6 Key Metrics for a Social Media Measurement Dashboard

A host of social media monitoring tools are available to monitor conversations that are relevant to your brand or company. Many of these tools also now offer built-in engagement components that allow you to easily engage in relevant conversations. In addition to ease of use, another key benefit of these tools is that you can also track and measure the conversations you participate in through one easy solution.

This makes social media engagement much easier to manage, but a key aspect is still missing. To fully understand the impact of your social media efforts, you need a true social media measurement dashboard.

Because there aren't any truly robust tools that go beyond monitoring social media to measuring your social media efforts, you'll likely need to create your own dashboard for now. The following are six key metrics that should be part of your social media measurement dashboard.

1. Gross Views

Gross views is the aggregate of views across your various social media channels. It represents the number of times users were exposed to your brand through your social media channels. The calculation will vary depending on the channels that you use, but some of the metrics that go into this calculation include:

• Facebook page views
• Blog page views
• YouTube channel views
• YouTube video views
• Flickr photo views

2. Connections

This is a calculation of anyone who has explicitly expressed an interest in your brand or company. By expressing their interest, the user has taken the next step beyond just being exposed to your brand or company to now having a relationship where a conversation can take place.

Some of the metrics that will fall under the connection calculation include:

• Blog subscribers
• Facebook fans/likes
• Twitter followers
• YouTube friends and subscribers
• LinkedIn group members

3. Audience Engagements

Audience engagement is a measure of how actively your audience is engaging with or talking about your brand or company. A few of the key metrics that go into the calculation include:

• Blog comments
• Twitter retweets and @ tweets
• Facebook interactions
• YouTube interactions
• Social media brand mentions

4. Social Media Referrals

Likely one of your ultimate goals of a social media campaign is to drive visitors to a site where a conversion can take place. Measuring social media referrals to your site is thus a critical component of a social media measurement dashboard.

In order to properly measure social media referrals, there will need to be some set up and configuration with your web analytics tool. Once this has been completed, you'll be able to measure social media referrals that can be tied directly to your efforts as well as social media referrals that aren't directly attributed to your efforts.

5. Social Media Conversions

You'll likely be judged based on the business value that you deliver through your social media efforts, so just showing metrics (e.g., connections and audience engagement) won't impress your superiors. You need to show how these types of metrics translate into conversions that provide value to your company.

If you've properly set up and configured your web analytics tool to measure social media referrals and you've defined your site goals, then you're ready to measure conversions. You should measure conversions from each social media channel and then roll it up into total conversions that can be attributed to social media.

6. My Engagements

This is a measure of your activity within the social media space and is increasingly a type of metric that social media monitoring tools are including. Looking at how this metric correlates with the other metrics included in your dashboard can begin to show the impact that your social media efforts are having.

Some of the metrics that should be included in the engagement calculation are:

• Internal blog posts
• External blog and forum comments
• Facebook posts
• Twitter retweets, @ tweets, and general tweets
• YouTube video posts

While these six metrics in a dashboard aren't going to show a complete picture of your social media efforts, they will put you on the right path to justifying the resources that are being directed towards social media.

Your social media dashboard should include additional metrics that are custom to your business needs and how you're engaging in social media. By creating your own social media dashboard that has the ability to show the impact of your social media efforts, you'll be in great position to bide time until a truly robust social media measurement tool is available.

Please Share your Thoughts with me

Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/3641089

3 Tools for Optimizing Page Speed

For the past couple of months, Google has been telling the world that page speed is an increasingly important aspect of Web sites. The Google Speed site – which has the laudable goal of making Web browsing as fast as turning the pages of a magazine – has been featured in several posts on their Webmaster blog, and features links to various free tools that they, and others, have made available for the masses.

So, as someone responsible for a site, if you suspect that you may have page load issues, what's your first stop? Where should you go to get an overall idea of your site performance, short of opening every page of your site while holding a stopwatch?

The first place that many of us will start is in our Google Webmaster Tools account. Log in, click on Labs, then Site Performance. There, you'll see site performance data based on feedback from their crawlers.

