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"Below is live coverage of the SEO Status Report Metrics from SMX West 2009 conference.  \n\n\nThis coverage is provided by both Barry Schwartz, the editor of the Search Engine Roundtable and Keri Morgret of Morgret Designs.  \n\n\nWe are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage.  We will publish the archive below after the session is completed.  In addition, you can interact with us and while we are live blogging, so feel free to ask us questions as we blog.\n\n\n\n/* Main Holder, adjust width to suit your page. */\n.cil_mainholder { font-family: Arial, Arial; width: 550px; background: #ffffff; border: solid 1px #333333; }\n/* Adjust the height to best suite your page */\n/* Remove height property to have all text show without scrollbars. */\n.cil_blogholder { position: relative; overflow: auto; height: 550px; }\n.cil_title_liveblog { font-family: Arial, Arial; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; color: #323232; }\n.cil_title_date { font-family: Arial, Arial; font-size: 10px; color: #323232; }\n.cil_title_date a { border:none; text-decoration: underline; color:#E85D00; }\n.cil_title_date a:hover { text-decoration:none; }\n.cil_chatmsg { border-bottom: 1px dotted #999999; width: 100%; vertical-align: top; }\n.cil_msgtime { font-weight: bold; width: 45px; height: 100%; background: #E8E9E0; padding-left: 3px; padding-top: 5px; margin: 0px; }\n.cil_msgtext { padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; background: #FFFFFF; margin: 0px; text-align: left; }\n.cil_msgtext a { border:none; text-decoration: underline; color:#E85D00; }\n.cil_msgtext a:hover { text-decoration:none; }\n.cil_commentmsgtext { padding: 0px; margin: 0px; }\n.cil_host_text { font-size: 12px; color: #000000; }\n.cil_viewer_text { font-size: 11px; color: #003399; }\n.cil_popup_text { font-size: 11px; color: #000000; }\n.cil_complete { overflow: visible; font-weight: bold; font-size: 13px; padding: 2px 10px 0px 10px; color: #E85D00; background: #f8f8f8; border: solid 1px #CCCCCC; }\n.cil_footerholder { height: 30px; padding-top: 7px; background: #E8E9E0; vertical-align: bottom; z-index: 100; text-align: center; width: 100%; }\n.cil_footerbar { padding-left: 9px; vertical-align: middle; display: inline; z-index: 1; }\n.cil_green { color: #789a0e; }\ntable { border-collapse: collapse; }\n\n\n\n\n \nSEO Status Report Metrics(02/11/2009)&amp;nbsp;Powered by:CoveritLive\n\n \n \n  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Close&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;\n\n 1:19 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;Running late, Keri will get started. \n1:19 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Seth from Conductor is up first and is giving a background about his company. \n1:22 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Top four things we think are true - but aren't:- Every keyword is equally important- All potential keywords are accounted for and known. What was good last year is good this year.- Momvement outside the first page does not matter- Education = Buy In \n1:23 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Does anyone use rankings to track SEO success he asks? Several hands raised. \n1:24 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Need to move your rankings from a goal to a metric. Chasing the rankings isn't productive, but it's an insight provider.  \n1:25 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;How to use your paid search data in improving your natural search performance.  \n1:26 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Call to Action Optimization / Snippet Optimization \n1:27 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;He explains a way to track snippets. Do one snippet for 30 days and record data. Do second snippet for 30 days, then compare data (ranking for that keyword and traffic for that keyword). \n1:28\n1:28 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Issue: We waste time trying to determine feasibility on keywords that can be easily tested.Solution: Use paid keywords / Natural traffic info. \n1:29 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;he shows a hypothetical ranking report for Lowe's, notes that it does not give you a complete picture. \n1:30 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;He's added a modifier -- multiply the ranking improvement by a certain number depending on the rank. Image to follow. \n1:31\n1:31 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;This helps weight the information, so you're not placing a lot of value on keywords that have little traffic. If you've moved five places from 100 to 95, it's much less meaningful than moving five places from 10 to 5. \n1:32\n1:32 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Send him an email at seth@conductor.com for a copy of the spreadsheet. \n1:33\n1:33 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Rank from seomoz is up next, and promises to have a short slide deck. \n1:34 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;Rand Fishkin says he is not a fan of guesswork \n1:35\n1:35 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;They did a study so they didn't do guesswork. Methdology:- 30 Sites' traffic data collected via Quantcast \"Quantified\"- Comparison w/traffic estimates from Alexa and compete.com- Calculated Pearson's co-efficient Correctional.- Confidence ~95% \n1:37 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;He said Alexa data is statistically relevant and worth using \n1:38\n1:39 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Another study methodology:- 109 Unique SERPs Analyzed - Top 30 results (~3300 URLs)- Google Search Results Only (for now)- Correlation between each single metric and ranking position- Two different data points:-- ability of metric to predict n +10 rankings-- ability of metric to preict n+1 rankings \n1:40\n1:40 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Number of domains linking to the URL was the bvest measure for the importance of SEO metrics in Google Search for n +10 \n1:41\n1:42 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Take aways:- Don't use or trust a single metric to be the key when we're talking about rankings.- If all else is the same (Keyword usage, relevancy, etc)  -- # of linking domain and # links report (page)  -- # of linking domains and mozRank (position)-When metrics get mashed better data. \n1:44 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Sneak Peek of preliminary results: What factors preduct google rankings. Link popularity is huge. \n1:44\n1:45 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;ben@seomoz.org can give more preliminary data information. \n1:45 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Next up: Kelly Kochert speaking on Using your own analytics wisely. \n1:46 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Pull numbers from your own analytics, don't just look at rankings. Look at who, what, where, when, and why in examining what people are doing on your site. \n1:46\n1:47 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Two types of analytics: log file analysis, javascript files. Make sure you get the answers you need, it may take more than one solution. Can you separate paid search from organic search? \n1:47\n1:47 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;What traffic?How much traffic are you getting?- month to month growth- seasonality- Year over YearFrom where?