google2This blog is part 2 on creating leads online with inbound marketing analytics. In part 1 we addressed Website Performance measurements. In this blog, we will view the use of creating leads online with analytics as they relate to SEO

Analyze the effectiveness of your SEO efforts by digging deeper into the reports generated by your web analytics package. In this section we will cover the most important SEO metrics to track.

Keyword Performance and Ranking

  • Definition – How well your website and web pages rank in search engines for your desired keywords and search terms
  • How to Use – You should always be measuring the performance of your keywords. Conduct keyword research using such tools as the Google AdWords Keyword Tool or HubSpot’s Keyword Grader tool to identify the best keywords to use in website optimization, and optimize your website for those keywords. Then track and measure their performance in search. How well is your website ranking for those key terms? Are they generating a significant amount of traffic to your website? If not, you may need to refine your keyword choices so you can improve your search engine rankings.

Total Traffic fro Organic Search

  • Definition – The percentage of unique visitors who arrive at your site from a link on a search engine results page
  • How to Use – If your percentage of traffic from organic search is lower, look for opportunities to target new keywords or create more content – such as videos, podcasts, ebooks, webinars, and blog posts – that can be indexed by search engines.

brandLoyaltyBranded vs. Non-branded Search Traffic

  • Definition – The percentage of organic search traffic that comes to your site from brand-related keywords – such as your company or product name – versus generic, non-branded keywords related to your industry.
  • How to Use – If the majority of your traffic is coming from brand-related searches, you’ll need to work harder on your SEO efforts and generate more content and use more keywords related to generic industry terms. After all, people searching for your brand name already know about your company and products. But to grow your business, you need to reach out to visitors that might not even know you exist.

Unique Search Terms Driving Traffic

  • Definition – The complete list of search phrases that visitors are using to find your site Monitor not just the total number of phrases that generate traffic, but also the total number of visits and percentage of overall organic traffic that each phrase represents
  • How to Use – A longer list of unique terms driving search traffic to your website means you’re doing an admirable job creating content around the keywords and terms that prospects are using to research a particular business or personal need related to your products and services. Look closely at the top phrases that drive a significant percentage of search visits. If these are phrases you’re specifically targeting through your SEO efforts, then you’re doing a good job creating content that gets found and attracts clicks. If you’re not drawing significant traffic from your targeted keywords, then you need to do a better job creating relevant, valuable content around those phrases. Studying your list of unique search terms can also uncover longer-tail search phrases that you’re not currently targeting.

Inbound Links

  • Definition – A measure of the number of links back to your site from other sites on the web.
  • How to Use – Because inbound links are such a major factor in how search engines rank your website and web pages, your goal should be to gradually increase the number of inbound links from high-quality sites, which indicates that your content is not only getting found online, but is deemed valuable enough for other sites or bloggers to share with their audience. In general, more inbound links from more domains is better, and the higher the authority is of the site linking to you, the more valuable that inbound link will be considered by search engines, resulting in a higher search ranking for you. You also can study your inbound links to determine the types of sites or bloggers who tend to link to your content, helping you develop more content specifically for those audiences. Also, studying the anchor text that other sites use to create their links to your site can help you uncover new terms for your SEO efforts.

Conversion Rates from Organic Search

  • Definition – The percentage of visitors who arrived at your site through organic search and completed a desired conversion action, such as becoming a lead or purchasing a product.
  • How to Use – At the highest level, you want to know your overall conversion rate from organic search. But you also should drill down into your web analytics to track conversion rates by:
– Specific keyword or search phrases
– Unique landing pages
– Referring URLs

Tracking those metrics helps you fine tune your SEO strategy. For example, you may discover long-tail search phrases that don’t deliver tons of unique visitors but that have a higher than average conversion rate. Or, you may find that high traffic from a common search term isn’t translating into a good conversion rate, which means you’ve probably got some work to do in optimizing your landing pages to improve conversion.

If you missed part 1 on Website Performance, click here.

 

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