My presentation on "Key Metrics for SEO" for Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Francisco #SESSF

1. Key Metrics for SEO
actionable, useful & awesome data
Nick Roshon
iCrossing (Booth #1136)
Sr. Strategist, SEO
San Francisco| August 13–17

2. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
About iCrossing… • We are a unit of Hearst
• Full-Service Digital Agency
• 19 Offices Worldwide
• 850 Professionals
• 40+ Fortune 500 Clients
web: http://www.icrossing.com
these slides: http://www.slideshare.net/icrossing @nickroshon
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3. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
What not to do?
(aka funny answers from
LinkedIn)
@nickroshon
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4. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
How do I measure SEO success?
“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)”
Why would someone embark on
4
an SEO campaign? @nickroshon

5. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
There is no silver bullet, nor golden tool…
@nickroshon
5 Image courtesy of: http://memegenerator.net/instance/24815744

6. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Have a framework - start broad, get specific
Search Search Demand & Industry Benchmarks
Demand
Search Visibility Rankings & Visibility Metrics
Interest Broader Traffic Metrics
Specific Traffic Metrics / Target Pages
Consideration
Sale Actual Sales / Conversions
@nickroshon
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7. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
A quick tip for Google Analytics users…
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…
@nickroshon
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8. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Traffic
Metrics
@nickroshon
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9. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
More specific = more actionable
SHOES SOCKS
350.00% 60.00%
55.21%
294.33%
300.00%
50.00%
253.93% 43.18%
250.00%
40.00% 36.36%
200.00%
167.23% 30.00%
150.00% 133.06%
20.00%
100.00%
12.30%
10.00%
50.00%
0.00% 0.00%
VISIBILITY TRAFFIC BOOKINGS REVENUE VISIBILITY TRAFFIC BOOKINGS REVENUE
@nickroshon
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10. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Weed out irrelevant traffic
Do you only sell products
within the US? Then why
should you report on SEO
traffic from the
Philippines?
#CustomSegmentsFTW
@nickroshon
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11. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Analyze growth in brand, non-brand
Watch trend line of
brand vs. non-brand:
• Share of traffic
• Share of revenue
• Unique KWs
• KW Diversity
@nickroshon
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12. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Understand your attribution & adjust figures
3.25%
2.44%
9%
Know the typical
conversion paths – build
attribution into
analytics, or back-fill
85% conversion data
accordingly to give full
credit to non-brand
Branded > Branded Branded > Non-Brand
Non-Brand > Branded Non-Brand > Non-Brand
@nickroshon
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13. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Look at the big picture – total search (SEO + SEM)
Softness in SEO may be
accounted for during
periods of strong SEM
activity – think of search
holistically and avoid
siloed thinking…
@nickroshon
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14. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Calculate your ROI & compare efficiencies
Total Combined
Digital Channel Total Spend* Impressions Clicks CTR % of Spend ROAS
Revenue
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.
@nickroshon
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15. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Look year-over-year to account for seasonality
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
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…
JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER
Report Created by: iCrossing
Data Source: Analytic System
@nickroshon
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16. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
SEO traffic & revenue by KWs, URLs
Key areas of focus can be
reported on as a
Keyword/URL pair in a
separate report
@nickroshon
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17. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Key actions / non-monetary conversions
Don’t forget non-
monetary conversions like
email signups, online
contacts, email
appointments, quote
requests, etc.
@nickroshon
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18. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Weighted conversion values
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
Useful for
forecasting, budget
projections, or
demonstrating REAL ROI
on your efforts…don’t sell
yourself short with simple
revenue
@nickroshon
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19. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Lastly – make it pretty…
Create super slick
Executive Reports –
it’ll get your boss to
notice, care, and give
you more $$ and
resources…
@nickroshon
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20. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Visibility
Metrics
@nickroshon
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21. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Build out a categorized keyword universe
EXECUTIVE SUM M ARY TOTAL RANKINGS GOOGLE YAHOO! BING
Keywo rds Fo und o n First P age 893 488 203 202
Keywo rds Fo und o n Seco nd P age 611 218 199 194
Keywo rds Fo und o n Third P age 401 14
1 145 142
Keywo rds Fo und B eyo nd Third P age 10,008 3,151 3,424 3,433
To tal Keywo rds Fo und 1,905 820 547 538
To tal Keywo rds No t Fo und 9,339 2,928 3,201 3,210
Look at a universe of thousands of KWs.
