Background
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a proven tactic for generating qualified prospects from search engines to a company’s marketing message. This case study analyzes the impact and role of the Ecordia Content Hub within a company’s online marketing strategy.
A small business-to-business professional services firm was seeking a cost effective way to increase its presence on search engines without having to purchase ads. Since the company had limited resources, its primary online presence was comprised of a website – with some attention paid to the SEO quality of the site.
In late 2008, the company hired an Ecordia Partner to perform a five-month SEO campaign using the Ecordia Content Hub. The goal of this program was to increase the number of new visitors to the company’s website and generate prospects. The Ecordia Partner created approximately 13 content pages per month over a five-month period in 2009 on a variety of content topics, focusing on a set of keywords not currently found on the company’s website.
The following is a review of the website statistics for both the company’s website and the company’s content on the Ecordia Content Hub.
Company Website
From January 1 to June 1, 2009, the company’s website was promoted primarily through email marketing, word of mouth and personal appearances by the staff at events. The following are key measurements for this period.
The company considers the performance of its website during this time period to be on par with their overall goals and strategy.
|
Company Website |
| Total Visitors | 3,629 |
| Total Unique Visitors to website | 2,823 |
| Referrals to website | 610 |
| Traffic from Search Engines | 52.16% |
| Total Visitors from Search Engines | 1,893 |
| Search Terms Used by Visitors | 236 |
| Pages within Search Index | 41 |
| Valid Form Requests Received | 63 |
Ecordia Content Hub
In addition to the company website, the Ecordia Partner, on behalf of the company, created an account within the Ecordia Content Hub. This account was designed to specifically draw users from search engines like Google for the express purpose of increasing the brand awareness of this company and increasing the number of prospects. The following are the stats from the Ecordia Content Hub for this company’s account.
| Ecordia Content Hub |
Total Visitors | 2,232 |
| Total Unique Visitors to website | 2,089 |
| Referrals to Company Website | 318 |
| Traffic from Search Engines | 89.5% |
| Total Visitors from Search Engines | 1,998 |
| Search Terms Used by Visitors | 1,593 |
| Pages within Search Index | 63 |
| Valid Form Requests Received | 18 |
By combining the stats from both the company website and their Ecordia account, the combined totals are as follows:
| | Company Website | Ecordia Content Hub | Total | % from Ecordia |
| Total Visitors | 3,629 | 2,232 | 5,861 | 38.08% |
| Total Unique Visitors to website | 2,823 | 2,089 | 4,912 | 42.53% |
| Referrals to Company Website | 610 | 312 | 610 | 51.15% |
| Traffic from Search Engines | 52.16% | 89.5% | | |
| Total Visitors from Search Engines | 1,893 | 1,998 | 3,891 | 51.35% |
| Search Terms Used | 236 | 1,593 | 1,829 | 87.10% |
| Pages within Search Index | 41 | 63 | | |
| Valid Form Requests Received | 63 | 18 | 81 | 22.22% |
Analysis
Certain elements of the comparison above provide unique insight into Ecordia’s impact on this company’s online traffic.
1. 51.15% of the total referrals to the company website were generated from their Ecordia pages.
a. While referrals (people coming from another website link) to their website was less than 17% of total traffic to their site, the majority of these referrals was based on their usage of Ecordia.
b. The 312 visitors during this period who came from Ecordia may be considered to be more qualified prospects because they made a decision to read more information about the company’s products and services by clicking through to the company website.
2. 51.35% of total search traffic was from the Ecordia Content Hub.
a. While the majority of search traffic was provided by Ecordia, a key point of interest is the number of search terms, or keywords, used by visitors in their searches. While the company’s website had 236 keyword terms, the content within Ecordia drew 1,593 different keyword terms.
i. Further investigation determined that 10% of the search terms used on the company’s website accounted for 80% of all search traffic. In contrast, 10% of the search terms used in Ecordia accounted for 31% of total traffic.
b. From these statistics it is clear that the content within the Ecordia Content Hub cast a wider net of terms versus the more focused content on the customer’s website.
3. 22.22% of forms completed by visitors originated on the Ecordia Content Hub.
a. Although the percentage of forms completed by visitors to the Ecordia system may seem relatively low, it is important to note that this is only one form of contact requests.
i. Calls made to the company based on Ecordia visitors were not tracked. In addition, since the pages within the Ecordia Content Hub were personalized to match the company’s website, calls received where the prospect stated they “found them on the web” could be construed as being generated from Ecordia in addition to the website.
ii. The 310 referrers from the Ecordia Content Hub to the company website could have also completed the contact form on the company website , therefore skewing the form responses in the website’s favor.
Conclusion
Management of the company reports they were pleased with the performance of the Ecordia Content Hub and its contributions to their online marketing. The company is continuing the use of the application for the next six months with no additional changes to their content strategy.
Overall, the impact of the Ecordia Content Hub was substantial. In essence, the company was able to double its online profile rapidly without having to alter their primary website presence. This fact represents an important part of the Ecordia Content Hub value proposition.
Specifically, the Ecordia Content Hub acts as a search engine optimization tool for the company. Its role within their online marketing activities is to target visitors from search engines without having to alter their primary website. Hence the type of content provided in Ecordia may be broader, extending the keyword cloud of terms and drawing more visitors to the company’s marketing message without altering the core messaging on their website.
This attribute of the Ecordia Content Hub is very important as typically a company’s website serves several roles including a brand messenger for the company. In contrast the Ecordia Content Hub can help reinforce the brand of the company through the personalization features of the application, but more importantly, the content within the application can communicate to a different audience that may not be aware of the brand and value proposition of the company.
Clearly, the impact of the Ecordia Content Hub is an important part of this company’s online presence. This case study demonstrates that when properly used, the Ecordia Content Hub can substantially increase online results. To learn more about Ecordia, visit www.ecordia.com.
