Analyzing your metrics is important for SEO so you can learn what you can do better to increase traffic to your site. Choquer Creative has provided a guide to analytics and tracking for SEO.
What Is The Purpose Of Analytics?
There are three pillars of SEO: on-page optimization, off-page optimization and technical optimization. If you focus on and execute these three core components of SEO you can rank higher in search results and acquire more organic traffic.
Analytics and tracking is the subsequent crucial part of SEO and is a staple in all digital marketing. It allows us to measure our progress so we know where we need to improve and be able to calculate our return on investment (ROI).
Beyond website traffic, we are looking at all the metrics associated with traffic:
Rankings on search engines
Quality and quantity of links (link building)
Branded traffic and non-brand traffic
Dwell time
Conversions via SEO
Picking Your Metrics For SEO Analytics
A popular tool to track your metrics is Google Analytics. But first, you should decide what exactly you want to track and analyze. We have compiled a list of metrics that you should be looking at frequently to improve your site:
Keyword ranking - SEMrush, a robust SEO tool that is trusted by 5 million marketers around the globe, has a Position Tracking tool that allows you to see how well your site is ranking for target keywords
Backlinks - building backlinks can be tricky. You can check out our blog post on link building to learn more about how to gain prospects and perform outreach.
Organic search traffic - how many people are finding your site? Generating organic traffic requires a lot of SEO tactics. Our team at Choquer Creativehas an extensive SEO background.
Exit pages - which page is your user leaving from. Finding the exit page can give you insight on why users choose to leave your website.
New vs Returning users - amount of new visitors to your site vs returning users
Bounce rate - how many visitors leave your site without engaging in any content.
Conversion rate - the most important SEO metric to track. A conversion occurs when a user on your site completes an action you’ve promoted, such as filling out a form, signing up for emails, or buying a product or service.
Conclusion
You need to be able to see how your SEO tools and tactics are working for your site and discover where you want to improve. Choquer Creative suggests choosing a metric analysis tool to track your analytics.
Our SaaS SEO experts have lots of experience with SEO metrics, analytics and tracking, and can provide you with services that will increase your blog or website’s organic search. We are a digital marketing company that offers website packages with SEO features.
Contact us for more information on how we can help improve your website's SEO!
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SEO
9.9.22
Absolutely New To SEO Terms? This Comprehensive Guide Will Help You Out
If you're new to SEO terms, welcome! We'll soon have you feeling like a pro.
This guide is going to be comprehensive and easy to understand. It will give you the tools and knowledge you need to start making an impact on your website's search engine rankings today.
A/B Testing
Definition
A/B testing is the process of comparing two versions of a web page to determine which performs better. A/B testing can be used to test any aspect of your site, from the text on your homepage to the color of a button.
The basic format for A/B testing is that you create two versions of the same page, and see which version got more clicks or conversions etc.
Applying this SEO term
A/B testing is a great way to get the most out of your marketing efforts.
You can use A/B testing to test different titles, descriptions and keywords for your website. This will help you figure out what works best for your target audience and get more traffic from search engines like Google.
This SEO term a great way to measure whether or not your content marketing strategy is working. If you're conducting webinars or posting blogs that aren’t getting traffic, try changing up the title or description and see if it affects your rankings or conversion rates.
Alt Text
Definition
Alt text is the text that appears when you hover over an image on a web page. When an image fails to load, the alt text helps users figure out what the image was meant to be.
Applying this SEO term
Alt text is an SEO strategy that allows you to include extra information about the image on your page, which can help improve your site's rankings in organic search results. This is because the alt text helps provide context to the image.
Hacks for this SEO term: keep it short, concise, and to the point. Aim for less than 125 characters.
Anchor Text
Definition
If you're wondering what the heck anchor text is and how it can help your SEO, let us explain.
Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink that links to a page on your website or to another website. It’s an SEO strategy used for link building (see what we did there?).
Applying this SEO term
Other than providing users with context to what they’re clicking, anchor text is also something that search engines use to determine what your page is about.
For example, if someone searches for something like "digital strategy agency" and clicks on a link from your site that has the anchor text "digital strategy agency," then Google’s search algorithm will understand what your page is about and rank for it accordingly.
