Is Your Seo Data Directing You The Wrong Way??

Accurate data is crucial for measuring the success of SEO initiatives and informing about the actions needed for future ones. So, what to check for ensuring accurate data collection and reporting? With the rise in SEO platforms and technology of enterprise level, we have plenty of SEO data with lot of information at our fingertip. But the question is that are we really getting true and accurate picture of our SEO performance? Let’s find out.

Attribution

This is one of the biggest challenges of online marketing. Is last click the right way to look at things? How about first click and who gets the credit for conversion when there are many different touch points along the path to purchase. Some brands go for the first click while some looks for the last. Some even have complex attribution methods which give half credit to different touch points.

We need to come to a mutual agreement with the clients on the attribution model we are going to use and then ensure that our reporting data reflects it. For comparing the impact of different attribution models on the valuation of your marketing channels you can use various comparison tools for such models in Google analytics.

Channel Classification

Paid search is not set up correctly and can get misclassified as organic search which can inflate your SEO services numbers and make them highly correct and accurate. This is one of the common mistakes. Always check to see if your search channels are set up and classified correctly.

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Site Search

To get insights into what users are looking for on the sites, tracking on site search is a great way to help you develop a holistic content strategy at all the stages of user engagement. You need to enable this and add parameters to on site search keywords depending upon your analytics platform.

Global Tagging

Do not tag inconsistently. It is the most common mistake. Tracking code does not get added to new page templates or the web developer overwrites a new page template and forgets to add in the tracking code. Or the website has many page templates and a lot of pages which can be difficult to manage. No tracking code means no data, so ensure that tracking code is on every page of your site so you can get an accurate and complete assessment of your organic traffic.

Conversion Traffic

Issue of goals not setting up and configured correctly is another common mistake. Goals vary from website to website but it could be sale, booking, brochure download, newsletter signup or something else.

Whether or not you are making progress towards your goals, set goals and goal funnels will allow you to determine how SEO services and conversion optimization are performing. Enabling goal funnels would see the pages or steps in the conversion process which leads to drop offs and you need to look more closely at it and come up with some strategic ways to fix them. 

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Bot and Internal Traffic

Watch out for the bots that misinterpret your search metrics. Most of the analytics platforms provide the choice to exclude traffic from bots. You only need to enable it.

Always ensure that you exclude traffic from your own network because that can also misinterpret your data. You can set filters up to exclude traffic based on specific IP address so you can get the most accurate data.

Analytics Version Control

Providers for website analytics are constantly upgrading to new versions and some older version may not be supported anymore, possibly giving you the outdated data. Always run close to latest version and have updated tracking code on your site.

Final Thought

Set up data collection tools correctly and manage them properly. It is crucial for getting accurate picture of your SEO performance. Always work with your analytics team and conduct routine audits to ensure that everything is working. Having accurate data on your fingertips, you can make right decision on SEO strategy and assign proper credit to organic search.