Basically, SEO service is taking all the necessary steps to ensure the search engine’s activity, regarding a specific website, is efficient and favorable. Steps involved can range from a complete redesign of the site to simple changes on specific webpages. But the primary focus of each and every one of these changes is to increase the activity on the website and its visibility to the search engine. If a site is being periodically visited and views are limited, then there is an indication that the SEO methods in place are not effective and some changes are certainly in order.
Successful search engine optimization (SEO) can greatly increase the number of visitors to your website. It can enhance a website’s popularity by getting it to an Internet user who seeks info, services, and merchandise associated with that site. And, one of the best ways to accomplish this is through measuring the success of your SEO. Although the concept of search engine optimization can be somewhat complex and understanding the way of measuring its success involves a variety of in-depth tracking tools and an understanding of specific intricate algorithms, the end-goal of knowing whether or not it was all worth it is in itself quite simple. SEO is done because a webmaster wants to increase traffic to their site. If it can be concluded that the increase in traffic has been achieved in direct correlation to higher search engine rankings and effective keyword usage, then rates of success can be deemed above average and the campaign can be considered a great investment. But first, an understanding of what defines success in the world of search engine optimization must be clear.
Importance of Measuring SEO Success
While the chief goal of most is to increase revenue or business leads, there are some who wish to increase traffic to their site and there are others who wish to simply raise awareness of their brand. In order to determine the success of your SEO program, you must first define what success means in a particular instance. It is best to have one or two primary goals measured by a set of specific key metrics, but it’s also good to track the progress of other valuable objectives. Here’s an example: A small start-up technology company may define success as increasing revenue and business leads by being ranked number one for a particular search term. In this case, it would be wise for said company to track the search engine ranking for that particular term, and the traffic and revenue derived from that term. Success can be measured both in the short-term and the long-term, but it is important to give enough time to any SEO program to have some effect before changing course due to perceived failure.
Measuring SEO success is a critical component of any search engine optimization (SEO) campaign. As the old adage states, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” If you are not able to measure the success of your SEO campaign, you have no indication as to whether or not it was a worthwhile investment of resources. Success can mean many different things to many different people. All businesses will have different goals in mind when they begin their SEO program.
Role of Key Metrics
The primary role of key metrics is to aid in decision making. Data in its raw form is near useless, but when it is formed into information and more so when it is formed into knowledge, the value accelerates at each level. Decisions to continue or cease certain activities can often be backed by quantitative data that show whether or not the activity is helping the company reach its goals. Without key metrics in SEO, there is no way to show what is working and what is not. Often, the line between successful long-term SEO and wasted effort is a fine one. Having key metrics easily tips the balance in favor of successful SEO. A scenario often seen in SEO is one of tunnel vision. SEOs can be focused so much on a single goal that they miss the negative impact they are having elsewhere. An example would be attaining a high level of traffic for a specific product, only to find that the traffic is not the type of visitors the site wanted to target. This could have negative effects on conversion rates. The ability to measure the increase in traffic against the decrease in conversion is a key metric in itself, and being able to identify the problem is essential.
Essential Metrics for SEO Success
The next category is visitor quality, which basically comes down to relevance. Are the visitors that are coming to your site through organic search the same visitors that you are targeting? In most cases, the answer is yes, but at times you may find that people are finding your website through keywords that are not relevant to your product. An increased bounce rate is usually an indication of low visitor quality, but bounce rate is a multifaceted concept that is now closely tied to desired action and therefore may not accurately reflect visitor quality. An often overlooked metric for visitor quality is task completion rate in usability testing. If task completion rate is increasing over time for tasks that are done by your ideal visitor, then you can be confident that the visitor quality from organic search is increasing.