GOOGLE EST.
KEYWORD(S) SEARCH VOLUM E* GOOGLE YAHOO! (Y!) BING CATEGORY
brake repair 4,400 1 6 4 B rakes
brake service
car wheel
Mine KW ideas from:
3,600
2,400
1
1
3
18
2
16
B rakes
Tires
definity tires • Webmaster Tools
1,000 1 3 3 Tires
• SEM Data
alignment co upo n 880 1 2 2 A lignment
futura tires 880 1 4 4 Tires
alignment co upo ns
fro nt end alignment co upo ns
• Social Listening
720
480
1
1
3
16
3
15
A lignment
A lignment
car alignment co upo ns • SEO Tools 480 1 8 8 A lignment
tire alignment co upo n 390 1 2 2 A lignment
break repair (Ahrefs, AdWords, AdGooRoo, etc)
390 1 3 3 B rakes
wheel alignment co upo n
wheel cylinders
• Competitors 320
260
1
1
8
7
8
7
A lignment
B rakes
wheel alignment specials • Product Catalogs
260 1 2 2 A lignment
alignment specials 260 1 2 2 A lignment
@nickroshon
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22. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Map keyword buckets to search intent
Knowing where rankings align with
purchase funnel helps understand SEO
strengths & content / visibility gaps… @nickroshon
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23. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Look directionally
Keywords fluctuate every
week, but the long term
trends paint a clear picture
@nickroshon
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24. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Annotate implementation against results
CHANGE IN 1ST CHANGE IN 2ND CHANGE IN 3RD CHANGE IN
PG. FINDS PG. FINDS PG. FINDS TOTAL FINDS
+ 8.86% +1 8.27% +1 5.05% + 1 .57%
1 *baseline visibility
+ 66.03%
+ 46.1 0%
No Change
-1 %
7.81
+1
-1
2.79%
5.98%
+ 44.55%
+ 29.79%
*initial recco s implemented Annotate all major
- 41 .22% +1 9.32% +1 4.42% - 31.58% *Go o gle Venice Update implementations &
+ 0.76% -1.97% + 4.02% + 0.75%
- 5.00% +1 2.05% + 4.38% - 1 8%
.1 *Go o gle Feed Re-o ptimized changes and map them to
+ 3.53%
- 2.16%
+ 5.98%
+ 6.20%
+ 4.44%
- 1 8%
.1
+ 4.08%
- 0.56% increases in KPIs
+ 2.80% - 0.53% + 6.22% + 2.65%
- 4.82% + 1 .21
1 % + 6.76% - 0.26%
- 70.28% -1 5.68% + 27.22% - 44.31 % *Data A bberatio n
+ 232.38% + 9.87% - 20.07% + 75.97%
- 9.23% +1 2.26% +1 2.03% -1.75%
+ 53.61 % - 30.31 % - 45.93% +1 7.25% *Lo caleze launched
- 9.23% +1 2.26% +1 2.03% -1.75%
+ 1 4%
8.1 + 2.74% + 2.41% + 7.01%
@nickroshon
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25. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Competitive visibility reports
Automotive Visibility | By Google 1st Page Rankings
Bar: Google 1st Page Rankings
Y Axis: Keywords | X Axis: Domain
What other domains are
1,400
found for your KW universe? 1.2
1,200 Monitor over time to see 1
1,000
who is investing in SEO and
where their strengths are… 0.8
800
0.6
600
0.4
400
0.2
200
0 0
Report Created by: iCrossing
Data Source: Position Analysis Data
@nickroshon
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26. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
SEM visibility & scorecarding
SEO PS Google
PS PS CTR Google
Keyword Term Impression PS CTR AOV AOV Score Volume Google Rank Bing Rank
Impressions Score Volume
Score Score Score
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 Paid Search data is full73of
301,000 8.9 159
7.4
7.4
not provided
not provided
2,125,126
797,208
9.3
8.6
0.46%
0.60%
1.2
1.7
$545.22
$473.53
9.7
9.7
awesome9.5
550,000
823,000
metrics to score
9.3 -
55
-
-
7.3 not provided 648,527 8.4 1.01% 2.9 $476.75 9.7 & use for 8.2 research.
