key metrics for seo - nick roshon - icrossing - ses san francisco 2012
DESCRIPTION
Presented by Nick Roshon, Sr. SEO Strategist, iCrossing, at the 2012 Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in San Francisco. About this session: As knowledge of SEO and social media practices move from the offices of the optimizers to the board room, the standard metrics are straining under the weight of the all-powerful bottom line. The days when upper management was impressed by subtle changes in Page Rank and increases in fan count have been replaced by questions of LTV and ROI. As more resources are being dedicated to creating the perfectly optimized and keyword-rich landing pages, tweets and posts, C-level executives are demanding proof of the return they are receiving from these resources.TRANSCRIPT
San Francisco| August 13–17
Key Metrics for SEO actionable, useful & awesome data
Nick Roshon iCrossing (Booth #1136)
Sr. Strategist, SEO
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
2
• We are a unit of Hearst
• Full-Service Digital Agency
• 19 Offices Worldwide
• 850 Professionals
• 40+ Fortune 500 Clients
About iCrossing…
web: http://www.icrossing.com
these slides: http://www.slideshare.net/icrossing @nickroshon
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
3
What not to do? (aka funny answers from
LinkedIn)
@nickroshon
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
4
“Google Analytics will tell you a lot.”
“Technically it is to be judged using Google Analytic.”
“If you're on the first page of Google for your primary keyword”
“A really great measurement of SEO success…is if you "own" the first page in Google - if most of the organic search results are yours (7 out of 10 listings are yours)”
How do I measure SEO success?
Why would someone embark on an SEO campaign? @nickroshon
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
5
There is no silver bullet, nor golden tool…
@nickroshon Image courtesy of: http://memegenerator.net/instance/24815744
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
6
Have a framework - start broad, get specific
Search Visibility
Interest
Consideration
Sale
Search Demand
Search Demand & Industry Benchmarks
Rankings & Visibility Metrics
Broader Traffic Metrics
Specific Traffic Metrics / Target Pages
Actual Sales / Conversions
@nickroshon
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
7
A quick tip for Google Analytics users…
@nickroshon
Custom Segments are a data geek’s best friend. Make your data more relevant & actionable by only looking at the data you’re interested in…
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
8
Traffic Metrics
@nickroshon
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
9
More specific = more actionable
55.21%
12.30%
36.36%
43.18%
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
VISIBILITY TRAFFIC BOOKINGS REVENUE
294.33%
167.23%
133.06%
253.93%
0.00%
50.00%
100.00%
150.00%
200.00%
250.00%
300.00%
350.00%
VISIBILITY TRAFFIC BOOKINGS REVENUE
SHOES SOCKS
@nickroshon
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
10 @nickroshon
Weed out irrelevant traffic
Do you only sell products within the US? Then why should you report on SEO traffic from the Philippines? #CustomSegmentsFTW
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
11 @nickroshon
Analyze growth in brand, non-brand
Watch trend line of brand vs. non-brand: • Share of traffic • Share of revenue • Unique KWs • KW Diversity
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
12 @nickroshon
Understand your attribution & adjust figures
85%
2.44% 9%
3.25%
Branded > Branded Branded > Non-Brand
Non-Brand > Branded Non-Brand > Non-Brand
Know the typical conversion paths – build attribution into analytics, or back-fill conversion data accordingly to give full credit to non-brand
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
13
Look at the big picture – total search (SEO + SEM)
@nickroshon
Softness in SEO may be accounted for during periods of strong SEM activity – think of search holistically and avoid siloed thinking…
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
14
Calculate your ROI & compare efficiencies
@nickroshon
Digital Channel Total Spend* Impressions Clicks CTR % of Spend Total Combined
Revenue ROAS
SEM $ 200,000 20,000,000 750,000 3.75% 77% $ 2,000,000 10.00
Display $ 50,000 10,000,000 20,000 0.20% 19% $ 500,000 10.00
SEO $ 10,000 N/A 800,000 N/A 4% $ 1,500,000 150.00
TOTAL $ 260,000 30,000,000 1,570,000 5.23% 100% $ 4,000,000 15.38
SEO is only 4% of spend yet generates 50% of traffic (clicks) and 38% of revenue – awesome! Remember: (Good) SEO isn’t free – it requires resources, patience and investment, too.