To put this into simple terms: if you're trying to sell hamburgers, but all the links on your site say things like "our products" or "our company," then it doesn't matter how good those hamburgers are—Google won’t rank your website higher!
Backlinks
Definition
A backlink is a link from another website that points to your site. When your website has more backlinks, it helps it rank higher on Google and other search engines.
Applying this SEO term
Backlinks are a critical part of any SEO strategy.
But this SEO term is the hardest to implement.
To acquire backlinks, you need to have high-quality and informative content that other websites will reference in their articles.
This can either happen organically where your content is discovered by other websites through Google.
Or, you can reach out to websites and promote your content.
Bounce Rate
Definition
Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who view only one page on your site and then leave.The higher your bounce rate, the more likely your visitors are leaving without engaging with your content.
For example, if a visitor arrives on your homepage from Google and then clicks back to their search engine results, your bounce rate will be 100%. If that visitor views multiple pages, such as reading an article or watching a video before clicking back to their search engine results, then your bounce rate will be lower.
Applying this SEO term
A high bounce rate means that you're losing your potential customers before they even see your products or services. This is especially problematic if you have an ecommerce business website, as it means that people are leaving without buying anything.
In order to increase your web traffic and reduce bounce rate, consider adding more high-quality and engaging content to each page. You can also add calls-to-action on each page so that visitors know exactly what you want them to do on their first visit to your site.
Breadcrumb Navigation
Definition
A breadcrumb trail is a list of links that shows the path to the current page. Breadcrumbs are usually placed at the top of a website.
We’ve included a client’s website as an example. If you visit Pedigree Painting, the breadcrumb trail might look like this: Home → Painting → Residential Painting.
Applying this SEO term
Breadcrumb navigation is a technique that can help your website's SEO.
It helps Google know what the content on each page on your site is about, so it can figure out whether or not that page is relevant to the search query that brought people there.
Breadcrumb navigation also helps users navigate between pages on your website. Making sure your website’s navigation is user friendly can decrease your bounce rate and increase your dwell time (yes, both of these SEO terms are on this list).
Call To Action
Definition
A call to action is a button, link, or graphic that encourages users to take some type of action. For example: subscribe, contact us, sign up for our newsletter, etc.
Applying this SEO term
A good call to action should be clear and concise. It should be used to help your users know what they can do on your page in order to get the most out of it.
A bad call to action will be hard to find or unclear.
Content Gap Analysis
Definition
Content gap analysis is a way to measure the difference between the content you have and the content you need.
This process is crucial in helping visitors find what they need on your website and also getting them to come back to your site.
Applying this SEO term
Content gap analysis is an effective way to see what information is missing from your marketing and how you can better fill those gaps. Here's how it works:
First, you'll need to identify the key points in your sales funnel.
2. Make them believe that you have exactly what they want (brand identity)
3. Get them to take action (call-to-action)
4. Deliver on your promise (delivery of product or service)
Content Marketing
Definition
Content marketing is an SEO strategy that uses the creation and sharing of valuable and relevant content to attract, engage, and retain a clearly defined audience.
The goal of content marketing is to help you build your brand and authority by creating something that is interesting and helpful for your target market.
Applying this SEO term
Content marketing is the best way to get your brand in front of potential customers.
It's all about creating a steady stream of quality, SEO-optimized content that addresses the needs of your target audience.
The goal is to create content that is easily found on Google, that people want to read—and then share it on social media. This means that you need to be able to write well and understand the needs of your target audience.
Conversion Rate
Definition
Conversion rate is a key metric for measuring the success of your SEO efforts. It's the percentage of site visitors who take the action you want them to take—for example, buying something on your site, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out the contact form.
Applying this SEO term
Conversion rate is the key to success online.
If you want to make money online, you need to get people to convert.
If they don't convert, they won't buy your product or sign up for your service – and you won’t make any money from these visitors.
So how can you optimize this SEO term?
To increase your conversion rate, you need to make sure that your website is easy to use and that it has a clear call to action (scroll up for more information about this SEO term). You also need to make sure that your website is optimized for mobile, so people can access it from any device.
