SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond Rankings

WebiMax.com 888.932.4629 sales@webimax.com

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsOUR PRESENTERS

Mike Puzo, VP of Strategy & Consulting – As WebiMax's VP of Strategy & Consulting, Mike Puzo is responsible for overseeing the entire consulting department as well as WebiMax's R&D efforts. Mike also works very closely with the Project Management and Sales teams to coordinate strategies that ensure that every campaign is expertly developed and implemented.

Chris Surovick, Director of Project Management - Chris Surovick joined WebiMax with a concentration in new customer acquisitions, e-commerce and SEO; Chris has been involved with startups to fortune 100 companies and everything in between. Educating clients is a top priority of Chris’s as he develops strong relationships with each client, helping them to reach and exceed their online goals. As WebiMax’s Director of Project Management, Chris supervises our entire project management team, supporting our team with analysis and strategy.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsWHO IS WEBIMAX

WebiMax is a full service internet marketing firm specializing in Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click Advertising, Social Media Optimization, Reputation Management and Web Design.

Founded by Ken Wisnefski in 2008, on the core principles of providing a service that helps clients succeed in the online space.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsGOAL

The goal of this webinar is to shed light on practical, easily traceable metrics to help business owners determine how well their Organic Internet Marketing Campaign is performing.

Through the use of Google Analytics, Webmaster Tool and a couple free 3rd party tools, you can easily track campaign success.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsREMEMBER WHEN…

Remember when SEO was “easy”?

Before Panda's and Penguin's? Before Encrypted Search and Not Provided Data?

Getting desired Keyword Rankings and tracking the traffic they provided was simple.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsREMEMBER WHEN…

Algorithms were "basic" by todays standards and those practicing SEO were able to manipulate search results relatively easily with most search terms.

If you wanted a page to rank for a specific term, you would repeatedly stuff the term in all key places and then build a ton of links with exact match anchor text in your desired term and you were there competing on Page 1 in the SERPs a couple months later.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsREMEMBER WHEN…

Great for the owner of the optimized site but not so much for the visitor or Google.

By manipulating the SERPs through keyword stuffing and mass link building, many Google users were landing on pages they had no use of or were far from the best option for the desired action.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsGOOGLE’S MISSION

In a nutshell Google wants to provide it’s users with the best possible results for search queries.

Spammy search results would hurt their mission, reputation and market share.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsGOOGLE’S RESPONSE

To prevent this from becoming a large spread problem and to ensure their search results are the best they can be, Google began implementing Algorithm updates to further refine their ranking factors and prevent spammy duplicate, or thin content from ranking well.

They have also taken steps to prevent the abuse of unnatural link building to manipulate a sites rankings.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTHE EVOLUTION OF GOOGLEThe Panda Update

Google’s Panda update was a filter developed to prevent low quality, over optimized content sites like those containing spam, duplicate and thin content from ranking well in the Search Engines.

Standing outside the algorithm, it originally rolled out in February of 2011, and was updated almost monthly until in March 2013 Google announced that future updates would be integrated directly into the algorithm.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTHE EVOLUTION OF GOOGLEThe Penguin Update

Released in April of 2012, the Google Penguin update is aimed at decreasing search engine rankings for those site’s who violate Google’s Webmaster Tool Guidelines. Specifically through manipulating search rankings for a page by creating large amounts of “unnatural” links.

Anyone who has received the unnatural link warning in their WMT accounts knows that recovery from a Penguin penalty is a long, expensive process.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTHE EVOLUTION OF GOOGLEThe Hummingbird Algorithm

Unlike the two previous updates, Hummingbird is a new algorithm itself that Google is using to determine search results.

Hummingbird is able to determine the semantic relationships of the terms in search queries allowing it to focus on the users intent instead of the individual search terms.

This ensures that the entire search is taken into account rather than just a few words.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTHE EVOLUTION OF GOOGLEAdditional Key Updates

Other updates without fancy animal names include the Page Layout Update, which aimed at sites with too many ads above the fold. As well as the Exact-Match Domain (EMD) update which significantly devalued the exact match domains as a ranking factor.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTHE EVOLUTION OF GOOGLEThe Search Engine Results Page

Not only has they way Google determines the search results changed drastically in the past few years, but so has the way Google presents the information to it’s users.

The SERP has moved from 10 consistent results for everyone to a much more personalized search experience for the user.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTHE EVOLUTION OF GOOGLEThe Search Engine Results Page

Changes include updates to improve the user experience through Google Instant.

Altered results based on User Context to provide more relevant listings based on geographic region, web history, and other factors.

Other SERP updates to improve the results in general include the inclusion of Google’s Knowledge Graph, the encouraged use of Rich Snippets and blended search results that include news, products, images and more in the results based on relevance to the search query.

Most recently is the Title & Meta Description SERP snippet presentation by pixel update.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsENCRYPTED SEARCH

Love or hate the changes, all of these updates have resulted in Google achieving their main goal: To provide better search results for their users.

