Advanced SEO Metrics - Advanced SEO Reporting

Knowing exactly how the webpage is performing, considering all of the optimization techniques that were put in place, is most important to understanding the return on investment from search engine optimization. There are basic analytic and reporting mechanisms used to illustrate this, as well as there are Advanced Analytics Metrics used to represent the outcome of SEO services.

These more advanced metrics will help present facts and figures that act to illustrate what the value is of a visitor to the website. It will also provide the answer of what the overall value of the webpage is. Typically, the SEO firm will strategize with the client to come up with key performance indicators (KPIs). These indicators are used as benchmarks and will provide clear illustration of the "movement" of the website.

There are many different platforms that measure analytical information for the end-user on their website, including Google Analytics, the most popular platform. Some SEO companies have their own Analytics dashboard that will illustrate customized information relating to the performance of the campaign, and the website. This is most beneficial in that it gives the client the means to visually witness the exact methods were used to achieve the specific results shown on the webpage. The following are commonly used analytic metrics used in SEO:

• Potential Audience – this represents a calculation of the amount of website traffic that could be going toward the webpage. Factors involved in this include click-through rates and ratios, keyword searches, amount of website traffic based on keywords versus lack of website traffic based on keywords (how many people visit the website when it is right in front of them on Google).


• Visibility – strength of the website in its ability to be picked up by the quality of inbound links. As discussed in Off-Site SEO services, the quality of backlinks (pointing back to the webpage) is a major component of SEO.


• Landing Page Conversions – understanding (in detail) if the landing pages are "sticky" and result in a customer conversion. Knowing which landing page on the website is generating the most traffic can be used to understand which other pages need further enhancement and which pages need to have the conversion opportunities (purchasing options).


• Web-server logfiles – there are logfiles that are embedded in each domain that acts to store metric information including, but not limited to:
  
  
  • where the visit came from (search engine, direct link, backlink found on other source, etc.)
  • search term used to locate the website
  • operating system used
  • geographic direction (where are people visiting your website from?)
  • page load speed
  • time of day access
  • popularity of website per keywords
  • amount of visits from search engine spiders
  • much more!

Successfully tracking the performance of the website is integral to understanding where the webpage stands against competitors, and helps track the return on investment.