Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is looking for three organisations to take part in a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) case study as part of its Strategic Content Alliance initiative. To propose your organisation, simply send an email with your organisation’s name, website address, a contact name and a contact phone number to Stuart Dempster by February 11 2009.
Case Study: Search Engine Optimisation impact on Organisations’ Websites
Project Description
JISC wishes to investigate the hypothesis that implementing a few simple and inexpensive Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques can increase an organisation’s web visibility and significantly boost traffic to the organisation’s website.
What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a process that aims to increase the visibility of a website in important search engines like Google. SEO works by modifying the content, the layout, and the architecture of web pages, in addition to using community building techniques to enhance the popularity of a website.
Read on to find out more about this exciting initiative
JISC will undertake case studies on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in collaboration with three United Kingdom organisations.
A JISC SEO expert will evaluate each organisation’s current website and recommend changes to optimise it for search engines. JISC will also track and record the organisation’s current web traffic. The organisation will then implement the recommended changes. JISC will then track and record the organisation’s website traffic after the changes are made.
The changes that the organisations will make to their websites will vary, but could involve changes to website architecture, coding and content. Some outreach activities, such as link building and use of social media, may also be performed. JISC will only coach the organisation’s mandated person to make the required changes; JISC’s expert will not perform the work, since one of the key points of this project is to investigate whether organizations can perform SEO with minimum budget and time allocation.
Project Activities
Monitoring
JISC will monitor the organisation’s website traffic for two weeks before the optimisation and for 12 weeks during the optimisation process.
For each key phrase, JISC will record on a weekly basis the following:
- Ranking position in Google
- Number of organic visits from Google
- Average number of pages view per visit
- Average duration or time on site per visit
- Average bounced rate percentage
For each optimised web page or website section, JISC will record on a weekly basis the following:
- Total external referrers’ visits
- Referrer’s or visit source domain name (Top 10)
- Referrer’s visits per domain name (Top 10)
JISC will use the following monitoring applications:
- Google Analytics
- Advanced Web Ranking
- Advanced Link Manager
Optimisation
The following Search Engine Optimisation activities will be performed:
- Minor website architecture changes
- Rewriting content for SEO
- Link building
- Contributions to social media
- Minimal social media socialization efforts
Measurement
The website traffic for Week 12 of the optimisation period will be compared with Week 1 before optimisation for all the above statistics. The percentage variation between Week 1 and Week 12 will reveal the potential visit increase that a website could record if the techniques tested in this project were applied to other pages of the website.
Project Objectives
- The organization’s Web page is listed on the top three pages of Google search engine result pages for the targeted key phrases.
- The organization’s Web page appears on the first page of Google search engine result pages for the targeted key phrases.
- The number of visits to the organization’s website for the targeted keyword is increased.
JISC’s Contribution
JISC will provide the services of a SEO expert for the course of the project. JISC’s SEO expert will:
- Provide an initial SEO analysis of the organization’s website
- Conduct an initial tracking and recording of the organization’s web traffic
- Recommend changes to the organization’s website to improve its SEO effectiveness
- Provide advice and assistance to the person mandated by the organization to make the recommended changes
- Conduct a post-change tracking and recording of the organization’s Web traffic
- Analyse the results of the changes
- Write up a report on the project
- Provide guidance and advice as needed throughout the project
Organisation’s Contribution
The participating organisation will:
- Assign a project manager (single point of contact for the organisation for the project).
- Provide the services of such staff as are required to carry out the project.
- Install Google Analytics software to specific section(s) of its website, according to instructions provided by JISC.
- Participate in conference calls.
- Make such SEO-related changes to its website as JISC recommends.
- Perform such SEO-related outreach activities as JISC recommends.
- Provide JISC with any necessary information related to the SEO project.
Project Schedule
Activity: Teleconference #1:Introduction
Responsibility: JISC and organisation
Start Date: Feb 23, 2009
End Date: Feb 23, 2009
Activity: Prepare list of key phrases
Responsibility: organisation
Start Date: Feb 23, 2009
End Date: Mar 6, 2009
Activity: Review organisation’s website
Responsibility: JISC
Start Date: Feb 23, 2009
End Date: Mar 6, 2009
Activity: Revise key phrases
Responsibility: JISC and organisation
Start Date: Mar 9, 2009
End Date: Mar 13, 2009
Activity: Install Google Analytics
Responsibility: JISC and organisation
Start Date: Feb 23, 2009
End Date: Mar 6, 2009
Activity: Track current activity and collect current stats
Responsibility: JISC
Start Date: Mar 9, 2009
End Date: Mar 22, 2009
Activity: Teleconference #2: Recommendations
Responsibility: JISC and organisation
Start Date: Mar 9, 2009
End Date: Mar 9, 2009
Activity: Optimize organisation’s website
Responsibility: organisation
Start Date: Mar 16, 2009
End Date: Jun 22, 2009
Activity: Track new activity and collect new stats
Responsibility: organisation
Start Date: Mar 23, 2009
End Date: Jun 22, 2009
Activity: Analyse results
Responsibility: JISC
Start Date: Mar 16, 2009
End Date: Jun 22, 2009
Activity: Write up results
Responsibility: JISC
Start Date: Jun 15, 2009
End Date: Jun 21, 2009
Activity: Final report & presentation
Responsibility: JISC
Start Date: Jun 22, 2009
End Date: Jun 22, 2009
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