However the Encrypted Search update has caused significant problems for business owners trying to determine the success of their SEO campaign.

This update prevents the keyword search data from any Google user signed in from being tracked, causing a sky rocking of "Not Provided" visits in everyone analytics accounts.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsENCRYPTED SEARCH

Because of this, many business owners have lost as much as 80% of their organic keyword data.

This data had previously been use to tie specific keyword ranks to online conversion and revenue.

Also just recently confirmed in that Google is now not passing referrer data to AdWords advertisers log files, web servers and analytics packages. So, AdWords has also gone “Not Provided”.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsSOLUTIONS?

Several SEO’s have claimed they have solved the not provided issue, but these are all some sort of technical estimations to give business owners an educated guess.

In the end, there is no substitute for accurate, real data.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsARE KEYWORDS DEAD?

No! Keywords are not dead. They still play a vital role in any SEO campaign.

However even prior to the increased "Not Provided" results we never recommended specific keywords ranks as a Key Performance Indicator because KPI's determine if you are reaching your goal and specific rankings are not the goal of a successful SEO campaign, increased visitation and conversions from organic traffic is.

Restricting your view to rankings of specific terms can sell your campaign considerably short.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTRAFFIC VOLUME METRICS

When reviewing campaign health it’s important to focus on more quantitative KPI’s like the different dimensions of Search Engine Traffic and how they are performing. These Include:

• Organic Volume - the most basic of these KPI’s.

• Share of Organic Search volume compared to other channels.

• Share of total traffic referred by the search engines and how that compares to the current SE market share can also help determine campaign health.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTRAFFIC VOLUME METRICSOrganic Traffic Volume

Is Organic Traffic Volume up this month compared to last month or for seasonally effective websites, is Organic Traffic Volume up compared to this month last year?

How do "New Visits" look, are they increasing when compared to the previous date?

These are what Google Analytics calls "Acquisition Metrics" and are outlined in just about any view in Analytics. Examination of these metrics by source will give you a broad look at overall organic traffic and how it is trending.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTRAFFIC VOLUME METRICSShare of Total Site Traffic

Organic Traffic's share of the site's total volume as compared to Referral and Direct traffic is also a good metric to be tracking.

Ultimately you would want to see the share of Organic traffic as it contributes to the whole increasing in it's percentage but note large increases to paid campaigns or new referral programs need to be considered because they can skew the metric.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTRAFFIC VOLUME METRICSShare of SE volume vs. Market Share

Traffic Referred From Specific SE compared to that SE’s market is another strong metric, this information can be used to find gaps in the campaign and opportunities on specific SE’s.

You can get monthly estimates for SE market share from ComScore.com. Compare those percentages to the SE traffic split for your own site, how do they compare?

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTRAFFIC VOLUME METRICS

Organic Traffic Percentages by SE

SE Site Volume As a % of Total SE traffic com Score Search Share Feb-14

Google 715620 85.73% 67.60%

Bing 64560 7.73% 18.30%

Yahoo 51928 6.22% 10.40%

AOL 1592 0.19% 2.40%

Ask 1003 0.12% 1.30%

Total 834703 100.00% 100.00%

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTRAFFIC VOLUME METRICSLocal Volume

From a Local Business perspective, it is also important to track volume specific to your area.

Google Analytics will breakdown traffic by location all the way down to the city level.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTRAFFIC QUALITY METRICS

Google Analytics provides several metrics to help determine the quality of a visitor:

– Pages Per Visit– Bounce Rate– Average Visitor Duration– Social Shares

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTRAFFIC QUALITY METRICSTime on Site & Pages Per Visit

These are two great metrics for determining visitor quality.

Of course you want to see these numbers increase but the story they tell is also important.

These metrics help measure several items related to your campaign…

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTRAFFIC QUALITY METRICSTime on Site & Pages Per Visit

Content Consumption

A spike in these metrics after a content overhaul of a URL or the site means you have accomplished your goal of making your content more engaging as people are consuming more.

You can take this tracking one step further by setting up specific tracking events like the playing videos to test engagement with specific site elements.

Organic Theming

Increases to these metrics from your organic traffic while others remain consistent points to a high quality visitor visiting your site than before which would be a product of your site coming up in much more relevant searches.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTRAFFIC QUALITY METRICSBounce Rate

A URL's bounce rate is the percentage or visitors that landed on this URL as there initial entrance point but did not click through to any other pages of the site, they left from there.

The lower the bounce rate the better, this can be a good indicator as to if the content on the URL is enticing or useful enough to motivate a thorough click through.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsTRAFFIC QUALITY METRICSSocial Signals

Signals like Likes, Shares, ReTweets & Google+1’s are big factors in Google and Bing’s algorithm, therefor Social Media plays a huge part in any SEO campaign.

