MediaVision Blog : Search Engine Marketing

SEO, landing pages, goal performance, conversion analysis. Where does a business start to progress from one side to the other? Going from a vague web representation of a business model to an efficient online machine, effectively attracting visitors through wide visibility and presence, determining their intent, and boldly directing them to their ultimate satisfaction, is a reasonable evolution for a business to aspire to.

Using web analytics is not a fun extramural activity to browse over and gloat about after the sales have been brokered or the service has been delivered. It is a dedicated reporting and analysis methodology focusing on KPI for improving the efficacy of a business model that is expressed online in some way.

A business needs to assess and reassess their position at frequent intervals in order to maintain standing in their field or industry. This is nothing new, and has only become more necessary to the web 2.0 era. This is an age where pretty much anyone with internet access of some kind, can use the vast availability of media technologies to express him or herself, whether for recreation or for survival. This fact has made life for media specialists - such as newspapers, magazines, television networks, music labels, and many others – very different, and far more of a challenge. Large corporations aren’t automatically front-runner journalists and news-bringers anymore, as anyone with a blog can capture news and publish it for millions to witness.

In a time so saturated with people and businesses vying for position, the need for in-depth analysis of what is happening within the processes of our business is paramount. Web analytics provide that, and fulfill a role within the web development process that cannot be undermined.

SEO is one thing, in fact a very important thing, as it does for a business what the business would normally pay fortunes for. SEO and other forms of SEM such as SMO catch consumers while they’re on the hunt for their consumables; ideally catching the more relevant consumers that is. This is only half of the task, as once these wanderers are shown your site, they still have the encumbrance of deciding if what they see has anything to do with what they need or want. So, in comes the conversion strategy.

• Does the design create a feeling of trust as well as user-friendliness in the visitor?
• Has the visitor seen a set of similar resources that are cheaper and more easily available? What kind of information do you actually choose to reveal?
• Is the name known, and therefore trustworthy?
• Is the process from arrival to purchase amply facilitated and without restriction – are there ‘call to actions’ in place that deliver the visitor to theirhis or her most appropriate destination?

Analytics, depending on how they are presented, are rich sources of valuable information about these points. If you don’t know what the opinions of your visitors are when they arrive at your site, analytics tell you, for instance, which pages are receiving the most visitors, from where they came, and whether they stayed on the page or made a purchase or read the article or whatever. From this you can determine quite accurately how generally effective your content has been in its function. Google Analytics have “goals”, which are pages that are visited when someone makes a purchase or does something you want them to. Google Analytics use goals to measure how many people purchased from your website or what audience a press release has had, and such things.

So these measurements can bring to light weak points in a website. Once identified, weak points can be resolved. SEO campaigns can be built on the basis of what content performs best in converting visitors into customers. SEO ineffectiveness or failure can be isolated in analytics reporting and thereafter resolved.

Analytics, while seeming complicated and cumbersome to many, will prove to be the edge in a competitive marketplace, and can save so much money and time from more focused and calculated development and design. Don’t undermine it, get stuck in, get your hands dirty, and become ear-deep in traffic data reports.