Stephan Spencer's Scatterings

The Scattered Wisdom of a scientist turned web marketing virtuoso

August 2008
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Our Web 2.0 corporate website

It is amazing what you can achieve in regards to SEO just by reaching into your Web 2.0 toolkit. A corporate brochure is about as Web 1.0 as you can get, yet even brochureware can be transformed in ways you may never have thought possible and boosting search visibility in the process.

To prove that point, we redesigned our Netconcepts.com site and launched it this month. It's a typical corporate website, with a portfolio, testimonials, case studies, an article library, bios of our executives, information on our services, etc. The redesigned site is now powered by WordPress, a popular blogging platform.

Because it is now qualifies as a blog, our corporate site can start to enjoy some visibility in the blog search engines and directories and, because WordPress comes with RSS feed capability built in, we can now start to enjoy some visibility in the feed search engines and directories too. We don't just have one RSS feed, by the way. We have many, grouped by topic (e.g. SEO, email marketing) and by type of resource (e.g. articles, testimonials), done through the use of tagging.

Speaking of tags, that is where the real SEO magic happens in this corporate site because every testimonial, every portfolio entry, every press mention, as well as each bio, article and case study, is broken out into a separate post. That post is tagged with appropriate keywords, for example all the testimonials are tagged with the word "Testimonials". So instead of having a single testimonials page as we used to, we have a testimonials tag page that spans three web pages (at 10 posts per page) and each of the 30 testimonials is a separate web page now too. In other words, we want from 1 page to 33 pages; that's a lot more search engine fodder, all with different keyword foci!

Spiders can find and index these tag pages through the text links contained within the tag cloud on the home page, and through text links underneath each post, and through links to "Related Tags" on each tag page. Related Tags are determined from posts that have the tag (from the tag page in question) in common. So, for example, because we have posts that are tagged with both "SEO" and "Testimonials", therefore "SEO" appears as a related tag on the Testimonials tag page and "Testimonials" appears as a related tag on the SEO tag page. We display links not just to the related tag pages, but to intersections between related tags. So, for example, you will find on our Testimonials tag page a number of Related Tags in the right hand column, all with "AND" and "OR" links adjacent to each one.

Let me restate that a little bit differently just to clairfy... All our SEO-related items (testimonials, case studies etc.) are tagged with "SEO". Consequently, there is a tag page that relates to "SEO" and a tag page that relates to "testimonials". There's even a tag page that relates to "SEO testimonials" -- the intersection of those two tags. That makes for boatloads of tag pages, considering how many different permutations there are for various combinations of tags being "ANDed" or "ORed" together.

By moving to a more modular structure (based around Posts rather than Pages) along with the large inventory of new pages, allows us to capitalize on the "Long Tail" of natural search in ways we couldn't dream of with our previous incarnation of brochureware.

Above the "Related Tags" you will see a RSS button which leads to a RSS feed specific to that tag page. We use that RSS feed to pull the latest articles, testimonials, seminars etc. and feature them as related content on the right column of our Services pages. For example, our Email Marketing page lists Related Articles on email marketing, because we've specified that the topic of the page is "email marketing" (in other words, the tag that it relates to). We use that information to grab RSS feeds of tag pages for email marketing + articles, email marketing + testimonials, etc.

Besides tagging, we have also employed many other blog SEO tactics, a number of which I detailed in my article for MarketingProfs, 10 Tips to Help Your Blog Soar in the Search Engines. This includes use of sticky posts, adding buttons to add a post to del.icio.us and various other social bookmarking services, and linking to a "Top 10" list of sorts -- namely, under "Free Stuff" on the home page, some of our best content from the past year or so.

To my knowledge this approach for search engine optimizing a corporate site has not been done before, particularly the aspect of breaking up all the discrete bits of content (each testimonial, each portfolio item, each FAQ, etc.) into individual posts and tagging all them, and then relating that tagged content with the appropriate Services pages and highlighting those as related content. If you have heard of a corporate site doing this, please let me know. I would love to check it out.

I also welcome any feedback on what we have done here on the Netconcepts site. We still have a few issues to tidy up with the site (so don't expect perfection), yet overall I am quite pleased with how it all came together.

And, last but not least, the new redesigned site, although it doesn't look markedly different from our old site, is better designed with XHTML and web standards in mind. No more tables for layout. Yay! That was long overdue. Now maybe we will see a rankings benefit in Google Accessible Search. ;-)

Posted by Stephan Spencer on 08/30/2006 | Permalink

Comments (20)| Comments RSS | Filed under: Search Engines, Blogging blog optimization, seo, web 2.0, wordpress            

12 comments, 8 pingbacks

  1. Nice post, Stephan.

    Our main site (http://www.intalio.com) runs on wordpress too. We started about 2 months ago and may use some of your ideas as we have a few issues in terms of SEO.

    Check out Ismael post for more details (http://itredux.com/blog/2006/06/15/how-to-build-a-website-with-office-20/)

    Comment by Pascal [Visitor] Email · http://www.intalio.com — 08/30/06 @ 16:32


  2. Nice. Pushing the edge of the SEO envelope.

    We have a similar categories/tags arrangement. Same post under 10 different tags may class as a lot of duplicate content.

    Comment by Paul Salber [Visitor] Email · http://blog.enclick.com — 09/01/06 @ 10:54


  3. Thank you, Sir. The amount of useful information you give away for free on your two sites is amazing. I truly appreciate it.

    Regards
    Buck

    Comment by Buck [Visitor] Email · http://www.fromthepen.com/web/ — 09/02/06 @ 13:26


  4. [...] I’ve recently read a couple of blog posts about how Web 2.0 technologies are beginning to morph with “normal” brochure or ecommerce websites. ProBlogger Darren Rowse recently posted on how to turn a normal WordPress installation into a working online shop and Stephan Spencer (a Kiwi!) also wrote a great post on the rationale behind converting his corporate website into a website-blog hybrid. [...]

