The Maine SEO Blog

Rand’s going to talk about how to make standard metrics actionable. [woot]

To make Analytics actionable, always ask:

Why am I measuring this?

What would I do if results were different?

Search Referral Analytics

# of visits per search engine over time – You want to see this number increase over time, in relationship to the search engine’s market share/overall global growth [Action: find out if it's a ranking/indexing issue]

# pages getting search referrals over time – Measure for each search engine and often. [Action: discover if indexation is an issue worth effort, read more about that here]

# of keywords sending traffic from a search engine over time – Look for increase in number of keywords sending traffic to your site – especially if you create a lot of content [Action: might be a rankings/demand issue; determine if content additions are accretive and what drives growth/shrinkage in search traffic]

Keyword Referral Analytics

# visits per keyword – Compare week by week, or even month by month [Action: Analyze top traffic drivers from a value perspective, check rankings for potential easy wins & get answers if traffic dips]

First time vs. returning visits per keyword – Business decision: which is better for you? [Action: Determine value of reaching new visitors vs. converting branded users (focus efforts on the more valuable one)]

Keyword rankings – They can be valuable! [Action: know if traffic spikes/dropoffs are from rankings, indexation or search demand shifts by matching traffic with rankings, SEOmoz has their own ranking tracker and you can track rankings using Analytics!]

Engagement Analytics

Time on site – Take it to the next level [Action: compare ROI metrics; if they correlate, improve on keywords/landing pages with low time on site]

# of Pageviews – Again, take it further than “sweet, it went up this month” [Action: Depending on your metrics, a "sweet spot" of pages browsed often dictates a conversion event - optimize towards it!]

Repeat visit ratio – [Action: Find what content/activities/referrers send engaged (read: returning) traffic and copy those while improving subpar pages]

Sharing/linking activity – Start tracking these actions, just like a conversion! [Action: Find patterns/sources that predict sharing activities (both content and CTAs) and make them testable conversion events]

Latent Conversion Tracking

Removing last-click attribution – Do you know what happens before their last click when they become a conversion? Look at full path analysis within Navigation Summary in your Analytics. This post will show you how to do this.

ROI Analytics

Lifetime Customer Value = CLTV (Customer Lifetime Value): how much money they spend, how many referrals

Cost of Acquisition = CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): how much spent on sales, SEO, marketing, advertising

ROI = CLTV – CAC

Always be asking “What’s the ROI?”

Q&A

Q: In your opinion what’s the best Analytics software?
A: Depends on the person using it. Omniture experts will have difficulty with WebTrends. You can get a lot of the same information from all of the packages.

Q: Why the symmetric dip in SEOmoz’s traffic?
A: B2B websites will usually see dips on the weekends.

Q: How can I see the number of unique visitors for a particular section of my website?
A: At the bottom of Google Analytics, you can filter  landing pages based on page, like:

Q: Is there a big difference between different Analytics packages?
A:  Eric Enge did an extensive study with this at StoneTemple.

Q: Is there a way to automatically see rankings in Google Analytics?
A: Yes, here’s the Yoast link again.

Q: What’s the best tool for measuring ROI?
A: Salesforce.com, SEOmoz uses Infusionsoft.

Q: In your opinion, what’s your favorite part about Google Analytics?
A: Simplicity; the greatest thing is it’s easy to use, fairly fast.

Q: How do you compare bounce rates with other websites in your industry?
A: Google Analytics will let you view your site stats compared to similar sites in your industry using Benchmarking. You can find these stats under Visitors > Benchmarking. [You can set your industry at the very top of the page.] It’s up to you whether you actually believe these stats or not, obviously.

Q: Tell us something about bounce rates.
A: I only care about them when they happen in my conversion funnel. Always tie it to conversion and ROI.

Q: Why is rank tracker different than actual search?
A: Make sure personalized search is off (use &pws=0 after your query); local search could also change your results.

Q: When looking at social media sites, what are the metrics to track?
A: It depends on what you want them to do. Branding? Time on site. Go to your site and look at ads? Maybe page visits.

You’ll be able to find the archive of this webinar here shortly. And here is all of the Twitter chatter about the #mozinar.

Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz
@randfish

Meta-descriptions are one of the last meta-tags that search engines still care about; the extent to which, no one really knows. And while inserting all of your keywords may not help you, a call to action might.

For meta-descriptions (or search engine descriptions, as we lovingly refer to them), I always suggest clients incorporate their contact information – for those searching on smart phones, or simply searching for a way to reach them. More and more, even that may not be enough.

So how can  you really make your search result stand out?

I did a search for nike light running shoes, and found that there are a ton of techniques for trying to entice searchers to click. Disregarding titles, let’s take a look at ways to get searchers to click:

Strategy #1: A really great description

This tactic works incredibly well for individual products – but it could also work well for services too. This particular description incorporates keywords, all the while giving you a good idea of what you’ll find when you click on the result.

