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SEO REPORT

B.S. PACKAGING SUB-SITE. SEO REPORT. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - STOUT Inspiring Innovation. Learn more at www.uwstout.edu. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT. OVERVIEW. ABOUT S ub -site of the larger UW-Stout’s website L anding page for perspective students and their parents

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SEO REPORT

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  1. B.S. PACKAGING SUB-SITE SEO REPORT UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - STOUTInspiring Innovation. Learn more at www.uwstout.edu

  2. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT OVERVIEW ABOUT • Sub-site of the larger UW-Stout’s website • Landing page for perspective students and their parents • Current students also use the site for program plans and resources • One of 47 program sub-sites • Has not been actively updated since 2011 • Current site: • High search engine traffic • High bounce rate • Fails basic SEO practices • Low domain authority

  3. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT OVERVIEW GOAL • Search engine traffic will have improved site expectations and feel the content is valuable • Decrease the bounce rate • Increase user engagement and time on site. • Improve direct traffic numbers with increase awareness through social media presence

  4. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT OVERVIEW TIMEFRAME • Changes suggested will take one to two months to initiate with quantitative results in one year. • Due to the significant traffic increases and decrease throughout the year due to recruitment cycles a month-to-month analysis would not be sufficient to judge success • This is not just a one-time fix. • Commitment to maintain good content and SEO practices • Engage in social media at least once a week

  5. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT CURRENT DATA TRAFFIC • Overall Traffic – Past 90 days • Page views: 2,438 • Unique Page views: 1,934

  6. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT CURRENT DATA TRAFFIC • Traffic Breakdown

  7. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT CURRENT DATA TRAFFIC • Overall Traffic – Year Over Year (YOY)

  8. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT CURRENT DATA TRAFFIC • Traffic Type -Year over Year (YOY) (Other includes email & banner traffic)

  9. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT CURRENT DATA TRAFFIC CONCLUSIONS • Search engine traffic is higher than “normal” • Referral traffic is higher than direct traffic • The site is relying too heavily on search engine matches and should work on overall branding to increase direct traffic numbers Search: 67% Direct: 14% Referral w/ social: 19% Email: 14% Other: 0%

  10. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT CURRENT DATA TRAFFIC CONCLUSIONS • Overall traffic compared for the last five years • The new site that went live in 2010 did significantly improve page views • Slight decrease in traffic in 2011-2012, and 2013-2014 • Breakdown of traffic is inline with the 90-day review • 2009-2010 and into 2010-2011 referral traffic was larger than normal • New site launch in 2010 improved search engine traffic and reduced the cultivation of referral sources in future years • Other traffic source (email and banner traffic) did increase this past year from 2012-2013 to 2013-2014 by 54% • Either more time was put into email and banner marketing or said marketing was more effective then in previous years

  11. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT CURRENT DATA USER BEHAVIOR • Average Time on page: 1:15 (Site average is 1:52 / -33.54%) • When there are multiple pageviews during a visit the time is calculated based on the start time between the current page and the start time of the next page hit. This number is an average of all pageviews. Note that the last page of a visit and a single-page visit will not be calculated. • Bounce Rate: 61.11% (Site average is 35.97% / +69.88%) • This number is calculated as a percentage of single-page visits over the total number of visits. A high bounce rate can either mean that the user was dissatisfied with the page and thus didn’t want to engage further or it can mean that the page gave the user all the information that they needed and didn’t need to engage further.

  12. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT CURRENT DATA USER BEHAVIOR CONCLUSIONS • Reduced time on page number could mean: • Page is meant to be a landing page that is meant to lead the user to other pages as quickly as possible • People are not engaged or interested in the pages content • Since the page has very few links, I would conclude that it is the later • Higher than average bounce rate • The user is not finding what they want, so they exit the site without clicking any other links. • There are very little visuals and a lot of heavy copy that forces the user to scroll to view it all • Recommend incorporating imagery and editing copy so it can be easily scanned and doesn’t’ force the user to scroll

  13. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT ON-SITE EVALUATION OVERVIEW • The B.S. Degree in packaging is a relatively small sub site. Multiple pages are just link lists intending the user to go elsewhere. It is also good to note that because this is a sub-site the external link analysis is skewed due to the required navigation banner.

