What Makes You A Best In Class SEO? Survey Says…

Today, at Conductor’s annual client summit, #C3NY, Director of Research and Search Engine Land contributor Nathan Safran unveiled research from a pool of over 380 enterprise search marketers and SEO professionals, analyzing common behaviors which lead to success.

Three key areas where the most successful search marketers thrived? Content, reporting excellence, internal education and evangelism.

The results of the study identify best practices in each of these areas to separate “best in class” from “laggards”.  The characteristics that define ‘best in class’ include being involved early in the content creation process and employing advanced reporting techniques.

Specifically, reporting best practice behaviors include:

• Using reporting data to determine strategy
• Reporting early and often
• Varying reporting requirements by stakeholder interest
• Reporting automation to free valuable time
• Data mash-ups to draw meaningful insight from multiple variables
• Drawing insights from ‘hidden’ data

How Much Does Budget Really Matter?

Interestingly, not as much as some might think. Conductor found that 43% of ‘best in class’ had more than 10% of overall marketing budget, while 57% of ‘laggards’ had less than 10% of overall budget.

Size Of Search Team

Search professionals often feel that they need more bodies on their team, but the study shows that nearly 1/3 of ‘best in class’ organizations only have a one person team, while 68% of industry leaders have a team of just two to four people.

This study was published in collaboration with Search Engine Land, a media partner at this year’s C3 event hosted by Conductor.  You can download the complete study, which includes a foreword by Search Engine Land and Conductor’s tips to become a best in class search marketer here.