The main benefit to crawlers is that they can index your web pages without your participation, and they can do it very quickly. For example, if you add a new page to your site, it may take Googlebot (the most popular crawler) up to two weeks before it discovers and indexes the change.
Applying this SEO term
This is the most important SEO term.
Search engines are like giant warehouses full of products and when customers want something, they go on Google and type in what they want—and then they'll get back tons of results with links to websites that have exactly what they were looking for.
You want your website to be a part of that list.
So, if you want to be found by crawlers, you need to make sure your site is crawlable. This means you need a user-friendly site that can easily be navigated by crawlers (and visitors) so they can find all the information they need.
If your website is disorganized, not user-friendly, and hard to navigate, crawlers may not index the page.
To find out if any of your webpages have been crawled and indexed, Google Console has a helpful tool you can use.
Dwell Time
Definition
Dwell time is the amount of time a customer spends on your site before leaving. It's an SEO term that has become increasingly important because it shows how well you are engaging with your audience.
Applying this SEO term
Dwell time is an important SEO term because it's a direct measure of the quality of your content.
The higher the quality of your content, the more time visitors will spend on your website listening to what you have to say.
The longer people spend on your site, the more likely they are to find what they're looking for—and if they don't find it (or if they find something else), then they have more opportunity to interact with you and discover what you have to offer.
Moreover, the longer they're there, the more likely they're going to do what you want them to do: buy something, sign up for your newsletter, subscribe to your podcast, etc.
It's important to remember that dwell time is different from bounce rate: bounce rate simply measures how many people leave your website without interacting with it at all.
External Link
Definition
An external link is a link that points to a website outside of the current one.
Applying this SEO term
External linking is an SEO strategy that helps improve your website’s authority. Google assumes high-quality pages link to other high-quality pages. Therefore, your content will be favoured more and ranked higher.
The key to external linking is to link to reputable sources and ensure your anchor text is optimized for SEO (for more tips on this SEO term, scroll up to “anchor text”).
Featured Snippets
Definition
A featured snippet is a box that appears at the top of Google search results for certain queries. It's designed to show users exactly what they're looking for, instead of having to wade through other sites' content on their own.
The box contains a brief summary of the topic at hand, followed by a link back to the page where Google found that information. The summary can be a definition, list, table, instructions, or ranking.
You can see an example at the top of the image below:
Applying this SEO term
Featured snippets are considered “position #0” on the SERP page since it appears before other results.
Sites on featured snippets are able to rank higher on Google without increasing their ranking.
In terms of SEO, if you are just starting content creation, try to aim for keywords that don’t result in a featured snippet when searched. This is because featured snippets get 8% of clicks on the results page. Competition is fierce and you want to avoid that.
If you’re deep into content creation and are confident in your material, you can take a different approach. Look for keywords with featured snippets and see what type of content Google looks for. For example, for the keyword you chose, does Google feature lists, definitions, or tables? Then, you can go ahead and optimize your content for that format.
There are 2 types of Googlebots: a mobile crawler and a desktop crawler.
The mobile crawler simulates a user going on your website on their mobile and the desktop crawler does the same but with a desktop.
You can choose which Googlebot you want to be the “majority” crawler and “minority” crawler for your website.
The majority crawler will crawl your website first and the minority crawler will crawl URLs that have already been crawled by the majority crawler.
Applying this SEO term
You cannot target the mobile or desktop Googlebot separately. This is because both use the same user agent token in robots.txt.
However, this shows the importance of having a website that is user-friendly on all devices: desktop, mobile, tablet, etc. Google ranks responsive websites higher on the results page since they are more user-friendly (for more information about this new SEO term, scroll down to “responsive website”).
Header Tags
Definition
Header tags are headings and subheadings in an article. They are used to separate sections to improve readability of an article.
Headers are numbered in a hierarchical order from H1 to H6. H1 is usually the title of the article.
Applying this SEO term
Header tags are an important place to insert keywords.
This is because Google uses headers to gather data and context about your article. Having keywords in headers will improve your ranking.
