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Thursday, 27 September 2007 |
Tracking the results of Website analytics! Here’s where the web measurement aspect comes into play. Website analytics provides a view of Search as one channel among many - that can be tracked over time - and in terms of it's interactions with the site and alternative sourcing mechanisms.
This view isn't the end of all of Search Marketing. It won't, for example, drive most bid optimization. But it is vital for helping an organization allocate resources between CPC, SEO and other marketing channels; insuring that proper goals for optimization are in place; and for tuning the site experience beyond the Landing Page.
Here’s how the series is going to layout. Once you can measure visitor value, it’s time to start thinking about search optimization. I’ll treat this at three levels – campaign, ad group and search term. Each of these levels is important and each has some unique advantages and disadvantages as an optimization point. And, of course, your web analytic solution has a different set of reports for each.
A key part of optimization understands channel relationships. I’ve talked about this before, but I’ll cover both Organic and PPC self-cannibalization – how to measure each, how to think about each, and what the implications are for setting a broad SEM strategy. Since most everything to this point will be about Paid Search, the next couple of posts will be on web measurement for SEO. A web analyst can play a significant support role in helping drive a disciplined SEO process – as well as in evaluating its success.
Website analytics provides a view of cross-channel, over-time and behavioral data that simply isn’t available to search buyers. Analysis of this data can help shape, direct and manage a Search Marketing program, and can be the difference between money well spent and money down-the-drain.
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