i. PROBLEM
The United Registrar of Systems (URS) Singapore is part of the URS Global Group headquartered in the UK. Formed in 1998 as URS Far East Pte Ltd, the company specialises in the provisioning of management system certification and training services. The website link is https://ursfe.com.sg/
URS Far East signed up for a 6-month SEO campaign with MediaOne dated from March 2018 to August 2018 with the campaign objective of increasing brand visibility in organic search engine results for specific targeted keyword phrases to out manoeuvre competitors; such as SGS Singapore, BSI Group Singapore, QSCert Singapore and with the target audience focusing on businesses in virtually any sectors.
Limitations and Challenges
One key challenge that MediaOne faced in this campaign was the intense competition that URS Far East was encountering in their industry. With many big industry players already ranking on the first page of Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for the high-value keywords like “iso certification singapore”, URS Far East is ranked beyond the first page.
During the implementation phase, MediaOne is also challenged by the nature of the business. Extensive research has to perform in ensuring that MediaOne’s SEO processes complied with relevant laws, policies, and regulations, to avoid impairing the client’s global reputation.
Figure 1.0
According to Moz’s average Domain Authority (DA) analysis for various industries, the average DA for business services in 2016 was around 67 as shown in Figure 1.0.
URS Far East is put in an unfavourable position when ranking for valuable keywords as they have a DA of 25 which fell way below the suggested industry standard. The challenge is further amplified when URS Far East has a limited budget of $3,250.00 for MediaOne to work on. MediaOne has to allocate its resources efficiently so as to achieve great SEO results for our clients.
ii. SOLUTION
A website is part of a multifaceted aspect in creating a dominating presence online as it delivers an impactful first impression to the customers. To achieve a good impression, MediaOne focused on SEO processes to boost URS Far East’s website position on Google SERP. With improved rankings, URS Far East will experience far higher website traffic which is part of their objective to increase direct traffic from search engines.
Our specific aims for the campaign are rank 10 keyword phrases and observe the performance of each keyword on the search engine through utilising a third-party ranking software. MediaOne is strived to achieve ranking results on the first page of Google SERP for 30% of the 10 keyword phrases.
How Did MediaOne Achieve Ranking Results?
The strategy that MediaOne drew upon was to emphasize on optimising on-site content and enhancing the quality of backlinks profile for URS Far East’s website. MediaOne conducted an in-depth keyword research and SEO Forensic (refer to supporting document) to detect the existing errors on the website.
Building Quality Backlinks
Search engines determine the relevance of a website to a keyword by evaluating the number of quality backlinks of that site. A search engine considers the content of the sites to determine the quality of a link. The higher the relevance of backlinks, the greater their quality. Therefore, MediaOne scrutinize the quality of each backlink and ensured that content on those external sites are related to URS Far East’s services.
On Page optimisation (refer to supporting document)
On-page optimisation is conducted to ensure that Google understand what URS Far East’s
website is about. To do so, MediaOne focused on optimising various factors as listed below:
- Meta Title & Description
- Content
- Image Alt Text
- Sitemap
- Mobile Friendliness
- Page Speed
iii. DELIVERY
Using Ahrefs, MediaOne conducted competitor analysis and in-depth keyword research to select the keywords with the best potential for conversion. 10 keywords are selected for the campaign based on:
- High relevancy to services provided
- Most search volume (via Google keywords planner)
- Keywords with high buying intent
Each element worked as complimentary pieces to maximize the visibility of URS Far
East’s organic search engine rankings.
Quality Backlinks
With increased quality backlinks, Google recognised that their website has a significant influence in the ISO certification industry. This allowed their website to rank higher in organic searches.
On-Page optimisation (refer to supporting document)
1. Meta Title & Description
As a starting point, MediaOne created unique descriptions (with relevant keywords) for all pages to help the website stand out from its competitors and to attract clicks from targeted users.
2. Content
MediaOne optimised the website content by increasing content length and inserting related keywords into it. Improved content leads to better engagement and ultimately, higher web traffic.
3. Image Alt Text
To help google understand what the images are about, MediaOne optimised the images on respective pages by tagging them with relevant keywords to improve the on-page optimisation process.
4. Sitemap
MediaOne ensured that the xml sitemaps are updated consistently so that URS Far East’s website content can be crawled by Google. The more pages Google index, the higher trust the website gains, leading to better rankings.
5. Mobile Friendliness
MediaOne built mobile friendliness and rectified page resources that could not be loaded. The website will experience a boost in rankings by being compliant to Google’s Mobile Optimisation Guidelines.
6. Page Speed
A faster page speed allows search engines to crawl more pages using their allocating crawl budget. MediaOne optimised the page speed to improve indexation as well as user experience.
Figure 2.0
In spite of the tight budget, MediaOne’s organic search strategy for URS Far East has delivered some impressive results within 5 months of the contract (refer to supporting document). URS Far East overtook their competitors to be 2nd position for highly competitive keywords like ‘as9120 singapore’ on Google SERP as shown in Figure 2.0.
Figure 3.0
Overall, MediaOne exceeded expectations and achieved optimal keyword rankings with all 10 keywords ranked on the first page of Google at the end of July 2018 as seen from Figure 3.0. According to Hub Spot, 75% of Internet users never scroll past the first page of SERP and being on top of Google means URS Far East will experience higher increase in brand awareness and visibility. MediaOne also ensured that the website is optimised on both mobile and desktop which significantly improved users experience on their website.
When URS Far East approached MediaOne on March 2018, they faced the lack of visibility for their website in a fiercely competitive industry. This case study qualifies for the Marketing Excellence Award because, despite the odds stacked against MediaOne, the team is able to evaluate and implement necessary SEO changes to the website which delivered significant results in a short span of time. Being equipped with extensive knowledge of how SEO works, MediaOne has the ability to tailor cost-effective solutions to challenges that are unique in their own ways. Before the start of campaign, the comprehensive audit that MediaOne performed on URS Far East’s website has shown the team’s expertise to identify root problems and develop critical solutions. MediaOne’s SEO processes adheres to industry’s best practices and Google’s stringent guidelines so that clients experience higher authentic rankings that will sustain in the long run, even if their campaign has ended.
As the result MediaOne is one of the privileged few to be nominated for Marketing Magazine’s Marketing Awards 2018.
