Six Ways to Measure SEO Success - 2. Establish what pages are currently indexed
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Another simple way to measure the success of your SEO efforts is to keep track of what pages are showing up in the SERPs for a given keyword. Many sites start out with just their home page listed, and as secondary pages are optimized and begin to achieve some PR (backlinks), they start showing up. Pay attention to the actual URL that shows up in the SERPs in a given search site and track it for future reference. This is tangible proof that your SEO efforts are paying off and you are maximizing your site's exposure in the search engines.
3. Establish your benchmark monthly traffic stats
Bottom line numbers, such as how many unique visitors and page views per month your site receives, are always a hit with upper management and clients. If you're not already tracking your website traffic statistics, it's imperative that you get started. Most Web hosting packages come with some kind of basic statistical analysis, or may even provide log files to their clients. Check with your hosting provider or website developer for this information.
Many companies now offer tag-based tracking via an ASP service that enables you to log onto a Web-based console and view your stats in real time or near-real time. These services do not require you to install any software on your machine. You simply paste the tracking code into every page of your site and you're good to go.
Be sure that whatever tracking tool you use includes the following basic metrics.
GoDaddy.com offers a very inexpensive tracking utility for an extra $2.00 per month to their hosting clients. I also recommend HitsLink.com, which is a tag-based online tool that provides conversion tracking, among other things. The best tools let you customize the date range for the reports and provide you with multiple ways to look at your data (e.g., you can look at top referring keywords and key phrases). Good tools always give you the option to export your data into a spreadsheet or delimited file.
If you have a very large website or a suite of sites and money to burn, you've probably got one of the top-tier analysis tools to analyze not just your search engine traffic, but all of your campaign activity. Tools that analyze visitor paths and crunch your numbers a thousand different ways are wonderful, yes, but they are also overwhelming. If you keep your metrics simple and straightforward, your marketing report is more likely to be read by your client or manager. Thus, use the above list of bottom line stats as a guideline to create a simple, streamlined report and leave the more detailed number crunching to the statisticians.
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