How to track SEO performance: Step by Step Guide

Online business is increasing at a very fast pace in recent times because of the inundation of large number of users on internet.  Varieties of tools at the disposal of users could usher in significant measurement of effectiveness through the SEO techniques. Statistics help to measure critical parameters against the benchmark and take corrective action to bridge the gap if any. Presence of the various tips is a blessing in disguise for the user who can continuously evaluate the performance of their website and enhance the listings significantly. There are numerous ways to accomplish the task and some of them enumerated below. 

A sneak preview of the Google link:

• By analyzing the veracity of the links, one could ascertain quality in an impeccable manner. One of the most important criterions is the number of links to the targeted website. It could provide an idea to improve the popularity by enhancing the quantity of inbound links. If the number of websites is large, it would go a long way in enhancing the visibility of an organization.
• Number of inbound links from the website could provide comprehensive information about the website. It is important to form a business alliance with the site to reach rich benefits in the future. Innovative ideas would be the key for success in joint collaboration.
• It is important to verify the popularity of the website comprising of inbound links to the targeted website. A good quality search engine optimization expert would try to find the tips which help the website to connect to a reputed inbound link. It would go a long way in repeating the feat without any hiccups. Prior to launching of the online marketing venture, it is extremely necessary for the users to understand the tips and strategies of the competitor so that they could incorporate them into the target web link.  Companies can search for competitors by using the keywords which also help the customers in obtaining information about the websites with inbound links to the business rivals. Suitable techniques could be formulated at a later stage to wean them away from the existing clients.

Google saved search: Creating new vistas of opportunities

• Users can set a keyword for the saved search so that they can get daily updates from the website. Interesting topics are delivered to the readers regularly.
• Latest news about the niches is provided to the users and enables them to write blogs on prominent social platforms using search engine optimization.
• Proliferation of new competitors in the market could reduce profitability because many companies tend to target the same niche. Therefore, persuading the competitor’s website to shift the target niche to increase the revenues is the key strategy of SEO for emerging as a winner. 
• By using the name in the search result, people can visit website and leave a comment to attract inbound links leading to an increase in the popularity of the target. The website continues to attract attention because people might post and indulge in discussion about the brand.

Google Analytics: Measuring the traffic:

·         The application is used by majority of the SEO specialists to evaluate the quantity of the web traffic directed towards the link. To differentiate between the spam and the genuine traffic at the website, people install the traffic analyzer at e sever to filter out the users who use java script for accessing the website.

Top Online Marketing News and what they mean to you!

1. Facebook Acquired Glancee
   FB has acquired another company, this time focussed more on Local Mobile or rathe location based discovery app. Second aquisition comes within a month of buying Instagram (mobile based photosharing app) for $1 billion. Just before the public offering, Facebook has taken some steps to show the potential and growth that it can bring in.

2. Foursquare with a new timeline
   Yes, finally foursquare has decide to bring in a timeline, this is 'searchable'.
   The evolution of timeline has come up after tweaking the existing 'History' page. The social site has a usability concern and have limited asian audience as of now.

3. Google's Penguin Update and Panda 3.6
   while both of them are targetted towards better user search experience by reducing spam indexing and ranking, Google's Penguin is a Webspam Update affecting 3.1% queries. So link spamming and stuffing will be handled by an iron hand ( or penality algo). While Panda updates, now they are many and rolled out in phases, are impacting Domain level ranking.
  In one way, unique and fresh content will be given importance. Go Blogging!

4. Pandia.com has gone on a break.
   The site says and I quote:

   To our readers.
Pandia is a project we as editors have rund since 1998 on our spare time. It has been a labor of love, but we readily admit that it has not always been easy to combine with our offline life and our daytime jobs.
At the moment we find that we are not able to deliver the amount of original content our readers should expect from us. We have therefore decided to take a break while we consider the future of the site.
We might find ways of engaging other writers, or we may pass the torch to others interested in search and social media. We would prefer to keep the current content, however, and will not sell the domain to be used for other types of content.
Susanne and Per Koch

5. Google added new Backlink URL report via Google Analytics
   The reports come under 'social' influence of your content and is a useful dimension to let the webmasters know which content is creating buzz, going viral etc.

6. Google not to allow Ads rotate evenly
   In a bid to demotivate search marketers doing A/B and multi-split tests, Google Adwords has decided not to continue rotate ads feature for more than 30 days. This will also help in adding more revenue as 'clicks' and 'ctr' will be the factors on which the ad will be shown.

Top SEO SEM Analytics Internet Marketing terms comparison on Google

Here is a comparative analysis of major search terms on Google.com - Web Search Volume: seo vs. sem vs. web analytics vs. internet marketing

The worldwide data for last 30 days for the internet niche's online marketing segment shows crucial results and guidance with India being in the focus of the SEO keyword cloud.

Lets analyze the data/ graphs extracted from Google Search Engine.

By far SEO is the most widely searched keyword while SEM, web analytics and internet marketing is yet to catch up in volume and penetration.

Regional interest for the top search marketing and analytics keywords show Indians searching more then US while UK & china manage to rank in top 5 spots.


Moving on the top searched term ( the most important criteria for search marketers and analysts across the globe)

Going through the data, 'Google seo' finds the top position among searched keywords while seo tools, seo marketing and even free seo comes in the high 10.


The results show growing dominance in Chinese SEO marketing and have a great scope in the online market of china ( may be baidu to add more)

What Search engines think of your site's unavailable page?

