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Yes, Web Analytics Supports SEO
By Mike Murray | October 25, 2007
A business executive asked me the other day why web analytics is so important to natural search engine optimization. I wanted to just say, “It’s a no-brainer.”
Sometimes a short answer like that doesn’t really reflect wisdom or an appreciation for the question that’s clouded by other factors. For example, it is possible to pick keywords and achieve high rankings without access to web analytics. If you have a sense of the target market (i.e. potential customer) and know a thing or two about SEO tactics, you can get higher rankings.
But web analytics is about optimal rankings and strategic decisions - not just what you can settle for when you have limited success working with limited information.
Sometimes we come across propsective clients who have second-rate or no web analytics. Odds are, we’re not going to work with them if we can’t get access to their traffic stats without a hassle.
When you have access to web analytics, you can:
- Establish historic website traffic patterns, including search engine traffic
- Research keywords
- Drill down to keywords used for each engine for any time period
- Explore visitor funnels
- Determine what keywords convert
- Distinguish between paid and organic traffic
- Generate ideas for keywords based on even a mild amount of existing traffic
- Correlate rankings with page metrics (i.e. how many people visit what page)
- Decide how SEO is performing overall - not just based on rankings but what traffic is really coming into the website
- Get ideas for new keywords (based on the type of searches that lead to visitors)
In other words, even if a search term gets only 10 visits a month from Google, it may be invaluable based on the landing page the prospect hits and their experience on the website. And you need to look at the rankings in light of those visits. Maybe it’s only 10 because they’re ranking #29. Can the ranking be improved?
Effective keyword selection and analysis depend on access to traffic stats. Even the simple AWStats has value, but we prefer to offer more sophisticated reporting. If cost is an issue, we still give clients ClickTracks for no additional charge. We’ve also hooked up new clients with Google Analytics — anything to do a better job managing mission-critical keywords and phrases.
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October 26th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I agree with you. You’ve got to have a good web analytics tool if you hope to gauge the success of your SEO, your SEM or any other type of traffic-generating initiatives you are doing online. It’s a no-brainer. Thanks for telling it like it is.
October 31st, 2007 at 3:32 pm
I think its important to have web analytics to have a better idea of whats working with your site.
November 21st, 2007 at 12:26 pm
thanks for the GREAT post! Very useful…