Challenge: Missing out on organic traffic due to competition of affiliate partners

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) is the main railway company in the Netherlands, carrying more than 1 million passengers a day. The NS is also one of the largest companies in the Netherlands. Although NS has no direct competitors in the Dutch market, the landscape online and especially on the Search Engine Result Pages looks different. Because of collaborations with affiliate partners, it is possible for their web pages to rank higher in the organic search results than NS themselves.

This was actually happening for a number of important terms with high search volumes. NS ranked on an average position of 6 with 5 competing affiliate sites above it. By deploying additional SEA campaigns, NS ensured that it could capture some search traffic for these terms. In short: a lot of budget was spent on capturing traffic that should come directly to NS organically. Before the work could take place, the impact of SEO first had to be endorsed: after seeing the search volumes on the search term “cheap train tickets”, NS also understood the potential.

A couple of goals were set for this case :

> Increase organic visibility in search engines and regain authority
> Stop affiliate marketing costs
> SEA media budget savings
> Getting SEO higher on the agenda of NS stakeholders and teams
> Convince the management team of the potential of organic search

Solution: pilot project to improve rankings and increase sponsorship for SEO

In order to increase the importance, knowledge and expertise of SEO within the NS, it was decided to set up a pilot project. The choice was made to focus on increasing the organic visibility on the search term ‘cheap train tickets’, because there was a lot of growth potential here. Subsequently, these steps were taken to set up the pilot project:

开发一个商业案例,以说服管理团队相信其潜力。在与内部网络营销专家的密切合作下,通过勾画不同的 "如果 "情景来比较当前的情况。
分析排名因素:哪些因素对 "廉价火车票 "的搜索意图很重要,排名靠前的网站做得很好,NS登陆页面上缺少什么。
知识讲座和培训课程由 Artefact对NS的各个团队进行知识讲座和培训,以增加SEO知识并激发员工的热情。
与不同的利益相关者举行项目小组会议
为利益相关者提供更多的透明度和频繁的项目状态更新,以突出试点的成功,保持最重要的地位并确保动力。
利用Google Search Console、Google Analytics、KeywordTool.io、Advanced Web Ranking & MajesticSEO的数据对目标进行监测和报告
创建一个(内部)成功案例,作为未来SEO项目的蓝图。

Results: 75% savings in media cost due to number one organic search position

Overall savings in marketing costs as a result of stopping the affiliate collaboration and switching off SEA (paid advertising in Google to lead traffic to NS was no longer necessary because NS achieved a number 1 organic position)

Knowledge of SEO within NS has increased and the focus on this marketing activity has increased within the various departments.

Blueprint created for future SEO projects: has ensured further expansion of SEO projects within NS

Project results for landing page:

 Increase of the position of the term ‘cheap train tickets’ in the organic search results from 6 to a stable no. 1 position
75% decrease of related media costs (see graph)
CTR from Google increased from 3.9% to 15.7%
Increase in organic traffic of 729% (year on year)
Increase in turnover via organic channel of 630% (year on year)