In the last 15 years search engines have became the primary way for internet users to find what they are looking for on the World Wide Web. Due to this website owners fast realised that in order to drive large quantities of traffic to their websites they would need to be listed as high as possible in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This realisation resulted in the formation of the search engine optimisation industry. Search engine optimisation (SEO) consultants analyse websites and work out ways in which they could be improved with the aim of ranking higher in search engine results. Most website owners are beginning to realise the importance of a well implemented SEO campaign and there is plenty of information available online that provide useful tips on how to get started with SEO. Although there seems to be a lot of information online relating to SEO techniques there seems to be a lack of information explaining how to tell if the SEO is proving effective. This article aims to show a couple of ways to track how effective the SEO is proving and how this information can be used to make future efforts more effective.
Firstly, and most obviously, it is vital to keep track of the position of the website in the major search engines. This can be done manually but there are also programs available that will automate the process and provide a list of the rakings for each keyphrase in each search engine. By looking out for a rise in position in the SERPs is the most basic, and straightforward, way to check whether a site is improving. Unfortunately it is not 100% accurate as there are scenarios that this does not account for, for example: it doesn’t take into account changes in search engine algorithms; the seo efforts of competing websites or anomalies found due to searching from differing locations.
A second, exceptionally worthwhile, step is to install tracking software (such as the free Google Analytics). By placing a piece of html on each webpage the software tracks where traffic is derived from, and when appropriate which keyphrase was used to reach the site. This allows the website owner to study which keyphrases are proving the most useful and which are not worth the effort in optimising them. Tracking software also allows the site owner to set up goals (for when a sale is made for example) so they can tell not only which keyphrases draw in traffic, but which phrases are most likely to transfer into sales.
When working on my website I was too busy to implement SEO myself, thankfully I found plenty of local
web designers and
SEO companies that could help.
SEO should be viewed as an iterative process. Changes should be constantly made, analysed and improved upon. In addition to this site owners should always remember that SEO does not provide instant results. To achieve high rankings in the major search engines will often take weeks if not months or effort.
