Search case study: TAG Heuer SEO boost gets half a million extra visits

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In early 2012, TAG Heuer implemented DLG’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) recommendations to boost its traffic from both branded (“TAG Heuer watches”) and generic (“luxury watches”) keywords. This case study shows how the luxury watch maker received over 500,000 visitors from non-branded searches (and saved £213,000 in paid search fees in the process).

Brand: TAG Heuer | Sector: Luxury | Country: Global | Partner/agency: Digital Luxury Group | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: SEO, search

Working with the Digital Luxury Group, the first step for TAG Heuer was to know which “search terms” are most important for the site in question to rank on. For example, target “men’s watches” or “watches for women”?

They used statistical data to determine this:

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Once the search terms were determined, they worked on both “on-site” (website structure and content) and “off-site” (incoming links from other website) parameters.

The goal for a brand is not only to attain a top position for certain searches but also to help achieve the goals of the web user. If a brand’s website visitor leaves the site only after few seconds, this would give a sign to the search engine that the brand’s website is not relevant for that type of search and ranking could be lost. For this reason it’s also important that targeted search terms make sense for the web user who will eventually come to the site.

Search engines record every visit and evaluate them by the time spent on site, the number of page views in one visit, and the number of incoming links which send credibility to the website, etc.

Nowadays, SEO techniques are not based only on "on-site" or "off-site” factors. The entire internet user experience gets factored in. Websites have to be intuitive, visually appealing, fast to load, and must provide interesting content to enhance the internet user experience... the overall objective of a search engine.

The keyword “luxury watches” is searched more than 22,000 times per month globally and there are over 15 million pages competing for position on this keyword on Google*.

In early 2012, TAG Heuer implemented DLG’s SEO recommendations that resulted in a significant position improvement on this important and highly competitive keyword;

• On March 26th TAG Heuer’s ranking on “luxury watches” was in 30th position.

• By April 16th, TAG’s ranking moved up to 2nd position.

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When a potential customer searches for TAG Heuer on Google, over 50% of the 1st page results belong to the brand, leaving little space for grey market competitors in natural search.

Paid search (otherwise known as search advertising) is the exception, where counterfeiters and grey marketers can be difficult to avoid.

Google ‘authority checks’

This ownership of the results page “real estate” is attributed to following strict Google guidelines to keep TAG’s website considered as authoritative for every search which includes its brand name.

To do this DLG also make sure that the TAG Heuer name was in all relevant places inside the code structure of the site.

Again, this success was achieved by modifying page structures and improving the cross linking within the site while making sure that we always put the product name in all relevant places within the code structure of the site

Incorrect spellings

Not everyone knows how to spell the TAG Heuer name. People searching for TAG Heuer without knowing the exact spelling almost always find the TAG Heuer website in the first position on Google. DLG does this by dedicating attention to a wide range of common misspellings of the brand and ensuring that all relevant volume of searches which include a misspelling is correctly handled so that the website stays at the top of the search engine results page.

Brand Protection

Brand protection is one side of SEO. The other side is brand awareness and encouraging those not familiar with the brand to visit the website and learn more. This can be done by positioning the website on generic keywords like “watches” or “luxury watches.” This type of visitor might not have been aware of the brand before and there is an opportunity to convert them to the “World of TAG Heuer.”

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Results

Thanks to SEO, since July 2010, TAG Heuer received over 500,000 visitors from non-branded searches. That means that if TAG Heuer wanted to buy this traffic using AdWords, they would have spent over 300,000 CHF (£213,000) just for non-branded searches alone.

Commenting on the results, Frédéric Layani, Global Internet and CRM at TAG Heuer, said: “LG’s strong international expertise in emerging markets, as well as their understanding of the complex world of luxury professions, particularly watchmaking, reinforced ourdecision to work with them.”

Read the full case study (PDF) here

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