SEO PG 76 TO 78

THIS IS STEP BY STEP SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

PAGE 76 TO 78         CHAPTER 11

http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/index.html

I’m a big advocate of Google Analytics, as it is free and provides very detailed information about your online metrics. In addition to Google Analytics, it’s important to diligently track how your search terms are ranking and what kinds of requests are coming through your site so you can get the best information possible about what is actually driving your increased traffic and sales.

I take reporting very seriously. After all, it’s difficult to pinpoint what is working well and what needs adjustment if you’re not meticulously tracking your progress and gaining insight into how these efforts are translating into real-world results, such as more customers, sales, visitors, and increased online visibility.

There are tons of great tools available to provide more insight into what is taking place on your site and how visitors are finding you. The tools described in this chapter can be great resources, but there are many others as well. I recommend that any website owner initially set up Google Analytics, as it is free and provides some crucial information about your website’s traffic. You should also leverage the free version of Majestic SEO if you don’t want to spend money on the paid version. It’s very possible that these free tools will be sufficient for your reporting needs.

So, by all means, start with the free tools, and if your traffic grows, if you start experimenting with different types of marketing, or if you need more details about how you’re being found online, you can evaluate and test some of the other resources out there. Here are some additional powerful and popular analytics tools you can evaluate for tracking purposes:

• SpyFu Recon (www.spyfu.com/recon)

• Optify (www.optify.net)

• Clicky (www.getclicky.com)

• Piwik (www.piwik.org)

• Omniture (www.omniture.com)

• WebTrends (www.webtrends.com)

I spend a decent amount of time and resources on reporting for my SEO efforts and you should too. This type of information can be incredibly valuable when attempting to quantify your efforts and realizing actual value created from these SEO activities. After all, in business, time is money. If your SEO efforts are done properly, they can translate into a substantial return on your investment of time and resources.

 SEO Challenge #9: Analytics Set-Up

Set up Google Analytics across your website and make sure you track every single page. Refer back to the set-up guides in this chapter for guidance. Was it more or less difficult than you expected?

 Tools And Tricks

Rank Tracking Tools

Rank tracking tools are designed to retrieve search engine rankings for pages and keywords. Most will also allow you to track selected rankings over time. Rank tracking can be a useful way to help validate progress toward your SEO goals. After all, it’s impossible to know if your SEO efforts are working if you’re not able to track your progress. Here are some great rank tracking tools for this purpose:

 Moz (www.moz.com) 

 SEO Book (http://tools.seobook.com) 

 Authority Labs (http://authoritylabs.com) 

 Raven Tools (www.raventools.com) 

 WebCEO (www.webceo.com) 

 Market Samurai (www.marketsamurai.com)

Link Tracking Tools

Majestic SEO (www.majesticseo.com)

THIS IS STEP BY STEP SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

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