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Using Statistics
and Maintaining Your Web Site Blog
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March
31, 2006 |
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How
to Use a Search Engine Analysis Report
A search optimization firm has offered to run an analysis
on your website's performance on major search engines.
These reports offer valuable information that can help
guide your search marketing strategy, so it's important
to understand how to interpret the report.
Here's a no-nonsense approach to how to interpret your
report and determine what action your company should take
based on that information.
Traditionally, a Search Engine Analysis (SEA) will contain
5 key types if information:
| · |
The search engines for which the report
checked your site's position; |
|
· |
The keywords on which you would expect
your site to be found; |
| · |
The position of your web site for each
keyword on the selected search engines. Typically,
an SEA will show whether your site is placed within
the Top 30 positions; |
| · |
The page on which your site appears for
each keyword. Many search engines display 10 results
per page, some 15 or 20; |
| · |
The URL or address of the web page on your
site that is appearing within the Top 30 positions
or Top 3 pages of a search engine. |
| · |
If you've been working with an optimization firm
for some time, your report may also include some
historical analysis that shows where your site was
ranked previously and how much change has occurred
from your last report. |
As you review your report, here are the important things
to look for:
| 1 |
You'll want to see whether your site is placed
within the Top 30 results and within the Top 3 pages
for any of your keywords. If you are appearing within
the Top 30 results for a number of keywords, you
can consider your site is performing well. |
|
2 |
Usually, your report will show how your web site
performs when your company name is typed in as a
keyword. This piece of information is good only
to ensure that a search engine has indexed your
site; as a rule, your potential prospects likely
do not know your company name when they go to a
search engine to look for your product or service,
so performing well on your name likely won't mean
much traffic-wise. |
| 3 |
Reviewing which keywords are listed on your report
is useful as it will tell you the terms for which
your site likely has been optimized. If there are
aspects of your business that are missing from this
list of keywords, you may need new additional content
on your site. Similarly, if the keywords on which
your site performs are extremely niche, you should
ask your optimization firm for guidance on whether
there are any more general terms that would serve
you better in driving traffic. |
| 4 |
Reviewing which pages (URLs) are showing up well
on search engines will tell you which pages not
to edit or change. You'll want to focus your energies
on keywords for which you don't rank well and on
pages that don't perform well. |
| 5 |
If you appear within the Top 10 positions for
a keyword, it's best to leave things alone. How
a search engine ranks your site is determined by
several factors, including what other sites aiming
for that keyword are doing. It may not be worth
the effort and cost to try to move up a few positions,
since there's no guarantee such an effort would
work. |
| 6 |
If your SEO firm provides information in the
report on how many positions your site has gone
up or down since the last report, it's best to discuss
any concerns before making wholesale changes. The
search engines frequently tweak their indexes and
it's not unusual for results to be unstable for
a period of time. Its best to determine that a search
result has become relatively permanent before investing
in a lot of effort to change it. |
Pilot Fish provides its clients with quarterly SEA reports
to help guide their search marketing strategy. For more
information, call at 877-799-9994
ext. 2104
or fill
out our contact form.
POSTED
BY BETH EARLE -- click
here to comment
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February
15, 2006 |
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Big
Daddy won't be big problem for most
A pre-launch review of Google's "Big Daddy" search engine
update indicates that legitimately optimized web sites
either will see no difference in their results or actually
benefit from this much-anticipated update.
Pilot Fish conducted a pre-launch analysis of Big Daddy,
comparing the current search engine results of 20 clients
to the expected results when Big Daddy is launched this
month or next. For each of the 20 clients, Pilot Fish
tracked 3 keyword terms - a total of 60 keyword searches.
For 48 out of the 60 keyword terms, or 80 percent, search
results stayed the same or improved. For 12 keyword
terms, or 20 percent, the client sites dropped in position
by an average of 2.8 spots, negligible considering most
retained first page positioning.
Our sampling of company web sites included clients whose
sites had been very recently optimized to those that
had been optimized several years ago. There was no statistical
difference in the performance of the older sites vs.
the newer sites.
Google's latest algorithm change, like those before
it, is intended to improve search engine results for
users. The biggest change is that the Big Daddy update
will throw out spammy link directory sites that were
built from spidering the web. For companies that relied
on these types of sites for their link-building strategy,
they'll likely be hurt by the upcoming changes.
At the same time, Google already has been penalizing
web sites that use other spamming techniques. Earlier
this month, the search engine banned BMW Germany, yes,
the automaker, for using redirect "doorway" pages to
improve search engine positioning and drive traffic
to its site. After three days and a very public brouhaha,
the BMW Germany site was reinstated after the problems
were fixed. But don't expect the average business site
to get such a fast about-face from Google. If you break
their rules, there's a good chance you'll be penalized.
