Six Ways to Measure SEO Success - 4. Establish your top referring search engines
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Your traffic statistics will disclose which search engines currently refer the most traffic to your site. Your top referring search engines should be comparable to the top search engines in the industry. That is, if comScore says Google is responsible for 48 percent of the nation's searches, then at least 48 percent of your traffic should be coming from Google. If it's not, this is a red flag that indicates you are not as well-positioned in Google for your targeted keywords as you should be.
5. Establish your top referring keywords (as they stand prior to optimization)
Your site's traffic statistics will also reveal what keywords people are currently using to find your website. This is revealing on two levels. First of all, you may be showing up for an obscure term that was not initially on your radar. Perhaps it's a unique product that only you offer that you could feature more prominently throughout the site.
As with many things, the words that don't show up on the list of top referring keywords can be more revealing than words that do show up. If your top keywords don't show up at all, then this means they are not well listed in search engines. Reviewing this information and keeping track of it is a great way to measure your SEO success, and is also a great snapshot into the behavior of your site's visitors. It can help you focus your attention on optimizing the correct keywords (e.g., by leaving keywords that already rank well alone) and giving you ideas on how to expand your current list of targeted keywords.
Next: 6. Establish your site's conversion rate >>
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