- Does it align with market share?Growing the slice of the pie- Larger share of overall traffic. \n1:49Do you agree with Rand on Alexa being statistically significant?Yes&amp;nbsp;( 17% )No&amp;nbsp;( 83% )\n1:49 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;SEO Traffic: what moves the needle? Look at what you did and when. This helps tell you if link building, title tags, season, etc. were what affected your traffic. \n1:49 [Comment From streko]alexa was significant in 1998 \n1:50 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Keywords:Align keyword traffic with ranking- opportunities, misses- New termsBranded vs. non-branded- Growth in non-branded \n1:52 [Comment From Susan Reed]Alexa is significant if you're looking at total share for ALL internet users- otherwise the numbers are too big. \n1:52 [Comment From JohnFairley]Use multiple sources of data to measure a website's traffic level. (compete.com, alexa.com, comScore, Quantcast, etc.) \n1:52 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Site pages:Entry Pages- Alignment with keywordsTop post-landing pages- Where did they go?- OpportunitiesMissed opportunities \n1:53 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;Up comes the \"Site Engagement\" Slide \n1:54 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Site engagement:How long do they stay?- Pages with tractionHow many pages are visited?\"What is the abandonment rate?- Where do they leave the site?Where did they go? Is it different for people that came from search vs. refers?What leads to conversion? \n1:54 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Referral Sites:What other sites drive traffic?- Links- Opportunity to change anchor text \n1:55 [Comment From aj authoritydomais]Sorry just jumped on is he really talking about Alexa being significant? Is it a joike? \n1:56 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Internal SearchWhat are they searching for once they get to your site? gives you keyword optimization information. \n1:56 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Where are they from?Geographic termsLocalized termsBlocking traffic (if not nationally-focused) \n1:56 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;Think, \"Soda vs. Pop\" \n1:56\n1:57 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Additional metrics:What are the engines doing? What happens when they visit your site? How long does it takes for a page to load? Are there error pages? \n1:58 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Brian Klais from netconcepts is up next. \n1:58 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;We need a good framework to communicate our success, we need metrics that scream performance. \n1:59 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;He used the word \"incrementality\"  \n1:59\n1:59 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;He shows a slide with stats about natural search opportunity. \n1:59 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;We need to stop talking about SEO tactics to our execs. They start tuning us out. \n1:59 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;URL rewritingTitlesMeta TagsH1sLink Building \n2:00 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;Talk about improving business \n2:00 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;We need to start talking performance metrics:Market opportunityclickthrough rateacquisition costskeyword coverageand more \n2:00 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;How do you communicate opp to the prospects?   Let the data do the talking... \n2:00 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Create a keyword list- Export your non0brand phreases from analytics or spider site to extract relevant onpage keywords \n2:01 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Estimate the market demand. Feed into Google Adwords Keyword Tool Use 'exact match' on comparable time periodDon't use WT or KD for this.Model opportunity using CTR \n2:01 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;Word Tracker and Keyword Discovery are great tools but not useful \"for this excerise\" \n2:02 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;Time to calculate your click through rate...Divide keyword market size by keyword traffic, compare CTR by SERP placement (P1 CTR is about 10%), model traffic and sales growth based on these metrics \n2:03 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Traffic Acquisition Cost:Compare PPC cost vs. natural.- Use Google's average CPC for each phrase- Factor in your cost or resource time- $0.75 per click vs ....?Focus on reduced acquisition cost- increases transaction profitability. \n2:04 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;You can talk to client about that you may want to spend 75 cents for a paid click, but we can work on it organically for 15 cents a click. \n2:04[Be Right Back Countdown]5 minutes&amp;nbsp;\n2:05 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Landing page yield. Landing pages are how we receive the mana from the search engine. How many pages do we have available? How many pages do the SE bots know about? \n2:05 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Need to look at pages bots know about but aren't driving traffic. \n2:05\n2:06 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Landing Page Rankings is an additional metric. It's important to understand how the performance changes over time. \n2:07 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Shows a picture of year-over-year ranking analysis. \n2:07 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Focus on non-brand phrases. You want at least half of your traffic coming from non-brand keywords. \n2:08 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Incremental Traffic and Revenue. This is huge he says.It's more than just \"current\" minus \"previous\". You can't presume that non-brand rankings are going to stay constant. \n2:08 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;These chairs are interesting, for those that can't be here, here is a picture of a back of a chair... :) \n2:08\n2:09 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;You need to win the incremental conversation with your boss. You'll set yourself up for a strong ROI or ROAS conversation. \n2:09 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Big challenge in proper attribution of natural search sales. \n2:10 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;ROAS Return on Ad Spend metric. \n2:10 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Incremental revenue over incremental cost. This is how you get resources allocated to you and get paid what you are worth. \n2:11 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Conversion rate variance, acquisition profitability, new-to-file customers, and searcher lifetime value are also things to look at that are longer-term. \n2:12 Keri Morgret: &amp;nbsp;Q&amp;A Time now. \n2:12\n2:13 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;Got questions, we can submit them for you...  \n2:14\n2:17 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;Next session at 3pm (PST) on \"Tapping into Image Search\" -- this one should be fun -- details at http://searchmarketingexpo.com/west/2009/full_agenda2#152 \n2:20 [Comment From Susan Reed]Love the chair photo - I noticed those as well. \n2:21 Barry Schwartz: &amp;nbsp;Alright, see you all at 3pm.   we will be covering two sessions at 3pm (PST)...   One I told you about the other I will keep a secret until then! \n2:22 \n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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