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
15 @nickroshon
JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER
Report Created by: iCrossing Data Source: Analytic System
Visitors / Year-Over-Year Organic Search Visits Column 1 (Left): 2010 Organic Search Visits | Column 2: 2011 Organic Search Visits | Column 3 (Right): 2012 Organic Search Visits Y Axis: Total Search Visits | X Axis: Month
Look year-over-year to account for seasonality
A soft month may just be seasonality, or lack of seasonal promotion or discount code. Likewise, you could be kicking butt but not realizing it when only looking at M-o-M…
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
16 @nickroshon
SEO traffic & revenue by KWs, URLs
Key areas of focus can be reported on as a Keyword/URL pair in a separate report
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
17 @nickroshon
Key actions / non-monetary conversions
Don’t forget non-monetary conversions like email signups, online contacts, email appointments, quote requests, etc.
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
18 @nickroshon
Weighted conversion values
Useful for forecasting, budget projections, or demonstrating REAL ROI on your efforts…don’t sell yourself short with simple revenue
Profit margin of Product A + Percent of total cart value + Percent of lifetime value of new customer + Percent of repeat purchases in next year + Percent of replacement/maintenance orders = Weighted value of conversion
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
19 @nickroshon
Lastly – make it pretty…
Create super slick Executive Reports – it’ll get your boss to notice, care, and give you more $$ and resources…
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
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Visibility Metrics
@nickroshon
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
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Build out a categorized keyword universe
EXECUTIVE SUM M ARY TOTAL RANKINGS GOOGLE YAHOO! BING
Keywords Found on First Page 893 488 203 202
Keywords Found on Second Page 611 218 199 194
Keywords Found on Third Page 401 114 145 142
Keywords Found Beyond Third Page 10,008 3,151 3,424 3,433
Total Keywords Found 1,905 820 547 538
Total Keywords Not Found 9,339 2,928 3,201 3,210
KEYWORD(S)
GOOGLE EST.
SEARCH VOLUM E* GOOGLE YAHOO! (Y!) BING CATEGORY
brake repair 4,400 1 6 4 Brakes
brake service 3,600 1 3 2 Brakes
car wheel 2,400 1 18 16 Tires
definity tires 1,000 1 3 3 Tires
alignment coupon 880 1 2 2 Alignment
futura tires 880 1 4 4 Tires
alignment coupons 720 1 3 3 Alignment
front end alignment coupons 480 1 16 15 Alignment
car alignment coupons 480 1 8 8 Alignment
tire alignment coupon 390 1 2 2 Alignment
break repair 390 1 3 3 Brakes
wheel alignment coupon 320 1 8 8 Alignment
wheel cylinders 260 1 7 7 Brakes
wheel alignment specials 260 1 2 2 Alignment
alignment specials 260 1 2 2 Alignment
@nickroshon
Look at a universe of thousands of KWs. Mine KW ideas from: • Webmaster Tools • SEM Data • Social Listening • SEO Tools (Ahrefs, AdWords,
AdGooRoo, etc) • Competitors • Product Catalogs
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
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Map keyword buckets to search intent
@nickroshon
Knowing where rankings align with purchase funnel helps understand SEO strengths & content / visibility gaps…
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
23
Look directionally
@nickroshon
Keywords fluctuate every week, but the long term trends paint a clear picture
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
24 @nickroshon
Annotate implementation against results
CHANGE IN 1ST
PG. FINDS
CHANGE IN 2ND
PG. FINDS
CHANGE IN 3RD
PG. FINDS
CHANGE IN
TOTAL FINDS
+ 8.86% + 18.27% + 15.05% + 11.57% *baseline visibility
+ 66.03% No Change + 12.79% + 44.55% *initial reccos implemented
+ 46.10% - 17.81% - 15.98% + 29.79%
- 41.22% + 19.32% + 14.42% - 31.58% *Google Venice Update
