Back to SEO Basics: 5 Critical Metrics You Must Master Strategies for staying one step ahead of the rest

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Housekeeping Items

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What’s at Stake Search engine use is growing rapidly

Currently, there are more

than 3 billion

searches/day on Google

Courtesy: SEOmoz

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Source : Jupiter Research, 2010

If you are not on the 1st page, you are invisible to most searchers

Search Engine User Behavior

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A sample of metrics we can track with website analytics programs

Analytics Can Answer the Following Questions

Problem Recognition

Information Search

Evaluation of Alternatives

Purchase Decisions

Purchase

How many visitors do we

get to our site?

What is our ratio of new vs. returning

visitors?

How many people fill out our “Contact

us” form?

What are our most popular webpages?

What is my Average Order Value (AOV)?

What keyword searches led to visitors to

our site?

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Developed by Avinash Kaushik, this process helps to identify the “critical few” metrics for your business and take action on them.

The Web Metrics Lifecycle

Define

Measure

Analyze Action

Improve or Eliminate

Source: “Web Analytics 2.0,” Avinash Kaushik

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1 Traffic Sources Overview of different sources that send traffic to your site

2 Organic Traffic A critical metric for assessing the impact of your SEO efforts

3 Top Webpages Metric for determining which pages are most popular

4 Visitor Engagement Metrics Bounce rate, time on site, pages per visit

5 Conversions Helps to measure outcomes, i.e. did visitor perform our intended action?

Webinar Agenda: Metrics We’ll Cover

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1 Traffic Sources Overview of different sources that send traffic to your site

2 Organic Traffic A critical metric for assessing the impact of your SEO efforts

3 Top Webpages Metric for determining which pages are most popular

4 Visitor Engagement Metrics Bounce rate, time on site, pages per visit

5 Conversions Helps to measure outcomes, i.e. did visitor perform our intended action?

Webinar Agenda: Metrics We’ll Cover

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Overview of the different kinds of sources that send traffic to your site

Metric Defined: Traffic Sources

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The better you understand where your traffic comes from, you can gain insight into what kind of people are coming and why

Why This Metric Matters: Traffic Sources

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% Visits from

Sources Nov ‘09–Feb ‘10 Nov ‘10-Feb ‘11 Difference

Direct 36.5% 36.8% +0.3%

Referral 21.0% 19.4% -1.6%

Search Engines 27.0% 28.0% +1.0%

Other 15.5% 15.8% +0.3%

Direct traffic continues to lead the way at nearly 37% of overall traffic. Search engine traffic grew the most during same period YOY.

Google Benchmark Results: Traffic Sources

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Select a mix of both “head match” and “long tail” keywords

Recommendation #1: Improving “Traffic Sources”

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Measured on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis

Keyword Rankings: Helps Increase Overall Traffic

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1 Traffic Sources Overview of different sources that send traffic to your site

2 Organic Traffic A critical metric for assessing the impact of your SEO efforts

3 Top Webpages Metric for determining which pages are most popular

4 Visitor Engagement Metrics Bounce rate, time on site, pages per visit

5 Conversions Helps to measure outcomes, i.e. did visitor perform our intended action?

Webinar Agenda: Metrics We’ll Cover

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Traffic to your site that came from search engines, but you did not pay for, i.e. PPC ads

Metric Defined: Organic Search Engine Traffic

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Traffic to your site that came from search engines, but you did not pay for, i.e. PPC ads

Metric Defined: Organic Search Engine Traffic

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Measures effectiveness of SEO program

Why This Metric Matters: Organic Search Traffic

Filter out “branded” traffic

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Besides measuring just organic search traffic improvements, also keep track of how many keywords are driving traffic to your site

Recommendation #2: Measure the Long Tail

2011

2010

vs.

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1 Traffic Sources Overview of different sources that send traffic to your site

2 Organic Traffic A critical metric for assessing the impact of your SEO efforts

3 Top Webpages Metric for determining which pages are most popular

4 Visitor Engagement Metrics Bounce rate, time on site, pages per visit

5 Conversions Helps to measure outcomes, i.e. did visitor perform our intended action?

Webinar Agenda: Metrics We’ll Cover

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Your website’s most visited webpages for a particular time period

Metric Defined: Top Webpages

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Allows you to prioritize which pages to focus content and conversion improvements on

Why This Metric Matters: Are Top Pages Optimized?

