measure Improve 11

12 12 Action Plan

13 Action Plan 1. Plan Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your SEO campaign. This could include, but is not limited to: Research Site Analysis ROI keyword ranking click-through rate order conversion rate average order value lead generation conversion rate average cost per conversion search as a percent of site traffic Reporting Keywords Link SEO Building Development 13

14 Action Plan 2. Implement Execute your SEO initiative. Begin by understanding the baseline performance of your current set of web content by reviewing the analytics data. Identify specific pages of web content that are underperforming and prioritize your efforts for these pages, keeping in mind that you ll want to eventually use Agile SEO techniques on all your pages. Next step is to determine what keywords should lead to content on your site, and then evaluate these keywords using Google s Keyword Planner to select those with the highest traffic and least competition. Make sure your web content is dense with these keywords they should appear multiple times in a set of web content, not just once or twice. Increase your use of popular keywords where you have fallen in the ranks and/or consider utilizing recently discovered keywords more often as they seem to create better conversion. 14

15 Action Plan 3. Measure Using the analytics data for your website, compare the results to the baseline metrics. Evaluate the success of your most recent efforts. If they have met your goals, shift your attention to the next set of web content on your priority list. If the results are not meeting expectations, make improvements as discussed below. Measure ROI, Traffic, CTR, etc. Measure Keywords Success % 18% % 0 21% 16% 12% 15

16 Action Plan 4. Improve Identify areas of improvement by recognizing which keywords and/or content are proving to be the most successful for your KPIs. As necessary, make incremental changes to the content, increasing the keyword density, changing the keyword mix or both. 60 Improve your KPI s 300 Increase the Keyword Density

17 Action Plan 5. Repeat Continue following the workflow mapped out above in Agile SEO Approach. Go through this Agile SEO process continuously, taking the time to revise and re-implement your keywords on a regular basis to constantly improve your rankings on search results pages. Conclusion Beginning an Agile SEO campaign is as simple as increasing the frequency of your planning. Instead of a yearly or quarterly SEO planning session, consider the continuous cycle of plan, implement, measure and improve that Agile SEO prescribes. If you do this, you can stay a step ahead of your competition in the search rankings. 17

18 Need an SEO Assessment for your website? Wondering if you have got all the steps right? Find out in a custom SEO assessment with an expert from the All Inclusive Marketing team how well our website performs. Click here to contact us

19 Driving Performance Marketing All Inclusive Marketing is a full service digital marketing agency delivering strategic experience driven results. We ve been driving performance marketing since 2009 through Innovation, Leadership, and Ethical Business Practices. AIM s award winning experts help businesses around the world increase profitable sales and exposure through strategic digital marketing. AIM s goal is, and will forever be, to Delight, Innovate, Grow and Give Back. 19