webRED Issue 16 March 2006

How exactly does one measure search marketing success?

To put it in a simple sentence, success equates to meeting one's goals. What those goals are, and how they help you or your business achieve a greater objective is another matter.

The easiest way to measure success in SEO is still found in pure search engine rankings. Either the site appears in the Top10 listings under target keyword phrases, or it does not.

While pure rankings are the easiest metric to measure, they are not necessarily the most accurate one. From rankings, we learn generally where a site appears from day to day but that's all. We can never be certain that the rankings we see or record are exactly the same as those seen by our clients who might be drawing results from a different server.

Pure rankings are often the first goal of most SEO campaigns; however what happens after that goal is achieved is where most SEO firms really provide value for their clients.

The second simplest measure of SEO success is found in the log-files kept by every Internet Service Provider. When someone visits a site, the host ISP records the visit in the log-file of that site. Those logs are available to the client and the client should make those logs available to the SEO.

If the SEO has achieved high rankings under relevant keywords or phrases, there should be a notable increase in visits recorded in the site logs. If there is not an increase, there is likely something wrong with the targeted keywords or with the listing as displayed on the search engines.

An increase in visitors is the second basic goal for in SEO. In reality, a client might think they are only paying for strong rankings. Even if Top10 rankings are the agreed upon goal, the client is really paying for more visitors. That is what they expect to reap from their investment and, more often than not, that is exactly what they get. The question then becomes, what does one do when visitors come calling?

Websites that rank well in the major search engines tend to draw far more traffic than websites that do not. Successful SEO firms make client websites easier to find and therefore far more visible. Drawing traffic immediately opens an important question. Once you have it, what do you do with it?

Conversions are the most important metric to measure the success of an SEO campaign and conversions come from planning.

Experienced SEOs appreciate the value of strategic marketing planning. It is important for us to know that our clients have a long-term plan. If they don't, we are happy to help them come up with one or to refer them to someone who can. A good website marketing plan looks at how live-visitors will act while visiting the site.

The object is to actively direct site visitors towards a goal of some sort or another. For some cases, that goal is a sale. In others it is the provision of information, the acquisition of email addresses or other contact information.

Conversions are the measurement of completed goals and good SEOs know how to help increase goal-orientated conversions.

Some keywords or keyword phrases will convert better than others. Even if one set of keywords or keyword phrases tends to draw more search-traffic, those words might not lead to successful site conversions.

When faced with a question about increased traffic that does not lead to increased conversions, we tend to first look at the keywords used to generate that traffic. Some words will obviously have a different effect on the searcher than others and might influence the course of their visit. For SEOs, watching how your counterparts dealing with PPC keyword buys can help provide clues to winning keyword combinations.

The greatest influencer of how a visitor acts when on a site is, of course, the site itself. Websites that convert well tend to be laid-out in a way that actively encourages site visitors to move from one section of a site to another.

The same principle that applies to moving spiders applies to moving live visitors. A good SEO makes site transit simple for spiders and intuitive for live visitors.

Ultimately, for our clients at least, conversions are supposed to lead to a sale. Sales are an important metric to measure the success of any advertising campaign against but, it is important to note that measuring the effectiveness of your SEO by online sales is a false metric.

The vast majority of actual sales happen offline. Take the travel industry for example. With the exception of the larger businesses operating in travel and tourism, most actual transactions will take place in person or over the telephone. I might book and pay for an airline ticket online but am much more likely to pay for my accommodation and all meals at the time of purchase. A similar transaction cycle happens in the fashion and clothing sectors. People research their clothing purchases online and buy them in a store. If your actual sales are up, chances are your website marketing efforts are at least partly responsible. If not, you should look at all facets of marketing and presentation, including the SEO efforts.

By far, the most realistic metric to measure any advertising campaign against is return on investment (ROI). The basic question here is, am I making more money after investing in search advertising than I was before? If the answer is yes, chances are the search marketing component in your overall advertising mix is working well.

For a good search marketer, in order to enjoy success on the search engines, a fair degree of personal honesty is invaluable. Some campaigns will succeed where others fail. Some will only meet a few of their greater goals while others will ace them every time. Overall, measuring success can be boiled down to one basic but deceptively simple question, "Was it worth all the effort?" For our clients at least, the answer is, far more often than not, a resounding "Yes!"

Source: www.isedb.com

Back to top >>



New search engines – MsFreckles and Windows Live
http://www.msfreckles.com/?lang=en

MsFreckles is an online search service, which offers an easy way to make professional searches for the ordinary internet user. The site uses features from Google but makes them extremely easy to use, just drop, drag and click.