On the page you'll also see a sample of 10 pages with the load times for each. Unfortunately, it doesn't go any deeper than that. But at least you'll be able to see at least a couple of bad performing pages to further investigate using other tools.

YSlow and Google's Page Speed tool (which both require the Firebug add-on for Firefox to be installed prior to their installation) both appear to show the same information when compared, so my reason for picking YSlow over Page Speed is simply aesthetic. YSlow provides a grade for each page you review and provides grades for each element examined, whereas Page Speed returns a green check, yellow triangle, or red warning symbol along with a score out of 100. You may prefer Page Speed, but because there isn't much difference, we'll walk through YSlow.

When using YSlow, simply click on the text next to the grade for each element, which details the issues detected for that particular topic on that page, whether it's the placement of JavaScript, the zipping of content, or the number of HTTP requests on a page.

But that's not all. You can check out statistics on the page components (e.g., .js files, .css files, Flash files, etc.) to see which files directly impact load times.

The AOL Page Test tool is a more visual representation of the page load, as it provides a waterfall graphic showing the load times for every element on the page. For each element you can see the DNS lookup time, connection time, time to first byte, and the actual content download time, which can alert you to issues with individual elements (i.e., a JavaScript file on another domain that takes a long while to load should most likely be placed directly on your domain). The green vertical line represents when the page rendering began, while the blue vertical line represents the completion of the page rendering process (although some elements on the page may not fully render for a few seconds beyond that, as you'll see on the chart when you check it out for your site).

In the configuration settings for this tool, you can set it to run each page twice, so it can show you the effect that caching content on your site from a prior visit has on your load times.

With page load optimization tools, it's ideal to have multiple options available (and even better, to have multiple free options available). But you can generate an actionable list of performance enhancements for your site by using these tools. If you have some favorites that I haven't mentioned, feel free to let us know in the comments.

Source:http://searchenginewatch.com/3636580

5 Website Changes That Will Hurt Your SEO

One of the biggest factors in the traffic you get from search engines is the inbound link profile to your site. When you make a significant change to your site, one question that the search engines need to consider is whether those links are still valid.

Would the person who linked to your site still link to it if they looked at it again now? If the answer is no, the search engine doesn't want to count that link.

Of course, the search engine can't determine the answer to that question, but they can choose to initially reduce the effective value of those inbound links for a period of time, until they see whether people start removing links to your site after you make a large change.

This filtering process helps protect them from spammers who look to buy domains with lots of link authority, and then change them into entirely different web sites (e.g., buying a domain that used to be for an educational institution and turning it into an auto insurance site). The people who linked to the educational institution certainly didn't mean to endorse an auto insurance site.

Let's look at a few cases where the search engine may consider a change large enough to reconsider how they treat your site.

1. Domain

Many website publishers make the decision to change their domain. For example, maybe they started out with a ".net" domain and they were able to obtain the ".com" variant of the same domain. Or perhaps they are simply rebranding their company.

Whatever the reason, a domain change in potentially seen as a huge change by the search engines, particularly if you do a site redesign, change the URL structure, change the content significantly, and change the WhoIs all at once.

Even if all you do is a simple domain change, the search engines have reason enough to contemplate the possibility that people who linked to the old domain would no longer choose to link to you. With a simple domain change and proper implementation of 301 redirects, your risk of a significant setback is relatively low. But the risk is still there.

2. URL Structure

It isn't uncommon for sites to go through complete redesigns, or to implement a new content management system (CMS) without making significant changes to the content at the same time. However, it takes time for the search engine to understand the new site structure to determine what is on the new version of the site.

All the intricate relationships between the pages of the site have been restructured, and this may take weeks or even months for the search engine to understand. In the meantime, they may feel a need to devalue your site somewhat. Implementing 301 redirects from the old pages to the new pages will help with this problem, but it doesn't eliminate it entirely.

3. Content

Significant changes in content can also give a search engine a reason to ponder how it treats your web site. Even if the basic topic matter is unchanged, it can take some time for the search engine to make that determination.

4. Whois

When you make a change to the Whois record for a domain, even when no change is made to the domain itself, this can be an indicator of a change of the owner of the site.

