The KPIs of SEO

Helping the Suits Understand the Value of SEO Copywriting
Times are getting better on SEO Copywriters, at least in my experience. More people are understanding the value in what it is we do. That said, I have found that if you can use numbers to show how your letters have improved and increased the important numbers (the dollars, baby!), you can seem like a wizard, a prophet or a saviour. Maybe a bit of all 3.

The Suits only understand crunching numbers. Graphs and charts. Spread sheets and data analysis. Creativity is lost in many boardrooms...it is replaced by a cold, unfeeling business sensibility. They want numbers that clearly map out probable futures. Knowing this to be the case, as an SEO you need to look at numbers that can be improved and measured, numbers that actually support your value.

What you'll need to look at is what they call KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators. For me, I referred to some experts on the web (like Matt Cutts, Aaron Wall and SEOBook, Search Engine Watch and Webmaster World to name just a few) to verify I was thinking the right way about what to measure for search engine optimization. Once I was on the same page as the experts and better understood what to measure, as well as how and why, I felt I was ready to pitch.

Why KPIs are So Important
It may vary by a client's specific needs, but usually, I am asked to help increase sales, or more specifically, conversion rates.

Conversion rates mean that I make more visitors do what the website owner wants them to do, like buy a product or sign up for a service. So not only am I expected to drive more visitors into the site by increasing its presence in the search engine results, I am also expected to make a user focus on a specific action once they arrive. The only way I know to properly measure this is through KPI analysis. If I can't draw a straight line (or at least a mildly wobbly one) from what I am doing to the increases in conversion rates, I won't be working very long.

The numbers used for measuring KPIs are going to come from some kind of analytics and tracking program. The most common ones I see used to monitor and analyze traffic are Google Analytics, Omniture, ClickTracks and WebTrends. They all operate essentially the same way--looking at log files or using tracking cookies to see what people do in your site.

These analysis tools can spit out reports, do comparisons and analysis, and in the end, will help you be able to hang tough in the boardroom.

An Example of Measuring the KPIs of Search
Let's use an example of an established site, coming to me to increase the sale of their widgets.
The site owner has been using Google Analytics, and shares statistical information for the past 14 months. For the purpose of this illustration, we'll assume that the coding of the site is already tight, and that there are no issues or glitches in the collection of the data I am reading. I don't have to tweak the coding, I simply have to use SEO copywriting skills to improve the rankings and the conversion rates.

Step 1: Collect Historical and Relative Data
I will first look to see where the site is to-date. 14 months of data should help me to see what the average traffic is every month and if there are any seasonal trends in the business to evaluate. If possible, I will use more than just the Google data, simply because I want to be sure the numbers I am seeing are as accurate as possible.
Inside the Analytics, there is a lot to learn. I review the number of visits, pages per visit, the bounce rate, the time on each page, and when possible, the forward paths through the site. I also need to know the referrals and the number of visits driven by organic searches (with the associated keywords), and like to see the ratio of new-versus-returning visitors as well as their raw numbers.
Depending on the widget community, I may also analyze current market trends or shifts that happen outside the website itself--these are imporatant things to consider, because if the market is strong, weak, growing or shrinking (collectively) it may have a direct effect on my ability to improve the sale of widgets for my client.
Step 2: Keyphrase Analysis and Targeting
I will quickly start identifying the keyphrases truly important to the sale of the widgets. Sometimes the client knows what these are, which is great. In my experience, the business owner is often a little too close to the subject matter to see it objectively, and they don't really know what an end user is actually typing into a search engine to find the widgets. What they believe and what really happens on the web might create quite a gap to fill. They might think that people understand that "widgeting widgets that offer a beneficial widgetry" is the most accurate description of their product, but fail to see that people are only typing in "widgets" to get what they want. Or vice versa. Point being, I don't want to go only by what the business owner thinks will work--there is data available to illustrate what actually does work.

I usually ask them to tell me what they would most like to rank for and then I use some keyword analysis tools to look deeper, and see what searches are actually happening on the web. I use the engines to review the top SERPs (search engine results pages) for these searches, to get a feel for the competitive landscape. It may be much easier for me to show some progress and ROI in "Nashville widgets" than going after "widgets" on its own...in most cases in SEO, less competition means greater chance for success.

And Then, We're off and Running:
Once I am sure I am looking at the right KPIs, I do the following:
Set a baseline - using the 14 months of data, I create a monthly average for each KPI. This is the starting point--it creates something tangible to measure and improve.
Create a list of Targeted Keyphrases - using keyword tools and web research, I target a specific list of keyphrases. I then break these down into primary, secondary and tertiary keyphrase groups based on search volume and/or previous conversion rates. Each page to optimize has a primary, secondary and tertiary keyword (or keyphrase) assigned.
Create a spread sheet - I build out a spread sheet in Excel to bring all these things together into one easily understood (and share-worthy) document. I add columns for every month to enable ongoing reporting and show month-over-month variances. There is an Excel page(tab) for the on-site stats (the KPIs from Analytics) and a tab for Keyphrases' SERP positions (which I manually review--some automated review tools cause penalties). Sometimes I include another tab that offers the details of any work done between reports.

Why It Works
This Excel sheet makes what I do real, and offers something tangible to the business owner. All he or she knows, is that they want to sell more widgets online. But by me taking the time to carefully structure an accurate document of my efforts to do so, they can better understand the methods to my madness. Better still, if some efforts seem to work better than others, this sheet will help us to see (in numbers) what that really means to the bottom line, and helps put the greatest push behind the most probable successes. This means I am showing them how to spend less money to earn more of it--a beautiful thing for us all.

There is no true rule of thumb that works for every situation here...organic search is not a science. However, by knowing that measuring KPIs accurately can mean job security for me and more money for my clients, it is one step into the boardroom I am always willing to take. If I set it up properly, clients eventually tend to get really excited about what organic SEO can mean to them.

Cha-ching.