Secondly, if you have your eye on being a featured snippet, Google can pull your headings and subheadings to create its own list in a featured snippet. So, make sure you’re using your header tags wisely!
Indexing
Definition
Indexing is the process of adding a website to a search engine's database.
The easiest way to understand this is to think of the web as a library and each website as a book. Search engines send out crawlers to discover each of the books in the library. Then, they index the books so people can find them in the library.
Applying this SEO term
Indexing ensures your website appears on the results page. Along with crawlers, this is the most important SEO term.
In the “crawlers” section, we already talked about methods to optimize your website for crawling and indexing.
However, it is possible for your web page to be crawled but not indexed. The best way to find out if this is the case is to use Google Console for a summary of indexed and non-indexed pages. Google Console will also provide you with the reason your web page was not indexed.
After fixing the issue, you can request a re-crawl of the affected webpage. Google will usually fulfill these requests within 2 weeks.
Internal Link
Definition
An internal link is a link that points to another page within the same website.
Applying this SEO term
Internal links are an easy and effective SEO strategy.
When crawlers go through your website, they also follow links within your website. By following links, the crawlers can understand the context of the page and the relationship between various pages. This allows Google to figure out what subject your website is about. This, in turn, helps your website rank higher for keywords on that subject matter.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
Definition
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the metrics that help you understand how you're doing. They can be used to measure your progress, or they can be used to measure if you need to do something differently.
Some examples of KPIs are: bounce rate, dwell time, conversion rate, etc. We’ve covered a lot of KPIs in this SEO terms guide!
Applying this SEO term
Key performance indicators give you a bird's eye view of where your business is right now, and how you're doing in comparison to where you want to go.
They allow you to identify problem areas and develop strategies to improve them. For example:
Is the bounce rate on certain pages too high? This can be a reflection of low-quality content, poor readability of the content, or slow page speed.
Is the dwell time on certain pages higher than others? Find out what you’re doing right on the high dwell time pages and implement it on the low-performing pages
A keyword is the search term your target audience uses to find your products/services.
Applying this SEO term
The first step is to think of a keyword that you want your page to rank for. We recommend Semrush for finding keywords.
When finding a keyword, consider the following factors:
Relevant Keyword
Keywords should be related to what people would search for when they're looking for your product or service. This will allow you to create content using the keyword in the form of blogs or articles.These blogs will bring your target audience to your website and have a higher chance of converting them to leads (yes, we have these SEO terms in this list!)
Competitiveness of the Keyword
If you’re a small to medium sized business, make sure the keyword isn’t too competitive. Google will rank sites with higher authority better on the results page.
For example, don’t use the keyword “iPhone” and expect to be in the top 10 results along with Apple.
Want More Guidance?
If you need a guide that shows you exactly how to conduct keyword research and use your results in creating content – we have you covered. We created a step-by-step guide on keyword research that you can follow along with!
Keyword Clustering
Definition
Keyword clustering is a method of organizing and classifying keywords into groups based on their semantic similarity.
This technique is used by search engines to group similar documents together and eliminate noise from the search results.
Applying this SEO term
Keyword clustering works by grouping certain words together based on their usage. For example, the words "SEO" and "lead conversion" are often used together in sentences about digital marketing.
By grouping these words together, you can optimize for any term that your target audience may search for.
For example, if you’re selling winter coats, your main keyword may be “winter coat” but you will accompany it by keywords like “warmest winter coat” or “affordable warm jacket.”
Keyword Stuffing
Definition
Keyword stuffing is when you force a certain keyword into your content so often that it becomes unnatural and hard to read. Keyword stuffing is an attempt by many websites to artificially inflate their search engine rankings.
Applying this SEO term
To optimize for SEO, avoid keyword stuffing at all costs!
Google penalizes keyword stuffing and your website’s ranking can suffer dramatically.
Use keywords naturally in your blog. Not only will this ensure your website doesn’t get penalized, but it will also increase the readability of your article. This can help in lead conversion, decrease bounce rate, and increase dwell time (don’t worry, we have all these new SEO terms in this guide).
Instead of keyword stuffing, use LSI keywords and keyword clustering to improve your website’s ranking (yes, we have these keywords too!).