When it comes to measuring the success of your SEO campaign, the key metrics fall into four categories: visitor quantity, visitor quality, desired action, and competitive positioning. The first and most obvious category to look into is visitor quantity. This is a simple concept: are the number of visitors to your website from organic search increasing? If the answer is yes, then the chances are that your SEO campaign is on the right track. The best metric for this category is tracking the trend in the number of organic search visitors over time using a tool such as Google Analytics. If this trend is steadily increasing, it is a good sign. If it is looking a bit choppy, it may indicate that your campaign is targeting the wrong keywords, the competitiveness for your keywords is increasing, or something outside of SEO is affecting the demand for your product.
Organic Search Traffic
When it comes to search engine optimization, the organic search traffic a website receives is vital. This does not need to be explained in too much detail, but the ultimate goal of SEO is usually to increase traffic, for ecommerce sites this usually means increasing sales which we will touch on later in the conversion rate section. Therefore, it is essential to measure the amount and type of traffic (whether that be lead generation or sales) from search engines, and track how search traffic changes over time. As you might expect, the vast majority of search traffic is the result of a search executed on a search engine that isn’t branded (i.e. not someone searching for your company name). In general, this type of traffic is what SEO has been traditionally associated with. The higher the ranking and the more frequently a website appears in the search results, the more traffic it will receive from the search engine. Organic search traffic can be measured using web analytics and can be variable over time. It is worth noting that traffic from long tail keywords can often take several months to have a noticeable impact. It is therefore important to set realistic expectations with clients as to what can be delivered using SEO. As well as tracking the amount of traffic coming from search engines, it is also important to monitor the type of keywords bringing traffic to the website. This can be done using a search query report in Google Analytics, or for more detail, information can be obtained from Google Webmaster Tools. Tracking keywords can be especially useful on a large and aged site where it may be impractical to track the ranking of every single page for every single keyword. By checking what keywords are bringing traffic to the site, it can provide an indication as to the success or failure of specific SEO campaigns. For example, if a website selling blue widgets wanted to create more traffic to the page selling the blue widgets, an increase in traffic on blue widget related keywords would indicate a success.
Keyword Rankings
Simply put, keyword rankings are the positions of your web pages in the search engine results in correspondence to the keywords used. It is important that you are seeing movement in the keywords that you are targeting. If you are not, it’s likely that you are not getting any visibility for that keyword. Although it is important to focus on the main keywords for your website, it is also important to target some of the higher search volume keywords in your niche as these will often bring in the most traffic. Long tail keywords can also be effective in driving targeted traffic to your site, as they often have a lower level of competition, despite a lower search volume. Long tail keywords are often easier to rank for on your website and usually have a higher conversion rate than shorter, more competitive keywords. A higher keyword rank is directly linked to the levels of search engine traffic, with higher ranking keywords bringing in the most traffic. Tracking keyword ranking is a key success metric for SEO, as it gives you an insight into whether the work you are doing is effective. High-quality link building and original, relevant, and interesting content are the best ways to improve keyword ranking.
Conversion Rate
If you are seeing a small amount of traffic, the problem might be the conversion rate. It is one of the most important marketing metrics. Conversion rate is the best way to see how your marketing is improving. This is the percentage of visitors who take a desired action. A desired action can be anything that you want your visitor to do. This can be filling out a form, purchasing a product or signing up for a newsletter. If you have more than one goal, track conversion rates for each goal separately. Conversion rate is used for both paid traffic as well as organic traffic. It is also often used to optimize landing pages and is a good variable to test. This is especially true if you have a decent amount of traffic on a specific keyword; then by improving the conversion rate you can better leverage the traffic that is already coming to your website. Always work on improving the conversion rates. High conversion rate is a tell-tale sign of effective SEO.
