Online Search Marketing OMI Certification Course Discovery
Documentation
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Agenda What is Discovery
Documentation? Discover the business Discover the goals Discover
the competition Discover the technology Discover the numbers
Summary
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2009 Online Marketing Institute What is Discovery
Documentation? Discovery documentation is the process of gathering
a list of core business drivers, goals and technologies that will
allow you to anticipate obstacles, set expectations, and drive
strategic vision and decisions.
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Remember Its Called
Documentation Creating real documentation is an essential part of a
successful SEO campaign Write it down Save the work somewhere easy
to access Refer to the document often throughout the SEO process to
see if there are additional insights to leverage for the
client.
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Discover the Business Business
Model It is essential to have a deep understanding of your clients
business goals and business model. Ask yourself and the client the
following: What are your core products, solutions & services?
Who are your primary customers and what job titles do they have?
What industry do you serve? What sets you apart from your
competitors? Where are your customers located?
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Discover the Business - The
Client What are your current marketing initiatives? Who is
available to collaborate in your team? Technical resource? Project
manager for team? Who is the decision maker? What kind of content
is available online and offline? Are there sub-brands, other
websites or online properties? What is your typical sales
cycle?
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Discover the Goals Understand
the key objectives of the campaign Drive conversions? How do they
currently define an online conversion? Generate traffic? What is
the current traffic profile and how long have they tracked?
Increase brand recognition? Increase rankings for specific
keywords? What are their perceived most important search terms?
Other important KPIs?
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Discover the Competition
Understanding the competition & perceptions are important to
SEO strategy and research. Client identify top 5 competitor
websites List likes, dislikes, competitive advantages &
differentiators Identify top competitors for their most important
keywords phrases (identified in understanding the goals). The
keyword competitors may vary from the clients top 5 perceived
competitors. Difference between business competition & online
competition.
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Discover the Competition Online
Pepsi would identify Coca-Cola as competitor. For a soda pop
keyword search other sites appear: Niche information sites General
information sites like Wikipedia. Universal results like images,
maps & videos.
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Discover the Technology In
order to do your job, you have to understand the technology
abilities and limitations. There are several technology items you
will want to understand. CMS Platform Measurement technologies
Website server & hosting technologies Web based technologies
Database technologies Corporate guidelines vs. technological
abilities
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Discover the Measurement
Technologies Are they gathering analytics? With an analytics tool
or log files? Who is currently creating reports? What metrics do
they report on? Do they measure through to conversions? Are the
conversions tagged properly? Do they have any other advanced
measurement tools? Have they tracked any historical rankings
data?
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Discover the Database
Technologies Are there pages that are only accessed after login?
Are there SSL, HTTPS, or other secure pages? Is the database
customizable? In-house or contracted/purchased? Are your pages
dynamically generated? What kind of files can exist on the site
(flash, html, xml, php?)
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Discover the Web Based
Technologies Do they utilize any geo-location or IP detection on
the website? Do they use javascript? Do they use flash? Do they use
CSS? Do they use Ajax? Have they developed custom apps through
APIs? Do they have forms? Do they use frames?
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Discover the Content
Technologies Is the site using a content management system?
Platform, version, customization of CMS? How is CMS currently used
by marketing team? Can the SEO get access to the CMS? Are there any
currently known issues with the CMS? Meta Tags, Heading Tags, Title
Tags, Image Alt Tags, URLs, Internal Navigation
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Discover the Client Guidelines
& Limitations Are there current website style guides? Are there
current content or branding guidelines? Are there PR or marketing
decision makers outside of the core project team? What is their
website update process? Do they need technical spec sheets? Do they
have quarterly coding updates? Is there anything that is currently
online that is going away?
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Discover the Marketing
Partnerships Do they have another outside company help with any of
the following SEM (Paid Search) SEO (Organic Search) Social Media
Press Releases or Public Relations E-mail Marketing Web-Maintenance
Analytics Services Usability
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Discover the Numbers
Discovering the numbers and where you are at. Verify analytics
numbers and accuracy. Get access to Google Webmaster tools if
available. Understand how many other SEO, online & offline
projects the client is currently running & has historically
run. Determine what metrics need to be tracked to report on KPIs to
the client. Use analytics insights to drive keyword research &
benchmarks.
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2009 Online Marketing Institute Summary Discovery Documentation
Discovery documentation will allow you to understand how to
succeed. Understanding client business model helps you tell their
story and enjoy deeper insights through the life of the project.
Understanding client technology allows you to implement and
troubleshoot. Understanding online presence allows you to harness
the power of unique CONTENT! Understanding client goals helps you
set successful SEO goals. Understanding the competitive landscape
drives your keyword research and overall strategy.