Client Testimonial: Rolling Stone

SEO For Entertainment Publishers

rollingstone
Marissa1

Rolling Stone, the multi-media brand, has been the leading voice of music and popular culture for nearly 50 years. We reached out to Marissa O’Hare, Senior Director of Audience Development at Wenner Media, publisher of Rolling Stone, to ask her about her experience with ClickSeed. Here’s what she had to say…

What specific problem(s) were you trying to solve that prompted you to hire an SEO firm?

We realized the importance of SEO for all three Wenner Media websites but didn’t have a dedicated SEO resource in-house. We wanted to outsource SEO yet also bring on a team of people who could work closely with all the key digital personnel and act as an extension of the team.

What was the biggest concern you had about working with an SEO firm before you decided to hire ClickSeed? Did ClickSeed alleviate that concern, and if so, what happened instead?

Our biggest concern was that a firm would initially invest a substantial amount of effort and then grow complacent over time. ClickSeed dedicated a great deal of time and attention to our brands during the entire multi-year engagement and their staff was always available to address issues that required immediate attention. Furthermore, they worked seamlessly with our cross-functional team, liaising with development, product, editorial and other stakeholders where appropriate.

What specific improvements have you observed since you started working with ClickSeed?

We saw significant improvements in Google organic search traffic across all three sites that were measurable against the deployment of ClickSeed’s technical recommendations. Also, ClickSeed’s quarterly SEO training sessions with the editors enabled them to become more SEO savvy, which translated to increased traffic.

What was your favorite part about working with ClickSeed and why?

ClickSeed’s staff was extremely knowledgeable about SEO and helped us to grow the sites through their expertise. Our organization is very dynamic and ClickSeed was always able to deliver, even with short lead times and the occasional fire drill.

If you were to recommend ClickSeed to someone looking for help with SEO, what would you say?

ClickSeed would be a valuable asset to any company looking to ensure the SEO health of their websites and improve their rankings for important keyword terms. Furthermore, the ClickSeed team is client-focused, results-driven and approaches projects with a high degree of professionalism. We highly recommend ClickSeed.

What aspects of ClickSeed’s services and areas of expertise do you feel might be particularly valuable to other news/media publishers?

In addition to ongoing SEO consultation and project-based work, ClickSeed kept us informed on Google updates that may have an impact on our sites. We don’t have the bandwidth to stay attuned to all the latest developments so it was useful to be able to lean on ClickSeed in this capacity. We also felt that ClickSeed understood each site’s editorial mission and were able to tailor their recommendations to suit each site’s unique needs.

And the Results? See for Yourself…

The chart below was taken from the publicly available data at SEMRush, and it shows an approximation of organic search traffic for RollingStone.com. Although it took more than six months to audit the site, communicate and prioritize recommendations, gain stakeholder buy-in, execute recommendations, and really begin seeing results, the investment paid massive dividends, and Rolling Stone continues to benefit from that work today.