technical seo metrics - smx west 2013 - dave lloyd, adobe

© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

Technical SEO Metrics – Keeping S.C.O.R.E.

© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. 2

Dave Lloyd Senior Manager, Global Search [email protected]

Global team delivering Organic & Site Search strategies for all Adobe products Team charter

• Deliver industry best practices • Drive KPI-focused results • Align with Marketing Cloud product teams

[email protected] @davelloyd1 linkedin.com/in/davelloyd


Moneyball

“When the numbers acquire the significance of language, they acquire the power to do all the things which language can do…and it is victory and defeat which is all that the sub-conscious really understands.”


How to hit less foul balls – and more technical HRs

5

Google

Your Domain

Once you’ve hit a foul ball, it’s too late. You’ve got to be able to correct your swing early.


What’s the S.C.O.R.E. ???

1. Standardize on Metrics 2. Commit to tools & tracking 3. Organizational alignment 4. Reports & Dashboards 5. Execute Consistently


Standardize on Metrics

Business Question? 1. Executives & BU 2. Web Strategy 3. Analytics

Technical Question? 1. SEO Team 2. Web Production 3. IT

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Inherent challenge of being data-driven

You can’t manage what you can’t measure

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All that’s measureable should not be managed


Questions you must answer Why

Ruthless prioritization

Offensive vs. defensive metrics

Who

Will gather

Will analyze

Will you share with

What

Is the risk

Metrics are possible

Metrics matter most

Can you do to impact change

Where

Might you be out of compliance

To find metrics

To store – email, dashboard

When

How often will you count them

How often will you distribute

How

Will you distribute

Will you share

Will you act on 9


What’s considered acceptable

Webmaster Guidelines

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769

Algorithm Changes – 200 in 2H 2012

http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/10/search-quality-highlights-65-changes.html

How Search Works

http://www.google.com/insidesearch/howsearchworks/algorithms.html

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Commit to using tools & tracking metrics

• Use the right tools • Track the right metrics for you

2


Tools Adobe uses

Adobe Analytics (Site Catalyst, Discover)

Adobe Media Optimizer Adobe Social Google Webmaster Tools Bing Webmaster Tools BrightEdge Google Insights & Trends Advanced Web Ranking SEOMoz Xenu LinkSleuth Screaming Frog Web Position + 5 others


In data analysis, 90% of the analysis takes 90% of the time. The last 10% takes the other 90% of the time.


Principles of data analysis

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Automate data

Don’t go for home runs every time

data as needed Drill in to

Watch for red flags Focus on key KPIs

gathering if possible


Organizational alignment

• SEO Maturity Model • Align team focus to algorithm • Center of Excellence

3


SEO Maturity Model

http://www.searchenginuity.com/seo-maturity-model/


Optimize team focus to SEO signals

SEO Algorithm Team Priorities & Workload


How to get traction with teams – who & what

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Execs

User Interface

Web Strategy

IT

Web Production

Analytics

Global Teams (Loc)

Store Teams

BU & Content Owners

Social

Paid Search

& Media

Product Mktg

SEO Team

IT Crawl rate, crawl errors, 404 trends, redirect

chains, log file analysis, malware alerts

Web Production Minimize redirects, Crawl Errors, Page Load

Speed, Internal Link trends, Robots.txt errors, not followed or unreachable, 302 redirects, browser caching, using CSS sprites, defer parsing of Javascript

Web Strategy, Editorial Rank, HTML Suggestions, Bounce Rate, Search

Queries, Formulaic Metrics (AOV, Order Rate)

Global Country Web Ranking of key terms, Localization

benefit, Country growth trends, Impact of Geo strategies, Canonical issues

Analytics Segment governance, Agree on KPIs, SEO as part

of all revenue drivers

Social Correlation of Social activity with SEO KPIs

COE model - Weekly, Monthly, or Quarterly


Getting traction in your organization

WIIFM – What’s in it for them

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care – about their interests

Experiment with how (email vs. dashboard vs. meeting) you share insights with your org

Unless an emergency, your metrics & analysis may not initially be used

Ask - Get feedback from stakeholders on what metrics matter most to them

Be transparent and make analytics a part of most discussions

Share wins – give credit where due

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Reports & Dashboards

• Reporting Process • Success Metrics • Tools

4


One-slide Executive Summary

Keep it simple Report on current

trends Provide context

for data changes


Monthly Webmaster Tools dashboard

• 36 key metrics • Pulled manually • Monthly export • Stakeholder

distribution & meetings • IT • Web

Production • Global • Social


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Pages not Found (404) Reporting

• Track number of 404 PageViews and URLs Google couldn’t crawl on the site • Provide context and provide recommendations to Dev/IT (i.e. setup 301 redirects) • 404 PageViews data from Adobe Analytics (SiteCatalyst) • Google 404 URLs from Google WT

dummy data


Your critical metrics and how do you measure them?

2 minutes

End

Talk to someone 1 minute each

1. Top technical metrics? 2. What tool do you use to measure or monitor?


Common Mistakes of Analysis

Correlation vs. Causation

Data Bias

Making decisions based on a small sample size

Analyzing too much data (analysis paralysis)

Working with biased data (i.e. seasonal trends)


Execute consistently

Identify patterns & anomalies

Operations plan

5


Big data isn’t about having more data. It’s about getting to the data that matters, identifying patterns & anomalies, and then executing.

27


Agile Scrum methodology

Benefits • Adaptable • Collaborative • Accountable • Organized • Measureable

http://searchengineland.com/have-you-adopted-agile-marketing-yet-2-127247 http://www.slideshare.net/jcolman/agile-marketing-4-principles-and-13-hacks-seomoz-mozcon-2012

Scrum methodology - Prioritized team projects (200+) - Twice weekly “stand up” meetings 1. what you did? 2. what you’re doing? 3. challenges?


