On This Week in SEO, we talk metrics. We all know that there are metrics that are important, but what are the ones that you should align your goals with? Liam talks about what metrics you should measure, how you work towards determining these metrics, and why testing is so important. Hope you enjoy!

Topic #1: METRICS

METRIC DEPENDS ON THE END GOAL

 - Affiliate site: If the end goals is ad impressions, traffic & revenue should be the metrics

 - SaaS: if you are driving qualified leads, pipeline should be the metric

 - eCommerce: if you are selling, revenue is the metric (or influenced sales)

WHY PIPELINE SHOULD BE YOUR SAAS METRIC

 - There is a dollar amount attributed - qualified leads are great, but they don’t have a dollar value, and therefore can’t determine ROI

 - They are DEFINITELY qualified leads

 - You can simply determine ROI

DON’T COMPLICATE THINGS

When you throw too many metrics into the mix, you are potentially causing several issues:

 - Overanalyzing the data, and...

 - Improperly attributing successes

Topic #2: HOW TO WORK TOWARDS METRIC

DETERMINE TOP SOURCES OF SUCCESS

 - Which portions of the website generate the highest volume of traffic and conversions, what is the behavior flow of those portions of the website, what does a typical buyer’s journey look like

FIND CONSISTENT NEEDS OF TARGET AUDIENCE

 - What do your prospects ALWAYS talk to your sales team about?

ANALYZE COMPETITOR CONTENT STRATEGIES

 - What are they doing that is working? 

 - What is the goal of those campaigns? 

 - How are they taking users and turning them into customers?

DEVELOP STRATEGY TOWARDS THAT GOAL

 - How do you take the whole picture and turn it into a strategy?

 - How do you get your team bought in?

 - How do you get your users to buy into what you are selling?

Topic #3: TEST. TEST. TEST.

ITS OKAY TO FAIL

The only way for you to actually get to the point of knowing what drives revenue or change, and what does not. SOOOO test away.