There was a time when all you needed to do to measure SEO success was look at where your website fell in the search rankings. Even though that practice was a poor results model back then, some people still cling to that belief today. To really determine search engine optimization results you need to start measuring SEO efforts and then comparing those results – tracking them and making adjustments as needed.
There are a lot of different ways to track results, and more than a few companies out there that will do it for you. But one quick, efficient, and easy way to track your own results or set up an in-house SEO “team” is to use Google Analytics. Google is definitely the expert in the field, and their Analytics is free and fairly easy to navigate.
Next, you need to determine what you want to track. This can get pretty involved, but to start with, it’s driven by what your company’s goals are. According to Google Analytics, you may want to pay particular attention to traffic sources and keywords. If you’ve chosen to use another program these areas may have another name, but you’re looking to review where your customers are coming to you from. Determining this will help you track your affiliations and advertising efforts, and whether you’re using the right keywords.
The most powerful information you can get from these pages relates to your keywords and what words/phrases people are using to find you and your products. If they’re coming to you via words you haven’t even optimized to, it’s definitely time to contact Filament to update your keyword optimized web content. Then, continue following the trends to see if that makes a difference in the success of your business.
If you really want to play with analytics and the success of your ad campaigns, consider doing two different campaigns to see which one gets more traffic and attention. You may discover that people love it when you do a “BOGO sale” as opposed to a “Columbus Day sale” by doing both and then tracking the end results. This would indicate that, going forward, you may want to focus on the BOGO versus holiday-related advertising.
Another really important item to note is which page your visitors are coming to first. Typically it will be a home page but there are times when that doesn’t happen, whether it’s inadvertent and needs attention or it’s totally planned and your approach is going the way you hoped.
Finally, use the information about where people are coming from to help strengthen external ties and links, and formulate a solid social media campaign. The extra effort will really pay off!
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