To the search engines, much of the reason why one web site may link to another may be very much related to their trust in the owner. If the owner changes, is that trust still there? In many cases, the answer may be no.

Simply changing the e-mail address of the administrative contact isn't likely to be seen as such a signal, but changing the name or address of the registrant is likely to be interpreted as a change in owner.

Making such changes often goes without a hitch, particularly if you don't make other significant changes at the same time. Combining a major change to a web site and the registrant at the same time, however, starts to be quite a bit riskier.

Ultimately, the best way to change the registrant is to do it in isolation. Just wait a while before you make other significant changes to the site.

5. Theme

Changes in theme can take many forms. For example, if you have a site that is about auto insurance, and you then add a new large section on home insurance, it will certainly take a while for the home insurance section to receive the trust and authority conveyed by the inbound links. The value of the links to the auto insurance section of the site may also be devalued.

The type of change that would be seen as a theme change could even be a lot more subtle. For example, if you had a site that was purely a directory of links to auto insurance resources, with little text content on them, and you suddenly start putting lots content on those pages, this may also be seen as a significant change.

It gets back to core principle: Would the links that were given to a directory site still be given now that you've made a deep content site, even though it's on exactly the same topic?

Summary

Learn to consider the possibility of changes to your inbound link profile when you make changes to your site.

Will the change you're considering possibly impact those links? Even if the answer is no, you should also ponder whether the search engine will see the change as large enough that the search engine will question the ongoing value of those historical links.

Remember that the search engines use algorithms to make their determinations, and algorithms aren't as smart as humans are at figuring out what is a material change to a potential linker.

Source:http://searchenginewatch.com/3641466

SEO Tools ...

I was just going through some website searching for some good things related to my work but unfortunately( I was finding an other thing) or fortunately ( I found a good thing) I got a website containing a lots of tools for the SEO.. I am not sure that it is useful or not for as it is not that much reliable but I love to SEEKING out some new and good things .. and i think this will be one of it !!! I am really really sure that these tools + this site will help me in future.. I am posting the link of the site please do help me in checking out all the tools..
It contains:

1: back link checker
2: EDU and GOV link checker
3. A lots of keywords tool
4. Search engine tools
5. Links tools
6. Rank checker tools
7. Header/Tag tools

now here is the link of that site : http://forcesubmit.com/

please do let me know your comments

Thanks
8. IP Checker tools

Google Counters Bing/Facebook With 'Shared By' Social Search Results

Google has quickly tried to counter Bing and Facebook's social search announcement by integrating social shares into their main search results.

As you can see in this screenshot, there is a "Shared by 20+" notation next to the name of the website and number of related articles.

This "shared by" link only appears on the main Google search results page. If you were to click on the "News for ses chicago" link, the shares don't carry over.

Clicking on the "shared by" link brings you to Google Updates, which shows real-time sharing activity.

Also, on some of Google's Hot Topics, (e.g., Christine O'Donnell), you'll also see a message that says "x recent updates from Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and more for Christine O'Donnell."

Interesting update, especially considering all the talk of the Bing/Facebook search revolution. Not sure yet if this is a test or if this will is a permanent change.

Source: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/101020-070600

Why You Should Combine Your PPC & SEO Strategies

Studies show that organic search receives as much as 70 percent of total clicks from search results. But having both a paid and an organic listing has proven to increase the amount of total traffic by as much as 66 percent and influence a consumer's purchase consideration by as much as 8 percent.

This provides a significant lesson for both users and advertisers.

A recent Rosetta study found that only 17 percent of advertisers take advantage of the synergies between paid and organic search results.

The retail industry has the greatest percentage (25 percent) of advertisers that are effectively coordinating paid and organic search results, followed by financial services at 21 percent, travel at 16 percent, technology at 13 percent, and health care at 3 percent.

But it's surprising that more advertisers, overall, aren't doing a sufficient job of balancing their search strategies.

Advertisers can develop a search strategy that effectively coordinates paid and organic listings. The value of paid and organic listings to any advertiser is derived from testing, analytics, and a holistic strategy. This strategy can be applied in these categories:

Attribution

Understanding the interdependencies and relationships between search listings is critical to properly valuing the listings and setting the strategy. Consider the possibility that your paid listing is driving a higher amount of first time visitors, and your organic listing is the last click prior to a sale. You may never know this unless you closely monitor your attribution patterns.

