SEO Metrics Don’t Always Tell the Whole Story
As four teams — User Experience, Brand Marketing, Site Management and a third-party search engine optimization (SEO) partner — conduct a content assessment of the nearly 2,400 webpages on Nationwide.com, it is clear that we’re all looking through very different lenses.
When assessing each page, total monthly traffic, organic visits, time spent on site and the bounce rate are all important considerations. But reviewing numbers on a spreadsheet only tells part of the story.
Keep, optimize, merge or retire
For the first round, we’re trying to come to a consensus on whether to keep, optimize, merge or retire each page. We’re also reviewing title tags, H1s, URLs and meta descriptions for SEO keywords, making sure keywords don’t account for more than 3% of the words on the page.
Every once in a while we’ll come across a page that has lots of monthly traffic, a high percentage of organic visits, a bounce rate under 50% and dozens of social shares. Seems like an obvious page to keep, right? Not if the webpage in question doesn’t build our brand or speak to our expertise.
As the project’s UX Digital Content Writer & Strategist lead points out, favorable SEO metrics don’t mean a thing if people are coming to our website to read about egg salad sandwiches. Besides, we also need to consider other important metrics, such as quote starts, conversions and other user touch points (online and offline).
SEO is an art and a science
A webpage that receives little traffic and has a high bounce rate could be retired or it could be a candidate for a merge with similar articles. But a high bounce rate could also indicate that users found exactly what they were looking for. Also, if it’s a page that’s deemed important by the business unit that oversees it, perhaps we can improve performance by optimizing it. And if it is a page that has been revised recently, we have to re-review the numbers after it has been in production for at least 90 days.
Quantitative vs. qualitative
From the User Experience perspective, we appreciate that SEO helps users find information, but it’s our job to ensure that the information they find is useful. It can be argued that topics such as teen driving, concussion awareness and trampoline safety tie into products we offer, including auto insurance, group accident medical insurance and personal liability insurance. But other pages we’re reviewing seem to have less of a connection to our brand, and just don’t cut the mustard.
Quantitative data certainly provide valuable information, but User Experience content writers are more concerned with quality. We’re on a quest to eliminate all the unnecessary noise and distractions so we can take a member-centric/mobile first approach. Ideally, we’d like to deliver the right information to the right person at the right time, on the right device.
The sales funnel
For the second round, we’re determining where each page fits in the sales funnel — if it fits at all. To determine that, we need to have an idea of where users are in their consumer decision journey (CDJ). Are they Aware, Familiar, Considering, Ready to Purchase or Loyal Members?
To build awareness, articles at the top of the sales funnel might include an In the Nation blog article about Nationwide sponsorship partner Dale Earnhardt Jr. Mid-funnel examples can be found in the helpful tips and product resource articles in our Learning Center, and actual product pages appear at the bottom of the funnel. And even though long-tail SEO pages have little traffic, they also appear at the bottom of the funnel because they typically have high conversion rates. It stands to reason that an Internet search for “egg salad on toasted sourdough bread with a slice of Vermont sharp cheddar cheese” is going to produce far better search results than a short-tail SEO search for “egg salad sandwich.”
It’s not about us
As we conduct our content assessment, we realize that there is a need to build credibility and trust through reasons to believe in Nationwide. We’re proud of our status as a Fortune 100 company with an A+ rating from A.M. Best that offers a full range of insurance, banking and financial solutions. We’re also proud to be the #1 farm and ranch insurer, the #1 pet insurer, FDIC-insured, an Equal Housing Opportunity Insurer and a Fortune 100 Best Company to Work For. Policyholders, investors and prospective employees want to be assured that claims will be paid, deposits will be insured and the company’s culture will be a good fit. But company facts and figures are like mayonnaise — a little goes a long way.
The experience really has to focus on our members and our prospective members. We need to present problems instead of products, and products as solutions. Content must be compelling, engaging and conversational, with clear calls to action. It also needs to stay fresh and relevant, which means that we must continually assess and update webpages. No easy feat if your website is 2,400 pages.
Have an appetite for leftovers?
Look for recipes and other articles about egg salad sandwiches on National Egg Salad Sandwich Day, which is always the day after Easter. Just don’t expect to find them on Nationwide.com.
