In the Guide, you have, so far, learnt how to plan for and execute a search engine optimization and promotion strategy. However, this is not a one-off process, but an ongoing and iterative process, where you tweak and refine towards ever better ranking.
To inform this iteration, it is vital that you objectively monitor your performance, using measurable indicators and statistics.
As I have indicated previously in the Guide, you can find out your Google PageRank at any time by using the Google Toolbar.
Bear in mind that the PageRank system is a logarithmic system, where the average page rank of all pages on the web is just 1.0 (so at PR10 there are just a handful of sites, whilst at PR0 there are tons). The system is also a zero-sum game, in that an increase in the PR of one site is effectively offset by a tiny reduction in the PR of every other site (so that the average stays at 1).
As the internet is always growing and average PR stays the same, you should therefore expect your PR to decline slowly over time (all other things, including SEO, being equal). You can predict how your PageRank might change in the near future by using Rustybrick's PR Predictor (doesn't appear to be working these days, but site is still there.
You might not be aware of this, but Google makes available to the public a key which gives you direct access to the index database compiled by their crawler. You can obtain you own API key at no charge from: http://www.google.com/apis/
Once armed with your key, I suggest you use the excellent Digitalpoint's Tracker, which allows you to track changes to your PageRank over time (for any number of different URLs).
A simple tool to get you going is the GoogleRankings tool, which allows you to enter a keyword chain and see where your domain appears in Google's search rankings for that combination.
With your API, you can sign-up for two further great services. The first of these, Google alert, is a useful free-subscription service, which allows you to receive emails showing changes to top rankings for your selected keywords. The second is the GoRank Google API keyword tracking tool (also free) which allows you to monitor multiple domains and keywords all on one page. The easiest way to learn is by doing, so get cracking!
Begin by downloading and installing the Alexa Toolbar (and join over 10 million other people who have done the same). Tailored toward website owners and SEO freaks, it provides detailed statistics and information about the Web sites that a user visits (through tracking the surfing habits of it's millions of Toolbar users).
Alexa gives each site a traffic rank. To get into the top 100,000 sites is the obsession of many. However, do recognize that Alexa has it's limitations. Firstly, it has much greater penetration in Korea than elsewhere (so Korean sites distort the results). Secondly, at the lower end of the rankings, your own visits to your site can make a big difference to your rankings (as your own activity is also polled by Alexa).
For all it's faults, Alexa is about the only reliable way to get any kind of idea where your site lies in terms of traffic, relative to your competitors. If you are still miles behind after a few months, try tweaking your keywords and content to more closely mimic (without copying) your successful opponent. Hopefully, you will reap the benefits!
The easiest way to check your Google backlinks is to type link: followed immediately by your domain name. However, Google filters out of these results any internal links and similar links. To trick Google (and force her to leave those in) type your domain name into the Google search bar, with a plus sign between the dot and the tld domain file name. The two combinations for Doug are:
link:antique-door-knocker.com and: antique-door-knocker.+com (retrieves more results)
For a rigorous and on-going analysis, take your Google API key back to Digitalpoint's Tracker, a wonderful two-in-one tool which allows you to track (filtered) back links and Page Rank for loads of individual URLs on just one page.
You should not neglect your own log files or site statistics in seeking to understand the success of your SEO strategy. If you don't already have a stats package installed, I recommend Webalizer .
Ignore hits and files. A hit is any element called by your browser when it requests a page. A file is a hit which actually returned data from the server. Given that a single page may register a single hit or hundreds of hits (if it contains lots of images or external scripts and style sheets) it is not very useful data for any kind of comparison.
Unique Visitors are recorded through each new IP address that hits you site. This under-estimates the total, as people visiting your site from the same IP address (such as people on an office network) will be counted as a single visitor. Repeat visitors are a sub-set, where the same IP address has visited more than once (and will be over-estimated for the same reasons highlighted above). If you visitor numbers are on the rise, the chances are that your SEO strategy is yielding results.
Page Views or Page Impressions (PI) measures the number of pages served. By dividing this into total visitor numbers, you can also derive the number of pages the average visitor views. Page views can give you an idea of whether or not visitors are finding what they need on your site and progressing through it or viewing a single page and leaving.
The key measure for you is the Referrer data, where the link a visitor clicked on to arrive at your site is counted as a referrer or referring site. By tracking the number of referrals each month that you get from each search engine (and comparing this to their respective market shares) you can get an idea of how your performance is improving over time.
