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Most SEO is about getting on the first page on Google and hitting the top spot and then maintain the position for the top ranking keywords. But is ranking enough? Does a top ranking mean an increase in sales? Considering that ranking does not even guarantee traffic would this be the right metric to track when trying to measure performance? Should ranking reports be a part of the success metrics SEO’s provide their clients?
A site may be ranking well for a related search term with a huge search volume. However data may show that it doesn’t provide any visits. On the other hand a keyword that brings in less traffic but if the profit that keyword brings in is significant enough then it is a good keyword.
Alternately, if a well ranked for keyword cannot provide the visitor landing on the targeted page, with sufficient information or does not provide any conversions, regardless of the traffic it brings in, then it doesn’t matter how much traffic it’s generating; it’s a poor keyword choice. Look for the keywords that are most relevant to what you have to offer and then check the conversion rates. If conversion rates are low, you may want to re-evaluate the marketing spend on such keywords.
Even if the site is ranking well but the description provided in the SERPS (by what is used in the title tags and description tag) is not compelling enough then again the ranking is not worth much as it may not generate enough clicks.
In addition, an increase in other metrics such as time on the site, page views, the time spent browsing on the site would not necessarily mean an increase in sales.
What matters should be the Return on Investment. A campaign that increases site visitors or conversions via ranking but not sales would not be a success as compared to a campaign where the Return On Investment has increased due to the quality of the conversions being better, then the campaign would be considered a success.
So how do you track ROI?
Until and unless you do not track what are your ROIs are, then there is no point in investing $$s in anything. Any kind of marketing campaign, be it SEO, email marketing or social media, investing money in it is waste if one is not tracking its performance, analyzing it that whether it is a success or a failure. Obviously a good ROI indicates a successful campaign. So a constant tracking and analysis of the data gathered is required.
[Photo via Flickr]
So to make all this easier there are many tools and softwares available to track your campaign’s ROI. Some of them are:
Call tracking – for those who do not use sophisticated software the simplest way would be to ask when an order is placed and trace back to the source.
Campaign tags – There are plenty of ways to make sure that you are tracking your email campaigns accurately, but one of the simplest is using campaign tags in Google Analytics. These allow you to track exactly which campaigns are successful and which aren’t; you can even track right down to which link in an email is used to click through.
CRM or Other Sales Tracking Software – if you plug all the data from Analytics and your call tracker into CRM systems such as Salesforce, Workbooks and Microsoft Dynamics you will be able to track movement of the lead from initiation to its conclusion. You will be able to see an actual conversion rate, rather than the assumed rate you get from Analytics and AdWords.
About the Author
Catherine Jones writes for http://www.markmitsuglendale.com. She enjoys content and writing about the social sphere.
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