Due to the downturn in the economy, budgets for PPC advertising are shrinking with more attention and budgets shifting towards SEO. The costs, potential for results, and long-term benefits of a well-planned and executed SEO campaign cannot be denied. But how exactly do you ensure that your site’s long-term SEO plans are effective and well founded? An article at Search Engine Land effectively addresses this important question. You will want to ensure that you have reliable web analytics software. This software will ideally track SEO referrals, or simply put, reporting what search engines your site’s traffic is coming from and the keywords used to find your site. Make sure the analytics software that you choose can segment paid and non-paid search engine traffic. Google Analytics is the best value on the market, considering it’s free! There are other more robust, paid analytics packages that can shed granular insight (such as Omniture and WebTrends).
By analyzing analytics reports, you will be able to use these findings to determine the best areas to invest time, money and resources. When tracking performance, remember to make note of site re-launches, shifts in the market and other events when measuring at long-term results, as these will cause a change in your SEO metrics. By comparing these metrics, you can then prioritize efforts for optimizing your site based on market opportunities, ranking gaps and potential ROI.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
