1. M A R K M U N R O E : @ M A R K E M U N R O E , M A R K M U N 9 9 @ G M A I L . C O M
E V A N W A T E R S : @ P P C B R O , W A T E R S E V @ G M A I L . C O M
In-House SEO And PPC: What
You Can Learn From Each
Other, Optimally

2. About Us
 Mark Munroe
 Director, SEO – Trulia
 Past sites: MerchantCircle, UsedCars.com, EverydayHealth,
Whattoexpect.com, SideStep (now part of Kayak), PeopleSmart
 @markemunroe
 Blog: www.seoradar.com, www.afterpanda.com
 Email: markmun99@gmail.com
 Up until last month, worked at Inflection with Evan
 Evan Waters
 Search Marketing Manager, Inflection
 PPC Consultant for B2B and B2C companies
 Founder of Festival Transportation Business
 @PPCBro, blog: www.PPCBro.com
 Email: watersev@gmail.com

3. SEO Headache: Understanding the impact of on-
page changes
 Can SEM help?

4. SEO Experiments
• My Goal: test page changes across various long-tail templates to test
impact on rankings, click-through, conversions.
• Small changes can make a significant difference (keywords, modifiers, calls
to action).
• However, impact can be positive or negative. I want wins only!
• What can SEM do to help?

5. SEM – Split Testing Infrastructure
Version
A

6. Split Testing for SEO
 SEM at Inflection has developed a sophisticated
split-testing infrastructure.
 The goal for SEM is purely monetization.
 With some modifications, I have been able to use
their methodology and infrastructure for SEO testing
against long-tail pages.

7. SEO Split Test
 For SEM – all versions run against the same URL.
 For an SEO long-tail test, I need the specific URLs to
consistently render the same test version so Google’s
cache remains consistent for the time period of the
test.
 I define my different tests based on URL structure,
so the webserver dynamically determines which
version to server.

8. Example Title Test
 “[keyword] | Find [modifier] [modifier] [modifier]”
 Or specifically “[first name] [last name] Find Phone
Number, Address & Email”
 Things to test:
 Is the action verb (Find) hurting due to it’s prominent position
in the title?
 Would I be better off attaching the primary keyword to a
modifier?
 What would be the impact of switching the order of the
modifier?
 Will an exact match with an H1 help or hinder due to over-
optimization?

9. Test Results
 We trigger an event for a landing on each different
version. (Event can then be used to create segments).
 We analyze the impact on rankings across all
versions and control.
 We analyze traffic, conversion, UX metrics and
monetization across all versions and control.

10. Conclusion
 By applying the same type of methodical split-tests
typically done in an SEM organization, I am able to
improve traffic and conversions on the organic traffic.
 I can take known winners from SEM and apply to
organic traffic to get conversion boosts while
mitigating SEO risks.
 In this case, my sample case, I achieved a 12% increase
monetization by removing the action verb.

11. SEO Headache: Identifying Content Initiatives
 To increase organic traffic – I am always looking
for content initiatives, particularly long-tail.
 The challenge: a long-tail content initiative is a lot
of work! Need to quantify the potential before
hand.

12. Content Initiatives? Can SEM Help?
 SEM uses phrase match and broad match to
effectively target long-tail searches.
 Examining existing SEM campaigns reveal potential
long-tail SEO opportunities.
 SEM can also be a testing ground for brand new
long-tail opportunities with test campaigns.
 SEM uses tokenization tool to identify multi-word
modifiers

13. SEO Headache: Increasing $$$ via Improved
Clickthrough
 SEO is not just about traffic but ultimately revenue.
 SEO spends little time optimizing meta
descriptions for better clickthrough (data in
WebMaster Tools is suspect).

14. SEM and Optimized Ad Copy
 SEM spends an extensive amount of time testing ad
copy and sitelinks to optimize revenue.
 Working together with SEM team, I can test out
optimized meta descriptions to see if I can push
traffic up independent of rankings.
 Headlines can also help with optimizing titles for
clickthrough (being mindful of traffic impacts).

15. From Keyword List to Content Plan
Top
SEM
Converting
keywords
Organized
them into a
related
groups
Each group
became a
content
Hub
Hub is a good
destination
page and
collection of
articles.

16. SEO/SEM Headache: Branded Search
 I need to control the organic search results for
branded search (promoting positive results).

17. SEO/SEM Challenge: Reputation Management
 Challenge: Present a positive brand experience for a
branded search term.
 SEM needs SEO to control the organic results and
push down negative results.
 SEO needs SEM to control as much space as
possible.
 Social can help us both by taking up additional white
space.