Local SEO
Definition
Local SEO is a marketing strategy used to help your business’ visibility increase in your local geographic location.
Now that we have your attention, let’s talk about optimizing this SEO term.
Create a Google my Business page
Creating a Google my Business page ensures your business and its details show up when someone searches for local businesses. It will look like the Choquer Creative profile on the right side of the image.
Google verifies and supports its own content. So, creating a Google my Business page will place your business on your target audience’s profile.
Insert your location in front of keywords
Make sure your business pops up for your location. For example, instead of simply using the keyword “web development agency,” use “Surrey based web development agency.”
Create local content
Creating content is a great way to add keywords and optimize for your local area. Content can be in the form of blogs, instructions, community involvement, etc.
Long-Tail Keyword
Definition
Long-tail keywords are search queries that are 3 or more words.
Applying this SEO term
Long-tail keywords are very specific and often have less competition than single word keywords. And, because there’s less competition for them, they are easier to rank for.
Long tail keywords are a good marketing strategy for small businesses who don’t have enough content or authority to rank for shorter, more competitive keywords.
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords
Definition
LSI analyzes the relationships between words, and finds patterns that indicate which terms are related and should be grouped together. For example: “snow” and “cold.”
Applying this SEO term
Using LSIs is a great way to improve your SEO ranking and avoid keyword stuffing. They add variation to your content while still adding related keywords.
Our favourite way to find LSIs is easy and free: Google.
Search for your target keyword and scroll to the bottom of the page. There, you will find keywords that Google considers to be related to yours. Use these keywords in your content!
Meta Description
Definition
The meta description is the short blurb under a website’s link on Google’s search result page. This provides users with a brief overview of the page.
Applying this SEO term
Meta descriptions don’t directly impact SEO.
However, when users are deciding what to click on in the search result page, they read the meta descriptions.
Therefore, meta descriptions may influence the number of visits your website gets from the search result page.
Organic Traffic
Definition
Organic traffic is a form of website traffic that comes from search engines, such as Google.
It’s referred to as “organic” because the website doesn’t pay for their link to be placed on the search result page. The visitors came to the website by finding it on their own while going through the search result page.
Applying this SEO term
Generating organic traffic is the best type of marketing strategy: simple, effective, and FREE.
This marketing tactic is a long-term strategy since the web page continues to pull in organic traffic long after it’s initially posted.
This means more people are introduced to your products!
There are no shortcuts to generating organic traffic. It takes good SEO skills and market research.
Page Speed
Definition
Page speed measures the time it takes for the content on a web page to load.
Applying this SEO term
It’s important to optimize for this SEO term because Google takes page speed into consideration during website ranking.
For optimal SEO, aim for page speed of less than 3 seconds.
Page Rank
Definition
Page Rank is Google’s method of ranking web pages on the search result page.
Applying this SEO term
You may have heard the running joke that page 2 of Google is the best place to hide a dead body.
In order to improve your website’s ranking, use good SEO techniques. Try to implement a few of the SEO terms we discussed in this guide.
Paid Traffic (PPC)
Definition
Paid traffic is a form of website traffic that comes from paid ads on Google.
Generally, companies will pay to have their websites placed at the top of the search results page. The link to the website has “Ad” written next to it.
Every time someone clicks on their website from the results page, the company gets charged a pre-set amount. Hence, it’s called pay per click (PPC).
The cost depends on the keyword the company wants the ad for.
Applying this SEO term
Generating paid traffic does not need SEO optimization. However, when developing a marketing plan, include both paid and organic traffic in your efforts. Using both strategies creates a cohesive marketing plan.
Before deciding to use paid traffic (PPC), consider the following conflicting (and useful) facts:
Responsive websites are websites that are optimized for any device: phones, tablets, desktop, etc. They are user-friendly and functional on any device.
Applying this SEO term
When ranking websites, Google ranks mobile-friendly sites first. This means that if you have a terrible mobile site, your ranking may be affected.
The easiest way to create a responsive website is through Webflow. In Webflow, you only need to create one layout and the page is optimized for all devices.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Definition
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a website so that it appears higher in search results when your target audience searches for a related keyword.
