Growth Hacking - Wikipedia & Google ‘Panda’ search algorithm
3 likes629 views
The document outlines a growth hacking strategy employed by Masibu Manima to increase the profile of Mixtape Madness and drive user engagement, achieving 31,000 registered users and over $1,000 in ad revenue within 85 days. The strategy involved leveraging Wikipedia's high page rank and manipulating Google’s SEO algorithm to enhance visibility against competitors. Key results included a climb in search rankings and significant traffic growth attributed to targeted content and strategic link placement.
Growth Hacking - Wikipedia & Google ‘Panda’ search algorithm
- 1. Growth Hacking How I leveraged Wikipedia’s high page rank to drive 31,000 registered users and $1,000+ incremental ad revenue in 85 days Wikipedia & Google ‘Panda’ search algorithm Masibu Manima Co-founder & Head of Growth @ Mixtape Madness
- 2. Challenge Become the first destination for the most anticipated UK mixtape of the year; with £0 marketing budget in 3 months.
- 3. Problem The first UK mixtape anticipated in the US Three months before the launch of London Boy, Mixtape Madness faced the unprecedented challenge of competing with Dat Piff - a website with reach of over 1 million monthly unique visitors. Mixtape Madness was ranked 17th on Search Rank Closer to home, competing UK urban website had taken advantage of the news since May with blog content, building stronger search engine presence. Strong Competition Poor Google Rank Planned release on artist website Artist Own Distribution To add to the competition, Chip also too the decision to release the mixtape on his official artist website. Naturally this is where fans would look, as well as having a strong legacy of anchored links helped rank higher his page as #1 for keywords related to the mixtape.
- 4. Solution Hack Google’s SEO algorithm ‘biases’, whilst leveraging Wikipedia’s crowdsourcing platform to speed up the process of climbing the search page rank.
- 5. Hack Hypothesis #1: Google ‘Panda’ protects Google’s interest What we Knew: “...Google searches priority is the user’s experience and loyalty to the search engine…Panda (2011) algorithm was released to crack down on spammy websites, thus rewarding websites with low bounce rates.. ” “...Google also happens to own the second biggest search engine, in YouTube…”
- 6. Hack Hypothesis #1: Google ‘Panda’ protects Google’s interest What we Did as a result: 1. Create content rich copy with creative use of keywords - to avoid spam flag 2. Create related mixtapes section to increase visitor page depth - decrease bounce rate 3. Insert YouTube videos with related titles - earning digital brownie points with Panda
- 7. Hack Hypothesis #1: Changes to the Website 1. Sensical copy with creative use of the related keyword identified on Google Webmaster 2. Use of related ‘YouTube’ video and mixtapes, to increase user depth and decrease bounce rate
- 8. Hack Hypothesis #2: Leverage Wikipedia’s page rank What we Knew: We noticed earlier in the year that 5% of our referral traffic was coming from Wikipedia. The process of getting backlinks on highly ranked websites can be costly in money (we didn’t have) and weeks of negotiations. Meanwhile updating Wikipedia pages takes minutes and is FREE.
- 9. Hack Hypothesis #2: Leverage Wikipedia’s page rank What we Did as Result: We started linking Chip and other artists mixtapes to our website. To our benefit, Google had integrated the Knowledge Graph in its latest search algorithm. This was a semantic search which gathered information from a variety of sources - Wikipedia being one of it main reference points.
- 10. Quick Wins #1: Increase Impressions and page Rank 1. Increased impressions and clickthrough from related searches in Sept vs. Aug 2012 2. Climbed from 17th to 11 in a space of 1 month, but still on page 2 Google Analytics, December ‘12.
- 11. Quick Wins #2: Number 2 Rank behind Chip page Showing up as number 2 for the most searched keywords combination - Even higher than Wikipedia Google Analytics, Dec ‘12.
- 12. The Legacy & Numbers that Matter Google Analytics, Jan ‘13.
- 13. Summary In the space of 85 days: 1. Number 2 on Google for related ‘London Boy Chip searches’ - higher than Wikipedia, Datpiff and our Competitors 2. 250K Unique visitors coming via ‘London Boy’ related search or referral 3. 31,000 new registered users initial entry attributed to ‘London Boy’ Google search 4. $1,029 Ad revenue generated from new traffic impressions 5. The campaign increased the overall profile of Mixtape Madness as a big player in the UK urban scene.