    Pingback by Do you have a Smartypants 2.0 Website? [Visitor] — 10/05/06 @ 05:21


  5. Interesting post Stephen. I completely agree with you that replacing a website with a blog is the way to go. In fact, when we decided to do that for ourselves our clients and now the real estate market, we did much the same thing you did here. Our limitation was the existing blog platforms so we decided to write our own. We wrote our platform so that the blog could auto SEO all content and feed pulls while offering greater functionality like MLS searches and mortgage calculators. I truly think that the blog of the future will be more like netconcepts and rsspieces.

    Comment by REBlogGirl [Visitor] Email · http://www.rsspieces.com — 10/09/06 @ 17:56


  6. [...] Everyone makes mistakes. I know I have made my fair share. Well when I ran across Stephen Spencer’s blog about a week ago I decided to read some previous posts to get an idea of who Stephen was and his philosophy on Internet marketing. I found an interesting post about his corporate website NetConcepts which had switched over to WordPress as a CMS. Stephen is very proud of their use of tagging to create a navigation structure. [...]

    Pingback by Xuru Blog»Blog Archive [Visitor] — 11/05/06 @ 15:50


  7. [...] I think Stephan Spencer makes a terrific point. Thinking in terms of posts rather than pages has huge customer experience benefits that align perfectly with SEO. [...]

    Pingback by Usman Group: Not Your Typical Web Design & SEO Firm » Blog Archive » Websites Become [Visitor] — 11/10/06 @ 16:47


  8. [...] Finally there is this article which discusses how a corporate website was redesigned into a blog. The idea being that using blog posts enabled the website content to be better indexed by Google. [...]

    Pingback by More Ways To Boost Your Blog Traffic « Technical Itch [Visitor] — 11/14/06 @ 14:59


  9. [...] Finally there is this article which discusses how a corporate website was redesigned into a blog. The idea being that using blog posts enabled the website content to be better indexed by Google. [...]

    Pingback by Technical Itch - » More Ways To Boost Your Blog Traffic [Visitor] — 11/26/06 @ 13:29


  10. Why I wouldn’t use WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS)... I have been following posts from Stephan Spencer n how to use WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS) rathern than a blogging platform. My point of view differs and hope to positive contribute to the debate … ......

    Pingback by Sante's Blog [Visitor] — 12/21/06 @ 15:37


  11. [...] Vajon a blog CMS-ek ideje jött el? Stephan Spencer’s Scatterings bejegyzése szerint igen. Érdekes cikk arról, hogyan kell használni blog szoftvereket, akár vállalati website fejlesztésre is. …Remember those old commercials… “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.â€? ? Well, if you do, then just imagine a take-off on the commercial… “This is your website. This is your website on WordPress.â€? But in this version, imagine the latter is an Olympic weightlifter on steroids. If I hadn’t made the case enough for WordPress as a CMS for regular websites (not just blogs) in this recent post and in this recent case study, then I guess the traffic increases must not have been impressive enough for ya!… [...]

    Pingback by Damjanovich » Your website, powered by WordPress [Visitor] — 01/04/07 @ 06:41


  12. [...] there is this article which discusses how a corporate website was redesigned into a blog. The idea being that using blog posts enabled the website content to be better indexed by [...]

    Pingback by Technical Itch Beta Web Site » Blog Archive » More Ways To Boost Your Blog Traffic [Visitor] — 03/20/07 @ 13:31


  13. This was a VERY interesting read, Stephan. I am now itching to learn what I can about tag clouds! When I know more I will see if I can persuade my corporate team building program client to incorporate an optimized blog into their road to page one of Google! Thanks for the pointers.

    Comment by Len [Visitor] Email · http://www.teamworx.cc — 04/09/07 @ 00:11


  14. Great article, Stephan. I'm trying to set up a small business website using Wordpress. Most of the themes out there look too "blog-like," so I suppose I'll have to look into some heavy customization.

    Comment by Tour Guy [Visitor] Email · http://www.particulartours.net — 06/18/07 @ 21:28


  15. wordpress is the best CMS with amazing plugins. It is easily customizable to make it look not so "blog-like"

    Comment by increase web site traffic [Visitor] Email · http://edwinsoft.com — 08/19/07 @ 04:32


  16. Mi Mate,

    Wordpress ROCKS! I have several
    sites that I run from that platform.

    Great Post!

    Take Care,

    Michael Silvester

    Comment by Michael Silvester [Visitor] Email · http://www.bigbusinessclub.com — 12/10/07 @ 21:03


  17. I agree, wordpress is a highly flexible tool which has evolved from just being a basic blogger platform

    Comment by dean [Visitor] · http://www.puntersandpints.com — 05/16/08 @ 10:37


  18. I agree wordpress is a good CMS with cool plugins. It's real easy to customize it and possible to make it look anyway you want. :) Very nice job on the Netconcepts site btw.

    Comment by Paypal shopping cart software [Visitor] · http://www.blingcart.com — 06/09/08 @ 10:45


  19. Your summary, explanation and use of Web 2.0 applications in your blog is simply amazing. An extremely useful one -thank you!

    Comment by christopher [Visitor] · http://www.lowmileageengines.com/ — 06/30/08 @ 07:42


  20. Stephen, AWESOME on the Netconcepts site and the push to Web 2.0 using Wordpress...you wouldn't believe the corporate CTO's I run into and when I tell them to use wordpress for their company site...they say 'it's just a blog'! So - I will now point them to your site and this blog for some Web 2.0 education!

    Comment by Tammy Powell [Visitor] · http://majestictech.com — 07/14/08 @ 21:16


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