In this podcast episode, Rebecca reviews some key metrics that marketers should review in their year end activities. These data points are critical for understanding what’s working, why something worked, and what needs improvement in the new year.
Digital marketing, and of course SEO, is an ongoing effort. It needs constant review, nurturing, and action. Having the right data is key to having a healthy online presence and maintaining strong inbound marketing activity.
SEMrush
- Keyword trends for the year
- Percentage of branded keyword phrases
- Position groupings of keyword – i.e. page one of Google versus page two or even nowhere land in search
- Top performing keywords – based on traffic and not position in search
- Top performing pages in search
- Top competitors
- Who are the competitors in regards to like keywords
- What keywords do you share
- What top keywords are they ranking for in organic search
- What are their top URLs in search
- What keywords are they paying for in paid search
- What URLs are they advertising for in paid search
- What verbiage are they using on their ads in paid search
- Where is their traffic coming from – i.e. direct, search, referral, social, paid advertising
- Website audit data
- Existing issues
- Progress over the year in issue resolution
Google Search Console
- Performance in search
- Keyword phrase
- URL
- Ranking
- Click through rate
- Countries
- XML sitemaps
- Index coverage
- Submitted URLs vs indexed URLs
- Errors and warnings
- Links
- Top internal links by URLs – should be your most important content
- Backlinks by source
- Backlinks by content
- Backlink anchor text
- Mobile usability issues and/or messages
View data in Google Search Console ->
Google Analytics
- Audience demographics
- Geography
- Age
- Gender
- Affinity categories
- In-market segments
- Engagement level
- Traffic trends for the year
- Year to year traffic trends
- Traffic by channel for the year – direct, organic search, paid, referrals, social, email
- Year to year traffic by channel – direct, organic search, paid, referrals, social, email
- Search traffic trends for the year
- Social media trends
- Top landing pages
- Top exit pages
- Overall top content
- Bounce rate
- Overall for the year
- Year to year comparison
- URLs with highest bounce rates
- URLs with lowest bounce rates
- Conversions (aka goals)
- Overall for the year
- Year to year comparison
- By channel
- By social media network
- By search term
- Top performing URLs for conversions
- Top landing pages for driving conversions
- Performance and speed
- Slowest URLs
- Performance suggestions
- Events – if you’re using Google Tag Manager
- Search usage – for future keyword ideas
View data in Google Analytics ->
Ahrefs
- Banklink trends
- New backlinks
- Lost backlinks
- Anchor text
- Top URLs for incoming backlinks
- Competitors with most backlinks
- Competitors’ backlink sources
- Competitors’ top URLs for backlinks
The Takeaway
If you are not looking at this data, you need to start. This should be done monthly and annually for anyone who is activity working on digital marketing or relying on inbound marketing activity.
If you don’t have access to these reports, you should spend the time to sent them up. If that is not an option, you should hire a digital marketing agency or SEO consultant that can keep you accountable and on-task.
Today’s Episode Sponsor
Ahrefs is Rebecca’s go-to SEO tool for all things backlinks. She uses it for reviewing client backlinks, as well as deep diving into their competitor’s activity to discover new linking opportunities.
As mentioned in the show, Ahrefs is offering an exclusive giveaway to podcast listeners.
Every 4 shows, one listener will win a Lite Annual account to boost their own SEO performance! Send a tweet @ahrefs and @rebeccagill to tell us why you’d like to win this giveaway.