UX × SEO

UX × SEO

Multiplying effect you get when UX and SEO work together to develop and execute strategy from the beginning of the process.

Each multiplies the impact of the other.

1Thursday, September 27, 12

A couple of things before we startPresentation will be on slideshare linked from EdUI site

David Poteet, President

@davidpoteet [email protected]

Melissa Beaver, Director of UX

@misb [email protected]

Jessica Behal, Director of Internet Marketing

@jes525 [email protected]

Questions at the end


One of our favorite clients - Old Dominion University Distance Learning - demonstrates the impact you can get when UX and SEO work together.


ODU DISTANCE LEARNING - RESULTS

Enquiry Traffic to Enroll

Fall of 2011 140/day 3%Fall of 2012 3,064/day 20%

Saw huge increase in traffic, but more importantly the rate at which students who filled out the enquiry form then enrolled jumped significantly.

SEO can drive traffic, but UX helps you convert.

We’ll show you the process we followed to get these sort of results, and then we’ll give you more details of the ODU case study.


DefinitionsUser Experience

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or “Organic”

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or “Pay Per Click”

Analytics

Conversion

Funnel


Why This Matters


0

2.5

5

7.5

10

12.5

15

1995 2009 2020 (projected)

4.13.5

2.8

5.5

4.6

3.4

13.1

12.1

8

18-24 25-34 35 and over

9%

32%

US ENROLLMENT TRENDS (MILLIONS)

Source: Na+onal Center for Educa+on Sta+s+csh5p://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011026.pdf

Most of us have spent the majority of our working career in higher ed during a period when enrollment was growing fast enough nationwide that you could screw up a lot of things and still grow enrollment.

We’re moving into a period where that will not be the case.


0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

1995 2009 2020 (projected)

HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES

Source: Na+onal Center for Educa+on Sta+s+csh5p://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/current_tables.asp

-3%32%

Over the next decade, although higher ed enrollment among traditional age students is projected to increase approx. 9%, the actual number of high school graduates in the US is projected to decrease by approx. 3%.

Note that this varies a lot depending on where you live. In some states graduates will increase, in some they will decrease. More on that in a minute.


0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

1995 2009 2020 (projected)

ATTENDING 2 OR 4 YEAR COLLEGE



-3%32%

62%

70%80%

So when you overlay the number of HS grads going on to college, you see that the percentage is increasing.


5%

35%

33%

27%

Reading

< Basic

≥ Basic

≥ ProficientAdvanced

3%

24%

36%

37%

Math

12TH GRADE ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS IN 2009


But let’s look at the achievement levels of high school graduates. These percentages haven’t changed much in the last 15 years, so we shouldn’t expect them to change much in the next 10.


0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

1995 2009 2020 (projected)

ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS

Advanced Proficient Basic or below



-3%32%

We’re making an assumption here that most students who are Advanced or Proficient are already going to college. So if the percentage of high school graduates who go on to college is going to increase, then it is more likely to come from the students who are on the lower end of the achievement scale.


Your mileage will varyCHANGES IN HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION LEVELS BY STATE


Source: Na+onal Center for Educa+on Sta+s+csh5p://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011026.pdf


0

250,000

500,000

750,000

1,000,000

1,250,000

1,500,000

1,750,000

2,000,000

1995 2009 2020 (projected)

White Black Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander



So when you overlay the number of HS grads going on to college, you see that the percentage is increasing.


REALITY CHECKYou will have to work harder to

reach the best students.


So Why SEO?


Source: Noel Levitz 2012 E-‐Expecta+ons Reporth5ps://www.noellevitz.com/papers-‐research-‐higher-‐educa+on/2012/2012-‐e-‐expecta+ons-‐report

HOW STUDENTS BUILD THEIR LIST OF POSSIBLE SCHOOLS


WHO’S DOING IT?

0

25

50

75

100

Organic PPC Using Analytics

4 Yr Private 4 Yr Public 2 Yr Public

Source: Noel Levitz 2012 E-‐Recrui+ng Prac+ces & Trends at Four-‐Year and Two-‐Year Ins+tu+onsh5ps://www.noellevitz.com/papers-‐research-‐higher-‐educa+on/2012/2012-‐e-‐recrui+ng-‐prac+ces-‐and-‐trends-‐at-‐four-‐year-‐and-‐two-‐year-‐ins+tu+ons


Why they fight


Why UX & SEO FightSEO expert usually brought in after the site has already been built.

Seen by rest of the team as adding “keyword spam”

Often just focused on “traffic” without understanding of real user goals.

UX plans sites without considering needs of SEO and analytics

Not enough content in the right places to optimize

Links and titles don’t match the way people search

Hard/impossible to track clickstream through to conversion


SEO Needs UXWhy high bounce rates?Why dropoff in conversion funnels?Inbound keywords can indicate user goalsWhen more traffic ≠ more conversions

Wrong traffic?

UX problems?