+ 0.76% - 1.97% + 4.02% + 0.75%
- 5.00% + 12.05% + 4.38% - 1.18% *Google Feed Re-optimized
+ 3.53% + 5.98% + 4.44% + 4.08%
- 2.16% + 6.20% - 1.18% - 0.56%
+ 2.80% - 0.53% + 6.22% + 2.65%
- 4.82% + 11.21% + 6.76% - 0.26%
- 70.28% - 15.68% + 27.22% - 44.31% *Data Abberation
+ 232.38% + 9.87% - 20.07% + 75.97%
- 9.23% + 12.26% + 12.03% - 1.75%
+ 53.61% - 30.31% - 45.93% + 17.25% *Localeze launched
- 9.23% + 12.26% + 12.03% - 1.75%
+ 18.14% + 2.74% + 2.41% + 7.01%
Annotate all major implementations & changes and map them to increases in KPIs
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
25
Competitive visibility reports
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1,400
Report Created by: iCrossing Data Source: Position Analysis Data
Automotive Visibility | By Google 1st Page Rankings Bar: Google 1st Page Rankings Y Axis: Keywords | X Axis: Domain
@nickroshon
What other domains are found for your KW universe? Monitor over time to see who is investing in SEO and where their strengths are…
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
26
SEM visibility & scorecarding
SEO
Keyword
Score
Term PS
Impressions
PS
Impression
Score
PS CTR PS CTR
Score AOV AOV Score
Volume
Volume
Score
Google Rank Bing Rank
8.3 not provided 3,350,000 9.5 1.50% 4.1 $804.95 9.9 3,350,000 9.9 29 -
7.9 not provided 888,722 8.7 3.56% 6.6 $283.69 8.7 110,000 7.9 65 56
7.5 not provided 694,557 8.5 1.06% 3.1 $309.56 9.0 673,000 9.4 62 -
7.4 not provided 1,210,129 9.0 0.65% 1.9 $504.54 9.7 450,000 9.2 25 117
7.4 not provided 1,482,982 9.1 1.65% 4.5 $257.05 8.3 110,000 7.9 60 78
7.4 not provided 593,900 8.2 3.33% 6.4 $216.07 7.6 74,000 7.4 201 11
7.4 not provided 10,545,265 10.0 0.10% 0.1 $451.35 9.6 4,090,000 9.9 - -
7.4 not provided 2,267,469 9.4 0.58% 1.6 $341.35 9.2 673,000 9.4 94 82
7.4 not provided 1,138,332 8.9 1.43% 3.9 $230.16 7.8 301,000 8.9 159 73
7.4 not provided 2,125,126 9.3 0.46% 1.2 $545.22 9.7 550,000 9.3 - -
7.4 not provided 797,208 8.6 0.60% 1.7 $473.53 9.7 823,000 9.5 55 -
7.3 not provided 648,527 8.4 1.01% 2.9 $476.75 9.7 135,000 8.2 127 115
7.2 not provided 955,761 8.8 4.83% 7.6 $99.24 3.6 301,000 8.9 139 60
7.2 not provided 468,001 7.8 1.01% 2.9 $363.37 9.4 246,000 8.8 - -
7.2 not provided 3,418,859 9.5 0.09% 0.0 $354.12 9.3 2,740,000 9.8 84 61
7.1 not provided 6,485,655 9.8 0.57% 1.5 $237.43 8.0 550,000 9.3 30 144
7.1 not provided 689,629 8.4 0.83% 2.3 $345.61 9.3 165,000 8.5 56 21
7.1 not provided 173,455 6.2 5.90% 7.9 $327.44 9.1 14,800 5.2 11 65
7.1 not provided 700,823 8.5 0.24% 0.5 $777.18 9.9 823,000 9.5 - -
7.1 not provided 189,239 6.4 3.24% 6.3 $311.47 9.0 40,500 6.6 46 -
7.0 not provided 856,536 8.7 0.81% 2.3 $248.86 8.1 368,000 9.1 8 112
7.0 not provided 88,171 5.0 11.36% 9.5 $275.76 8.6 12,100 5.0 - 97
@nickroshon
Paid Search data is full of awesome metrics to score & use for SEO research. Plus no [not provided] problems…
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
27
Content Metrics
@nickroshon
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
28 @nickroshon
Find duplicate content & canonicalize equity
Before you get all crazy building new content, make sure you’re getting the most out of your existing content first…check out GWT “Index Status” metrics. Also good for tracking amount of content you have versus amount of content actually indexed…
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
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Percent of traffic from SEO to content sections
Men’s Clothing 30% Traffic from SEO 20% Traffic from SEM 10% Traffic from Social 50% Traffic from Non-Search
Women’s Clothing 5% Traffic from SEO 34% Traffic from SEM 1% Traffic from Social 60% Traffic from Non-Search
I’m selling lots of men’s clothes via SEO, but barely any women’s clothing – what gives? • SEO health issues for women’s clothing section • Stronger competition? • Title & meta optimization/CTR • Poor keyword choice? • Lack of relevant links? • Lack of products?
