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.

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

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.

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 ext. 2104.

or fill out our form.

POSTED BY BETH EARLE-- click here to comment

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.
• 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