Measuring the Success of SEO Campaigns

When measuring the success of SEO campaigns with clients, the first thing they usually want to know is where their site is ranking. However, rankings alone are not a measure of success as this article by Jill Whalen explains and I've often explained to clients. You can have as many top 10 rankings as you want but if nobody is buying from you, then these rankings really are wasted.

Of course being found easily in a search is fundamental to the success of your website and I need to make sure that clients are being found for their target keywords, but with this, we need to look at many other factors. Often when I delve into a clients log files I find the site is being found for a long list of highly targeted keywords (called the long tail). It is these keywords that can often lead to better conversions on a site as the searcher is being very specific about what they're looking for. The more general the keyword that the site is being found for, the less targeted the visitor, even if it's driving a lot of traffic to the site. Not much good if they're not doing anything when they get there.

Rankings may be fine, but if the site is poor in design, site architecture is bad and visitors can't find what they're looking for, then again those high rankings are wasted as the visitor just surfs away to a competitor.

Website tracking software is becoming more sophisticated and some now give details on conversions through the site and paths taken to the conversion, which I've mentioned in a previous post.

When looking at the performance of your website, make sure you look at the full picture and not just a small part of it. The more you measure what's happening on and off your website, the more you can adjust your campaigns accordingly.