PART 1
The general guidelines for the project remain the same (ie. page length & formatting). The grading rubric is attached the end of the document. Note that all portions of the rubric may not be relevant to your project.
Where you decided to focus on other things and omit a section, that element of the rubric will simply be removed and other sections will become more heavily weighted in the overall grade. Content generation, backlink analysis, and UX testing are all mandatory components of the project.
Mandatory Section A: Content Generation
1. Content Generation Ideas
As you know, great content leads to backlinks which can lead to improved organic rank for the site as a whole. Great content also improves a site's chances of ranking on long tail terms.
The primary goal of great content is to become the online authority for a topic(s) related to your industry. The authority provides answers to questions, solves problems, and is the go-to place for interesting, informative, and unique information.
Think first about your client's target audience and put yourself in their shoes. What kind of questions do they have? What kind of problems do they need solved?
Remember the difference between product/service information and shareable content!
You are expected to get creative by outlining 3 content ideas for your client.
Your ideas should be supported with research:
1. Keyword research to uncover topics that are actively being searched. Don't worry about only choosing topics that have high search volume (these can often be very competitive topics and hard to rank for anyhow and who wants to create a me-too piece of content?). Use the Google Keyword Planner tool as a means to develop your ideas.
2. Internet topic research - what are the hot topics that are being discussed in online forums related to your client's industry, check social media and blogs?
3. Competitive/Company research - what is the competition talking about? Check out online companies all over the world that operate in the same industry as your client for cool ideas that you can build off of, twist around or repurpose. Don't simply copy ideas you see online but instead, use this information to formulate your own unique content. You can also check competitors' backlink profiles (see next section) to see what content gets linked to often. Also check their social media profiles to see which content gets shared most often.
4. Existing site content - what sort of content has your client produced in the past? If you feel it's good content (based on our definition of good content), can we create similar, complementary content?
For example, if a blog post about the health benefits of chow chow tea has achieved some links and social shares, can we follow that up with a post about home remedies made from chow chow tea. We're building on the original idea that achieved success and following it up with a complementary, value-added piece.
PS. Chow chow is obviously my lame invention but you know what I mean :)
Remember that customers/prospects have different questions throughout the buying journey. Different pieces of content can help them move along that journey to conversion.
Justify your content generation ideas by referencing your thought process/research.
Mandatory Section B: Backlink Analysis & Competitive Comparison
Use Moz's Open Site Explorer to complete this section of the report. Don't forget that the free version of the tool limits your daily searches from the same IP address so don't leave this section until the last minute as you may have to execute your research over several days.
1. Direct online competitor backlink profile comparison
Backlinks can be a factor in organic rank. To understand how your client compares against its online competitors from a backlink profile perspective, we use MOZ's "Compare Link Metrics" tab to contrast the volume of links and linking root domain that our client has achieved compared to other companies.
In choosing the companies that you contrast your client against, consider those that are ranking organically on the same core key terms as your client. If your client is a local business serving a specific geo-region, then it makes sense to only compare them against other local businesses in the same geo-region.
There are two numbers that you should report on:
1. Total External Equity-Passing Links
2. Followed Linking Root Domains
Comment on the volume of links your client has achieved compared to others and the dispersion of those links. Don't forget that volume of links could be less important than quality of links but this analysis doesn't show that.
3. Assess your client's backlink profile.
Provide a list of the top 5 most interesting, meaningful websites linking to your client's site (they can be links that pass or do not pass link equity). This does not necessarily mean websites that have a high Domain Authority (DA). You can have a meaningful link from a new website that hasn't necessarily build up its DA yet.
In that list, discuss the context of the link. For example, is the link a news article about Healthy Living in which your client is mentioned because of its innovative new product that lowers cholesterol?
Use that list to generate ideas for generating additional backlinks. For example, if Joe's Garden Centre is linking to your article about how to prune ferns, then Sue's Garden Centre might be interested in doing the same. You can suggest to your client that they begin to develop a relationship with Sue's Garden Centre in the ways we discussed in class. Be specific about how that relationship should be developed.
