Learn how to improve your SEO metrics

Today, the biggest asset is information. Quality information. We produce, buy and sell information. Today, information is one of the main elements that move the world’s economy. Of course, information is a vital aspect of any business. In the digital marketing world, if you do not measure a series of actions online, for example, the effectiveness of your marketing plans, you will find several limitations in the long run and the only thing you can do will be crossing your fingers so that the final result of your decisions is satisfactory in the operating account. For this reason, it is critical that you understand the concept of metrics and learn how to use it with mastery.

What is metrics? Metrics are basically numerical values that give you a big picture about the performance of what you are doing in your digital marketing strategy. Metrics actually depend on the needs of each business; however, the main metrics that any organization should monitor regularly are the following:

Links to external websites

Some consider these links as a negative factor, since they mean, at some point, a decrease in terms of SEO authority. However, links to external websites may have a positive impact on the ranking of your results, as Google needs to classify the websites that provide value to the users who seek them, and if your website is the main information source on a specific topic, this means that you are reference when it comes to the needs of users.

Internal Links

 

These are the links inside your website. If you manage a blog about film reviews and you already have two entries about Martin Scorsese, it is important to link them, especially if the relevance of both articles is great. There is no point in linking pages to each other just because: there must be a coherence and a distribution strategy that helps Google to perform a better tracking. Internal links, on the one hand, distribute authority and enhance the user experience, and on the other hand, they allow Google to index and classify your website more easily. This makes users find your information more effectively.

Indexed websites

 

Never forget to monitor this information. The direction of your SEO strategy depends on this on a great extent, indeed. In order to help Google in its ranking, a good practice is to position a specific keyword on each page. By doing this, the more pages you have indexed on Google, the more keywords you can rank in search results. This means that your website is relevant as a whole.

Keywords

 

The positions of keywords are extremely important in all SEO reporting and monitoring process. These keywords are always the same, they are a key for attracting visitors that are looking for the kind of information you provide. A separate keyword ranking will not give you much information besides the positioning of keywords that your website is showing on Google. Therefore, it is necessary to compare the position with the traffic generated by your keywords, as well as the volume of results displayed.

Brand exposure

 

Branding is a fundamental issue when it comes to SEO. If you do not position your brand, you will surely experience two problematic situations. First off, you will have to fight tremendously for the keywords that bring you traffic, and, on the other hand, once someone has found you through a keyword, this user will always decide to return to your website because you have offered the information you need. You will not only be missing such important data to drive any digital marketing campaign, but you also will not have control, for example, about your brand’s online reputation.

Image courtesy of Search Engine People Blog at Flickr.com

Now, how can you collect that information? There are many tools for measuring metrics. Some of them are better than others, but each one may adapt to the needs of each client. However, there are some generic tools that can be very useful for measuring the metrics of your brand online.

The first one, of course, is Google itself: the most basic tool for SEO. You should be aware of its algorithmic changes and constantly produce ideas for keywords. Moreover, Google offers you services you might not know. One of them is Google Webmaster Tools. This tool is vital to tell Google how to interpret your website, and it is an excellent platform that notifies you about the errors of your website, the possible penalties you may have and even the links detected by Google. Another free and very useful tool is Google Analytics. This will allow you to know what your users are doing on your website and how they reach it