What’s in the Appendix

6 charts of technical SEO metrics (all dummy data)

Key browser plug-ins for tracking technical impact

RFP Checklist for evaluating SEO Dashboards

100+ Industrial Strength Digital Marketing Tools

Social metrics – what to track and who to send to

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What’s the S.C.O.R.E. ???

1. Standardize on Metrics 2. Commit to tools & tracking 3. Organizational alignment 4. Reports & Dashboards 5. Execute Consistently


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Site SEO Global Visits Reporting

• Provide month/month and year/year change for the latest month • Present total results for the whole year and project current year SEO Visits • Indicate data source, i.e. Adobe SiteCatalyst or Discover

dummy data


33

Site SEO Global Revenue Reporting

• Provide month/month and year/year change for the latest month • Present total results for the whole year and project current year SEO Revenue • Indicate data source, i.e. Adobe SiteCatalyst or Discover

dummy data


34

Project Dashboard: Tracking KPIs

Decrease in cross-links may reflect setup of GEO targeting tool (directories assigned to regional sites) Project reporting: provide stakeholders with monthly report on KPIs like Visits, Revenue, Members, Trial Downloads and Orders

dummy data


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Project Dashboard: Tracking KPIs

Decrease in cross-links may reflect setup of GEO targeting tool (directories assigned to regional sites) Provide stakeholders with monthly report on each of the KPI,s i.e. SEO Visits

dummy data


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Target Keywords Visibility vs Competition

• Provide month/month and year/year change for the latest month for your website and competitors • Provide context of the trends, for example, change in algorithm, provide recs • Identify source of data (i.e. WebPosition) and visibility score methodology

dummy data


37

Site Crawl: Cross-links/Backlinks

Decrease in cross-links may reflect setup of GEO targeting tool (directories assigned to regional sites) • Report on Backlinking and Cross-linking trends • Provide actionable recommendations • Indicate source of data (i.e. Google Webmaster Tools)

dummy data


Browser Plug-ins

WooRank (Chrome) iSEO (Chrome) SEO Site Tools (Chrome) Web Developer (Firefox)


WooRank


GTMetrix


WebPageTest.org


Enterprise SEO Dashboards


Questions for a major tool purchase

Will it: 1. Free up time for Strategy? 2. Improve executive visibility? 3. Scale across teams, geos, products?


RFP Checklist for evaluating SEO Dashboards

Must-have Features Customizable for our criteria Executive roll-up Stakeholder views Data aggregration Analytics integration Robust Reporting Link Management Keyword Discovery Trend monitoring Monitoring & Alerts Competitor Analysis Training Case Studies

Variable Features

QA & broken link evaluation

Highlight KPIs

Paid integration

Actionable Recommendations

Task management

Long tail recommendations

Predictive Analytics

ROI Measurement

Country & language support

Social signals


100+ Industrial Strength Digital Marketing Tools

SEO http://searchengineland.com/enterprise-seo-tools-part-1-the-browser-41994

http://searchengineland.com/enterprise-seo-tools-part-2-the-cloud-46133

http://www.directionseo.com/seo-tools/ultimate-seo-tools-list/

http://dailywebtip.com/seo/top-enterprise-seo-tools-for-businesses/

http://www.seosoftware.net/category/enterprise-seo-software/

http://www.seosoftware.net/best-seo-software/

Keyword Research, Paid, Social, MVT

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2140051/Tools-to-Monitor-Online-Reputation-Across-Different-Languages

http://www.websitetestingtools.com/category/ppctools/

http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2011/12/05/master-list-of-multivariate-testing-tools.aspx

http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/pages/popular-keyword-research-tools-for-2012.aspx

http://sproutsocial.com/insights/2011/10/twitter-tools-enterprise/

http://software.topseos.com/

http://searchengineland.com/enterprise-seo-tools-part-1-the-browser-41994




SEO Metrics articles

http://dynamical.biz/blog/web-analytics/measuring-seo-performance-37.html

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2049476/Measuring-SEO-Results

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1014-Measuring-SEO-Performance

http://yoast.com/measuring-seo-rankings/

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/506-SEO-Metrics-That-Matter

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http://yoast.com/measuring-seo-rankings/

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/506-SEO-Metrics-That-Matter


Social KPIs - Measurement Approach

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Executives

Budget Stakeholders

Social Practitioners

Provide the right metrics to the respective audience.


Social KPI Framework Business Objective

KPI 1 KPI 2 KPI 3 KPI 4 KPI 5

Awareness Volume of conversation / sentiment

Share of voice Sentiment Engagement* Community Growth %

Engagement Re-tweets Repeat comments

@messages hashtags Repost shares

Lead Gen RFI submission Sales call led through social

Demand / Conversion (adobe.com)

Direct attribution revenue and trial (samcap and bitly): button/link/tweet/post

Referring URL (volume of traffic to adobe.com from channel/page)

web analytics tracking: Impressions, Conversions, trials (engaged vs. not engaged with designated social media)

Social analytics: Measure the correlations between awareness, sentiment, volume of conversation and revenue and trial.

Support Cost savings (decrease call volume, y, z)

CSAT (adobe.com)

Sentiment Volume conversations

Loyalty (individual)

Retweets Repeat comments

@messages hashtags Repost shares

Advocacy # advocates #conversion from neg, to positive

Influence score of the advocate

Impact (variance on KPIs compared to non-advocates)

technical seo metrics - smx west 2013 - dave lloyd, adobe

Documents

geo targeting

evaluating

provide monthmonth

foul balls

crawl errors

organizational

rights reserved

execute consistently