For example, one of our financial services clients sees 3 percent of their traffic hitting multiple sources of traffic, and .25 percent hitting three sources of traffic. These consumers give important information to the brand marketers about media consumption and habits that can be optimized and harvested.

The better your ability to see the common paths that consumers take to achieve the desired action, the better informed your keyword and optimization decisions will be.

Messaging

The copy that is displayed in the search results page can be keyword-rich or sales- or brand-focused. The appropriate message should be tested and defined by achieving the largest increase in incremental traffic and sales.

Copy can be used to identify the consumers that are right for your company's offering. Leveraging various messages in the paid and organic listings that speak to each of these audience segments will prove effective.

For example, Road Runner Sports ranks well for [running shoes].

Their organic listing focuses on breadth of selection.

Their paid listing contains rating information, as well as a focus on their guarantee offer.

These ads are differentiated, and speak to different consumer segments who have different values when shopping online for shoes. The best combination of copy, features, or benefits can be discovered through A/B testing paid search ads.

Position Strategy

You should always strive to achieve the number one position with your organic listing.

Where your paid listing ranks, however, can vary depending on your targeted goals. Understanding attribution, and the highest incremental sales and traffic volume, allows you to determine your ideal paid listing position.

You may not always have the necessary budget to fully fund all targeted keywords via paid search. When this is the case, a strong organic ranking can help align and inform the paid keyword selection.

For example, CreditCards.com has the number one organic listing for the very competitive term [credit cards]. This provides them with the ability to leverage that listing by not over-paying for the number one listing in the paid results.

Instead, they rank fourth in the paid search results, or number one on the right rail. This is strategically good planning as they have two very prominent listings on the page without having to overpay for the paid result.

click to enlarge

Keyword Selection

The primary consideration when aligning paid and organic efforts should be keywords and their associated competition and costs. It may not always be financially possible to buy paid search ads given a limited budget, or depending on your ROI goals. Also, the amount of competition for any given keyword makes the effort to rank organically that much more difficult and resource intensive.

For example, the keyword [money market account] has 78.8 million listings, compared to 45.3 million listings for [12 month money market account] -- a 42 percent decrease in the number of competitors.

Search volume for tail terms is certainly aligned to the number of pages indexed; however, an advertiser could get ranked well for five to 10 tail terms before hitting a home run on the head term.

The same can be said for the different competition between the keywords [3 piece suit] and [gray 3 piece suit]. Consumers in this situation are more definitive in what they are looking for, and therefore advertisers can be more prescriptive in their offering, landing page, and content.

Summary

Only a few brands truly take advantage of combined strategies across paid and organic search. Advertisers should think of how consumers interact with their search efforts, including ad copy and keywords.

Consider writing messages that speak to various consumer mindsets, and increase your ability to win their business given your value proposition.

Search is rapidly growing and changing. Maximizing all the factors that contribute to success is critical to keeping up and winning the game.

Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/3641449

Please Help Me To Improve My Site Rank...

When you are aiming to improve your website ranking, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the best way to do it. SEO has been proven over the years as an effective strategy to improve web site rankings. However, this strategy is difficult to do because it needs a lot of time and effort.

In optimizing, a lot of thing should be done. And these things are significant instruments to perform SEO appropriately. By doing SEO appropriately, you will surely improve your web site ranking.

Here are some tips to help you perform proper SEO, and eventually improves your web site ranking:

Have Keywords and Phrases

Having keywords and phrases is an essential part of SEO. This is the primary way to optimize your site. By putting keywords and phrases on your title tags, meta tags, and body text your site can be viewed by other internet users once they will type your keywords and phrases on search engines.
When your site have many relevant keywords and phrases, it is more possible that your site will be able to earn high amount of traffic. But, in getting keywords, you should choose those effective ones, which you think that internet users will type search them. Select also keywords that have fewer competitors in order to have great possibility that you will be to rank on the top place of search engine results.

Consider the Density of your keywords.