For assistance with your SEO project, contact John Inama
at
877-799-9994
ext. 2104
or fill
out our contact form.
POSTED
BY ANGELA CHARLES -- click
here to comment
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January
31, 2006 |
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Use
Site Statistics to Guide Your SEO
When it comes to optimizing your web site for performance
on the major search engines, there certainly is a fair
bit of "art" that goes into accomplishing a first-page
result.
But don't ignore the science in the process. The statistics
available to you that measure traffic and usage patterns
on your site can help guide you in your optimization efforts.
You can use your traffic statistics first to determine
whether Internet users are finding your site on the major
search engines. Here are the most helpful reports in your
SEO efforts:
Referring Sites
The "Referring Sites" report will show you not only which
search engines have directed traffic to your site, but
other web sites that are sending visitors your way.
If there are any vertical portals sites listed that seem
to be directing a fair bit of traffic your way, you should
probably consider an advertising program with them for
increased industry visibility.
The Referring Sites program also will tell you how many
visitors you're getting from the biggies like Google,
Yahoo and MSN. You'll want to document the number of visitors
from these sites prior to embarking on your optimization
project so that you have a benchmark for measuring the
success of your efforts.
Keywords
The "Keywords" report will tell you what terminology site
visitors used to find you. You'll likely be surprised
by some of the results. At the same time, you'll want
to document the terms that are missing from this list,
as it may indicate a need to better optimize important
keywords to your business.
Entry Points
Most likely, your home page will be your site's primary
point of entry. That's to be expected as most of the links
to your site direct visitors right to your home page.
But, search engines work differently. As they index content
and then return results to search engine users, they will
return the pages that best fit the user's search parameters.
So, having a well-optimized site should lead to many of
your site's pages being a strong entry point.
This report perhaps offers the best information when identifying
potential optimization strategies. If your site has valuable
product or technical content that site visitors aren't
finding through the search engines, then you've got some
work to do.
Page Views
This report tells you how often each page on your site
has been viewed. It will help you determine the interest
level of various kinds of content on your site. Also,
take a look at how many times your contact form has been
used. If you're not getting the kind of conversion rate
you'd expected, you may need a stronger call-to-action
on your site.
Next issue we'll discuss how to use a Search Engine Analysis
report for additional optimization assistance.
That's the science. After that, it takes a little bit
of art.
For assistance in interpreting your web sites traffic
statistics or help with optimization, contact Pilot Fish
at
877-799-9994
or
fill
out our form.
POSTED
BY BETH EARLE -- click
here to comment
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January
16, 2006 |
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Regular
site maintenance important to performance
It's not uncommon to build or redesign your web site,
be satisfied with the end result and then put it on the
back burner, assuming the site will continue to perform
for months, or years to come.
Unfortunately, without a regular maintenance program to
ensure your site's continued performance, you could be
caught off-guard when your site ceases to send you leads
or drops off the Internet altogether.
Here are some of the things you should include in a regular
site maintenance program:
| · |
Domain registration renewal: Once your
site domain (web address) is registered, it can
be very easy to forget that the domain must be renewed
once every year or two or ten, depending on the
time period for which you originally purchased the
domain. Theoretically, you should receive a notice
from your registrar (normally Network Solutions
or any reputable one) when it's time to renew the
domain. But, in our experience, those notifications
are not regularly received by companies, oftentimes
because the contact person for that domain registration
within your company has changed. Not renewing the
domain before it expires will result in your web
site no longer being accessible by you or anyone
else until that domain is renewed. That's the best-case
scenario. The worst-case scenario is that another
company can sneak in and buy your domain right out
from under you if you've let it lapse for too long.
Set yourself a reminder to check on your domain
renewal to prevent either of these things from happening. |
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· |
Broken links: As sites are updated over
time, it's easy for errors to be made in the linking
or navigation structure that can cause broken links
to occur within the site. Likewise, if you're linking
to external sites, you'll need to check periodically
that those sites are still active and living at
the same web address. Periodically check all links,
both internal and external, to make sure their still
linked to an active page. |
| · |
Contact forms: Check to make sure your
contact form is still working. Occasionally, for
no apparent reason, these forms can break, resulting
in your potential leads not reaching you. |
| · |
Search engine performance: Run a search
engine analysis on your site quarterly to make sure
the site is still performing under important keywords
that would generate qualified traffic to your web
site. |
| · |
Content review: Most businesses evolve
over time, adding new products and services, eliminating
or changing obsolete programs, and creating opportunities
for more valuable customer interactions. It's important
that your web site reflect the most current way
your company does business so that prospects who
contact you get exactly what they expect. Additionally,
some search engines pay attention to how often your
site is updated and look favorably on sites that
add or alter content periodically. |
POSTED
BY BETH EARLE -- click
here to comment
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