07/01/2015 01:10
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing a website's Internet ranking. The higher a website is on the search engine results pages (SERP), the more people will see it, click on it and, ultimately, convert to customers. For that reason, SEO is a key component of many business marketing strategies. SEO encompasses many website elements, including content, keywords, organization, linkage to and from other sites, competition, code, page titles and headers. Therefore, executing an SEO campaign can be time consuming and labor intensive, and it is important that you are able to measure a campaign's success so as to know if your SEO is working.
Choose an SEO analytics program. SEO analytics programs track and report on data that can be used to determine the effectiveness of your SEO campaigns.
- Some web hosting companies offer free and/or minimally priced analytics services to their customers.
- You can find a number of specialized analytics programs online, offering a wide array of tools and measurements, and at a variety of price points.
Establish a baseline. Once you initialize your analytics program, record the first measurements, before applying SEO strategies.
Analyze the effectiveness of your SEO campaign, using data (metrics) from your SEO analytics program. It is necessary to gauge several different aspects of SEO effectiveness, as they correlate with each other and provide you with a complete picture of how well your SEO improvements are working. From your SEO analytics program dashboard, you should be able to monitor several different metrics:
- Traffic is the amount of visitors, or hits, your website gets.
- Keyword ranking metrics show you how your site ranks in comparison with other sites when specific keywords are used to find your site, and can be instrumental in fine-tuning your site's search engine optimization. For example, you may find that using the keyword phrase, "best hairdressing in Texas," results in a lower ranking, while using the keyword phrase, "best Texas hairstylist" results in a higher ranking.
- Page indexing refers to search engine page recognition, and not all web pages are recognized by search engines. One of the goals of search engine optimization is to maximize the probability that search engines will recognize as many of your site's pages as possible. By assessing your page indexing metrics, you are able to measure SEO success in that respect.
Track changes. Use 2 separate, but correlating, calendars to measure SEO success on an ongoing basis. Your SEO analytics program may provide reports to you in calendar form, or you may use a spreadsheet program to create custom calendars.
- Keep a week-to-week, month-to-month and year-to-year calendar to monitor changes in your SEO effectiveness and identify changes that may be seasonal. This calendar may be in standard calendar format, but should include spaces to record analytics information. Record the traffic, keyword, indexing, conversions and links metrics every Monday of every week so that you can spot trends that may be associated with the time of year. For example, you may find that your conversions naturally increase during the holiday seasons, and that they naturally decrease when the school year starts.
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- In addition to conversions (sales), you may also analyze micro-conversions to identify exactly where your site may need improvements. Micro-conversions are the steps leading up to, or comprising, a full conversion (i.e. click on purchase, complete registration, enter shipping details, etc.), and if any 1 particular page needs SEO improvements, you may be losing customers before they are able to fully convert. For example, if your analytics metrics shows that you are losing visitors after they click on the "ship to" link, then that indicates there may be a problem with that link or landing page.
- When analyzing keyword metrics from your SEO analytics program, make sure to do 2 separate queries: 1 into brand keywords, and 1 into non-brand keywords. This way, you can identify how much of your traffic comes from people who are already familiar with your brand (and who may be existing customers), versus how many people who found your website by using non-brand (generic) keywords from your SEO improvements.
About the Author:
My name is Lissa Anderson I am a full time SEO consultant. I've been doing freelancing,web development,web designing & internet marketing stuff for more than 8 years. Now I am affiliate with one of the world’s largest online advertising company.
I´m offering SEO and SocialMedia Services here on my website too.