In placing keywords on the contents of your site, take into account its density or how often the keywords occur. Avoid excessive repetition of same keywords on your contents. Some search engines does not want very high density keywords. Make sure also to put your keywords on the first or second paragraph of your website content. Some search engines may not search beyond the first 200 words of your content.

Name Your Pages

Create a name on every web page of your site. Search engines display page titles on search results. You can also put keywords on your titles.

Put Links on your Content

Search engines will look the words you use in links to help them find out the content of your page. A great way to emphasize more your keywords is to put links in your web pages. You can link one of your web page to your other web page, or one way or another.

External links or links from other web sites are used to know your PageRank. To improve your PageRank, try exchanging/putting you links to other web sites or directories.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Tips-on-How-to-Improve-Your-Website-Ranking&id=4881058

Why SEO Is Necessary For Your Business

If you know how to use SEO to get a high listing in search engines, or you know the importance of the SEO for you business then you need read no more of this article. Whatever the type of business you have right now, what really matters is that you have an online web site. This can help you to increase your profit and be famous. Having a website, you can promote your business. Whatever you are offering, you may be buying or selling products or providing services, having website is the modern way to market your business.

I know that you have lots of competitor and they also have web site. For gain any success for your business, your web site should be visited with lots of internet user. The traffic comes to your site only when your website has at least one page in the top 10 of Google, MSN and Yahoo, and you have as much traffic as you need for your success.

Why top 10 ranking is necessary?

Advertising is a very important part of business. You need to advertise to reach new people and promote your product and services. Whether you run your business online or not you already realize the importance of advertize but if you are running your business online you should understand there is a great deal of free advertising available in the form of optimal search engine rankings.

Well known search engines such as Google rank websites according to complex algorithms which are designed to determine which websites are most relevant for particular search terms. Therefore taking the time and effort to optimize your website for relevant search terms may result in you being rewarded with high search engine rankings for these terms. This is important because most Internet users rely heavily on these rankings. It is not uncommon for Internet users to only review the first few results when they search for a particular term. This means if your website ranks high enough to appear on the first page of the search results you will likely enjoy increased website traffic. However, if your website doesn't make it to the first page or even the second page, it is unlikely you will receive a great deal of website traffic from visitors who use search engines.

Now, you want to increase the visibility of your web site, and be on the top rank of the search engine, yes, you can achieve all these with the use of SEO. Have you ever try some time with SEO on your own, you will find that no matter how hard you try, your site does not rank well or that your site ranks well but it takes all your times and all your other task remain uncompleted .If this is the case with you, maybe it is better to consider hiring a SEO company to do the work for you.

If your website is optimize well and have better quality than your competitors than you can visible and be on the top ten rank of the search engine such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, and because of this your site can easily be seen and visited by internet users and you will definitely gain more customers and earn lots of profits than your competitors.

The algorithms used by search engines can be rather complex and include a number of different factors. Some of the common factors in the equation include keyword density, META tags, titles, inbound links, website traffic and content.

So in order to gain success, you start looking for the best SEO Company that can help you out. You can use the search engines in finding one, just type the a specific keyword, your theme or your topic, then open the web site which is on the top rank and look for the SEO Company that made that possible So in order to gain success, you start looking for the best SEO Company that can help you out. You can use the search engines in finding one, just type the a specific keyword, your theme or your topic, then open the web site which is on the top rank and look for the SEO Company that made that possible.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/why-seo-is-necessary-for-your-business-during-recession-947499.html

How Do You Find High-quality SEO Services?

If you were tasked with finding a high-quality search engine optimization (SEO) partner, either consultant, agency, contractor, or some mix thereof, where would you start? Finding SEO services that 1) don't suck, and 2) don't put your job (because of a poor decision) or your site (because of risky tactics) in jeopardy isn't a trivial exercise.

Beyond these essentials, what about retaining SEO services that are truly a cut above the norm, that are performed by a savvy and high-quality partner that is someone you can trust?

Scammers Abound

It must be stated that SEO is riddled with fakers, low-quality service providers, and outright scammers. As an open industry (on the open Web, no less) SEO is literally part of the Wild West. There are no sanctioning bodies, no third-party entities that can truly vet all SEO services. Because anyone can sell SEO without a license (or sadly, without any knowledge), the industry is rife with, frankly, crap.