@nickroshon
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
30 @nickroshon
Diversity of SEO
Is 5% of your content responsible for all SEO visits? Is your SEO traffic primarily from a handful of keywords? Trend this to make sure you’re diversifying your risks & spreading the SEO love around the site…
Pages receiving SEO traffic Total Unique Pages
= SEO Traffic Diversity
Unique SEO Keywords Total Unique Pages
= SEO Keyword Diversity
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
31 @nickroshon
Keyword not provided – but URL is…
Once can deduce the keyword intent by knowing the URLs – shift to focus from keyword level to URL level reporting for KPIs
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
32 @nickroshon
Find your top content – replicate & expand
Lots of entrances via SEO? This content is #winning …do more of it.
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
33 @nickroshon
Find your worst content – eliminate or revamp
High bounce rates & exit rates? Panda don’t like that.
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
34 @nickroshon
Testing to increase CTR
CTR Testing Ideas: • Use SEM Ad Copy
best practices • Sitelinks testing
(demote in GWT) • Page Titles for CTR
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
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Links Date
http://www.askives.com/audi-r8-shift-knob.html 8/1/2012
http://auto.checklowpricegearhub.info/liquid-sandpaper-gallon-plasti-kote 8/1/2012
http://bloggers.com/topics/diy/page243 8/1/2012
http://bloggers.com/topics/audi/page76 7/31/2012
http://bloggers.com/topics/audi/page64 7/31/2012
http://bloggers.com/topics/audi/page75 7/31/2012
http://bloggers.com/topics/audi/page62 7/31/2012
http://forums.turbonines.com/blog.php?do=list&page=19 7/31/2012
http://vebidoo.de/damir+car 7/30/2012
http://autovnp.com/audiauto/audi-a4auto/how-to-change-a-flat-on-an-audi-a4auto/ 7/30/2012
http://bloggers.com/topics/audi/page60 7/30/2012
http://www.audiklubas.com/forumas/audi-c6/audi-c6-priekiniu-groteliu-keitimas-i-s-line/?PHPSESSID=lft8hgq9sn630bft6sd73bvqg07/28/2012
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5769259-R8-GT-Spyder-in-Matte-Suzuka-Grey7/27/2012
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/496355-Carbon-fiber-B-pillars-anyone-Group-buy7/27/2012
http://forum.audirsclub.it/showthread.php?40571-La-sostituta-A4-B7-Avant-140CV-Sline-by-Endy87/page49&langid=17/27/2012
http://forum.audirsclub.it/showthread.php?40571-La-sostituta-A4-B7-Avant-140CV-Sline-by-Endy87/page49&langid=27/27/2012
http://bloggers.com/topics/audi/page69 7/27/2012
http://www.euroaddiction.net/forum/b6-b7-platform/9536-carbon-fiber-b-pillars-anyone-group-buy.html7/27/2012
@nickroshon
Find your most linked to content & market it
Find your most recently linked to content in Google Webmaster Tools – create similar content, market existing top performers and leverage for additional link outreach exercises…
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
36 @nickroshon
Find your social content & do more
Check out Shared Count to find Social Metrics on a URL basis – monitor trends and leverage most popular URLs for content marketing & link outreach…
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
37 @nickroshon
Structured data & author markup
Monitor GWT to make sure your schema & author markup are: (1) showing properly & (2) helping your CTR Test & adjust as necessary…
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
38
TL;DL (too long, didn’t listen)
@nickroshon
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
39 @nickroshon
Key Takeaways
• Gather lots of data – but zero in on KPIs
• Weed out irrelevant data
• Look directionally
• Compare channels & relative stats
• Make it compelling to your boss
• Go beyond sales – weighted conversion
• Content (metrics) are king
• Be awesome
San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
40
thank you.
Nick Roshon
c: Sr. SEO Strategist, iCrossing
t: @nickroshon
g: +Nick Roshon
w: NickRoshon.com
s: http://www.slideshare.net/nickroshon
@nickroshon