MarketingSherpa survey reveals the most effective SEO tactics

Posted by Justin Deaville on 21 October 2010

The SEO field is changing rapidly and it can be difficult to keep up with the latest thinking. Research firm MarketingSherpa has surveyed thousands of search marketers to discover today’s most effective SEO tactics. We got a sneaky preview, so we can tell you what's working in SEO - and what's not. By Wordtracker's own Justin Deaville.

For its seventh annual Search Marketing Benchmark Report (SEO Edition), MarketingSherpa surveyed 2,194 search marketers to discover their opinions on which search marketing tactics have been working for their business.

MarketingSherpa asked about a variety of tactics. After all, an SEO plan with just one or two tactics is likely to fail. To achieve optimal results, you are likely to need a mix of effective SEO methods.

So, what's working in SEO?

MarketingSherpa's analysts asked: In your experience, how effective have the following search engine optimization (SEO) tactics been in achieving higher rankings?

Let's get straight to the answer: the top five most effective SEO tactics are:

• keyword research
• on-page content optimization
• title tag optimization
• link building
• meta tag and meta description

Achieving higher rankings with effective keyword strategies

The reply that topped the results was "keyword research".

Just like any other marketing channel - whether that is email, direct mail, or even television advertising - great targeting brings results. Which is precisely why keyword research tops the list of effective SEO ploys. Good SEO consultants invest time in finding keywords and use the results to create highly targeted content for their audience.

As you can see from the table below, 99% of respondents believe that keyword research is a useful SEO method, with almost two-thirds describing it as "very effective".

Figure 1: The effectiveness of SEO tactics (Source: MarketingSherpa)

One typical respondent replied that his success came rom, "making sure you have keywords in your descriptions and tags, and that they are the correct ones people are using to search for your products."

Without a long list of target keywords that are both relevant to your business and commonly used by your target audiences, you won’t get far with your SEO plan.

Here's what the SEO experts say

The respondents with most SEO expertise - those who considered themselves to be SEO experts - agreed that keyword research is the most valuable SEO tactic.

The next chart splits respondents into three groups - people trialing SEO in their organization; those in transition; and organizations that say SEO is an integral part of their strategy.

It shows that the more experienced SEO strategists believe keyword research is fundamental to SEO success. Some 71% say that keyword research is a "very effective" SEO tactic.

Figure 2: Very effective SEO tactics by SEO maturity (Source: MarketingSherpa)

SEO for small businesses

Search marketers working in small businesses have a different view from the SEO experts. Some 67% of small businesses state that on-page optimization is "very effective", ahead of keyword research on 61%.

Which is surprising. While it's true that you can achieve higher rankings by putting content optimization ahead of keyword research in your list of SEO priorities, there’s no guarantee that you will achieve higher rankings for the RIGHT keywords. You may attract traffic, but will it convert in the way you want?

Figure 3: Very effective SEO tactics by organization size (Source: MarketingSherpa)

As the report's author, Jen Doyle, comments "The fact that more small organizations ranked on-page content optimization as a more effective tactic than keyword research may be an indication that this group is perhaps the most eager to get results fast and ... want to implement SEO changes to their websites quickly."

The lesson from the survey is: start implementing your SEO plan without thorough keyword research and you’re setting yourself up to get poor results.

Social media marketing is falling short

The respondents feel that their work in social media - such as Twitter and Facebook - is not providing the return that they see from their SEO investment. Two-thirds of respondents felt that SEO provided a better return on investment (ROI).

Just 29% of respondents feel that integrating social media has been "very effective". Respondents working in large businesses feel even less positive about social media marketing than the average. Just 20% say that integrating social media has worked well.

One respondent replied, "Do the basic things to your site to optimize it for Google. Keywords in page titles, meta data, H1, H2, content and links to other relevant content in and outside of your site. I personally don't think the social media component has or will have much impact for our business."

While most respondents didn't share that view, SEO is making a much greater contribution to the bottom line than social media, according to the survey.

MarketingSherpa's analysts asked respondents: how effective has search engine optimization (SEO) and social media been at accomplishing these marketing objectives for your organization? As you can see in the chart below, 26% of respondents say that SEO has been "very effective" at increasing online sales, with fewer - just 9% - making the same claim for social media.

Figure 4: The effectiveness of SEO objectives and social media objectives (Source: MarketingSherpa)

Some more SEO top tactics

So, what else did the respondents say? Here are some SEO top tips from the replies MarketingSherpa received:

• Getting quality links from other websites with keywords in the anchor text.
• Choosing keywords carefully, slight changes can make for much higher rankings and still reach the target audience.
• Don't be afraid to change and measure then change again if it's not producing results expected ... regardless of what management thinks it should be.
• Good inbound links and unique keywords.
• We found that optimizing the website through title tags, meta tags and on page optimization produced immediate and measurable results once initially performed.
• I think getting quality links pointing to my website with anchor text that reflects the keywords I want ranking for is the best way to get a higher ranking on search engines.
• Do the basics first and do them WELL! Get the best practices built into the web content management technology so it doesn't get missed. Do keyword research first before publishing your content to see which keywords will pull in traffic.

The 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report is available from MarketingSherpa. This benchmark report is filled with useful information including 168 charts and analytical commentary, hundreds of insights from search marketers and more. You’ll also find valuable insights from marketers and agencies who candidly discuss their processes and challenges, so you can learn directly from their experiences.

You can find out more about the report by clicking here

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Key points

According to MarketingSherpa's survey of search marketers, the top five most effective SEO tactics are:

• keyword research
• on-page content optimization
• title tag optimization
• link building
• meta tag and meta description