Analytics are very important to your web marketing campaign.
If you do not use analytics properly you may not understand
how effective your search engine marketing is.
In this article I look at some practical examples of
when to use analytics and some things you need to identify
in order to get the most out of your analytics.
I came across a situation today that I thought I'd share.
It has to do with a client's analytics.
Many times, as a search engine marketer, it is up to
us to tell the client what they should be looking for
in their analytics. Right away this seems odd
to me. It's like me telling my client what their
business model is, or how they should be selling their
product online.
But this does seem to be a common thread among some
site owners. They had an idea for a product or
service and they wanted to promote it online. So they
had a website built, and may have initially had it optimized.
But that is as far as their experience goes.
They have no idea on how to track progress or improvements.
All to often the numbers they do look at are not the
best results to view.
two perspectives on analytics SEO and client
With my client today, we were trying to nail down what
should have been important numbers. And it was
a very similar case they had invested in
this super-duper analytics package that was collecting
and displaying data upteen different ways, yet they
had no idea how to interpret the numbers.
They thought their traffic was increasing, but they
had on idea why, really, nor did they have any idea
what their customers were doing once they hit the website.
And, as sometimes happens, we fell into the trap of
telling them what they should be looking for.
You want to see search engine referrals going up. That
means it's working or increased page views
is a good thing.
But this really isn't solving their problem is it?
Sometimes as search marketers, we need to step back
and say I know what I need for numbers, but what
does my client need to see.
So this was the approach we took today let's
have a discussion with the client and focus on what
they want to see, not what we need to show them to prove
our value as search engine marketers.
When we were done, we had not only shortened their monthly
analytics report to a few key metrics (down from pages
and pages of statistical analysis) but we had also decreased
the time required to complete this analysis.
Sure we still will do some of the analysis for our own
purposes, but does the client really care how many backlinks
or pages indexed they have? Not likely.
Nope, more often than not, the client wants to know
that they are making money. Pure and simple.
So, if you can show them that they are making money,
that's all they really care about. You can add
value as a search engine marketer by showing areas of
improvement ( did you know that your Google referrals
went up by 15% this month? That proves the value
of our services, yada yada yada... )
As long as you can illustrate the bottom line to the
client in terms they understand, at that it is improving,
then you as a search marketer have done your job.
Keep the pages indexed, backlinks, referrals by keyword
and other non-client related data to yourself and present
a concise simple report that even the CEO (who has 25
hours per day of work) can look at and understand that
the SEO program is paying for itself.
Now let's look at analytics from the client's perspective.
If you are a client of an SEO firm, or just want to
get a better idea of just how your site is doing online,
first you must decide what it is you want to see.
Do you want to see sales figures? Or would you rather
just look at the aggregate numbers like total visitors
and search engine referrals?
What has more value to you reams and reams
of data, or a simple, one page summary of overall performance?
As a recommendation, I'd say you only need enough data
to make your business decisions.
In other words, if your website is e-commerce based,
all you really need initially are the sales numbers
over time. You should also understand how the
sales cycle works, and perhaps look at your conversion
funnel to see where people are dropping off. Most
good analytics packages offer some sort of funnel analysis.
Understanding your sales funnel can also help you improve
your sales. Sometimes an analysis of the sales
funnel can help you determine where the drop offs occur.
By modifying the funnel you can improve your drop off
rate, increasing your sales. And really, this
has less to do with SEO and more to do with traditional
business marketing.
For example, let's say your site gets 2000 visitors
per month. Let's also assume your site has a 3
step sales process, and your average sale is $11 per
item.
If half of your site's visitors start down the sales
path, that means 1000 start (a 50% drop off rate at
the first step this could be due by a requirement
to sign up to browse your site). If 40% of that
total drop off at the second step, and 30% of that group
complete the sale, that equates to $495 in sales, about
a 2.25% conversion rate as only 45 of the original 2000
people purchased.
Now let's experiment with the sales funnel:
If you can improve the final step of the sale by just
10% - that equates to an additional $165 in sales, a
3% conversion rate. However if you can improve the first
step of the conversion, reducing that 50% bounce rate
to 25%, you can increase your sales by $247.50
a 3.38% conversion rate.
Further, if you shorten the conversion funnel by 1 step
making a 2 step sale, rather than a 3 step sale, you
can increase your sales by over $330 a 3.75%
conversion rate. That s still assuming the same
number of monthly visitors start down the conversion
path.
However, if you don't or can't find this data in your
analytics package you wouldn't be able to perform such
analysis.
And this is where, if you are dealing with an SEO firm,
you must get the data you need.
Simply knowing how many referrals you got from Google
or Yahoo! won't help you make the business decisions
you need to make.
So whether you are an SEO firm or professional, or employ
one, be sure that the metrics you see are the ones you
need to make your decisions.
As a client, don't be afraid to ask what
does this do for me? Because unless you've discussed
your needs with your SEO, they will likely provide you
with the numbers they deem as the best. That is,
the ones that illustrate their value to you.
That's not to say that those numbers are invalid, its
just that they don't do you as much good as those you
need to make your business decisions.
Similarly, as an SEO, if you don't know what your client
needs to see, in terms of numbers, how can you justify
your income from them. If search engine referrals have
gone up, but conversion haven't then there is no immediate
value to the client.
Sure you can say but we got you all these top
rankings but unless they are turning into sales,
your contract with that client won't last that long.
So be sure as you work with your SEO firm or client
that you nail those metrics early, so there is no misunderstanding,
and everyone knows what successes are measured by.
About
the author:
Rob Sullivan - SEO Specialist and Internet Marketing
Consultant. Any reproduction of this article needs to
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