SEO Metrics

A significant component you had better hold in place before considering any SEO package or campaign is a metric-tracking system. This comprises such an substantial element in a successful SEO program that most search engine optimization professionals will resist to accept a new campaign with a company that does not possess any website analytics in place. This is because they don’t wish to get months into an engagement and have the client questioning whether their campaigns and money have actually achieved anything.

At the very least, you need to recognize what your current general web site traffic is worth to your company in terms of direct sales, sales lead generation, related ad sales and/or brand education and impressions. If you do not possess any way of assessing these metrics, you definitely need to do a lot of research into web analytics programs or companies (see the analytic comparison below).

If your company is experiencing tight budget or other restrictions, it may be best to hire an SEO firm with experience in assisting customers handle both traffic and conversion measurement. There are free website metric programs that you will be able to easily implement to setup website analytics. Never invest in any marketing tactic to drive more traffic to your site unless you can measure and determine your bottomline ROI (return on investment). Of course, the more elaborate stats on the values of unique traffic streams, the better. The value of your current search engine traffic (not including PPC or paid listings leading to specified landing pages) should serve as a general rule of thumb to determine how much more you would make if you optimized to get additional traffic.

You need to have the critical data that ultimately will have an impact on the profit and loss statement – which is what the folks allocating the actual budget will be looking at. It might be sales, lead generations or any other type of goals or conversions. Whatever it is, the challenge is to figure out which numbers matter to you and your company and make sure the mechanism is in place to generate and analyze those numbers.

Website Analytics Comparison

• Omniture
  • Omniture Web Analytics translates insight into action through automated e-mail alerts when key performance indicators such as visitors, leads, sales, costs, or calculated metrics fluctuate beyond or below acceptable performance thresholds. As a result, each accountable person or team within the organization is empowered to quickly act on real-time information to increase sales, reduce costs, and enhance overall productivity.
• WebSideStory
  • WebSiteStory provides HBX Analytics, which delivers the fundamental and standard reporting and analysis capabilities that most organizations need to optimize their digital marketing programs, as well as Visual Site, the uncompromising choice for internet channel teams that need integrated real-time analysis and optimization of their on-line and related off-line initiatives.
• Indextools
  • Real Marketing Workflow Management from IndexTools provides accurate, insightful and timely data to help you make informed business decisions about the performance of your website and online marketing campaigns.
• ClickTracks
  • ClickTracks offers intuitive, insightful analysis of your web site. It shows you campaigns, site navigation patterns, PPC, SEO and ROI stats instantly. ClickTracks is a web analytics program that uses a radically different architecture, making it easy for marketers to perform desktop datamining activities that are difficult or impossible to implement using traditional web analysis methods.
• Google Analytics
  • Google Analytics helps you find out what keywords attract your most desirable prospects, what advertising copy pulled the most responses, and what landing pages and content make the most money for you. Google Analytics tracks all online campaigns, from emails to keywords, regardless of search engine or referral source.
• Webtrends
  • WebTrends Analytics enables you to provide your visitors with the most engaging experience possible. Measure and test all aspects of the online experience from marketing to site content and usability - all of which increase visitor engagement and conversion rates. With functional reporting for each department, from marketing to merchandising to business analysis, you can answer the questions that are most important to the overall business as well as each department.
• CoreMetrics
  • Designed for today’s digital marketer, Coremetrics Online Analytics provides the most accurate and complete record of visitor behavior - capturing every click of every visitor over time, and storing them in Coremetrics’ LIVE (Lifetime Individual Visitor Experience) Profiles secure database. Their unique approach provides their client with the most up-to-date and actionable insight in the industry, giving them the intelligence needed to guide critical marketing decisions and raise the bar for digital marketing success.

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