When it comes to SEO these days, you need a complete internet marketing strategy and that includes both SEO and Social Media.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsCONVERSION METRICS

Conversion Metrics are some of your most important because these are specifically measuring your bottom line. In Google Analytics, these are specified by setting up goals.

Goals will always vary depending on the type of site but determining your site’s goals and getting them setup should be discussed. Goals can be added at any point during the life of your marketing campaign, knowing that they change periodically and vary depending on certain factors.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsCONVERSION METRICSConversion Rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors that actually convert or complete a specified goal.

This can be tracked on the URL, Channel and even keyword level however the Not Provided issue greatly distorts that last metric.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsCONVERSION METRICSGoal Completions from Organic Traffic

Total goal completions from organic traffic is another great metric for reviewing campaign health.

• Are the number of completed goals increasing when compared to the past period?

• How many goals completed from organic traffic?

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsCONVERSION METRICSE-Commerce Tracking

If purchases can be made directly on your website you will want to make sure to set up Ecommerce tracking so you can track transactions and revenue generated right in analytics.

• Are the organic channels producing revenue?

• Is it increasing compared to the previous period?

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsCONVERSION METRICSROI

This are good for determining the bottom-line profit from your organic internet marketing campaign.

For E-commerce simply take total monthly revenue from organic traffic minus the monthly costs.

For lead generation sites you will want to fix a dollar amount to each lead estimating what they are worth on average. Multiply that by number of leads in a month and subtract your Internet Marketing costs, there is your estimate ROI.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsCONVERSION METRICSCPA

To calculate your CPA (Cost per Acquisition) divide the cost of your internet marketing by number of leads for the month and you have your CPA.

Is this growing or decreasing month over month?

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsURLS INDEXED

The number of pages indexed is a metric that can be found in Webmaster Tools.

As you correct issues related architecture, meta data, duplicate content, and so on, the number of indexed pages should steadily rise, showing that Google is including more and more of the pages within it's index.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsDOMAIN & PAGE AUTHORITY

Domain Authority & Page Authority, metrics that stem from Moz, are two metrics that you should always be tracking; these measure the sites strength within the SERPs.

Building links help influence these metrics and if your link building plan is working effectively then these numbers should grow over time.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsWHAT ARE KEYWORDS GOOD FOR?

As mentioned before Keywords make a bad KPI. This is because it is hard to measure them accurately and it's impossible to track rankings for all keywords that are bringing traffic to the site.

It doesn't tell the entire story so it is essential that you go deeper and look at the actual organic traffic metrics.

Keywords should still be tracked, but using there placement as a KPI is not useful in determining how effective a campaign is performing.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsWHAT ARE KEYWORDS GOOD FOR?

Keywords definitely have their uses and are still an important part of strategy:

• Keyword ranking information can help inform content theming for specific URL's and landing pages and very large shifts in rankings can help identify problems or penalties placed on the site.

• Keyword data from WMT's can be exported and ran through a rank checking program to determine the ranking URLs for each term. This gives insight as to how keywords are performing on the URL level and where opportunities may exist organically.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsFUTURE OF SEO STRATEGYNot SEO but Internet Marketing

The Implementation of Hummingbird and secure search by Google means we not only need re-think the metrics we track but also need to re-think our strategies.

To be successful in 2014 SEO, you need a complete organic internet marketing plan with integrated parts that support one another.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsFUTURE OF SEO STRATEGYRich Snippets & Google+

Implementation of Microdata and Rich Snippets is going to be key to helping your site standout on SERP's

Also because Google can easily pull structured data from Google+ profiles to place in the SERPs, business should not ignore the usefulness of having a profile.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsFUTURE OF SEO STRATEGYMobile is Now!

Your site needs to be mobile friendly!

Online traffic from mobile devices has been increasing exponentially over the past few years.

If your site's design is not responsive to browsers or at the very least has a mobile app you neglecting the fastest growing online traffic source.

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsMETRICS SUMMARY

Traffic Volume KPI's• Organic SE Traffic Volume Growth• Organic SE Traffic - Share of Total Traffic Volume• Visits Referred by Specific SE's and How it compares to Market

Share• LOCAL: Google Plus for Business Referrals

Content & Engagement KPIs or Traffic Quality• Organic Traffic Time on Site• Organic Traffic Pages Per Visit• Organic Traffic Bounce Rate• Social Shares

Conversion KPI's• Conversion Rate• Goal Completions• Revenue and Transactions• ROI - Return on Investment• CPA - Cost Per Acquisition• Leads Generated Organically

SEO 2014 – The Key Metrics Beyond RankingsCLOSING THOUGHTS

2014 brings lots of changes to the online space, how we approach our strategies and the metrics we use to determine there successfulness.

You never know what Google is going to throw at you so need to be able to adapt your strategies quickly but with the proper internet marketing campaign almost any site can be successful online.

QUESTIONS

WebiMax.com 888.932.4629 sales@webimax.com