Site authority is a metric that measures the relevance of a website in relation to its topic or industry. It is calculated by examining factors such as the number of links to and from a site, how often it's updated, and how much traffic it receives.
Applying this SEO term
To increase your website authority, there are a number of SEO terms you can apply:
Increase backlinks
Produce high-quality content
Establish trust with your customers
Create a user-friendly and functional website
Sitemap
Definition
A site map defines the relationships between pages on your website. It helps users navigate the structure of your website and find the page they need.
Applying this SEO term
A site map is important when Googlebot is crawling through your website. It helps both visitors and Google navigate your website and find relevant information.
Remember, if Googlebot can’t crawl your webpage, it won’t be indexed.
User Intent / Search Intent
Definition
User intent (or search intent) is a categorization of what the user’s goal is when they type the keyword into the search bar.
There are 4 types of user intent: transaction (T), commercial (C), navigation (N), information (I).
We’ve included an image of what this looks like on Semrush.
Applying this SEO term
Google’s primary goal is to satisfy a user’s search intent.
This means, when you use a keyword, take into consideration the search intent when making content. This will help your ranking.
Here’s a simple strategy for implementing search intent:
Find a target keyword
Find the search intent for the keyword
Search for the keyword on Google and see what types of content Google is ranking highly
Use the highly-ranked web pages along with the search intent to create your content
More Information
If you’re hungry for more SEO knowledge, web design hacks, or marketing strategies, head over to our blog page for more information!
Plus, if you're looking for hassle-free web development and design, we've got you covered! We have an expert web development team that serves anywhere in Canada and the US.
Read More
SEO
6.29.22
How To Create Title Tags & Meta Descriptions That Improve Your SEO
Understanding how title tags and meta descriptions work will help increase your website’s optimization. These features will increase the visibility of your website by pushing you up in the rankings for your primary keyword.
How Title Tags Work
Title tags are arguably the most important aspect of on-page optimization, they offer the least amount of work but provide the most reward. A title tag is like the sign at the front of a physical store, it aims to pull people in and turn them into leads.
Your title tag will look like this:
<title> How To Create Title Tags & Meta Descriptions </title>
This title will be the first thing people will see when they find you on Google, it appears on the search results page in the little blue ink. It is also displayed on the top of the user’s browser on your website’s tab.
The title tag must be within 65 characters according to Google and has a max-width of 600 pixels. If it’s more than 65 characters, it will cut off the rest of the title and an ellipsis will appear, this is known as a truncated title. Some people dislike truncated titles, but it’s important to note that Google will always look at all the keywords in your title tag, no matter the length, so it’s really just a personal preference.
Google also reserves the right not to use your title tag and come up with its own. If they feel like another piece of writing in your content is more relevant, they will grab a snippet of text and use that instead.
For more information on the importance of title tags, read our blog post.
Creating Your Title Tag
When users perform a Google search, they are generally scanning the results on the screen. This is why it’s a good idea to place your primary keyword as close to the front of the title as possible. For more information about keywords and SEO, read our comprehensive guide to keyword research.
While we talk a lot about methods to increase your rankings, we want to remind you that you should be writing for users and not for robots. Don’t just try to please the search engine, make sure your writing makes sense.
Meta Descriptions
If your title tag is the store sign, your meta description is the sample dinner menu posted out front. At the beginning of this blog post there is a meta description, a short written overview of the content in this post, typically 1 to 2 sentences long. Google will bold the keyword and its variations if the user searches for that term.
Users spend approximately one second on one result, so ensure to be compelling and try to reel them in. Meta descriptions will get truncated at 160 characters, so we suggest that you aim for a meta description length of between 40 and 160 characters. Google says that meta descriptions don’t impact search rankings but they do impact click-through rates. We know that click-through rates do impact search rankings, meaning that meta descriptions have an indirect impact on search rankings.
Similar to title tags, Google reserves the right to change your meta description and choose something more relevant.
Conclusion
Title tags and meta descriptions are key components of SEO and here at Choquer Creative, we have in-house SaaS SEO experts that can help you with your website.
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