SEO: Focus On What Really Matters

By Andres Galdames

Having been in the search engine optimization field for several years, I've noticed a progression of the expectations that my clients have of their SEO campaign. Six years ago it was all about getting as many rankings as we could ("Wow, we have 973 first page listings in Google? Yes!"). Then, the focus shifted to getting traffic from those rankings ("Wow, I am getting more search traffic than ever, but why is it all for "underwater basket weaving"?). And now it seems to be about getting qualified traffic for relevant searches. ("No really, I don't actually do underwater basket weaving, I sell CRM software").

The reality is that if you don't stay on top of what really counts, you may be lulled into a false sense of security when it comes to the success of your search marketing efforts. There's one thing that matters when it comes to effective SEO: Conversions.

Measuring Conversions from Natural SEO Efforts
If you're having a tough time quantifying your natural SEO campaign, you aren't alone. Many businesses face uncertainty when it comes to measuring something that seems so nebulous. Your SEO consultant can show you rankings all day, but ultimately you need to know how those efforts are affecting your bottom line. Segmentation is the key to measuring your natural SEO efforts.

Are you running a pay-per-click campaign or campaigns? One way to begin segmenting is to make sure you can easily separate the paid traffic from the organic—as well as the conversions that you pay for (pay-per-click) from the conversions that your natural or organic search traffic is driving. Maybe you see that you were able to get 350 conversions from overall search engine traffic. That's interesting, but it isn't good enough—you've got to segment your visitors to find out how many of those came from the paid clicks and how many came from your SEO efforts.

Dynamic segmentation also lets you dig deeper into your natural search traffic. Let's say you discover that your organic search traffic has helped you sell 194 blue widgets in a month. Good for you! But you've only sold blue widgets, even though you offer widgets in a variety of colors—so why are only the blue ones selling? Now is the time to segment both your natural traffic from paid traffic AND your red widget traffic from your blue widget traffic. What can you learn about those visitors who are looking at red widgets that will help increase conversions? Are there broken links in the red widget section, or are the landing pages in the red widget section not up to par? Seeing how those visitors interact with the site will give you clues on what needs to be fixed.

So the next time your SEO consultant is showing you a handful of charts and is chatting about page views and keywords, ask the question, "How does this metric impact conversions?" If the answer is that it doesn't, tell your consultant you don't want to know any more about that particular metric. By concentrating on the metrics that matter, you'll be able to get more out of your SEO investment.