135,000 SEO 127 115
7.2 not provided 955,761 8.8 4.83% 7.6 $99.24 3.6 Plus no [not
301,000 8.9 provided]
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
problems…
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
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27. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Content
Metrics
@nickroshon
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28. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
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…
@nickroshon
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29. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Percent of traffic from SEO to content sections
Men’s Clothing Women’s Clothing
30% Traffic from SEO 5% Traffic from SEO
20% Traffic from SEM 34% Traffic from SEM
10% Traffic from Social 1% Traffic from Social
50% Traffic from Non-Search 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
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30. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Diversity of SEO
Pages receiving SEO traffic
Total Unique Pages Is 5% of your content
responsible for all SEO visits? Is
= your SEO traffic primarily from a
SEO Traffic Diversity handful of keywords?
Trend this to make sure you’re
diversifying your risks &
Unique SEO Keywords spreading the SEO love around
Total Unique Pages the site…
=
SEO Keyword Diversity
@nickroshon
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31. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
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
@nickroshon
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32. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Find your top content – replicate & expand
Lots of entrances via SEO?
This content is #winning
…do more of it.
@nickroshon
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33. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Find your worst content – eliminate or revamp
High bounce rates & exit
rates?
Panda don’t like that.
@nickroshon
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34. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Testing to increase CTR
CTR Testing Ideas:
• Use SEM Ad Copy
best practices
• Sitelinks testing
(demote in GWT)
• Page Titles for CTR
@nickroshon
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35. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Find your most linked to content & market it
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
Find your most recently linked
http://bloggers.com/topics/audi/page62 7/31/2012
to content in Google
http://forums.turbonines.com/blog.php?do=list&page=19 7/31/2012
Webmaster Tools – create
http://vebidoo.de/damir+car 7/30/2012
similar content, market existing
http://autovnp.com/audiauto/audi-a4auto/how-to-change-a-flat-on-an-audi-a4auto/7/30/2012
top performers and leverage for
http://bloggers.com/topics/audi/page60 7/30/2012
additional link outreach
http://www.audiklubas.com/forumas/audi-c6/audi-c6-priekiniu-groteliu-keitimas-i-s-line/?PHPSESSID=lft8hgq9sn
7/28/2012
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5769259-R8-GT-Spyder-in-Matte-Suzuka-Grey
exercises… 7/27/2012
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/496355-Carbon-fiber-B-pillars-anyone-Group-buy
7/27/2012
http://forum.audirsclub.it/showthread.php?40571-La-sostituta-A4-B7-Avant-140CV-Sline-by-Endy87/page49&lang
7/27/2012
http://forum.audirsclub.it/showthread.php?40571-La-sostituta-A4-B7-Avant-140CV-Sline-by-Endy87/page49&lang
7/27/2012
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.html
7/27/2012
@nickroshon
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36. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
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…
@nickroshon
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37. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
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…
@nickroshon
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38. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
TL;DL
(too long, didn’t listen)
@nickroshon
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39. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
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
@nickroshon
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40. San Francisco | August 13–17, 2012 | #sessf
Nick Roshon
thank
you. c: Sr. SEO Strategist, iCrossing
e: nicholas.roshon@icrossing.com
t: @nickroshon
g: +Nick Roshon
w: NickRoshon.com
s: http://www.slideshare.net/nickroshon
@nickroshon
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