To do this, you must figure out the purpose of Sue's Garden Centre website. Who is their target audience? How can you infiltrate that relationship by helping Sue achieve her objectives? Be specific here with examples of content that will be irresistible to Sue. Content that she can't help but link to because her audience will care so much about it.
If your client has no or few existing backlinks then say so in the report and proceed to the competitive analysis portion in section 2 below.
4. Assess other similar companies' backlink profiles
Do the same as in Step 1 for a few other similar companies who have great backlinks. You will get some great ideas from them.
To determine your competition, search some keywords in Google that you believe should trigger your client to rank (eg. Organic pork farmer) and see which companies are actually ranking. If you need to simulate an IP address if your client is not located in London, use Google's Ad Preview Tool.
But the companies that you assess here for ideas don't have to be direct competitors to your client. They can be similar companies from around the world who operate in the same industry and who have done a good job of generating links.
Section C: Referral & Social Traffic Analysis
This section can't be mandatory for all students as some clients may not have generated any referral or social traffic. If they have, you should be analyzing it and if there are meaningful implications, they should be included in the report.
While Moz will report on any backlink that exists, GA can only report on those backlinks that generate traffic (ie. that are clicked on). GA will report on the behavior of the visitor that comes from those links which can be hugely valuable in assessing the quality of a link from a customer building and conversion perspective.
We love to build high quality links because they can do great things for our organic rank but we love links even more because they should produce immediate traffic to our site which could lead to conversions.
The purpose of this section of analysis is to understand where most of your client's referral traffic is coming from and where the highest quality referral traffic is coming from so we can build more of it. For referral traffic coming from social networks it's important to understand the nature of the traffic. Is it owned or earned? What was the content that led to the link in social media? What are the implications for future content generation?
Start by answering the following questions: (Remember to filter out the referral traffic that is clearly SPAM).
1. Which referral and/or social sites are driving the most traffic for your client?
2. Which referral and/or social sites are driving the highest quality traffic to your client's site? Don't forget to filter out sites that are driving very low traffic (eg. <20 visits). Where possible, use goal conversion rate instead of engagement stats.
3. *Most Important* What would you recommend to fully leverage this and potentially get more traffic from these sites and similar sites? Refer to the in class slides for examples. These suggestions should be different than the recommendations that you have already made.
Be sure to explore the nature of the link. It's not enough to say "abc.com is linking to my client". What is the context of the link? What is the landing page the link is driving traffic to? Only then can you provide meaningful recommendations going forward.
If the referral traffic is coming from a social media network, for example, talk about the content that was shared that led to the traffic. From there, come up with concrete and creative ideas to create and share more content of that nature.
Note: When you see google.ca or google.com as a referral site it means the traffic is not attributable to a
keyword and won't be bucketed under "Search Engine" because the click has come through a listing in Google News, Finance, Shopping, Image, etc.... All of these Google properties have search functions and their results can be integrated into blended search. When you click on a Google property listing in blended search, it will show up with a referral path of /. /ig are listings in iGoogle. /img are images. etc.. For the purposes of this
report, don't report on Google as a referral source. We'll concentrate on Google as a source of traffic by keyword in the search engine section.
If any referral traffic appears to have been paid for (ie. the Bayfield Mews example from class), then we need to include a segment about tagging URL in campaigns.
Section D: Search Engine Organic Traffic
Another optional section to the report but should be included for those students who are able to glean some interesting insight. Everyone should execute the analysis but whether it makes it into your report is up to you depending on whether you think it's the most compelling content to discuss.
As you know it's very hard to come up with hugely meaningful analysis for this bucket of traffic.
The best thing that we can do is look at which pages on our client's site drive the most organic traffic. So that is to look at organic search landing pages.
You will probably notice that your client's home page generates the most organic traffic for the site. That's normal. Now you need to check and see whether other, deeper product and/or service pages are bringing in their fair share of organic traffic too. For example, is the summer camps page on the Boy and Girls club site bringing in any traffic of this nature?