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These are pages that your visitors will initially see – make sure they’re conversion friendly!

Recommendation #3: Landing Pages Best Practices

• Drive a single call-to-action

• Simplify navigation

• Include a clear offer or incentive

• Engage eye contact with graphics and color

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Contact Us about Qualifying for a Complimentary Analysis

-Competitive Report: find out where you rank against your top

competitors and what tactics they’re employing

-Opportunity Analysis: learn how to improve your Digital Marketing

Strategy and see how much opportunity is available for your company

-ROI Tracking: detailing the keywords and sources that visitors are using

to discover your website and if those visitors are converting into leads and

sales

Please contact:

seo@webmarketing123.com

#wm123

@bradleywjoe

1 Traffic Sources Overview of different sources that send traffic to your site

2 Organic Traffic A critical metric for assessing the impact of your SEO efforts

3 Top Webpages Metric for determining which pages are most popular

4 Visitor Engagement Metrics Bounce rate, time on site, pages per visit

5 Conversions Helps to measure outcomes, i.e. did visitor perform our intended action?

Webinar Agenda: Metrics We’ll Cover

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Nov ‘09–Feb ‘10 Nov ‘10-Feb ‘11 Difference

Pages/Visit 4.9 4.5 -0.4

Bounce Rate 48.2% 47.0% -1.2%

Avg Time on Site 5:49 5:23 -0:26

Compared to a year ago, websites have seen reduced pages per visit, average time on site, as well as bounce rate.

Metric Defined: Engagement

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The percentage of single-page visits, i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page

Metric Defined: Bounce Rate

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Average bounce hovers around 50%, i.e. half of visitors arrive on your website and leave with visiting any other pages

Google Benchmark Results: Bounce Rate

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Develop a mapping document that targets 3-5 keywords per page

Recommendation #4: Improving “Bounce Rate”

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1 Traffic Sources Overview of different sources that send traffic to your site

2 Organic Traffic A critical metric for assessing the impact of your SEO efforts

3 Top Webpages Metric for determining which pages are most popular

4 Visitor Engagement Metrics Bounce rate, time on site, pages per visit

5 Conversions Helps to measure outcomes, i.e. did visitor perform our intended action?

Webinar Agenda: Metrics We’ll Cover

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One of digital marketer’s favorite metrics for measuring outcomes

Metric Defined: Conversion Rate

Ask Yourself: How many visitors completed your intended action?

Outcomes (leads, sales,

form fill outs, etc.)

Total Number of Visits

Conversion

Rate

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Conversion Rate helps us prove the value of our digital marketing investment

Why This Metric Matters: Conversion Rate

Conversion Rate is a great metric because…

Compared to most online metrics, it is one of the

closest to actual business outcomes

It can be optimized for and improved!

It measures if our visitors are performing our

intended actions on the website

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Conversion rates vary by country, with the US conversion rate being approximately 1%

Google Benchmark Results: Conversion Rate

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Determine which keywords are driving conversions for your site

Recommendation #5: Match Keywords to Conversions

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Determine which keywords are driving conversions for your site

Recommendation #5: Match Keywords to Conversions

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• What Gets Measured, Gets Managed: Take advantage of analytics

tools to start tracking important website metrics

• Define Your End Goal: Regardless of tactics utilized, don’t lose site of

overall strategy and expected outcomes.

• Prove the ROI: Continually measure the performance of digital channels

(SEO, PPC, Social) and verify that it is the best use of your company’s

investment.

Key Takeaways

Thank You!

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Contact Us about Qualifying for a Complimentary Analysis

-Competitive Report: find out where you rank against your top

competitors and what tactics they’re employing

-Opportunity Analysis: learn how to improve your Digital Marketing

Strategy and see how much opportunity is available for your company

-ROI Tracking: detailing the keywords and sources that visitors are using

to discover your website and if those visitors are converting into leads and

sales

Please contact:

seo@webmarketing123.com