How We Partner With Brands
Here’s the big bummer about SEO: there are loads of SEO tactics that “work,” but that are not right for most reputable brands and/or are implemented without an overarching strategy in place.
But you’ve selected an SEO partner or agency who implements these tactics without your knowledge or approval, then provides monthly reports showing how great they’re doing. Sound familiar? Keep reading.
Organic “rankings” and visitors are taking off–woohoo! But then you start to notice that none of this new organic traffic is converting. Bounce rates are worse than ever. Time on site, number of pages visited, and all other behavior metrics are tanking.
The SEO team did their job in getting rankings and visitors, right? WRONG.
We see this all too often, and usually with brands coming from larger SEO agencies. They come to us because they need deeper specialization and critical thinking to inform real strategy. We’re a team with enough experience to confidently and gracefully speak up when needed. And we’ll be an SEO partner who understands that SEO “best practices” are only a tiny sliver of what’s required for a brand to truly succeed in search marketing.
So what exactly do we do for brand partners? I’m so glad you asked.
We partner with select brands (and agencies) that are bringing something positive to the world. Would you want to market a business you don’t believe in? We don’t either. We believe the best ideas and results happen when the team truly believes in and supports the brand. Don’t ever partner with an SEO who is indifferent about your business or brand.
We’re in it for the long-haul. I’m sure you’ve heard it, “PPC is a sprint, SEO is a marathon.” There’s so much more to what we do than the typical understanding of search marketing, so 12 month engagements are necessary. Most clients stick with us year after year as we become more than just their SEO partner, but their business consultants and key part of their team.
We get to know the business, the company, and the brand. And we try the product or service for ourselves. I know this sounds like table stakes, but I promise you 99% of SEOs out there either choose not to or are not given the opportunity to do these things. So many opportunities and ideas come from our team’s hands-on, personal experience with the brand and product.
We question everything and fix what needs fixing–before “optimizing.” Most SEOs come in and “optimize” websites without addressing structural issues. Why put fresh paint on a house that has a cracked foundation? (Actually we know that’s common if attempting to sell.)
One of the most common first steps we take is to improve the website architecture, which directly affects a number of SEO, UX, and CRO elements, as well as product merchandising and content management. The most obvious element is the global navigation/menus, page hierarchy (categories, subcats, product detail pages, content pages, etc), and internal link structure. If your SEO partner is not discussing these things with you, they’re doing it wrong.
Here’s a look at the types of SEO, UX, content, and CRO elements we focus on:
Brand, competitor, audience, and SEO research, analysis
Benchmarking with Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Ads, SEMrush, and other tools
Determining appropriate metrics, KPIs that matter to the business
Website audits with Screaming Frog and our hands-on, thorough review of each website
Site architecture and content hierarchy strategy
Product, category naming conventions informed by SEO research and strategy
Domain strategy, URL structure, canonical strategy
Navigation structure and UX enhancements
Page-specific content strategy informed by SEO research and brand strategy documentation
Page-type (template) wireframing to ensure designer is aligned on content and SEO strategy
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) to ensure any/all barriers to conversion are resolved
Migration support to ensure existing search performance is preserved and needed fixes are addressed
Collaborating with designers and developers to ensure the SEO strategy is supported at every step of a website redesign or build
Becoming part of your team so that every business, company, brand, or product effort is properly optimized to support the SEO strategy (partnerships, PR efforts, product releases, etc.)
Training in-house teams on SEO so they understand, contribute, and become the internal SEO spokesperson who ensures search opportunity is never an afterthought
We love the work we get to do for the brands and agencies we’re partnered with, but really it’s the people behind the brands who make this work so rewarding. We build relationships that are trusting and honest. We have the brand’s best interest at heart and will relentlessly pursue what’s best for the business, the brand, and its key audiences.