Esther C Kane

So many of my clients are reliant on the search engine rankings report, it seems to be the most popular report that is viewed on the list of monthly reports that I provide my clients.

But is it REALLY indicative of how the website is doing? In short, NO!!

So, why do I provide my clients with a search engine rankings report? Because it’s the report they are most familiar with. Especially if they have been with another SEO firm in the past. Many SEO firms provide this report (as their only report) to their clients on a regular basis. Some monthly, some quarterly.

I’ll tell you why I think it’s not important and I’ll compare the information from the search engine rankings report to the information that I provide on the other reports. I’ll let you decide if I’m right or wrong.

1) I’ve recently been working very hard on a client’s website to market him onto the first page of Google for the phrase “name tags” (without the quotes). Obviously, well, maybe not so obviously, but the phrase “name tags” is extremely competitive. Over 45 million in total searches and over 1.4 million in allintitle searches.

I have succeeded in getting him onto the first page of Google, occasionally. This means that when I checked Google 20 minutes ago, his site was #7. Yesterday it was also #7 between 11 AM and 1 PM, but the rest of the day it was on page 12. So, if I ran a search engine rankings report between 11 AM and 1 PM yesterday, that report would show his site at #7 in Google, where in reality, for the majority of the day, the website is on page 12 in Google.

The search engine rankings report is ONLY a snapshot of where the website is at the moment the report is run. Yes, it takes 15-30 minutes to run a report and I honestly don’t know if the numbers are obtained at the beginning or the end of the run (I would assume the end), but either way, it’s just a snapshot of that moment in time. So, in my opinion, it’s not relevant to the overall success of the Internet marketing campaign.

2) The Traffic Analysis report I provide my clients with is a summary of the amount and type of traffic that comes through the website. In that monthly report I list the total number of visitors, the total number of unique visitors, websites that refer traffic, search engines that refer traffic, website pages that are visited the most, and those that are visited the least. I also list the top 3 keyword phrases that are bringing in traffic. I will tell you that 95% of the time, the keyword phrases that bring in the most traffic are phrases the Client NEVER thought of.

3) The Competition Report I provide my clients with is new. I take a keyword phrase the client is marketing and I compare their website to an online competitors. Sometimes the competitor rankings higher, sometimes lower, depending on the keyword phrase (and the time of the search) but the point of this report is to give my client an idea of what their online competitor is doing. After all, if my competitor has 59 pages on their website, all indexed and marketable, and I only have 23 pages on my website – well, chances are my competitor is getting more traffic. How much more traffic? Where is the traffic coming from? I want to know and my client should know as well.

4) Hot Keyword Phrases is a report that I love to create. Each month I give my clients 3 new keyword phrases targeted to their audience and of course, phrases that they are currently not marketing. The idea is to add information to the website, to a blog, to a newsletter, whatever!! The target audience is searching for these keyword phrases. The only way to get that group typing in these phrases is to associate these phrases with the website.

5) Tips Suggestions and Ideas is a report that is based almost entirely on the website statistics. I scrutinize the statistics to see how the website visitors are maneuvering through the website. What pages are they leaving in droves from? What buttons are being clicked on and which ones are not? What pages are being viewed least often and why? What percentage of people come to a website page and then just leave? And how does the online competitor handle the same situations? This report obviously takes the most time, but honestly, it’s great analyzing all this data. Sort of SEO CSI!

It takes anywhere from 3-5 hours to gather all this information, per client, so it’s not an easy task but if I want my clients to benefit from SEO, this is what I need to do. This is what I would want my SEO firm to do for me.

All these reports other than the search engine rankings report, provide the client with SO much more information, and relevant, useful information! This data, analyzed and acted on, is really what will help propel the website into generating the type of traffic your business deserves.

So, if your SEO firm is providing you with this information, learn to read it. Ingest it! If you have questions about the information, contact your SEO firm. They will be delighted that you’re actually reading the information they work so hard to provide you with.

If your SEO firm does not provide you with this information, contact us at Eckweb Designs, Inc. We’ll be happy to work with you and your website!