The home page is good looking, even charming, and easy to use. It consists of 16 boxes and each box gives you access to a search feature. Among these features you can choose normal Google search, Blog search, image search, news search, multiple site search, number search, scholar search, related site search… and even has a text language translator and a definition wizard (online dictionary).

MsFreckles.com is Swedish of origin. It was one of the most talked about start-ups in the time just before the Internet bubble. However, the business model (a sort of community for young career women) did not generate any money. The company went bankrupt and the investors and founders left the company. In the spring of 2005 the brothers Fredrik and Marcus Granholm started the new MsFreckles that you see today!

Source: www.pandia.com

Microsoft has Launched Windows Live Search Beta, introducing a number of new features and enhancements including an updated version of Live.com and a Windows Live Toolbar.

Windows Live Search complements MSN search, and ultimately both services will be powered by the same underlying technology, according to Adam Sohn, Microsoft's Director of Global Sales & Marketing PR. While the Windows Live site will focus primarily on productivity, the MSN brand will continue to evolve as a media and content destination.

It has some features, like sliders that allow you to resize search results, adding or removing information such as descriptions, or in the case of images, making thumbnails larger or smaller. There's also a "film strip" view that shows thumbnail images in the left rail of a result page and larger single images on the rest of the page. Another new feature prefetches hundreds of search results, allowing you to continuously scroll down a single search result page without having to click to additional pages of results.

Windows Live Search includes web search, as well as an all new image search, news search, RSS feeds, mail, local search, shopping and MSN spaces, Microsoft's blogging service. One of the more intriguing new features is called "Macros," a feature that lets you customize and save searches to be run again. Macros are flexible, easy to create and share. As an example, you could create a Macro that searched for terms across a set of web sites that you specify, in effect, creating your own personalized vertical search tool. Pretty cool, why not try it for yourself at http://search.live.com.

Source: www.searchenginewatch.com

Back to top >>


This Month's FAQ

This month's Q & A discusses the situation of having your site ranking vanish or drop largely on the search engines, and what are the possible causes of this. If you experience this, consult with your dedicated SEO to tackle the problem (if they haven't already!)

Question: I lost my Search Engine ranking, what could have happened?

Answer: So you check your rankings and suddenly they have either plummeted or are non-existent. It's happened to all of us and here are a few possible explanations:

Fluctuation
This is the most common explanation and happens on a daily basis. Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) are in a constant state of flux with Google leading the pack. Gone are the days of the "Google Dance". This has also meant, unfortunately, that you can be Top 10 one day and disappear the next. The only thing you can do in this case is be patient and give it a few days to see if your ranking reappears.

Stop or Poison Words
Have you added new content lately? It is possible you have added what Google calls "Stop" or "Poison" words. These may include Adult words or commonly words like Links, Search Engine, Bookmarks, Resources, Directory, BBS, Paid-to-Surf and Forum which although won't knock you out of the SERPs, they can drop you a few spots

Broken Links
The major Search Engines view a site with dead end links as "broken". In some cases this can cause a major hit to your rankings. It is always advised to run a check using a tool like a broken link checker and fixing them.

Links to Bad Neighborhoods
A single link to a banned site or a bad neighborhood can torpedo your rankings A bad neighborhood is one that employs black hat tactics. This may include a link farm. Link Farms are one of the most often asked about things and the general rule of thumb is "If it looks like one, it is one". Avoid linking to sites with hundreds of links on its pages with little to no quality content. Remember, content is key to achieving good rankings!

Use of Black Hat Methods
This will usually result in an all out ban of your sites and includes things like Hidden Text and Cloaking. To get back into the index usually requires you to remove the offending method and email Google (or whichever SE banned you) asking to be reindexed. In most cases you will be successful although be prepared to wait several weeks if not months to be included again.

These are just a few of the reasons for a sudden loss in rankings though they are the most common. Other reasons could include an algorithm update on a search engine, or a site update by a web designer that is not search engine friendly (best to consult with your SEO before you go ahead with this). The best rule of thumb is to always build and optimize for visitors first and Search Engines second. If you try to stick to this, you should enjoy more stable rankings without the fear of your site disappearing overnight.

Source: www.seofaq.net

Back to top >>

We hope you enjoyed webRED this month. If there are any topics or questions you'd particularly like us to cover or answer, why not CONTACT US and tell us.

All views expressed are those of Optymise Ltd and articles/ features are written by Optymise staff unless otherwise stated.