Coupled with this reality is the fact that SEO is a combination of art and science. This lends its practitioners to a sort of hard-to-define artful and intuitive understanding of search engines, combined with the hard data of metrics and analytics, log file parsers, and semantic markup.

SEO is based on data, on delving through technical issues and problem solving. But its greatest opportunities come from combining the analytical side with an artful understanding of users and search engines, and using experienced hunches to gain a competitive edge.

SEO is in High Demand

High-quality SEO is in high demand indeed. There's a lot of money at stake, too. Traffic and ranking improvements can mean millions of dollars for a company's bottom-line revenues.

This has created a market with service providers who are adept at selling SEO services, but less skilled at carrying them out. Sadly, many SEO services do little to move a company's bottom line.

How to Find a Quality SEO Partner?

But it's not as bad as it may seem. There are some bright spots out there. Here's how to find a quality SEO partner:

1. Define what you need. In everything, there are specialists and particular talents, and SEO is really no different. If your site is a publisher needing traffic increases for CMPs, you'll have much different requirements than an e-commerce site looking for product-level conversions. Are you looking for link building emphasis, technical expertise, a strategic partner for growth in SEO? Defining what it is your site(s) need is the first step toward finding a quality SEO partner.
   
   
2. Ask around. Chances are someone you know already has an opinion or two about a SEO consultant or agency. Ask them. Use your social connections on LinkedIn and elsewhere (such as Twitter) to leverage your trusted network, too. Some of the best leads will be word-of-mouth referrals from people you trust.
   
   
3. Read trade pubs. Sites such as this one, Click Z , Search Engine Land, SEOmoz, SEOBook, and others are a great place to get familiar with the faces and personalities of SEO. By reading industry sites you'll get to know what each of the contributors are like, what their particular style and strengths are, and what their personality is like. It's important when choosing a SEO partner that you not only look at particular competencies and experiences, but also what the personality fit is with your own company. Remember, you're looking for a partner, and it helps to be someone you'll enjoy working with.
   
   
4. Attend conferences. Conferences such as SES are probably the single best way to vet potential SEO partners. There are many advantages to being in person with these people, and it will give you the greatest ability to really "get" the particular skills and areas of focus a SEO can provide. It doesn't hurt that there are often many networking opportunities with ample alcoholic beverages, which always help to loosen lips and ease inhibitions; a great time to ask some pointed (and friendly) questions.
   
   
5. Dip a toe in the water. Don't be afraid to ask for a test or pilot, a three- to four-month trial, or specific SEO project. This gives you time to see what level of SEO the partner can bring to the table, and frees you up from committing to anything long term while you're still unsure.

What Warning Signs Should You Look For?

Now that you know how to go about looking for SEO services, here are a few things you should beware of -- things that should throw up red flags.

1. Watch out for SEOs that can't answer questions confidently. No one knows everything. In SEO, you can't expect someone to answer every question you pose with a perfect answer, but you can expect them to answer honestly and confidently. You're really just looking for confidence, generally: how competent and composed is the SEO you're dealing with? Do they know how to answer questions logically and reasonably, or do they get flustered and defensive by pointed questions?
   
   
2. Beware of odd pricing packages (agencies that optimize "by the page"). The days of optimizing 10, 20, or 100 URLs and calling that "SEO" are over. SEO isn't about a page or two, it's about a strategic approach that leverages a site's unique offerings, whatever they are. You can't do that by picking out a selection of pages and calling that "good." Companies that price by the page are using a short-sighted approach that more than likely doesn't have your best interests in line with their own.
   
   
3. Beware of packages, period. SEO is organic. Selling SEO by the package is just plain wrong, too. Why? Because SEO cannot be packaged. It is by nature an organic discipline that requires innovation, creativity, analysis and the willingness to try "out of the box" things. "SEO Package #1, 2, and 3" will stifle your SEO opportunity by limiting the universe of potential work that might need to happen to a set list of pre-defined criteria that a SEO company has placed within scope. This can impose restrictions on your SEO campaign, which you absolutely don't want.
   
