Metrics that will make you or break you

According to much of the latest marketing research, only around 36% of American small businesses have established a SEO strategy and are applying it everyday. Many small business owners realize the importance of having a comprehensive plan for their search engine optimization but too few are prepared to go out and do what they need to do. Those who still don’t have a SEO strategy will soon find themselves falling farther and farther behind their rivals.

When adopting a SEO plan however, metrics really are everything when trying to measure success. The following metrics are quite likely the most important ones that you need to be paying attention to.

  • The first metric is known as traffic retention. Just trying to look at and focus on what traffic is coming in simply isn’t enough and it will not give the accuracy you need. What you need to be looking at is where your traffic is going. Are they staying on your site? Is the traffic you get even relevant to what you are trying to accomplish? Is the traffic being converted into sales? Pay attention to how far along a page your visitors are scrolling and your bounce rate may be the most telling metric of all.

  • Backlinks will continue to be a serious metric that must be take seriously. The more relevant the site that links to you, and the more authoritative they are, will bring you a much higher quality of traffic and the retention of that traffic will be stronger. Retain the traffic and your conversion rates will rise. Use the current top strategies for getting and maintaining the highest quality backlinks.
  • The final major metric to embrace is your conversion rate. After all, that is the reason you are even in business. If your traffic isn’t turning into sales, you need to know why and you need to know why right now. Leads and traffic alone simply will not cut it. You could have thousands of visitors a day but if no one is buying what you have to sell then what is the real value of any of that traffic?

-Written by Kevin Sawyer