18. Can SEM Help with Branded Search?
 SEM campaigns aimed at branded search can indeed
help by controlling content above the fold with
branded ads, further pushing down negative results.
 SEM utilizes various ad extensions to elongate its
presence
 SEM can buy media on negative brand sites and in
email inboxes to help control the message

21. SEO Headache
What Content To Use For Ambiguous Queries

22. Understand Intent on Ambiguous Search
 What should a landing page consist of for ambiguous
brand searches?
 Reviews? Products? Customer Service?
 Use sitelink extensions to find out!

23. SEM Headache
Grow ROI and Meet CPA Target

24. Monetization Problems
 Define KPIs
 Profit, Conversions, Brand Exposure?
 Not every keyword will be profitable
 Determine best channel for profitability
 If at first PPC fails, SEO may succeed!

25. How Does Your Company Value Sales?
Few Conversions
High Profit
Many Conversions
Negative Profit

26. SEO For Poor CVR Keywords

27. SEM Headache
Drive New Campaigns to Profitability Quickly

28. How Can I Pre-Empt Wasted Spend?
 Create content before running PPC campaigns
 Utilize organic traffic queries to mine for negatives
 Cheaper than doing keyword discovery through
broad keywords

29. SEO Queries for PPC Negatives

30. SEM Headache
Grow Incremental Conversion Volume

31. Find New Traffic Sources
 Good marketers segment
efficiently
 Sometimes we get ahead
of ourselves
 Check SEO data for PPC
Geo Expansions
 Don’t stop now!

32. Google Trends
 Don’t stop at your own SEO report
 Google Trends for GEO research

33. Event-Based Marketing Headache
When is the best time to spend our scarce resources?
When is the best time to create content?

34. Leverage Data to Plan Channels
 For time-sensitive events, it is important to know
where your customers are when and what they are
thinking
 How does query intent change as the event gets
closer?
 What does the purchase time line look at?
 How does that data fit in with company planning?

35. Find Your Sweet Spot

36. SEM Headache
Achieving High Quality Score Through Landing Page
Testing

37. Learning From Panda
 Google favors results—duh!
 Don’t make the user repeat search on site

38. SEO Focus on User Experience
 In the Post-Panda world, SEO @ Inflection we developed a strong
focus on the User Experience. Happy users from Google = good
SEO!
 We leverage user tests and survey tools (Survey Monkey, Qualaroo)
to develop a deep understanding of why users came to different
sections of our site.
 SEM can leverage that data and use that insight to improve
conversion:
 develop a deeper understanding of the user
 test alternate messaging based on user survey data and user testing
 market different products

39. SEM Headache
Image Ads Are Expensive with Last Click Attribution

40. Grow Sales With View-Throughs
 What is the value of a View-Through?
 Google Insights Study
 Expensive
 Public Service Announcement Test
 Try Competitor Research Test
 Attribution Model

41. Take Credit When It’s Due

42. Even More Evidence
 Brand Spend For 1 Month
 Cut Spend Entirely
 Effect on Direct Traffic?
45% increase in direct
traffic during test month

43. Don’t Trust Models?
 Last Click Attribution
 View-Throughs at 10%?
Avg CPC Cost Conv CPA View Throughs
$1.00 $3,000 100 $30 500
Avg CPC Cost Conv CPA View Throughs
$1.00 $3,000 150 $20 500

44. SEO & SEM Together is Money!
 1 + 1 DOES NOT EQUAL 2
 New Report in AdWords query performance reports
demonstrate that the whole is greater than the sum
of the parts!
 What synergies are there for the two channels?
 Is there a difference between brand and non-brand?

45. Brand Synergies
 192% higher CTR on our paid ads when an organic
listing was also present.
 637% higher CTR on our organic listings when an
ad was also present
Data is normalized to AD = 1.00%

46. Non-Brand Synergies
 66% higher CTR on our paid ads when an organic
listing was also present.
 92% higher CTR on our organic listings when an
ad was also present
Data normalized to AD CTR = 1.00%

47. Paid v Organic Case Study
 Found top query without any ads running
 Created exact match keyword and ad
 Bid high to ensure impression share
 39% Increase in CTR
0
0.5
1
1.5
CTR
Pre-Test
Test

48. SEO/SEM Working Together
• Organizationally, SEM reports to marketing and SEO reports to
product
• This is typical and can lead to limited informational sharing
of ideas
• Regular cross team meetings where review of current campaigns
and strategies as well as new initiatives is key to establishing open
communication between groups.

49. Thank You
 Mark Munroe
 Director, SEO – Trulia
 @markemunroe
 Blog: www.seoradar.com, www.afterpanda.com
 Email: markmun99@gmail.com
 Evan Waters
 Search Marketing Manager – Inflection
 @PPCBro
 Blog: www.PPCBro.com
 Email: watersev@gmail.com