UX Needs SEOPrioritize based on measurable demandUse common language keywords and phrasesQuantify $$ impactSettles political debatesReveals untapped market demand


Content strategy

Navigation & overall experience

Brand strength

Clear concise message

GOOGLEBOT EATS UX!!

http://www.seobook.com/learn-seo/infographics/brand-branding-brands.php

Over the last year Google has incorporated more and more UX factors into how it ranks websites. So UX is becoming critical for good SEO.


PROCESS OVERVIEW

What are we trying to make happen?

What’s happening now?

Who are our users?What do they want?

Develop site architecture & and campaign strategy

How can we track goals and patterns?

Create human & robot friendly content

Prototype & test Measure & improve

How do they search?

Design & test

Build & test

Launch


RESEARCH & STRATEGY








How do they search?

Design & test

Build & test

Launch

- Find out user info goals, what motivates them to act- How this affect search behaviors


What are we trying to make happen?UNCOVERING BUSINESS GOALS THROUGH STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEWS


What are we trying to make happen?What are the priorities for your institution?

What (3 things) should the website accomplish for your institution?

How will you personally define success for this project?

Among other things, you are trying to get out some goals that you can then track and measure and use SEO to support.

Some other great resources for example stakeholder interview questions: Kevin Hoffman A List Apart article Aug. 2010 and Undercover User Experience Design


Identify Measurable GoalsGoal: Increase enrollment

- How can the website support yield?

- How much? By what date? From a particular region? In specific majors?

- Higher GPAs, better SATs

Goal: Promote new program

- Generate web traffic—how much? Increase inquiries? Track “buzz”?

Goal: Balance portrayal of fun with academic rigor

Goal: People in business know what we do

- Take feedback from and suss out goals that you can quantify for SEO. Follow-up with questions if needed.- Set arbitrary (but realistic) targets if you don’t have real numbers in mind.- You might have more definite goals: like increase enrollment of students- SEO can find out how much traffic you get


What’s really happening right now?DIGGING INTO ANALYTICS


Setup Google Analytics

-setting up at beginning-If using Google Analytics, doesn’t apply to past data-different types of profiles, traffic-comparing the right time periods


How current insights help UXIdentifying Patterns


How current insights help UXTop pages and paths

Sources & keywords give clues about goals


How UX research guides SEO strategyINTERCEPT SURVEYS, KJ SESSIONS, USER INTERVIEWS


What did you come to sitename.edu looking for today?

Are you a... [audience group]?

Optional

Top 3 Criteria

Name & E-mail

Intercept Survey

Using Ethnio.com

Digging into your analytics can tell us what keywords users are using to get to your site, but it doesn’t always tell us what they were really looking for or what’s important to them

Example?

So, let’s ask them!


WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 3 CRITERIA?

Example of results we got in a recent survey. You see lots of overlap in the words survey takers used; e.g., reputation, ranking, prestige, quality...

It also reveals a common search behavior pattern: searching on major, searching by “best program in ____”

But we like to dig in on these keywords; SEO can send traffic to our site by optimizing on those search terms, but can we “convert” those users by making sure we answer the content questions they have.

We primarily do this by talking to users. The intercept survey I just showed you is a great way to contact students for follow-up on responses to their answers. Follow-up with you said reputation, atmosphere, and academics were the 3 most important items to you. Ask them what do those things mean to you? Size can mean many things for example—class size, student-to-teacher ratios, can I walk to classes? will I feel overwhelmed? are you big enough for me to feel energized?...


KJ SESSION AT ST. VINCENT’S COLLEGE

You don’t need to do academic research here. You are just trying to get a better idea of what students are looking for and how they talk about it.

KJsFocus Questions- What do you come to the website to find or do? (Vote for your top 6)- How do you know a college fits? What things do you look for? (Vote for your top 3)

One-on-one interviews- Cover some of the same questions: what do you look for on the website, what are your top criteria?

The UX research often takes this interview data and sums up the findings in personas and task maps....

Take note of the language they use—this is a great place to start researching keywords and looking at search behavior.


Maria• Works hard, has good college

scores

• Wants to study International Relations & Spanish

• Wants to work at an embassy

• Considering going on to a postgraduate degree

Daniel• Good student but has

struggled academically

• Doesn’t test well due to slight dyslexia

• Not sure which course he’ll take, maybe computing & technology

• Can he get help & not be stressed out?

Christian• International student

finishing his IB

• UK degree is more respected by employers

• Wants to be able to work outside his home country

• Getting recommendations from a local agency

Sophie• In her early 30s, took time

out from school to start a family

• Currently enrolled in college

• Wants to become a teacher

• Can only consider universities nearby

Personas, University of Portsmouth

Maria, a solid A/B student who is already thinking about career


PersonasMaria

• WHAT - international relations degree international relations postgraduate courses international relations uni postgraduate spanish courses

• WHEN - 1 year before application early fall of final year

• WHY - identify universities where I can study what I want to be identify universities with helpful, knowledgable and good lecturers identify universities with great potential for future careers identify universities where she will be supported

• HOW - friends search engines family teacher recommendations

• WHAT will they search? (right terms to attract qualified leads)

• WHEN will they search? (time)

• WHY will they search? (goals - bad goals)

• HOW will they search? (methods / mediums)


TOP USER TASKS

Took all the feedback from KJs and a collection of one-on-one interviews conducted over the course of a very intense week.

