Most people and organizations end up interested in SEO because they've built a website and the masses have not arrived. A web page without SEO is like the proverbial tree falling in the forest when nobody hears it. Developing SEO goals into your site design from the very beginning will help avoid the panic of creating a beautiful looking site that gets ignored by search engines and traffic.
How do you measure the popularity of a website? Unlike the offline world, online resources - such as web pages, white papers or ads - are highly trackable, so it's easy to see when a $50,000 website is only receiving a handful of visitors per day. But while traffic, hits, clicks and customers are talked about in the same breath, they are all very different metrics, and it's possible to optimize for each one separately.
What are your SEO goals? Here are some ideas:
How do you measure the popularity of a website? Unlike the offline world, online resources - such as web pages, white papers or ads - are highly trackable, so it's easy to see when a $50,000 website is only receiving a handful of visitors per day. But while traffic, hits, clicks and customers are talked about in the same breath, they are all very different metrics, and it's possible to optimize for each one separately.
What are your SEO goals? Here are some ideas:
- To increase the number of unique visitors to your site.
- To increase the number of page views.
- To decrease the bounce rate (the number of visitors who view a single page and then exit the site completely).
- To increase the number of pages viewed per visit.
- To increase visits or views to a particular landing page.
- To convert more visitors to customers.
- To increase sales on your site.
Maybe the number of visitors to your site is not the problem, but each visitor is only staying for a short period before leaving (all of these statistics can be collected using applications such as Google Analytics). The strategy could be to encourage these visitors to stay longer by potentially changing the navigation system or page content, or providing incentives to hang around.
Most sites have their own set of distinct SEO goals - without goals in mind, you can optimize your site but will find it hard to measure its success against anything. While it's great to appear on page one of Google's search results for your chosen keywords, if this ranking doesn't translate to greater traffic or sales then it's something of a Pyrrhic victory.
Specific: don't be too broad in a target, and keep it simple (e.g. increase new accounts).
Measurable: select a target that can be measured now and at the end of the project (e.g. increase new accounts by 25%).
Attainable: ensure the goal is achievable - trying to become the next Facebook is probably not attainable for most organizations.
Relevant: ensure the goal is realistic and specific to what SEO can achieve. Improving logistics and customer satisfaction may not be directly related to your website.
Time-bound: all goals should have a deadline (e.g. increase sales by 25% in the next 6 months).
It may take several iterations to find the metrics that make sense for your site, and these will help you discover the return on investment for your online strategy. The offline media world has traditionally incorporated ROI, but found the results harder to prove. Online media has rapidly adopted similar measures to determine profitability but has the advantage that the tracking tools and real-time capability to change content enable endless experimentation to develop the best strategy.
Most sites have their own set of distinct SEO goals - without goals in mind, you can optimize your site but will find it hard to measure its success against anything. While it's great to appear on page one of Google's search results for your chosen keywords, if this ranking doesn't translate to greater traffic or sales then it's something of a Pyrrhic victory.
A client ranked number one for her company name but was nowhere to be seen for the description of her product "frozen sushi". The problem with choosing your company name as primary keywords is that unless you're a well-known brand, visitors are more likely to search for your product or service than the name "Oregon's Premium Sushi Co".Making your goals SMARTYou should discuss with your sales, marketing and executive teams what your SEO and broader website goals are, and perhaps include an SEO consultancy for guidance (see tip 48 on how to get external help). However you choose those targets, I recommend taking the SMART approach used in project management, which will help ensure relevance and measurability. Make your goals:
Specific: don't be too broad in a target, and keep it simple (e.g. increase new accounts).
Measurable: select a target that can be measured now and at the end of the project (e.g. increase new accounts by 25%).
Attainable: ensure the goal is achievable - trying to become the next Facebook is probably not attainable for most organizations.
Relevant: ensure the goal is realistic and specific to what SEO can achieve. Improving logistics and customer satisfaction may not be directly related to your website.
Time-bound: all goals should have a deadline (e.g. increase sales by 25% in the next 6 months).
It may take several iterations to find the metrics that make sense for your site, and these will help you discover the return on investment for your online strategy. The offline media world has traditionally incorporated ROI, but found the results harder to prove. Online media has rapidly adopted similar measures to determine profitability but has the advantage that the tracking tools and real-time capability to change content enable endless experimentation to develop the best strategy.
James Beswick is the author of "Ranking #1: 50 Essential Tips to Boost Your Search Engine Results" available on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Ranking-Number-One-Essential-Rankings/dp/1452849900/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278006790&sr=8-1.
For more information, visit http://ranking-number1.com.
For more information, visit http://ranking-number1.com.
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