   
4. Beware of SEOs using techniques that put you at risk. This includes buying links, cloaking with an intent to deceive users and/or search engines, stealing content, etc. Find out and be assured that the partner you choose doesn't mess around with any tricks that could harm your company.
   
   
5. Beware of restrictive contracts. Watch out for contracts that require a 90-day out, or that lock you into long-term commitments. No SEO contract should ask for more than a 60-day out, and a 30-day out is probably all that's required.

Strategic, quality SEO is something nearly every site must be aware of (even Google needs SEO) . But it's not easy to find. Best of luck in your search.

Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/3641284

SEO Metrics

If you're going to get anything out of a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign, whether you're working on it yourself or with an external provider, the first thing you need to do it get to grips with the main metrics, or measures, of campaign performance. This is a bit easier said than done though, as seasoned SEOs will argue late into the night about which metrics are important, which aren't, and even what they are and how they work.

SEO is a fuzzy process, with cause and effect only indirectly linked. Measuring it isn't a straightforward process.

However, we can skip a lot of these problems by focusing on the old adage, "What is measured is managed." So let's look at a couple of metrics that are directly actionable, no matter what your level of SEO expertise.

Unique Search Landing Pages

This is the number of unique URLs, or pages, that visitors have been sent to through organic search, and it's one of the most useful indicators of your site's search health. It's an easy metric to find through your Google Analytics account, or other web analytics software. Just select the organic search traffic segment and view the report on unique landing pages. Remove any spurious URLs and there's your list.

• Why it's useful: It gives you a clear idea of how well your site is indexed by search engines. To succeed with an SEO campaign, you want as many pages of quality content as possible, and you need as many of them to be indexed as possible. If a page is receiving search traffic, even a small amount, you can be sure that it is indexed, even if it isn't yet ranked well for generic search terms.
  
  
• How to use this information: Apart from giving you insight into how well your site is indexed, there are specific actions you can take from this data. Search engines use a variety of factors in deciding how much and which pages of your site to index, but the make or break of it is that an external link from a quality source to a specific page of your site almost guarantees indexation. So, your action is to use your list of indexed pages to work out a list of important pages on your site that are not indexed, and build links directly to those pages. This will help your site's overall search ranking as well.

Of course, you can get a lot more insight from this information. For example, are some pages getting much more or much less traffic than you expect? Are whole sections of your site not being indexed? (This may indicate a crawl problem.) Do you have many more landing pages than you thought you even had pages on the site? (This may indicate a canonicalization problem.)

Unique Keyword Visits

The number of unique keyword visits your site gets per month (or whatever time period) is another vital health indicator. Again, it's easy to get through Google Analytics (just go to the keywords report and it gives you the figure right there).

• Why it's useful: It gives you a truer picture of the proportion of possible search traffic that you're getting than just tracking overall search traffic. The problem with overall traffic is that it can be very seasonal, with big variations from month to month. Unless you have a large amount of historical data upon which to look back, this can obscure what's really going on with your campaign. It also hides the fine detail of where your traffic is coming from -- you may have loads of search visits every month, but if they're just coming from a few generic keywords or brand search terms, you're probably missing out on a lot more traffic that you could be getting.
  
  
• How to use this information: The goal here is always to be increasing the number of visits from unique keywords that your site gets, so you need to track it over time and keep working at it. Incoming links to the site are always important, especially for indexation and ranking for generic search terms, but the key to receiving traffic from more unique terms is to add more quality content to your site on a regular basis. There are numerous strategies for doing this, but running a regularly updated blog is an obvious answer. There's no need to worry about putting specific keywords into the text -- just writing naturally about your subject works best. And by working with the indexation strategy above, you help to ensure that all the content you write actually has the potential to receive traffic.

So there you have it. Although there are many different aspects to SEO, just working with these two simple metrics and associated actions is almost guaranteed to improve your site's search performance.

This is especially true for small businesses. For a small business, top rankings for generic, competitive search terms can be out of reach in the short term, so going after long tail traffic (more unique search terms) is a great strategy for the short term.

Source : http://searchenginewatch.com/3641400