This is showing a sample of top information goals around courses (majors). Prospective students were really concerned about digging into the core of what the major entailed— • what topics will be covered, • what will my professors be like, • will I learn what I want to learn

SEO can look at these information goals and see what areas are ideal for optimization


TOP USER TASKS

SEO can highlight the items Jessica: top things to optimizeEach of these could be an entry point where prospective students would begin their journey


KEYWORD RESEARCH


KEYWORDS TO CAREWORDS

Gerry McGovern, Customer Carewords: ask users which 10 keywords would they click on when visiting your site.

We use the words from the KJs, user research, and keywords from early SEO research to survey suers on what they would click

In this example for University of Portsmouth, we see the prevalence of course related content—which we also found in the KJ session. In the KJ session, we found top information goals around courses


ARCHITECTURE








How do they search?

Design & test

Build & test

Launch


KEYWORDS TO CAREWORDS TO SITE ARCHITECTURE


Sanity CheckHow are we going to track everything that UX is planning?

What patterns would we like to be able to track?

Pitfalls

Offline

3rd party tools

Mobile

Forms

URL changes


CONTENT & PROTOTYPE








How do they search?

Design & test

Build & test

Launch


EXAMPLE OF PAGE EDITING

Using the search phrase about 3-5 times for a 200 - 500 word page.

Use phrase in page title

Use it in the meta description tag because this is what Google shows as the page description in your search results. Even though this doesn’t help your ranking per se, it can help your click throughs.


ORGANIC AND PAID LINKS FOR CHATHAM HALL

-content-title-meta description-links / anchor text-alt tags

Data shows that appearing in both the organic results (center) and paid results (right column) increases your likelihood of getting a click.


AFTER LAUNCH








How do they search?

Design & test

Build & test

Launch


Ongoing Testing & OptimizationUsability testing

Mini-feedback surveys / intercept surveys

A/B testing

Tools

UserTesting.com

VisualWebsiteOptimizer.com

Optimizely.com

CrazyEgg.com

Usabilia.com


Putting it all together


CURRENT DL.ODU.EDU SITE

ODU DISTANCE LEARNING - BEFORE

ODU’s site before we started.


PERSONAS

Greg, managerBS in Human ServicesConsidering MA

Tiffany, momWants to finish degree in education

Beth, engineerPursuing MS in Engineering

Developed a series of personas based on user research.


ADDRESSING THE BIGGEST QUESTION

One of the questions that all personas had was how distance or online learning really works. We knew we had to overcome this obstacle before anyone would convert, so we planned the content that would help make our case.


“HOW IT WORKS” DESIGN

Designed version of this landing page


KEYWORDS

Google’s keyword research tool.

We use this and other keyword tools to identify keywords and phrases that a) real people are actually searching for, and b) match up with the programs ODU wants to promote


CAREWORDS

Carewords survey incorporates those keywords, helps us determine which links on the website people are most likely to click on.


OPTIMIZING CONTENT

HOME PAGE“distance learning degree va” #1

Harder to optimize a home page since there is typically much less text. We created a home page where much of the interaction actually happens while still on the page. So from Google’s standpoint, there is more content on this page than you see when you first open it.


ODU SEARCH RANKING


OPTIMIZING CONTENT

MODELING & SIMULATION DEGREE“mod sim degree” #1

More people search on “mod sim degree” which is an abbreviation of “modeling and simulation.” Notice how we worked “Mod Sim” into the body copy as an abbreviation.

Also, the content under each tab is actually part of this same page, so it makes it easier for us to optimize.


OPTIMIZING CONTENT

CRIMINAL JUSTICE (BS/BA)“virginia criminal justice distance learning” #2


OPTIMIZING CONTENT

ENGLISH (PhD)“online PhD in english” #4


COMPREHENSIVE CAMPAIGN


ODU DISTANCE LEARNING - GROWTH IN VISITS

NewCity kicks off campaign in April 2011


ODU DISTANCE LEARNING - RESULTS

Fall 2012 enrollment +26%Partner community colleges see enrollment increases as high as 38%

Enquiry Traffic to Enroll

Fall of 2011 140/day 3%Fall of 2012 3,064/day 20%


Read moreKiller Web Contentby Gerry McGovernhttp://www.gerrymcgovern.com/

Letting Go of the Words by Ginny Redishhttp://www.redish.net/

Call to Actionby Bryan Eisenberg and Jeffery Eisenberghttp://www.futurenowinc.com/

Search Analyticsby Louis Rosenfeldhttp://www.rosenfeldmedia.com

Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kaushikhttp://www.kaushik.net


Questions?


Education

UX × SEO