I was in charge of the Internet Marketing department for a firm that was partnered with Bernstien-Rein here in Kansas City to provide Internet Marketing support. Thrifty Car Rental expressed to B-R that they were not happy with the company that was managing their search engine optimization and B-R recommended our firm. Thrifty was my first really big client, and they would prove to be one of the biggest challenges I ever faced, and one of the best opportunities for professional growth ever.
Weak SEO = Weak Results
Search engine saturation was low for Thrifty. They wanted to move into a more competitive position within the search engines and appear high enough to be competitive for big terms like “car rental.” Their previous SEO company had only obtain lack-luster results and proved to be a real nightmare to migrate from.
CMS = Headache
The Content Management System (CMS) that Thrifty was using at the time was a big hindrance to their search engine positioning. Prior to me getting involved, no one had identified that problem. After months of work with a programmer, the CMS backend was customized enough to allow for good SEO for thousands of content and hundreds of franchise locations.
The Wind-up
While working with Thrifty’s programmer we were able to adjust the CMS to allow for a lot more customization and for delivery of a search engine friendly directory structure and URLs. This was when the importance of Website Master Planning really started to take hold in my mind. Had Thrifty consulted with an experienced SEO they could have been way ahead of the game by this time.
The Pitch
This study covers a 14 month period of organic search engine optimization focused on the US market. The marketing efforts included an intense PPC campaign as well as a very comprehensive SEO campaign. Sites were optimized, links were built, press was generated, and we were setting up for great positioning.
Home Run!
While working with Thrifty, I guided the process that got all of their franchise sites configured in a way to allow for application of SEO best practices, and for good search engine spider penetration. The results after 14 months were tremendous! Not only were we in first place for “Car Rental” we were there FOUR times! One PPC listing, organic position number one, and a second listing further down the organic results with a clustered result below it. All on page one!
The Stats:
Case Study Baseline:
10/30/2003
Phrases positioned on page one: 330
Phrases positioned in top 50 results: 53**
Total listings in top 50: 383
Percent of phrases listed on page one: 42%
Percent of phrases listed in top 50: 49%
Not a bad start I suppose. Let’s see where my team took it:
Case Study End:
12/28/2004
Phrases positioned on page one: 476
Phrases positioned in top 50 results: 76**
Total listings in top 50: 552
Percent of phrases listed on page one: 61%
Percent of phrases listed in top 50: 71%
Like I said… home run!
** not including first page listings |