Search terms and search strings appear in the referring url and can tell you a lot about the key words you have successfully optimized. You might find that you are getting traffic on some unexpected terms and failing on some you hoped would do well. However, this could in fact mean you have hit on some useful words that your competitors have missed! Feed back your findings into future SEO activities.
The Browsers section will typically show you which search engine robots are visiting your site, how often and with what result (ie. how many pages they are viewing). If you spot any areas of under performance, re-read the crawler guidance at the robot homepage (to make sure there is nothing you are doing to impede the spidering of your site).
Now for some final conclusions and advice on site migration (to your new, optimized masterpiece) ...
Previous: SEO Expert Guide - Black Hat SEO - Activities to avoid (part 8/10)
Next: SEO Expert Guide - Conclusions (part 10/10)
About the author:David Viney is the author of the Intranet Portal Guide; 31 pages of advice, tools and downloads covering the period before, during and after an Intranet Portal implementation.
Read the guide at http://www.viney.com/DFV/intranet_portal_guide
It's no surprise that dominant cosmetic surgery practices also have... Read More
Unless you've been living in a cave somewhere, I'm sure... Read More
In this three part article, you'll find many tools that... Read More
Today if you want your site to survive in the... Read More
Statistics show that 85% of pages visited on the Internet... Read More
If you are a webmaster, chances are one of your... Read More
Whether you want to start a business and sell on... Read More
First of all, What is SEO? SEO stands for Search... Read More
When you write a press release, what is your ultimate... Read More
SEO training can be overwhelming. There are literally hundreds of... Read More
Webmasters always anxiously wait for a search engine update. Those... Read More
Google Labs is currently testing Google Print, which returns results... Read More
While it is okay to admire and envy all those... Read More
There is a lot of competition to get good spots... Read More
PageRank is one of the factors that Google uses to... Read More
In order to get a top 10 google ranking it... Read More
Search engine optimization remains a minefield of old advice, outdated... Read More
Nowadays, there is so much talk about SEO (search engine... Read More
Being listed in search engines and ranked high on searches... Read More
There are today search engine and internet marketing services, in... Read More
There has been a good deal written about the Google... Read More
Yahoo has fairly recently updated its guidelines. You can read... Read More
As soon as you register your domain name, submit it... Read More
When used properly in combination with other basic search engine... Read More
Lets get things straight. SEO is a very competitive market.... Read More
Every webmaster knows that the free search engines are a... Read More
For beginners, link exchange campaigns can be a minefield of... Read More
What do the words "Search Engine" make you think of?... Read More
Localized search engine optimization is often overlooked as an excellent... Read More
Ever wondered how one search engine is dominating the entire... Read More
If you imagine that building an optimized site is like... Read More
Increasing your web traffic and rank in search engines is... Read More
It only makes sense. You have an e-commerce catalog site.... Read More
By about 2pm everyday, each of my team members has... Read More
We all want to get our websites high up in... Read More
As soon as you register your domain name, submit it... Read More
This is the second part of an article series in... Read More
When online "Use it. Use it. Use it."Google is our... Read More
With tons of competition and copycats online, you need a... Read More
Getting your website listed in Google quickly simply requires that... Read More
Your Website visitor reports are a goldmine of information. If... Read More
You've built up a good site, put in a lot... Read More
A Brief Introduction To Link PopularityAs webmasters research various ways... Read More
How can you be found on the web?The web is... Read More
Is your new site sitting in the infamous Google "sandbox"?... Read More
When search engines first appeared, they were simple affairs consisting... Read More
With all the recent publicity given to Google as the... Read More
I was all set to write an article predicting the... Read More
This is my question...I spend a fortune on SEO and... Read More
If you have any interest in getting high search engine... Read More
6: The hidden benefits to having the right links. Every... Read More
It is a well known fact that writing, distributing and... Read More
Use a keyword density of about 1 to 2%. Use... Read More
Search Engines are hard to tame, that's for sure. But... Read More
Web users turn to search engines for answers to their... Read More
Welcome to part three of our series of articles on... Read More
You've got a website. You've put countless hours into it,... Read More
Just for a change, rather than a technical article, I... Read More
According to the recent release of the Google Patent Application,... Read More
Search engine optimization this and search engine optimization that. You... Read More
There are a lot of things in Search Engine Optimization... Read More
If you're anything like me, you have a favourite search... Read More
From the perspective of a business owner, webmaster, or marketing... Read More
You can rank number one (Or at least in the... Read More
There are many websites that fail to target their required... Read More
Anybody who has their own website or is involved in... Read More
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) |