  14. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT ON-SITE EVALUATION GENERAL CONCLUSIONS • Title Tags • Title tags use the abbreviation B.S. instead of Bachelor of Science which would be a better search terms • Title tags in general are not unique and should use more keywords • Title tag length are approx. 40-50 characters under the 70 character limit • Current Meta Description • Currently they are undefined or only a few words and Google is crawling to populate • Google crawling content is good and should be used to define the description tags under the recommended 160 characters • Compared to competitions pages the content is unique and includes selling points

  15. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT ON-SITE EVALUATION GENERAL CONCLUSIONS • Headers • There are currently no H1 headers • The CMS system only allows H3 headers which is a larger institutional problem • Current H3 header content is good but should be put on the top of the page • Internal Linking • Every page registers at over 100 link due to the required header navigation • Number of links in the sub-site are appropriate • Visual indication of internal links versus external links

  16. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT ON-SITE EVALUATION GENERAL CONCLUSIONS • Content • The amount of content is inconsistent between the pages ranging from too much to too little • On large content pages copy should be cut down and organized using bullets • Adding visuals will increase visual appeal • Add keywords to alt tags • Content should incorporate keywords but not to much • Landing page failed Moz Pro page grader for too many references to “packaging”; should not be used more then 15 times • Headers in general should be used to more often • URL’S • Keywords are not present in URL’s the abbreviation “bsp” has no meaning to the audience or the Google bots.

  17. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT LOCAL EVALUATION OVERVIEW • No physical location to promote UW-Stout’s packaging program, but it can only help if UW-Stout’s local page is claimed. • Helpful if a perspective packaging student wants to know where UW-Stout is located and/or if they want information to plan a campus visit • Other UW schools are leveraging Google local

  18. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT LOCAL EVALUATION Google Places/+Local Page Result

  19. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT LOCAL EVALUATION Google Places/+Local page • UW-Stout’s local page is not claimed • Information verification: Name: University of Wisconsin-Stout / UW-Stout Address: 712 Broadway St S, Menomonie, WI 54751 Phone: (715) 232-1122 • Google search; the address and phone numbers match • Bing search; the address displays as 712 WI-29, Menomonie, WI 54751 • While WI-29 and Broadway St S are the same this could be confusing • Potential solution would be to use schema to identify the address value

  20. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT LOCAL EVALUATION Google Places/+Local Page Recommendations • Claim Google Places/+Local page • By not claiming the page, we cannot control what the public will see. • Who should be in charge • Communications: do not currently use Google+ • Marketing: ties directly with the SEO of the website • Admissions: include hours and for campus visits • Update content • Current content seems to be pulling from Wikipedia and talks about history and not our selling points. • Ability to add current/relevant photos • Add hours of operation for campus visits • Mange reviews, insights and analytics from Google business dashboard

  21. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT OFF-SITE EVALUATION LINK PROFILE

  22. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT OFF-SITE EVALUATION LINK PROFILE • 19 inbound links to http://www.uwstout.edu/programs/bsp/ • Link anchor text is natural except for two. • #2 “Source” and #7 “ corso di laurea” • Sources appear to be relevant with only a few directory listings. • A resource to possible leverage would be the company Packaging Matters that have an active blog and employees UW-Stout grads.

  23. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT OFF-SITE EVALUATION AUTHORITY • Site domain authority is 72

  24. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT OFF-SITE EVALUATION Social Media • Does not currently utilize social media • While I would recommend that they could benefit from social media use, it would only be effective if it was maintained and monitored • others are mentioning their website online and that activity should be encouraged • Minimum commitment would be approximately 3 hours a week • One hour to reply/comment/like related posts, monitored through Hootsuite • Two hours to research and/or connect with other professional to post original, engaging content.

