This post was written by a Slingshot SEO Client Success Manager. Its purpose is to share a success story of a brand consolidation SEO process — a complicated task with thousands of variables to manage. This post provides a use case for similar search media efforts. All comments, suggestions, and questions are welcome.
In May of 2010, Clarian Health Partners announced plans to grow its partnership with Indiana University’s School of Medicine and rename its hospital network to Indiana University Health. The announcement signaled a commitment to both national and global expansion and set in motion a plan to more closely unify a network of nearly 20 hospitals throughout the state of Indiana.
The brand relaunch, set for January of 2011, was an ambitious goal. Clarian.org would become a brand new website with refocused messaging on a brand new domain – iuhealth.org. Read more »
No one starts a war–or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so–without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it. – Carl Von Clausewitz, Military Theorist
This is the fifth and final post in a series on Slingshot SEO’s C.L.A.S.S methodology. The first post, The “C” in CLASS, focused on how quality and original content gives your site the ability to rank for keywords and phrases. The second post, The “L” in CLASS, focused on how building links indicates relevancy to search engines and users. The third post, The “A” in CLASS, focused on how an efficient and aesthetically pleasing site architecture valued by search engines and users is an essential component of achieving and maintaining digital relevancy. The fourth post, The First “S” in CLASS, focused on how social signals that are valued by users and found by search engines are also essential to achieving and maintaining digital relevance.
Without search, the Internet is a chaotic mob – just a huge herd of people standing around, with only limited ways of getting to know each other. Search engines like Google make a point of connecting people, and they do so by mingling throughout the mob, asking questions, getting to know the people, and keeping track of who’s into what. As Google meets people, it offers introductions to other people, and the mob quickly becomes a party where Google (the one who knows everybody, knows what’s going on, and can offer suggestions about how to have the best time) is the de facto host.
In SEO, ranking fluctuations are part of the business. Similarly, extreme ranking drops are also part of the business. However, as professional SEO consultants we realize our response to these occasional setbacks is what sets us apart from lesser SEO practitioners. Further, as professionals, we should have both the processes in place to address rankings problems and the stomachs to handle the stress. For now I’ll spare you the details on the state of my gut. However, I would like to relate to readers a ranking issue we addressed recently, how we responded, the solution we devised, and a process we added moving forward. Hopefully, this exercise will increase communication and influence expectations between SEOs and clients.
Our most recent and difficult ranking issue was a 72 hour period where a client’s site suddenly fell completely out of Google’s index after ranking on the first page for months. During our scramble to understand why, we first spent about half an hour looking at the page and scrutinizing it for major flaws. It looked good. We then asked the client if they had made any changes to their site. They hadn’t. So, with the first steps of our crisis plan already taken, we then spent the next 48 hours calculating link attrition and scrutinizing backlinks. With no Google engineer or supercomputer at our disposal, our heads were in the “link clouds” and nothing made absolute sense. We simply had rankings and then we didn’t.
If you’re in the marketing department of a public company and your company doesn’t rank on the first page of Google organically for the products and services you market, you’re either pursuing the wrong SEO strategy or not pursuing any strategy at all. You may just assume that someday Google will wake up and place you in your rightful spot atop the heap. After all, who on the Internet has more Trust and Authority in your markets than your company? Are there 10 companies out there that are better at selling “flat screen tvs,” designing “shoes,” manufacturing “refrigerators,” or whatever it is your company does best? Probably not…
Then why are you not ranking organically on the first page of Google and losing out on one of the largest lead sources there is? In your market you’re clearly the chosen favorite. Why doesn’t Google know this? Well it’s likey they actually do, and once you understand Google, it’s easier and less costly to rank your website on the first page for competitive keywords than any other company in your industry. Here’s why. Read more »
Here at Slingshot SEO, our informal mission statement is simple: “Make clients successful, make clients successful, and don’t forget to make clients successful.” In the end, it’s results that matter and being the company that can provide those results is how Slingshot SEO prides itself. Getting actual feedback from clients is a great means for gauging how happy consumers are with the service and; therefore, how successful the campaign has been. Read more »
Building a stronger, more developed local community is a critical goal here at Slingshot SEO in order to ensure a well-balanced business environment for the future Indianapolis. To help serve this cause, we are proud to be a sponsor of Training Inc.’s 2nd annual “Teeing up for Training Inc.” golf outing.
Training, Inc.’s mission is to equip people to become self-sufficient by providing marketable job and life skills training. The company’s mission is to combat poverty and unemployment in Indiana by helping those who want a job to be successful in the workplace and in their lives. According to company associate Janneane Blevins, “Training, Inc. has worked to give men and women in Marion County, the marketable skills they need to support themselves and their families.” More information about the company and its operations and goals can be found on the Training Inc. website. Read more »
Slingshot SEO is proud to have been named one of Indiana’s “Companies to Watch“ for 2010. The award, given to 41 Indiana businesses this year, recognizes companies that make an impact by providing valuable jobs and contributing revenue to the state’s economy.
“To be chosen among the other companies on this list is quite an honor,” said Slingshot SEO President Kevin Bailey. “It’s a testament to the team we’ve assembled here and the results we deliver for our clients.” Read more »
June saw a huge month of growth here at Slingshot. In addition to hiring four new full time employees, including an SEO consultant, accountant, and two salespeople, it was announced that we have just become trusted partners with ExactTarget.
If you’re not familiar with ExactTarget, let me acquaint you. Started right here in Indianapolis back in 2000, ExactTarget’s software-as-a-service now enables the massively successful permission-based email marketing campaigns of companies like Nike, Best Buy, and Papa John’s. Just how massive? Well, in 2008, Exact Target sent 13.5 billion emails. Just how successful? In 2009, they secured over $114 million dollars in contracts. With numbers like those, and no end in sight to their growth (they’ve secured $145 million in venture capital), a partnership with ExactTarget is truly a huge honor. Read more »
Images make content more lively and attractive, helping to keep a visitor’s attention focused on your message.
Too often, however, we see we websites ignoring the few easy guidelines Google has published regarding optimization of your images. Following these rules takes little effort, helps a search engine better understand your page, and can vastly improve your visitor’s experience. Read more »
