5 min read
The Google Gods can be quite fickle. Always changing their algorithms, making it essential (and often challenging) for companies to stay on top of all the latest SEO trends.
Some businesses are well aware of the ever-evolving SEO landscape. Most, though, have a hard time keeping up.
This is the story of a B2B organization that could not catch traction for new terms – either didn’t have very good rankings for or none at all.
Thanks to a solid partnership, focused efforts and committed work, here we are only a few months later, and the website is now in the game!
Website Evolution Needs To Meet Business Development
In late 2018, the company launched a new, revamped website. Thousands of pages were redesigned and rewritten, all coming together to provide a far superior UX to what they previously had in place. Through it all, they considered SEO, aiming to keep their already ranking critical terms and keywords.
But their key search terms and phrases they wanted to expand on, due to the evolution of the business. With the understanding that their new website could be even better optimized, they enlisted the services of Twelve Legs Marketing to grow traffic without scaling content.
The process began with step 1 of the Twelve Legs’ SEO strategy: conduct an audit to develop a benchmark, based on current performance, and define opportunities to grow success, without adding stress on the internal teams.
The SEO Audit Findings
Our SEO audit takes three key areas in account:
- Technical SEO
- On-Page SEO
- Backlinks
Similar to acquiring a home, fully updated on the outside, but in need of love and attention inside, the website had a beautiful front, improved user experience, and was ready for our team to upgrade the interior workings.
As suspected, there were several areas that needed immediate attention, including URL structures, duplicated content, incorrect redirects, broken links, etc.
The audit also concluded that there were many focus keywords and phrases that the company’s target audience was searching for on a regular basis—and their site wasn’t showing up on subsequent SERPs (search engine results pages).
The keyphrases identified as having the most potential to increase the company’s search visibility had to do with the change of terminology audiences use. The research around the evolution of trends and behaviors over time is key to a successful SEO strategy.
So we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.
The SEO Recommendations
The audit report showed the website ranked on average #26 on Google for one of its main terms “service desk training,” and worse still, when a prospective customer searched for “help desk training,” the site was nowhere to be found.
After getting a handle of the sheer size of the website, it was time to make a few basic changes.
- Identify low-quality content, which hinders rankings
- Clean up the low-quality content
- Organize all technical and content issues including incorrect redirects, broken links and missing titles
- Clean up as many technical and content issues, as quickly as possible
- Identify the pages on the site with highest potential for ranking growth
After identifying the focus website pages that best lended themselves to optimization for key terms, we dove into the on-page cleanup:
- Key Terms, Key Page: Use high-potential pages to rank for keywords/keyphrases, working both into the updated content.
- Page Content: Significantly update the key pages’ meta titles and content to include keyphrases and related search terms throughout specific areas of the page.
- Images: Often forgotten, but certainly important, we worked with the creative team to develop a more visually appealing presentation of the key pages.
- Converting Sales Page: It’s one thing to optimize for search, but will the page generate interest in buying? We developed content to allow pages to follow a natural conversation style and encouraging users to engage with strong call-to-actions.
- Internal Page Links: Apart from identifying the key pages to utilize as pillars for SEO success, we also built a map with other internal pages throughout the website where a link back to the newly-optimized page would be a natural fit.
- Backlinks: If Google likes what we’ve done that’s great, but we also know that Google will look for external factors to determine if our pages are worth showing at the top of search results. The cherries on top of our sparkling key pages, were finding opportunities to boost authority with backlinks (a link from other websites to our pages).
Search Engine Optimization Begins
With the recommendations approved by the client, we used the detailed reports and SEO plan produced during the audit to guide the optimization.
The content overhaul was significant.
The pages were updated to strategically take in account the company’s goals and the competitive field they operate in. at the same time, we ensured the site still delivered on everything the user was looking for when they entered keywords into their search query.
Careful not to oversaturate the pages with keywords, we used related search terms throughout the content to complement the focus keyphrases. As Google algorithms have evolved, there’s actually less importance on keyword density and more on searcher intent. No one wants to read something that sounds forced and inhuman.
If it doesn’t address the readers’ pain points or answer their questions, search engines will know…and you’ll pay for it.
The Result Prove It Was All Worth It
The initial phase of optimization took approximately 3 months. At the starting point, if you recall, the numbers left much to be desired…
Service Desk Training
Before: #26 on Google
Now: #3 on Google
Help Desk Training
Before: No ranking
Now: Google’s page 1 results (#7)
In just 4 short months, post completion of phase one, the most recent report told a different story…
“Service desk training” skyrocketed to #3 on Google, and “help desk training” went from no visibility at all to gracing Google’s page 1 results (#7)!
Now in the game with a total uptick in search visibility of +8% on Google, the overall search presence for these keyphrases is currently twice as good as the company’s next competitor. And it’s an ongoing process as we continue to defend and improve their ranking in this space.
An 8% lift in Google visibility equals thousands new qualified website visitors each month!
A Robust and Informed SEO Strategy Can Make A Big Difference
A solid SEO strategy can make all the difference. Tech support professionals looking for help desk training and service desk training options are now finding our client as a top choice for their career development.
A few months ago, that wasn’t the case, and the conclusion is simple: SEO can have a bottom line impact on your business. In this specific case, so far an 8% lift in organic rankings equals 30% lift in organic traffic to the website!
Is your website due for an SEO check-up?
