The Search Ninja

Recently I’ve taken an interest in compiling case studies of past SEO campaigns that I have directed. My goal is to compile a history of sorts which details my professional accomplishments in terms of campaign performance.

One particularly interesting aspect of this has been studying the various types of goals that each campaign was focused on.

Notable examples include:

• Raw Traffic Increase: The client wishes to generate inbound search traffic.
  

  Very little attention is given to focus/targeting. The client just needs to see big numbers and couldn’t care less about what those numbers mean or how to monetize the traffic. One’s first assumption might be that the client doesn’t understand monetization concepts such as conversion, and equates traffic with success. Surprisingly this was not always the case; in fact this type of campaign often served a very strategic (even surgical) role in the client’s big picture.

• Sales Improvement: The client is seeking (improved) revenue from online sales channels.
  

  This type of campaign always appears to be pretty straight-forward on paper, but quickly evolves in complexity and scope when the campaign is being hammered-out. Comprehensive analytics solutions, clever market research, industry-specific intelligence and a novel testing platform are just part of the arsenal required to see this type of campaign to success.

• Reputation Repair ( i.e. “Make it go away”): The client is generally suffering a bad run of negative PR.
  

  The SERPS are populated with not-too-flattering opinions/information related to the client’s brand/product/officers, etc. Making the bad PR go away (or rather making the bad PR invisible) and replacing it with more favorable resources and information is the name of the game.

• Image Destabilization (Smear Campaign): The client has an interest in damaging a competitor’s image.
  

  Summary Description: The opposite of reputation repair. In practice its not quite that black and white and there are a multiplicity of factors to consider when planning your attack, or rather, your “public enlightenment initiative”.

• Branding: The client is seeking reach, impressions and brand recognition.
  

  This type of campaign is usually composed of multiple strategic initiatives each of which addresses a specific critical target or market segment.

There are many more campaign types that could be classified and perhaps when I find the time I will explore a campaign type classification system further.

In real-life SEO campaigns, it is rare for a campaign to focus its aim so narrowly that it can be classified exclusively within a particular campaign type/goal. As the campaign evolves, it is common to see multiple directions and goals emerge in response to the changing needs of a maturing web entity.