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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 have an html link pointing to
http://www.textlinkbrokers.com
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