SEO Numbers Don’t Tell The Whole Story

Written by Nick Stamoulis

It is true that you have to look at the big picture constantly while working an SEO campaign. The problem is, you have to do this while working the day to day elements of the program, such as writing new content for the website, posting on social media, and building links. It is hard to achieve a sense of balance because while we are working the program, it is hard to lose site of where we are going or how much progress has been made.

In order to cope with this, we often look at the numbers. We focus on our traffic statistics and other tangible information that will prove to us that the SEO program is successful, but the numbers also don’t give us the whole story. Here are some things, besides analytical data, that should be consider to assess how well the SEO program is working:

Engagement

Traffic and engagement may be related, but they aren’t the same thing. While it is nice to see how well the traffic is increasing because of your SEO efforts, if the audience isn’t engaging with your brand, it really won’t do your business much good in the long run. So how do you measure engagement? Take a look at other data, such as newsletter signups, bounce rate, and even follows, comments, and shares on social media. As the traffic starts to increase, signs of engagement should be increasing.

What if the engagement isn’t increasing as the traffic does? This could mean that your SEO program isn’t targeting the right audience and may need a tweak. Do the keywords you optimized for match user intent? Are you getting high quality traffic in the first place? These are things to consider while proceeding with your SEO program.

Increased Business

Ultimately, you will want your SEO program to bring in new business. What this means exactly will depend on your business. If you have a B2B business with a long sales cycle, measuring leads is a good idea. A good SEO program will increase organic traffic and if the traffic is of the highest quality, you should be getting a higher number of great leads.

For B2C companies, an increase in purchases is a good indicator of the SEO program working. In both cases, if you have an increase in repeat business, it could mean that the SEO program is attracting people who are not only interested in becoming new customers, but you may have also attracted those who are willing to follow your brand long after the initial purchase is made.

Think of the process of working an SEO program as more like a marathon than a sprint. It could take months or even over a year to really see it start to work. Along the way, you might need to make adjustments. However, be careful of making these changes too quickly. You need to give the program a chance to start working before you can really assess if anything in the program needs to be altered.

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