Strategy #2: Blog Teaser

In this case, sure, we know there’s going to be a bit of a product pitch; but what better way to research which shoe to buy than comparing them?

Strategy #3: Customer Reviews

Similar to Google’s new(ish) rich snippets, the page this result points to is specifically devoted to reviews for this shoe. Pretty powerful stuff.

Strategy #4: Discounts, discounts, discounts!

Who doesn’t love a discount? Or free shipping? Or both??

Strategy #5: Show me the money

Similarly, a popular strategy is displaying the price of the product or service directly within the meta-description. If that doesn’t entice the “right” people (those who will buy) and deter the wrong people (those who won’t), I don’t know what will. Furthermore, consumers can literally compare prices right from the Google search results.

Strategy #6: What’s the benefit?

Again, great for both products and services – why would someone want to (in this case) buy from you?

Now, obviously these results are for deeper level pages, hence more description and more detailed strategies. But the same goes for your upper level pages; what’s your call-to-action?

The fact is, regardless of whether meta-descriptions help you from an SEO standpoint, they’ll certainly entice searchers to click.

What strategies have you seen or used with meta-descriptions?

Nicki Hicks
Reliving the track & field glory days

How to look at any site

• Acquisition
• Conversion
• Retention

Common Issues

• Open external links to _blank
• Page speed

Corey’s taking a look at websites submitted by conference-goers. Here are some of his key suggestions:

• Optimize your title tags
  - Less than 100 characters (don’t worry about the 65 character limit)
  - Include something that makes you unique (phone number, “Free shipping”, etc.)
  - Use your keywords
• “Welcome” H1 tag is not. helpful.
• Use the All in One SEO Pack plugin
• Don’t put too many links on the homepage
• Tag clouds don’t have an SEO benefit
• “Just be natural”
• Add tags that make sense
• Stick with what you’re good at. Write good content.
• Link within your own blog. Make sure you use keywords in anchor text
• Two indexes: primary (what Google mainly focuses on) and supplemental

How do I find keywords?

• Google search-based keyword tool
• Google AdWords keyword tool

Other tips

• Use your own site for information – with the keywords in Google Analytics. Sort by source within an individual keyword to see which search engine visitors are coming from
• Few code errors (WP is great). Install Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer, Bing Toolbox in order to make sure there are no more issues.
• Monitor your keywords.
• RockinSEO – monitor keywords

Link Acquisition Tools

• SEOmoz has Linkscape and now Open Site Explorer

Social Media

• Incoming links
• Most are nofollow, but LinkedIn will give you one follow [which is directed through LinkedIn before it goes to your website]

Last tips

• Don’t have external links as some of your navigation links (to social media sites, other websites, etc.)
• Stop using meta-keywords
• Use external CSS
• Use alt tags
• Emphasis keywords with bold and strong
• If you’re not making your site fresh, go home
• Testimonials can be huge
• People will link to you if you have something worth linking to

Corey Eulas, ninety seven media
@coreyeulas

It’s officially 2010. Happy New Year!

In an effort to take it easy today…how about a quintessential “best of the year” blogposts: the top 10 most popular posts of 2009?

10. How to Leverage, Manage, and Simply Deal With Your LinkedIn Profile

9. How to Block Google Image Traffic from your Analytics

8. A Step-by-Step Guide to Optimizing for Local Search, A Mardi Gras Special

7. Should I Purchase a Keyword Rich Domain and Redirect It?

6. How to Become a Twitter Pro in No Time: A Guide for Twitter Newbies

5. What Happens When Google Encounters a Fail Whale

4. Facebook Isn’t Just for College Kids Anymore; It’s For Your Business

3. Ranking Tactics for Local Search from SMX East

2. What is a Good Bounce Rate in Google Analytics?

1. Link Building for the Economically Savvy Business

Nicki Hicks
Didn’t we just celebrate Y2K, like, yesterday?

Image credit

Just the other day, a prospect said this to me.

And I got to thinking about it. She’s exactly right.

Every day, old websites, blogs, heck even social media profiles, are being optimized. Most, obviously, not all, new websites launched are optimized to a certain extent.

So while, for the moment, there are plenty of sites to optimize…it may not be like that forever.

Instead, content creation is king. Constantly putting out new, fresh content is the way things have been, and will continue to be, headed.

You’ll hear time and time again that Google loves fresh content. What’s fresher than a blog? Or social media? Or social bookmarking?

More and more, people look for small, sweet snippets of information: easily digestible and quickly answering whatever query they may have.

What’s the lesson for you?

If your website isn’t optimized, start there. Get that puppy search engine friendly.

If you don’t already have a blog…create one. Then answer questions you get all the time, whatever industry you may be in; include images and video. Make lists, how-to’s, even step-by-step guides.

If you’re not on any social media network, first find out where your audience is. Then get there! Start putting out fresh content – some self serving, but more importantly information your audience wants to know – whether it’s stats, local updates, or even a piece of witty humor.

Nicki Hicks
Optimization may be dying, but content is thriving

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