Tips for using analytics to support SEO
James Gurd
Owner
Digital Juggler
This talk will discuss key ways to use web analytics techniques & tools to
help you evaluate and improve your SEO performance.
Digital Marketing Priorities 2013 Summit
11th January 2013. Brought to you by:

Agenda
 Setting goals, objectives & KPIs
 Benchmarking your data
 Evaluating keyphrase performance
 Evaluating impact of external links
 Evaluating assisted conversions
 Interpreting your data
 Key take-aways
 Useful resources
 Please interact using the BrightTALK buttons:
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About me
 >14 years’ e-commerce experience
 B2B/B2C, Client-side, Agency, Consultant
 Owner of Digital Juggler since 2009
 Work with brands like House of Fraser,
Argos, Sweaty Betty, Smythson, The Watch
Gallery…
 Guest blogger for Smart Insights &
Econsultancy
 Author of industry best practice guides on E-
commerce RFP, B2B Content Marketing,
SEO, Landing Page Optimisation etc
 Co-host of #ecomchat on Twitter (Mondays)
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Setting goals, objectives & KPIs
 Give yourself clear targets
 Goal – broad target
e.g. Increase brand awareness
 Objective – concrete & measurable
e.g. Increase number of visitors using social
sharing buttons by 100% within 2 months
 KPI – measurement target
Volume / Value / Quality
Volume Value Quality
Total visits Average order Bounce rate
value
Total newsletter Per Visit Value Conversion rate
sign-ups (basket-to-order)
Image from trendhunter.com
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Benchmarking your data
Why do you need to do this?
No clear focus = Poor decision making
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1. Free web analytics package e.g.
Google Analytics.
Quick Poll 2. Paid web analytics package e.g.
Webtrends / Omniture etc.
Which tools do 3. Proprietary analytics package.
you use to 4. Log files.
benchmark 5. SEO software e.g. Majestic SEO /
SEOMoz.
SEO data?
6. Other.
7. A combination of the above.
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10 Steps to benchmarking data
 Step 1 – agree your KPIs
 Step 2 – map which tools contain data for each KPI
 Step 3 – Identify gaps & plug them
 Step 4 – define reporting requirements
 Step 5 – export historical data (ideally last 12 months)
 Step 6 – create KPI dashboard
 Step 7 – create helpful visuals (charts/graphs) for trends
 Step 8 – sense check data: valid?
 Step 9 – define data update schedule
 Step 10 – start collating new data!
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Example: using Excel
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Evaluating keyphrase performance
The obvious The overlooked - context
 Ranking  Top landing pages
 Impressions  Relevance to landing page
 Visits  Share of market (% of total
 Click through rate searches)
 Transactions  Revenue potential based on
increased market share
 Revenue
 Seasonality
 Average order value
 Market trends
 Per Visit Value
 New vs. Return customers
Use keyword research tools like
Further reading from Smart Insights: Google Keyword & Google Trends
http://bit.ly/UD1FYQ
http://bit.ly/Woi95f
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Keyword opportunity gap
Work out where the ‘big wins’ are
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Example: Advanced Web Ranking
1
Plot ranking
against
competitors
2
Monitor multiple
keyphrase targets
3
Monitor multiple
search engines
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Example: Google Analytics
Report: Traffic Sources > Sources > Search > Organic
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Top tip for analysis
Export data to Excel, then use
lookups/pivots etc to organise
and give the view you need
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Evaluating external links
 You need a full picture – rank / traffic
/ value / impact
 Links aren’t just about keyword rank
 Links also:
 Drive traffic.
 Support customer acquisition & retention.
 Increase brand awareness.
 Generate revenue.
 Provide competitive positioning.
What type of link
Further reading from Smart Insights: works best for your
http://bit.ly/13dTG8D website?
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1. Specialist SEO software e.g.
Majestic SEO / SEOMoz.
Quick Poll 2. Free web analytics package e.g.
Google Analytics.
Which tools do 3. Paid web analytics package e.g.
you use for Webtrends / Omniture etc.
external link 4. Proprietary analytics package.
5. Other.
analysis?
6. A combination of the above.
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Example: Open Site Explorer
1
Compare link
portfolio against
competitors
2
Profile links based
on link source
authority (impact)
3
Identify linking
pages and anchor
text
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Top tip for link analysis
Add campaign tracking codes
to each link so you can use
analytics reports to evaluate
the impact.
Useful tool:
Google Analytics URL builder.
http://bit.ly/RCa1kU
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1. Yes – all the time
2. Occasionally
Quick Poll 3. No
Do you use 4. I don’t know!
campaign
tracking codes
to support SEO
analysis?
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Evaluating assisted conversions
Which keywords/phrases are giving
your conversions a helping hand?
 A visit from a matched search query
doesn’t guarantee a conversion.
 Buying cycles can be multi-stage.
 There are often time lags between
first interaction and final sale.
 Last click analysis misses the bigger
picture.
How do you calculate the ‘real’
impact of an organic keyphrase?
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Example: Google Analytics
Report: Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Top Conversion Paths
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Interpreting your data
 Is your data trend positive, negative or neutral?
 Think about visitor intent:
 What keyphrase has driven them here?
 What would they be expecting?
 What are the logical next steps to take?
 Are these steps being taken?
 A decline in performance can have multiple causes:
 Internal – website conversion issues / poor campaign targeting
 External – industry decline / search engine algorithm update
 Combine multiple data source to validate assumptions:
 Web analytics data – the ‘what’
 Voice-of-customer – the ‘why’
 Industry / Aggregate data
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1. Yes
2. No
Quick Poll 3. Maybe – it depends on the context
Is a high 4. I don’t know!
bounce rate for
a keyphrase a
bad sign?
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Example: bounce rate
A high bounce rate can be positive or negative
Positive Negative
Local search goes to local store Organic listing for product keyphrase
landing page goes direct to product details page
Please note HoF webpages used only to illustrate the point, not as case studies as data on these pages unknown
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Example: keyword market trends
Is your data in line with market trends?
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Example: search engine updates
Are changes the result of industry developments?
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Key take-aways
 Planning puts you in control
 Understand what you want to measure &
why before you start doing anything
 Make sure you benchmark data to give
you something to compare future
performance against
 Get your analysis toolkit set-up
 Do analysis regularly – be proactive as
well as reactive
 Learn to interpret data using context
 Stay in touch with industry news &
developments – SEO is fast moving
…questions Image from phys.org
please! 26

Useful resources
Smart Insights Other industry resources
James Gurd’s SEO article series (12 SEOMoz blog
parts): http://www.seomoz.org/blog
http://www.smartinsights.com/author/ Search Engine Land:
james-gurd/
http://searchengineland.com/library/s
Guide - 7 Steps to Successful SEO: eo
http://www.smartinsights.com/guides/ Google Webmaster Central blog:
seo-7-steps-to-success-guide/
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogs
pot.co.uk
History of algorithm updates:
http://www.seomoz.org/google-
algorithm-change
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Thank you for your participation
Your questions please
 Please ask questions
and rate this webcast
 For more Answers to
your Digital Marketing
Questions use our
free community
 Best wishes for 2013!
http://www.smartinsights.com/answers
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The
end…..
THANK YOU!
For more information:
E: james@digitaljuggler.com
M: +44 (0) 7794 539 399
W: digitaljuggler.com
T: @jamesgurd
Keep an eye out for #ecomchat – weekly industry
ecommerce chat – new topic every week
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