NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - August 12, 2010) - Conductor Inc., the most widely used SEO technology company, partnered with Internet Retailer, publisher of the annual Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, to comprehensively analyze the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) effectiveness of Internet Retailer's 500 Top Retailers for Natural Search. According to the results, HP, Amazon and ProFlowers are among the companies that use SEO most effectively to ensure strong natural search rankings.
Each retailer listed was scored across three core competencies that together provided a holistic view of their SEO effectiveness. The three scores were combined to arrive at an "SEO Effectiveness Score" that will appear on each retailer's page in Internet Retailer's Annual Top 500 Guide and Search Marketing Guide. Scoring was also segmented by merchandiser category, giving the reader visibility into the SEO effectiveness of disparate retail verticals.
The three SEO competencies each retailer was evaluated against were:
- Keyword Visibility: The natural search visibility of a sampling of each firm's most important keywords are an indicator of how effective the tactics are that the organizations are utilizing in achieving visibility. Each of the retailers' 200 most expensive paid keywords were tracked in Google's search engine results page (SERP) and their ranks were averaged and converted to an overall visibility score. The top three firms consistently demonstrated high visibility for their key terms with ProFlowers receiving one of the highest visibility scores for all 500 firms evaluated.
- Resources: Success at natural search requires a companywide commitment to SEO. For each retailer, the number of employees on LinkedIn whose job function includes search engine optimization was gathered and then divided by the total number of the firm's employees, generating a company's SEO resource percentage. Firms also received a bonus for each SEO executive listed in LinkedIn. The three top companies, HP, Amazon and ProFlowers, had among the best ratio of SEO employees relative to their total employees, demonstrating a strong cultural commitment to search engine optimization. HP demonstrated the strongest commitment to SEO at the executive level, with multiple executives who have 'SEO' in their job description.
- Analytics: To understand what SEO tactics are working well and which require fine-tuning, a firm must have visibility into their web traffic. External technology tools were used to evaluate each company's ability to measure the effectiveness of their own SEO efforts. Companies using robust analytics packages received a higher score than those using medium tier tools or none at all. Each of the three top SEO firms use a robust analytics package that allow them to gain insight into the sources of their web traffic and give them the ability to pivot their SEO tactics as market conditions change.
On a 'Poor' to 'Excellent' scale, each of the three top companies received an 'Excellent' score. Each company demonstrated a stronger proficiency than their peers in the three core areas of SEO, which are critical to a firm's success at achieving natural search visibility.
"To truly, consistently succeed in natural search, an organization must make a companywide commitment to SEO," said Seth Besmertnik, Conductor CEO. "We are glad to see companies making the commitment to technology, resources and tactics to help them get a step ahead of competitors."
The analysis is featured in Internet Retailer's recently published annual Search Marketing Guide. To purchase the guide, visit http://www.internetretailer.com/guides/search-marketing/
About Conductor
Conductor is the SEO technology company that empowers enterprise marketers to take control of natural search. More than 250 of the Fortune 500 and Internet Retailer 500 rely on the company's technology solutions and expert team to continually measure, improve and manage their natural search efforts in order to increase site traffic and revenue. Conductor is based in New York City. www.conductor.com Follow Conductor on Twitter: @conductor
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