To determine if your search engine optimization campaign is working, measuring the conversion, bounce rate and click though can help. We focus on measuring, then managing the metrics that correspond directly to meaningful gains for your business, organization or website. As mentioned in our article “Does PageRank Even Matter Anymore?” focusing only on ranking signals can be very misleading.
At Big Red SEO, we concentrate on metrics that are updated daily or weekly, rather than numbers that only change a few times a year. The latter is far too slow to reliably understand which changes resulted in the number going up or down; assuming your site is updated more than a few times a year.Below, our Omaha SEO Team has provided some insight as well as metrics which we analyze for all our clients.
What is a Conversion Rate?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Internet marketing, the conversion rate is the proportion of visitors to a website who take action to go beyond a casual content view or website visit, as a result of subtle or direct requests from marketers, advertisers, and content creators.
Successful conversions are defined differently by individual marketers, advertisers, and content creators. To online retailers, for example, a successful conversion may be defined as the sale of a product to a consumer whose interest in the item was initially sparked by clicking a banner advertisement. To content creators, a successful conversion may refer to a membership registration, newsletter subscription, software download, or other activity.
At Big Red SEO, a “conversion” is when a visitor does what we want them to do on your website. Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your site who convert, basically perform a conversion. This is a prime example of a metric that, unlike PageRank, is directly tied to your business goals. When users convert, they’re doing something that directly benefits your business or organization in a measurable way! If you are getting the website traffic but not experiencing the conversions be sure to review our article “4 Ways to Maximize Google Analytics and Increase Conversions for Your Website”
What is a Bounce Rate?
A “bounce” is the percentage of when someone comes to your website and then leaves after only visiting one page. A high bounce rate could indicate that users don’t find your site compelling, but this depends on the landing page, time on site and if they converted. Looking at the bounce rates of different pages across your site can help you identify content that is under-performing. If they’re landing on your order page and then jumping ship, more than likely your shopping cart may not user friendly. If they make it to the purchase screen SEO has done its job.
What is a Click-through Rate (CTR)?
A “click-through rate” is defined by how often people click on your site out of all the times your site gets shown in search results. A low CTR means that no matter how well your site is ranking with SEO Services, users aren’t clicking through to it. Normally, this is directly related to the description of the landing page on the search query. If your meta description doesn’t match your prospects search query, they’ve learned to move on until they find one that does, and that could be your competition.
One way to improve your CTR is to look at your site’s titles and snippets in search results: Are they compelling? Do they accurately represent the content of each URL? Do they give searchers a reason to click on them? Again, remember that it doesn’t matter how well your site ranks if prospects don’t want to click through.
Contact Big Red SEO Today!
Need help measuring and managing SEO metrics? Contact us at (402) 522-6468. We are happy to provide a free website analysis and schedule a consultation to explain the results. Our SEO team strives to educate our clients on what SEO is and help them capture their potential customers. proactively Let us help you get the results you deserve.