Test question
-
..
-
What's the #1 goal of the client? You need to show how organic search has improved that goal. For example, if it's an e-commerce site, then you want to track revenue coming from organic search (and perhaps social media, if you're doing that). If it's a B2B company, then you want to track the number and quality of leads coming from organic search (and perhaps social media, if you're doing that).
All of the other types of reports -- keyword rankings, growth in links, amount of traffic, and so on -- can also be included. But the examples above are what your client will (or should) care about the most. That's the #1 thing by which you will be judged. It's about the bottom line.
-
Thanks Samuel! - That's an excellent list.
In terms of SEO Metrics, a lot has changed in recent times due to the difficulty with gathering the required information (not provided) and how the overall industry is shifting.
Would you have any recommendations on metrics you would report to clients on a monthly basis?
-
Thanks for the question. Although every website is different, here's one general process:
1. Goal identification -- What role does the website play in the marketing process? Is it an e-commerce site that sells B2C products? Is it for B2B lead generation? Think about the big picture and how the website should be optimized to get the traffic to do exactly that. For the latter goal, you may examine landing pages, calls to action, and more and make recommendations as far as conversion optimization. As far as reporting, choose what metrics you will report to the client based on the goals. Set the benchmark numbers before you begin work so you can show your progress.
2. Technical SEO audit -- Nearly every website has problems (duplicate tags and content, 404s, 302 not 301 redirects, slow page-load time, mobile ready, and a lot more). What about local SEO? These types of things are low-hanging fruit that can usually be addressed quickly and will typically give a nice boost to the client at the beginning to prove the future value of SEO. Search Moz posts -- there are a lot of good ones on what should be included in audits.
3. Keyword research and content -- After you've done this, think about how the site should be structured as far as keyword-based hierarchy. What short-tail keyword should be targeted on pages and what long-tail ones should be used for, say, blog posts? Then, write or optimize content based mainly on the user intent behind the keyword. See what types of content rank top in Google for those terms, and do one better than them.
4. Use social media and PR to promote the content on the site and the company a whole.
Repeat three and four indefinitely. Good luck!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Newbie Question about the first steps of website SEO
Hello. I'm new to Moz and know very little about SEO. I just finished going through the Beginner's Guide to SEO and I'm ready to take action. I plan on doing the SEO work myself. The guide says before doing keyword research, I should first answer certain questions about my business, such as: What types of my product are people searching for? Who is searching for these terms? When are people searching for these terms? How are people searching for my product? There are several more. How do I go about finding the answers to these questions? Thank you in advance.
Keyword Research | | KathyAshley1 -
'key word' SEO question
Does having ' ' around your keyword/phrase within the content on your website have an effect on SEO for that keyword?
Keyword Research | | MeridianGroup
For example, in the copy of my site, we reference 'buy local' instead of buy local. I am trying to optimize for buy local and I am wondering if the apostrophes are getting in the way? Thank you so much! -Sam0 -
Meta tag question
Through research our competitors have created independent product codes like FT-5750 and are using it as an independent SKU#, when I search this product code they are the only search result. can we use their abbreviated SKU# in our meta tag or keywords to show up in the SERP? Thanks, Michelle & Blake
Keyword Research | | LeapOfBelief0 -
Google Adwords Keyword Planner Question
Is the keyword volume data shown the number of google adword clicks people made after searching with the used keyword, or is it the exact match search volume??
Keyword Research | | jennie.evans0 -
Ranking for more keywords - Noob question
Hi, I've noticed recently that our site is ranking for a fraction of the keywords that our competitors are ranking for. In terms of increasing the number of keyword rankings per page would it simply be a case of adding optimised copy to each page? Thanks, Dan
Keyword Research | | Sparkstone0 -
Newbie question about keyword difficulty tool
Hi guys, It's my first day here ate seomoz and I got intrigued about the results from the keyword difficulty tool. Even though I do understand the results, I noticed the ranking analysis table has some highlighted cells and some of them have a dark checkmark sign inside. What exactly do they mean? I couldn't find it anywhere. Cheers from Brazil. i0tzl.png
Keyword Research | | lenineto0 -
Keyword question
In my keywords should they include the city name or not? Example..... plastic surgery or plastic surgery Orlando I know the search engine knows what city i am in, if i search for plastic surgery and i live in Orlando, does it pull up world wide plastic surgery links first or local plastic surgery clinics? Thanks in advance. Daniel
Keyword Research | | dools0 -
Help selecting KWs based on their difficult to rank for and KW tool question
I've done all of my keyword research, and now I'm selecting the KW's. In a previous question, seomoz had answered to pick a mix of easy, medium, and difficult words to rank for. How do I know which are easy, medium, difficult? The KW Difficulty Tool is not very specific. Is the level of difficulty related to where the phrase pops up for my company in search results? Are hard words ones that you do not already rank in the top 50 search results? When selecting KWs should I choose words that rank already in the top 50 that I'd like to try to move up? Or look for NEW phrases/words not in the top 50 results? Also, when entering KW phrases int the KW Difficulty Tool, Rank Tracker, and in Campaigns - do I need to use quotation marks if it is a phrase? I noticed that the KW difficulty tool has different results if you use quotation marks. Lastly, The person who did SEO before me has a list of KWs he optimized for, would it be valuable for me to include his words in my On-Page optimization efforts?
Keyword Research | | aircyclemegan0