Bounce Rate
However, there are exceptions. Blogs and content sites, by their nature, have high bounce rates because visitors find the content they were looking for, read it, and then leave. In these cases, high bounce rates can still be consistent with high quality traffic. Typically though, high bounce rates are bad and can signal that the search result or landing page’s content needs improvements in visibility or clarity. This is what makes bounce rate such a good measure of the immediate visitor response to a landing page. A high bounce on entry rate generally indicates that the first page a user sees at a site doesn’t match their expectations. Tracking changes in bounce rate over time can help guide site improvement goals, both in terms of the search traffic directed to a site and the user experience of landing on a site from various marketing channels. A high bounce rate on PPC traffic from a search engine might indicate that the ad or the on-page relevancy for the advert needs work, whereas a high bounce rate for traffic from a specific link advertisement may indicate that the targeted landing page needs work.
Unlike many of the other markers employed so far, bounce rate isn’t a search engine specific quality, but instead a measure of visit quality that is applicable to all sources. A bounce is defined specifically as a visitor session consisting of a single page view. This is in contrast to an “entrance”, where a visitor session begins on a page view; an entrance can only occur once per session. Bounce rate is measured by dividing the total number of bounces by the total number of entrances. When a visitor bounces, it means they did not find what they were looking for. High bounce rates generally indicate that the website or landing page isn’t relevant to the visitor. In these cases, the high bounce rate is a symptom of low quality traffic.
Tracking SEO Success with SEO Services
To use an old example, getting a monkey to start a lawn mower is easy. Getting a human to do the same is a little bit harder. But which scenario provides a benefit to lawn mower sales? Okay, maybe it’s a bad example, but you get the point.
For Sotavento Medios, an SEO campaign is considered successful when the increase in traffic is accompanied by an improvement in sales leads and/or conversions. Many SEO clients often judge an increase in site traffic as a measure of success, but a rise in traffic is only really beneficial when that traffic is able to convert to new business.
Just because your site ranks highly for your target keywords and you start to see the traffic rolling in does not mean that your job is done. The new traffic to your site does not guarantee any changes, and it certainly does not guarantee that these changes are positive.
So you implemented a range of improvements to your site and you also managed to secure the top ranking. You want to think your work is done and now you can sit back and relax. But you need to think again.
Sotavento Medios: A Leading Digital Marketing Agency in Singapore
Measurable return on investment is what Sotavento Medios ensures for SEO clients. This is done through the many web analytics software available. Sotavento Medios will install the code snippet into your website and begin tracking data. From there, they will assess your website’s performance and find ways to continue improvements. This data tracking will provide excellent insight to the changes of traffic before and after SEO implementation, making it worthwhile for clients. Ongoing analysis and further consultation will ensure the changes in an increase in PageRank.
Sotavento Medios believes in and practices ethical business and advertising conducts. To them, the client’s best interest is their top priority. They provide consultancy for your company’s marketing ventures and provide only the best strategies for what is suitable for your company profile. A fine example is their SEO service where they will evaluate your current website and provide the best keywords and content that you can use to increase your chances of being found in search engines.
Sotavento Medios is a digital marketing agency in Singapore that focuses on web design and digital strategies as their key services. As an authorised Google AdWords Certified Partner, they aim to provide their clients top quality digital advertising services. They are a team of 15 professionals based in Singapore and using virtual technology to work with partners in different countries.
Benefits of Using SEO Services
It is unarguable to say that in all cases, the internet has actually practically taken control of the world. With the accessibility of the global internet, different types of services and also items have actually located their method to the online market. There has additionally been a continuous rise in the number of customers conducting purchases online. This has opened up an entirely new frontier for businesses and advertising strategies. One such method that has actually expanded to be an asset for businesses is search engine optimization, or SEO. These businesses have actually seen considerable take advantage of Sotavento Medios SEO services, and the adhering to are benefits that your business can gain from SEO. The primary figure that draws businesses to SEO is marketing approaches online are much more budget-friendly compared to traditional advertising and marketing methods. TV, newspapers, and various other offline advertising and marketing approaches can be rather expensive and also usually too high-risk. This is due to the high prices and that it is really hard to evaluate the efficiency of the advertisements. SEO is a tried and tested technique where your regular monthly financial investment will yield a large return.
