The document discusses the British Council and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. The British Council promotes cultural relations through arts, education, science and other areas. It faces challenges like shrinking budgets and increasing pressure to raise income. To improve SEO, the British Council must address technical issues like duplicate content across its 560 websites. Solutions proposed include leveraging the brand strength, distributing link power across pages, and conducting online public relations campaigns to build links in a low-cost manner. Case studies show how SEO efforts in France increased website traffic and exam registrations over time.

1. www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon 1
SEM at the
British Council
The UK’s International network for
cultural relations, education and arts

2. Cultural relations for the twenty-first century

3. ■Cultural relations is the building of
engagement and trust between people of different
cultures through the exchange of knowledge and
ideas
Cultural relations is about
engagement and trust between
people of different cultures

5. What does the British Council do?
■ We promote cultural relations in:
■ Arts
■ Education
■ Science
■ Governance
■ English
■ And in two businesses
■ Teaching and Exams
■ Managing contracts
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon 5
Click to return to contents

6. Challenges
■ Shrinking marketing
budgets
■ Scarce staff resources
■ Increase pressure from
government to raise
income
■ Faster implementation
■ Technical constraints
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon 6

7. The British Council Web Network

8. The Web network : 560 websites
www.britishcouncil.org
.org/greece
.org/portugal
Org/italy
.org/spain
.org/ireland
.org/india
.org/thailand
.org/japan
.org/burma
.org/hongkong
.org/singapore
.org/brasil
.org/france
.org/chile
.org/uruguay
.org/mexico
.org/venezuela
.org/argentina
.org/colombia
.org/jordan
.org/jordan
.org/jordan
.org/jordan
.org/jordan
.org/jordan
.org/czechrepublic
.org/poland
.org/slovakia
.org/hungary
.org/sweden
.org/russia
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project site
Project/Programme
web sites
Europe Asia LATAM MiddleEast East Europe & Russia

9. Project Websites

10. Technical SEO Issues

11. Domain name system
Top Level Domain (TLD) .org
+
100 country websites Root level-based

12. Accessibility (Javascript-based navigation)

13. Technical problems
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon 13

14. Duplicate content

15. Editorial Content turns into duplicate content
Content
Source
Oh la, lah, same content in
in 80 diff. pages under the
directory structure and
without geotargetting via
GWMTs

16. Indexation problems
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Rusty, old CMSLocalisation via IP addresses
not possible
■ Our servers are hosted in the UK
■ CDN Akamai uses US-based IP addresses,
Swedish and German ones
Website Speed Performance issues

17. 404s

18. Solutions : Low cost SEO that works

19. The Brand
Our brand is our strength

20. The Brand
The Brand brings SEO value

21. Alternative ways to distribute Pagerank

22. Ultimately you have to achieve the following
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon

23. Link off the homepage
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon

24. Try with low-hanging fruit link-building
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon

25. You’ll soon be ranking better
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon

26. Online PR = Effective & Inexpensive Link Building
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon

27. Online PR = Effective & Inexpensive Link Building
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon

29. British Council France case study
2005-06
Average monthly site
visits:
45,000
2004-05
Average monthly
site visits:
20,000
2006-07
Average monthly site visits:
60,000
2007-08
Average monthly site
visits:
70,000
2008-09
Average monthly site
visits:
95,000
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon

30. Traffic growth matched by Exams registrations
1. website traffic for British
Council France
2. Exams registrations:
IELTS, Cambridge &
BULATS exams
No. Website visits per year
208621
253056 285354
603150
785226
938316
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
700000
800000
900000
1000000
FY2003/04 FY2004/05 FY2005/06 FY2006/07 FY2007/08 FY2008/09
7415 7141 6891
10170
13891
17783
-4% -3% 47% 36% 28%
-2000
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
20000
FY2003/04 FY2004/05 FY2005/06 FY2006/07 FY2007/08 FY2008/09
Registrations increases
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon

31. Spread the word about SEO within the organisation
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon

32. Deliver Low cost Training
■ British Council SEO
Guide
■ Step by Step Guides
■ SEO Videos
■ Webinars
■ Templates
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon

33. Identifying and educating champions
■ A personal approach with the champions
■ Get a tool like Basecamp to set up basic SEO Project templates
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon

34. Give credit to your colleagues
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon

35. Summary
■ Accessibility is a must: Easy spidering of content = more
indexation
■ Harness the potential of your Homepage (PageRank flow)
■ Identify other high link juice Internal pages and link to business–
critical pages on your site
■ Not enough to rank? Go and get easy links: eg: local directory
links
■ Consider Online PR to complement the above
■ Find allies within your .org that can help you build the case for
SEO and give credit!!
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon

36. Cultural relations for the twenty-first century
www.britishcouncil.org | david.carralon@britishcouncil.fr | Twitter: @davidcarralon