SEO Tracking 101: What to Track and How to Track It

Yet, with so much available data out there, it can be tough to know where to focus your tracking. Here are the essential elements that every business owner should track, and how to go about tracking them.

Keyword Rankings
The most obvious way to check your keyword rankings is to simply type your keyword phrases into Google and see what pops up. Unfortunately, your results will be heavily skewed. This is because Google personalizes search results based on previous browsing history. Since you are likely a frequent visitor of your own site, Google will artificially inflate your site’s rankings when you search for your keyword phrases from your own computer.

To get around this, you can use Google Analytics to learn your true, unbiased keyword rankings. Make sure you have an account at www.google.com/analytics and that the relevant code has been added to every page of your website. Also ensure that you have a Search Console (formerly known as Webmaster Tools) account at www.google.com/webmastertools and that the two accounts are linked.

Under Google Analytics’ Acquisition tab, click on Search Engine Optimization and then Queries. This will show you the keywords for which you are currently ranked, along with additional information for each keyword like the number of searches, your average Google ranking for that keyword, and your average click through rate. These numbers are unbiased, so they will not change based on your browsing history.

Search Engine Traffic
Your search engine traffic is all of the organic (non-paid) traffic that visits your website from search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Under the Acquisition tab in Google Analytics, click on All Traffic, then Channels, then Organic Search to view your search engine traffic trends.

The precise numbers here are not what’s most important. Instead, look for general trends over the past 6 to 12 months. Do you see a general climb? If so, then you are doing well. If you see a general decline, then your SEO needs attention. Also note any major spikes, whether upward or downward, and see if you can determine the reason for them.Sales Cycle
While it is important to understand how your keywords are ranking and whether your overall traffic is increasing or decreasing, these numbers are not what determine your ROI (return on investment). What you actually need to know is how many conversions you have, or what percentage of your website visitors convert to sales. To monitor this, and decide how your SEO is actually performing, you need to track each step of your sales cycle.

• Webforms: If you use any signup forms, such as Free Report, Make an Appointment, or Contact Us, you need to understand where those sign-ups actually come from. Are they responding to an ad or an email? Did they come from Google Search? Perhaps they clicked through from one of your social media channels.
  In Google Analytics, set up a Goal for each webform on your site. This allows you to gather data on every single webform signup. You can then run reports that will show you exactly how many webform leads were generated from each of your marketing channels. SEO is one of your marketing channels, so you will know exactly how well your SEO campaign is performing in generating signups.

• E-Commerce: If you actually sell products on your website, then e-commerce tracking is absolutely essential. Some shopping cart providers already have tracking installed, so you simply need to find out from your provider how to turn it on. If it is not already part of your shopping cart, talk to your web developer, as you will need a bit of custom coding. Once it is set up and running, you will be able to run a Google Analytics report that includes all of your transactions and revenue data, and see exactly how much revenue comes from SEO.

• Phone Calls: If you set up appointments and/or make sales over the telephone, then phone call tracking is a crucial element. This uses DNI, or dynamic number insertion, to display different phone numbers to different website visitors, depending on how they got there. For example, you can set up one phone number for Google AdWords, another number for Facebook, and yet another number for those who click on your site in Search (AKA, SEO prospects). To see how your SEO is doing, simply track the number of phone calls that come in from the dedicated SEO phone number.

• CRM: CRM, or customer relationship management, keeps track of your leads from initial contact through closing the sale. This is especially useful for businesses with a long sales cycle or several steps that occur before the final sale. Now that you know where your webform or phone leads come from, you can continue to track each lead to find out what percentage of SEO leads actually result in sales. You can use dedicated CRM software, such as Salesforce, or simply track each lead manually on a spreadsheet.

Tracking the results of your SEO campaign can seem difficult and even overwhelming. Like any other task, though, it is simply a matter of breaking it down into a sequence of achievable steps. Once you start tracking, identify a few key areas to tweak, and then give it several weeks. Tracking is a marathon, not a sprint, and it takes time for the effects of each change to become clear. With a bit of practice, you will be able to track and tweak your SEO with ease.

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