The conversation on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has changed over the years. Once a discussion of “Do we really need to do it?” has become one of “How do we do it well?” And you need to do SEO well if you want to be found by your customers.
While many small business owners understand the principles of SEO, not all understand exactly how they can use the resulting analytics to guide strategy. If you are in this camp, let’s figure out how to better define and use benchmarks to your advantage.
Measure, Track, And Repeat
Based on the Moz “Chapter 10: Measuring & Tracking Success” resource, measurement is the only way to know how your SEO is working and how you can improve it. Summarized below, here are the recommended metrics to track:
Each month you’ll want to look at the traffic sources from your website including:
· Direct Navigation: This comes from typed in traffic, bookmarks, email links without tracking codes, and other similar sources.
· Referral Traffic: This originates from links across the web, or in trackable email, or promotional/branding campaign links.
· Search Traffic: These are queries that sent traffic from any major or minor web search engine.
While Google directs most of the search traffic, it’s important to know the contribution of your search traffic from each major engine in order to understand:
· Performance vs. market share: Compare the volume contribution of each engine with its estimated market shares.
· Potential drops: If you know the contributions to each engine, you can better understand the drop. For example, it’s an accessibility issue if all engines drop equally. However, it’s a devaluation issue if it drops on only one engine.
· Strategic value nuggets: When you dive deeper into these measurements you can find important insights, e.g. if certain tactics (keywords, targeting) work better on certain engines more than others.
When you have a good hold on your keywords, you’ll be able to see which ones send traffic. You’ll also be more equipped to identify new keyword trends. Additionally, look at tracking search referral counts for terms outside the top terms and phrases for deeply valuable information. If the referrals drop, revisit terms that may peak and phase out in certain seasons, and revaluate rankings.
Conversion rate is huge. If you know where your visitors are landing the most, you’ll know where to improve the user experience to boost conversion. Digging deeper, you can also uncover the keywords that are essential for transforming visitors into paying customers. The more you look into this, the more you will understand the exact conversion journey from start to finish.
To best monitor overall SEO performance, you need to know the number of pages that receive search engine traffic, including indexation (the number of website pages that engines keep in their index). You want to make sure that all pages you want to be found in organic search are indexed.
Keep Setting SEO Goals
There is no such thing as aiming too low with your SEO. Clearly define your objectives and don’t be scared to shoot for the stars. And, with every goal, measure how far you’ve come so you can better define where you are going next.
How is your SEO going? Do you have a thorn in your side on a certain metric or have you discovered your perfect formula? Let’s share!
This article is made possible by Checksforless.com. For more than 35 years, Checksforless.com has provided over 500,000 businesses with high quality business checks, deposit slips, and other banking supplies with easy ordering and fast production times; all at the guaranteed lowest price in the nation. Our discount business checks are easily customizable and compatible with over 4,500 software programs including QuickBooks® and Peachtree/Sage®. Email or call us toll-free at 800-245-5775.
References:
https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/measuring-and-tracking-success