Search engine optimisation has changed so much that in just two years it has become almost unrecognisable. What shapes the industry these days is mostly content and personalised results.
One of the factors that has brought forward this dramatic change is Google´s Search Plus Your World, which takes into account a number of factors, including location, brand mentions, search history and your friend´s search history among others. This also means that businesses are faced with a problem, as consumers get different search results which may or may not include the brand in question. Search Engine Watch lists a few metrics that brands should really focus on when developing their SEO strategy.
The first thing brands should look at is the Average Ranking report. It provides the opportunity to see where a website´s URL ranks on average for all users and weighs all impressions. The next metric that can give an idea of how well a brand´s SEO is faring is the visitor growth report in Google Analytics. It is very simple to interpret performance with this report, the aim is that the trend goes upwards. However, it might be useful to look at the number of new and repeat visitors separately, because they can indicate different things. For instance, a high number of repeat visitors might signal valuable content, whilst a high ratio of new visitors might suggest catchy headlines.
Finally, one of the most important SEO metrics that should be taken into account is conversions. The conversions report can tell you how many impressions actually turned into profit for the business. The conversions report also shows how ads, copy and keywords work for the brand. There are two types of conversions: one-per-click, which takes only one click to reach a goal – such as subscribing for a newsletter – and many-per-click, which includes goals achieved through multiple clicks – such as tracing the whole purchase path.