This document discusses actionable analytics and metrics for search engine optimization (SEO). It begins by defining actionable analytics as using business goals and data to drive decisions. It then provides examples of how to use metrics like keyword rankings, click-through rates, paid search data, and indexing issues to answer common SEO questions and make improvements that support goals like increasing traffic, sales, or conversions. The document emphasizes focusing metrics on goals and user intent to find opportunities for optimization.

1. Actionable SEO Metrics SES Accelerator San Diego 2012 Ryan Jones Sr. Search Strategist Team Detroit @RyanJones

2. @RyanJones Senior SEO Strategist Team Detroit www.TeamDetroit.com www.RyanMJones.com

4. What Is Your Goal? Rankings & Visits or Sales, Conversions, Signups, & Engagement

5. Am I Hitting My Goal? Hopefully, these aren’t your goals.

6. Look Deeper Actionable : Information that allows a decision to be made.

7. Home Page Category Pages Sub Category Pages Product pages Long Tail Keywords Head Keywords Conversion Rate? Conversion Rate? Understand & find opportunities throughout your sales funnel

8. Goal: Rank for terms like “ New Trucks ” and drive higher funnel shoppers Result: Drove lots of long tail terms Side Effect: Long tail terms had a much better KPI conversion rate. Lesson: Less focus on high volume “hero” terms. Go after what converts.

9. Look at Actions, Not Just Keywords Group Keywords by what people are trying to do on your site Action Impressions Clicks CTR KPIs/Revenue Bounce Buy Product 200,000 158,000 79% $42,000 12% Owner Support Research & Awareness High Funnel Terms

10. Actionable Reporting Client: What’s happening & what should I do? Start with your goals, report the metrics that align with them

11. How can I use actionable analytics to answer everyday SEO questions? Let’s Look at some examples…..

12. OMG – Traffic is Down

13. WHY?

14. If we factor out the sale that ended, traffic was actually UP!

15. Another Example

16. Let’s Break Down that Blue Line

17. Keyword Bucketing User Intent – Branded – Products – Events – Long Tail – Purchase Funnel

21. Example CTR Calculation Keyword: “Ford Focus” Rank: 1 Impressions: 700,000 Estimated Clicks = Impressions * % from chart 700,000 * .364 = 254,800 clicks Actual Clicks (pull from analytics not WMT) 160,000 Clicks Why So Low?

22. Paid Search Cannibalization

23. This Looks Bad….

24. But This Looks Good

25. Show rebidulator keyword compare tab Finding & Balancing Cannibalization Find Opportunities – like shifting spend from “blue widgets” into “Bacon Pears” Keyword Cost Paid Rank SEO Rank Paid Clicks SEO Clicks Paid KPIs SEO KPIs Blue Widgets $1596 1 1 752 986 23 400 Bacon Polenta $396 1 5 600 250 481 49 Pears $250 3 0 250 0 9 0 Bacon Pears $860 4 12 1004 12 974 3

26. Let’s look at some other questions…

27. Do I Have Indexing Issues? Do I Have Content Issues? Is My Content Working?

28. Indexed Pages VS. Pages Actually Sending Traffic VS. Total Site Pages

29. VS. Unique Keywords * There should be a strong correlation here

30. Thank You! @RyanJones www.RyanMJones.com