We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again; A solid, big-picture marketing strategy will always include digital – email, web, SEO, and social media. All of these avenues have tremendous data collection capabilities and we’re here to help you figure out how to use that.
This is part two of Using Data to Your Advantage: SEO and Social
In part 1 of “Using Data to Your Advantage,” we discussed how email and web analytics can be used to enhance the performance of your marketing efforts. This week, we are talking about analytics found in SEO & social media to do the same!
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
While SEO has to do with the web, the data we have to look at in this marketing area is distinctly different than web analytics. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of getting your website or content to rank higher on search engines. This creates opportunities for more people to find you, faster.
In SEO, we want to get a baseline of how searchable you are. We will look at data points related to search visibility, domain authority, page authority, ranking keywords, external links, and total visits.
Search Visibility
Search Visibility is an estimated percentage of clicks you will receive based on the keywords you are tracking. Simply put, out of all the keywords you are tracking and out of all the estimated clicks those searches will get, it’s the percentage of the total clicks will you receive. You want this number to be as high as possible, especially in comparison to your competitors.
Domain Authority and Page Authority
This metric is a way to estimate how well a site will rank. This score is generated by total links, linking root domains, and other factors. This score is an easy way for the user to visualize an entire site’s authority over the web. Page authority is the same thing except on a page scale instead of your entire site. Both of these scores have a maximum of 100, but they are intended to be used as a way to compare your domain or page authority to your competition.
Ranking Keywords
Where your site is ranked in search engines for a keyword has a major impact on your Web traffic, lead generation and conversions. Research shows that more than half of all search engine users click on a result on the first page, and the higher you rank on that SERP, the better off you are.
Most site owners have questions about how to improve keyword rankings, such as “How does my site rank for the keywords I’m targeting?” and “What keywords does my site rank for?”
Simple, free keyword ranking tools can answer those questions for you. And this keyword ranking data is good to know. But what you really want is to rank higher, beat competitors sites and drive more traffic!
External Links
When other websites link to your site, it is called an external link. These links are valuable because they increase the number of clicks you get and they create a positive for Google and the viewers to see. They are essentially an external vote for your website. You want to be seen as a resource for other sites and build credibility over time with more content and more external links.
Total Visits
This is the statistic most people ask for first. “How many people are coming to my site?” This a great way to show the effectiveness of all the things data points discussed above. Visits can come from many places. The most common are organic search, direct visits, referrals, email, and social media.
Now that we have covered all but one of those common visitor sources, it is time to dive into the last one. Social media.
Social Media
The implementation of social media is becoming a top priority for many companies and their digital marketing strategies. While social media does not have a direct impact on search rankings, it is essential to business growth and future success.
Social media allows companies to establish relationships with their customers, create brand recognition, and explore other opportunities/partners for future business. In the world of reviews, comparisons, and how-tos, having current content on social channels like Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube can greatly impact the number of potential customers coming to your site.
Take a look at this example. If I am looking for something to eat in Tacoma, odds are, Shake Shake Shake would come up. You can see that not only is Google pulling Google Reviews, but also reviews from Facebook. So, even without your visitors being logged into their social media account, your reputation on social media can greatly impact your search results.
With social media insights, you can understand who your users are and when they will be most engaging with your content. We can also see how post interactions compare to each other. This gives you the opportunity to reflect on post frequency, post content, community engagement, and several other factors that go into managing a social media profile. Key metrics in social would be reach, impressions and engagement
Reach – the total number of people who see your content.
Impressions – the number of times your content is displayed, no matter if it was clicked or not.
Engagement Rate – likes, reactions, comments and shares
You can see that the previous month performed better in reach, the impressions are projected to surpass last month, and the average engagement rate is higher. It also provides us with the information needed to ask questions like, why did we have way more engagement on October 20th?
We can also break down our client’s social followers into demographic statistics.
Language
Gender and Age
Country
City/State
In this case, we know that our client has a large population of female followers from New York City.
We can also break down the data to be post specific. This feature is extremely helpful when we want to highlight the best performing posts and look for trends. We have noticed that VSG’s posts have a much higher reach on Facebook when they are shared. That is typically true of anyone, but it is not as apparent that that is the case on our Instagram. To us, that means that we should be involving our audience and employees more, especially on Facebook, so we can get more eyes on our social content and website.
By understanding your social media insights and analytics, you can better your strategy and planning process for social media outreach.
While social media and SEO are extremely important for the success of your digital marketing strategy, this only scratches the surface of those topics. Whether you are a small business or a large enterprise, we strongly urge you to consider the 4 parts we discussed in part 1 and part 2 of this blog. Your customers, employees, and profits will thank you.
If you have any questions or need help knowing where to begin, reach out! We would love to connect with you.
