You are asked to conduct a thorough situational analysis, taking both the 'SEO Standing' of the organisation and its objectives into account. You will then use the situational analysis to choose a target segment for your experiment.
Word Count: 2500 words if working individually, 3500 words if working in pairs.
A penalty will be applied of 1% per 100 words for exceeding this limit. Title page, contents page, footnotes, references and appendices do not count towards word limit.
Objectives
The high level aims of this project are:
To develop your concept of how to view the 'SEO Landscape'
To examine how easy or difficult it is to make an impact in Google Search rankings for an organisation.
You are asked to conduct a thorough situational analysis, taking both the 'SEO Standing' of the organisation and its objectives into account.
You will then use the situational analysis to choose a target segment for your experiment.
Once the target has been chosen, you can design, execute and discuss the results from an experiment.
Finally, you are asked to reflect on the assignment from a personal viewpoint, with a view to improving your performance in future assignments.
Report Structure and Marking Scheme
Part 1 - Introduction
5% of marks.
Introduce the company, their main products / services and their target audience(s).
Part 2 – SEO Standing
35% of marks.
The overall aim of this part is to establish the client
Part 2 - SEO Standing
35% of marks.
The overall aim of this part is to establish the client organisation's SEO standing in relation to key competitors within carefully chosen segments.
Consider the organisation's current SEO activities and their effectiveness (if any), making use of tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console if appropriate.
Consider and evaluate potential methods of segmenting the audience.
Choose one of these methods, giving your rationale for selecting it.
Use this segmentation method to create a 'competitive SEO audit'. This audit should show, at one point in time:
The various segments
The main competitors
The competitive position of the company in SERPs, as compared to competitors, for each of the segments
Main findings should be presented in the report with the relevant parts of your spreadsheet copied and pasted in (use an appendix if necessary - see note at end of document).
Notes:
The audit should be done manually. Do not try to use tools such as SEMRush, Moz, A-Hrefs
Canvas will only accept one file and staff email addresses do not work with Google Docs so make sure everything is in one document
Part 3 - Objectives Of Client Organisation
10% of marks:
Provide an overview of the organisation's strategic objectives and assess how well the company's current wohoito / SEO activiting / SEO otrotoar if any fit in with
Part 3 - Objectives Of Client Organisation
10% of marks:
Provide an overview of the organisation's strategic objectives and assess how well the company's current website / SEO activities / SEO strategy (if any) fit in with these objectives.
Discuss how SEO could contribute to these objectives.
Part 4 - Design And Execute SEO Experiment(s)
40% of available marks.
Choose a target for your experiment, explaining how your choice relates to parts 2 and 3 above.
Design one experiments (if working alone) or two experiments (if working in pairs) aimed at this target. See below for illustrations of experiments.
Run the experiment(s), measuring the results before and around one week after they have been run.
Finally present and analyse the results of the experiment.
Part 5 - Personal Reflections
This section is worth 10% of available marks
Reflect on how well you performed in the assignment. Consider what went well (and why), what you would do differently and what the most important learns or biggest surprises were. Personal reflections should focus on yourself and how your own thought processes or learnings have developed, rather than external factors (e.g. limitations of the website, lack of access to GA).
Consider how you could apply these learnings to improve your performance in upcoming assignments for other modules on the Masters and for projects in your future career.
If working in pairs, each person should produce their own personal reflection piece. Personal reflections should be submitted as part of the main report.
If passing a report on to the organisation. don't forget to
