Results roundup – what performed well in March 2021?

Organic and Paid Search have been neck and neck this month for performance. Here are three client success stories for this month, one Paid Search and the other two Organic Search.

If I seem biased towards SEO and content (see my job description), well of course. But this month’s Roundup is skewed slightly in favour of organic because this is the digital marketing service that asks so much more of a client – patience and faith.

Our SEO and content mini-case studies show what happens when a client commits to a long term strategy:

• 170% increase in organic leads YoY
• A healthy bounce-back after a new website launch

And the Paid Search tale is a heart-warming example of sustainable management and strategic growth.  Let’s start with that.

PPC location campaigns grow 78%

Seasonality and unexpected market factors (like a pandemic) can make managing a Paid Search account like spinning plates. Or, in extreme cases, juggling with fire.

A home & garden client had experienced volatility in the marketplace but, thanks to excellent account management and PPC strategy, campaigns continued to stabilise and grow.

In fact:

• They exceeded conversion forecasts by a whopping 78%
• A strong conversion rate of 3.82%
• Cost-per-lead was 4% below forecast

During this time, we added new location campaigns and put a plan into place to improve the CPL for all locations. This will kick off  when this client’s new site goes live and we can build landing pages that convert much better than what’s available on the outdated CMS.

Google has announced it will be phasing out the ‘Broad match modified’ keyword match type in coming weeks and months. We anticipate an account restructure being required in the next couple of months to mitigate this and continue our upward trajectory.

170% increase in organic leads YoY

We don’t have favourites, but this is an amazing story of success for a client that generates leads from its website.

This client has a larger budget that encompasses SEO, CRO, content, Paid Search, web development… basically, all the bells and whistles. Their budget is spent strategically across all these areas.

I must add, it’s really not the size of your budget that counts, it’s the strategy behind  how you spend it; but clearly, if you have the means, up your budget for quicker and better results.

We’ve been working with them for almost two years and the SEO and content strategy has evolved and evolved and evolved. Their visibility is now way above competitors and their service pages, blogs and case studies, as well as landing pages, are leaving their competitors standing still.

The main issue about being the best is staying the best, which is why we continually evolve their strategy. They really own their space now, and we intend to make sure it stays that way.

• Leads +170% YoY
• Conversion rate +63% YoY
• Sessions +66% YoY
• Session duration +18% YoY

Healthy organic bounce-back after new website launch

We warn clients that their SEO rankings would probably take a bit of a hit when they launch a brand new website. It always happens. The question is, how fast can it recover?

We always put a plan in place. This client was already in a good place where organic performance is concerned: we’d been working with them for eight months, delivering an SEO content strategy that had strengthened their brand and visibility.

Competitive to the core, we made it our business to get the site to bounce back, and then some, as quickly as possible. The site went live in January.

• Sessions are up by an incredible 253% YoY so far
• Bounce rate has increased slightly, but it comes with a large increase in session duration

If you’re a regular reader of Roundup, you might remember us mentioning that this client was able to make a solid business decision to have a new site thanks to the data we’d collated. There was going to be a dip. Their feet are firmly on the rails of a long-term plan for growth, so a temporary setback was ‘one of those things’.

Planning for the bounce-back after launch

Our dip-busting plan consisted of a thorough content migration plan, benchmarking data, and a host of other technical SEO actions post go-live; like making sure that, for example:

• Redirects are in place
• All relevant content has been migrated properly
• Page titles and meta descriptions are unique, present and correct
• Robots txt isn’t blocking any content from being crawled
• XML sitemaps are present and correct
• Site speed looks good with no scripts or images slowing it down

Plus, we continued to deliver the SEO content plan on schedule, showing Google that the site means business.

A rankings dip can occasionally take three months to recover. This site dipped slightly and recovered almost immediately. It was less of a dip and more of a slight bump in the road. We’ve conducted SEO and content audits on the new site as well, and written refinements, improvements and additions into the ongoing strategy.

It’s worth noting, clients who launch a new site but don’t put an SEO or content strategy into place post-launch might never recover. Google wants your website to be a living digital entity and it wants it to be its best – SEO and content, plus Conversion Rate Optimisation, are the only long-term, sustainable way to make this happen.

Takeaways

• Good Paid Search management makes money and creates growth
• High landing page quality scores are absolutely essential
• New website performance data dips but can rebound quickly
• All websites need an SEO content strategy. All.
• Big budgets get faster results but strategy is king

Door4 is all about revenue optimisation – success, growth, rinse, repeat. If you’d like to know more about what this could do for you, get in touch.

Photo by Vlad Vasnetsov from pixabay