I would hypothesize that it should be for queries like "summer camp london ontario". If it's not, is it because no one is searching on that query? (check the AdWords Keyword Planner) Or is it because the page is not ranking well organically? (Do an incognito search to see what's ranking for that query).
Sometimes the best way to approach this section is to begin by picking out the 3 or 4 deep website pages that you believe should be generating organic traffic for your client (ie. product category pages) and then check to see whether that is the case or not. If not, the recommendation is to optimize the page for search. You are not expected to know how to do that exactly but you could provide a list and example of pages that are ranking well organically for the key terms in question. If there is anything on those pages that stands out as different or better than your client's page, you can make a list.
And one more piece of analysis all teams should execute: Did you uncover any landing pages in Phase I of your report that had high bounce rates? Now would be the time to investigate the source of traffic that generated those visits. This analysis can often reveal problems.
Add commentary related to the apparent suitability or non-suitability of the page (based on engagement) vis- à-vis the keyword YOU THINK drove the traffic. Put yourself in the shoes of a searcher who has executed this particular query and arrives and the landing page. What kind of experience are you providing? Is the content relevant to the keyword?
In some cases it may be very natural for users to bounce from a page if it provides them the answer/information they're looking for you. You have to be the judge
PART 2
Follow these steps in setting up your UX Tests:
1. Define Your Research Objective
Your research objective should be manageable and achievable in a short UX Test.
It's often best to loop in Project Part 1 and test a problem or issue that you identified previously.
For example, The Whole Pig might be experiencing some conversion issues and we hypothesize that it's because customers can't find product information.
Your research objective would be: To determine if site users locate the information they need when deciding whether or not to buy.
2. Define Your Tester Audience
Do you have a broad audience or do you want to get specific in the type of tester required for your project?
Remember that if your tester parameters are really narrow, it might take longer for the system to find you qualified testers and your results will be delayed. If this happens, just let me know.
Develop a list of screener questions, if applicable, to ensure you end up with the right kind of tester.
3. Build Your Test Plan
a) List the series of 4-5 tasks you want your testers to complete.
Example: Try to find the product page for organic bacon.
b) List 4-5 questions you want your tester to answer.
Example: Were you confused when trying to find product information on the site? Remember the tasks you assign should be listed in a logical order.
Tasks can be broad or specific depending on the objective of the study and/or your preexisting hypotheses and suspicions.
All instructions should be concise and easy to follow. You might like to test your instructions on a friend before you launch the official test to ensure they are understood.
4. Launch Your Study
To redeem your gift code, you'll first need to create an account. Here's how to do it:
Start here.
1. Fill out & submit ‘Get user feedback' form.
2. Order a test.
3. Create your unique test.
4. Instead of paying use the gift code: U-FC1
That's it! Your test has been ordered and in about an hour you should have your videos to review! And when you're ready to run another test, simply log back into your dashboard, start a new test, and enter your gift code for payment.
Start your test with 1 participant and then launch the other two once you're happy with results
5. Analyze & Document the Results
a. Remember the Objective.
b. Make annotations as you're listening.
c. What do users find frustrating? What do users find easy?
d. How long did it take users to complete tasks? This could indicate good/poor UX. e.Present the information/findings in a constructive way.
Once you're done, you can show off your new skills, by adding this UserTesting certificate to your LinkedIn profile.
Now that your UX tests are complete, follow the steps below to organize the information into your Part 2 report.
MANDATORY SECTION : User Experience Videos
For this section you are required to submit the following included in Project Part 2:
A) Appendix 1: links to your 3 annotated User Testing Videos (not included in 3-5 page limit)
To annotate your videos, you will need to listen to them first. Then summarize the important points in the form of annotations for your client and I to read. Annotations can be completed within the UT platform.
B) Appendix 2: User Testing Study Plan outlining the following: (not included in 3-5 page limit)
-Test Objectives
-Test Target (eg. gender, income, age, web expertise, location)
-List of 4-5 Tasks
-List of 4-5 Questions
C) Summary of recommendations for the client based on testing videos (included in main portion of Report Part 2 and does count in 3-5 page limit)
Attachment:- Project.rar