  25. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT OFF-SITE EVALUATION Sample of results for “uwstout” & “packaging”

  26. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT OFF-SITE EVALUATION Sample of results for “program” &“packaging” & “degree”

  27. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT OFF-SITE EVALUATION INSTAGRAM - Sample of results for “packaging”: #packagingdesign #packagingiseverything #packagingaddict #packagingnerd

  28. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT OFF-SITE EVALUATION

  29. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT USER EXPERIENCE Sub-site homepage in-page analytics

  30. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT USER EXPERIENCE Sub-site homepage in-page analytics

  31. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT USER EXPERIENCE Navigation • The navigation of this sub-site is somewhat confusing. The main navigation is on the left but there are also links to the right • Some of the left navigation links contain dropdowns and some lead off the sub-site. • Efforts should be made in incorporate links into the content to give easier access to subpages and overall site structure should be analysis. • It should be noted that one of the tops links is located “below the fold” at the bottom of a ton of content and not in the main navigation. Contact Information • The Contact information has it’s own page and is fairly easy to find. • It could be argued to add that content to the right column of the landing page as it is short and is the third highest clicked link.

  32. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT USER EXPERIENCE Visual Appeal • Overall the site lacks imagery and is heavy on text. • Incorporating imagery will make the site more appealing to the user. • Simplifying the content with bullets and lists will make things easier to find and help the page not look as busy. Device Usability • Site appears identical between browsers and platforms • It does not display correctly on a tablet or mobile. • UW-Stout’s site is currently working on a adaptive design solution.

  33. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT PAID SEARCH Overview • UW-Stout’s packaging program does not currently run any paid search and I don’t see this being a valuable tool at this time due to arguments below. If the site is reevaluated and optimized I would suggest another look at this possibility.

  34. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT PAID SEARCH Arguments for Paid Search • The competition is doing it

  35. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT PAID SEARCH Arguments Against Paid Search • No current budget for paid search • The keyword difficulty is high for all keywords • Efforts should be made to optimize site before investing in paid search • There is no way to track conversions. • A Hobson’s (CRM) form would have to be added to the landing page

  36. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT PAID SEARCH Potential Keywords • packaging program, packaging degree, bachelors packaging, packaging design (most searched term), package design program, package design degree, food packaging degree

  37. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS • Michigan State University –Packaging (www.packaging.msu.edu) 2. Rochester Institute of Technology – Packaging Science(www.rit.edu/programs/packaging-science)

  38. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS 3. Clemson University – Packaging Science (www.clemson.edu/majors/packaging-science) 4. Virginia Tech – Packaging Systems and Design (www.packaging.sbio.vt.edu/education/undergraduate)

  39. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS Conclusions • UW-Stouts domain authority of 72; compared next to it’s competitors (85-88) needs to increase to be competitive. • The packaging program does not currently utilize social media, but the metrics make it equal to Clemson and better then Virginia Tech and RIT • This could be an opportunity to take advantage of

  40. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT STRATEGIES & TACTICS Issue/Strategy #1: Improve site content for optimized SEO or increase usability • Tactic: Content needs to reevaluated keeping in mind basic SEO principles, including meta descriptions, keywords, H1 and alt tags • Tactic: Site content needs to be improved by increased visuals and simplifying the content so it’s easy to scan and navigate Rationale: The on-site evaluations were very poor as well as the overall user experience. If this is improved organic site rankings should improve and bounce rates should drop to a more average number

  41. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT STRATEGIES & TACTICS Issue/Strategy #2: Utilize social media to increase site traffic and rankings • Tactic: I would recommend setting up either a Twitter or Facebook account to engage the users that are already mentioning UW-Stout packaging. • Tactic: Reach out to alumni and their companies to engage in UW-Stout activities, social presence, and knowledge.

  42. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT STRATEGIES & TACTICS Issue/Strategy #2: Utilize social media to increase site traffic and rankings Rationale: • There is an opportunity to leverage social media that is already present. • Focusing on one social media platform makes this an easier • The top three in-bound links are from a blog created by UW-Stout alumni to promote their company • This would be easy to replicate in social media • If this is improved site ranking will improve with the increase in in-bound links and social presence. • Could also help improve direct traffic numbers

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