Transitioning to a new website design from a site that’s been well optimized for search almost always hurts your search engine rankings. It’s like a roller coaster; you know you’re going to go down, you just don’t know for how long and whether you’ll come all the way back up. Here’s a rare example where a site transition resulted in rankings actually going up, not down.
CASE OVERVIEW:
THE PROBLEM:
Through steady, diligent work on SEO we’d built up the search engine traffic by 160% for this professional services firm via on-site search optimization and a popular keyword-focused blog. But, while leads were up, we weren’t getting as many as management really wanted and the site was starting to feel dated.
Nine times out of ten, when you rebuild your site you inevitably lose some of your Google juice and your rankings drop. How could we re-build the site, maintain rankings and boost leads?
Our Diagnostic Approach Uncovers The Quick Wins
THE FIX:
SEO: Keeping The Best
- We benchmarked and documented every section that was ranking well. Doing this allowed us to not lose what was helping but also maintain the flexibility to change.
- Some sections that were doing really well we elevated in the site structure so that they could rank even better.
- We also documented the incoming links from other quality sites so we didn’t lose them.
Analyze Visitor Behaviour
- After studying click maps and site visit flow, we found that people were clicking less on information about the company overall and more on individual people from the firm and pages about the company’s specific skills in different industries.
- At the same time, we used our 9-Point B2B Conversion Audit to identify what best practises were in place on the site – and which were MIA.
Testing With Landing Pages
- We sat down with the leaders in 3 different ‘test’ vertical disciplines in our ‘Why We Rock’ sessions to determine what made each one so special.
- A variety of search engine ads were then written for each vertical.
- Each different ad was then matched to new landing pages that were built quickly and inexpensively with all conversion best practises in place. This way, we didn’t have to incur costly website changes before we knew what worked.
- The A/B/C/D testing showed much improved conversion rates and revealed which messages truly rocked.
Ready To ReBuild
- We worked with our site developer partners and the client to import this learning into the new site interviewing the remaining vertical disciplines.
- We pushed our site developer friends closely follow our ‘11 Steps To A Site Transition That Won’t Wreck Your Rankings’ guide.
- The site creative designers made the messages and the brand come to life with powerful conversion-friendly designs and video headers featuring the firm’s staff.
THE RESULTS:
Rankings Actually Increased
28
Search Traffic Increase
53
Product Click-Through Increase
81
Total Website Leads Increase
”The Marketing Garage has been preaching about conversion since we met them 4 years ago but, while we always wanted the leads, we only set conversion as a goal six months ago. Now we have more inbound leads and more quality ones than we’ve ever had. Three months into the year we’ve already paid for their fees in new business revenue that’s not attributable to anything but our marketing efforts. That doesn’t even factor in the contribution to our brand overall.
Jamie DanzigerPartner Operations, IQ Partners
Find out how a proven diagnostic approach can help you stop guessing and start knowing when it comes to your B2B digital marketing strategies and branding.