Response Codes and website optimization:

Sometimes we find expected pages, that may or may not be advertised , but shown as links on part or even at the Index page of the site.
With sheer excitement and an urge to learn more or to buy something the user clicks and what does he find ( not so often for professional webmasters!)

Error 404
Page Not Found!

This happens due to improper link navigation or due to spelling ( sometimes spaces can be a killer for a website linking)

Now question comes what is the Error 404?
This is one of the HTTP status code (server's response code, which provides information about the status of the request) for the availability of the "said" page name (URL).
for example:
If there is a link "Guaranteed Top 10 Ranking" to your SEO page, the user wants to get to the top and ultimately clicks that. Then if the page is giving a 404 ( page not found) error, do you think you will get the client??
The answer is simply NO , unless you are too lucky or the visitor is very optimistic to contact you further.
Here comes the role of the webmaster to check the incoming and outgoing links via "broken link analysis". There are many FREE web based softwares who do that including Xenu and W3C Link Checker among others.

HTTP status codes
When a request is made to your server for a page on your site (for instance, when a user accesses your page in a browser or when Googlebot crawls the page), your server returns an HTTP status code in response to the request.

some popular codes are:
200 for "OK"
404 File not found
301 "Moved Permanently"
302 "Moved temporarily"


What is the dis-advantage of non-available web pages or in other words from SEO point of view, how to utilize the error code for better optimization of a website?

From an end user's point of view, the impression gets bad, he / she "may not" return to your site again or will have an assumption that the site is either incomplete or not being managed properly. Which will lead to brand awareness confusion. You need a professional company to manage your website if you want it done properly.

How it works?
Let's say that in the link to "Visit Google Apps" above, the link is broken because of a typing error when coding the page.

More info from Google Webmaster Central Blog

From the search engine crawler's view, a 404 status code is a link end or the search for deep crawl stops there itself , limiting your link indexing.

According to Google's Adwords guidelines, if you are a adwords publisher, the target / landing page should not be one with a 404 code.

From adsense publisher point of view, definately the potential income is at risk, if not detected those pages and optimized properly as per "real" theme.

How to use 301 / 302 redirect for outdated URLs or website address for maximum SEO advantage?

Well if you dont ever want the site / webpage URL to restore again in the sitemap or the website navigation, use 301 "Moved Permanently" option while if the change or URL forwarding is a temporary one, go for 302 "Moved temporarily" This lets the search engine bots to understand the navigation type and aim.

How to do a 301 / 302 redirect ?

This can be done from your website's control panel, under http headers option. Contact your webmaster for more details how to do it.

According to the observations, Google really cares for the sites having no broken links as it will help in easy navigation of the search bots as well as the visitors.

One more Indian Government site Hacked by an anti-US

Another Hacking activity detected on one of the Government site, causing the hosting providers and the webmasters to re-think on the security issues.

New Delhi: The Goa government was in for an online shock on Saturday when its Information and Publicity Department’s website was hacked allegedly by a Turkish group that posted anti-America slogans on it.The website, which was designed to display information on the details of Goa administration and related information and government schemes was flooded with graphic images of executions and arms seizure.State Information Secretary in-charge J P Singh was quoted as saying by PTI that the matter was a serious one and will be looked into.According to Government watchdog CERTIN, close to 3,000 Indian websites have been hacked this year, 140 in October alone. In September, Google mail accounts of key government officials were tampered with and earlier, passwords and login names of the National Defence Academy and key Indian embassies were splashed by a hacker on this website. Goa police say the alleged hacker Huseyingazi has cross-linked the website to www.turkmilliyetcileri.net which flashes anti-America slogans, police said. One of the comments reads, "United States of America which is feeding on and strengthening behind close doors the universal terrorists is the greatest terrorist country."

Full Story here

Top Analytic Softwares Available

Top Analytics Tools:

WebTrends :
Web Analytics and Web Statistics from webtrends, the worldwide leader in web analytics. Accelerate your conversion rates and web ROI.
URL : www.webtrends.com/

Unica NetTracker:
The Unica NetTracker edition offers a subset of Affinium NetInsight’s functionality and is designed specifically for small to medium businesses.
URL : www.netinsight.unica.com/Products/NetTracker.cfm

ClickTracks:
Web analytics solutions from ClickTracks Analytics allow visual analysis of web site visitor behavior. Using web log files generated by your web server
URL : www.clicktracks.com/

Omniture :
web analytics, web analysis, web statistics, online business optimization, omniture, sitecatalyst, discover, data warehouse, searchcenter.
URL : www.omniture.com/

Websidestory – HBX :
Offers a suite of digital marketing applications: web analytics, site search, web content management and keyword bid management.
URL : www.websidestory.com/

IBM Surfaid :
Usage analysis tool and data mining techniques allow site owners to understand visitor behavior, increase effectiveness, improve marketing initiatives.
www.coremetrics.com/surfaid/

SAS Predictive Analytics Software:
SAS defines analytics as data-driven insight for better decisions. More specifically, it is a process encompassing a range of techniques
URL : www.sas.com/technologies/analytics/

SPSS:
Analytical Software at SPSS.com. Specializing in data mining, customer relationship management, business intelligence and data analysis.
URL : www.spss.com/

Google Analytics:
Google Analytics has been re-designed to help you learn even more about where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site. ...
URL : www.google.com/analytics/

New Google Analytics Report ( BETA)

More Visibility and more Tracking :

Google Analytics is back with its new Dashboard (Beta Version).
Reporting section is new and more on the usability point of view with specific tracking. I hope this comes from customer feedbacks !




Features newly added:
- Email and export reports: Schedule or send ad-hoc
personalized report emails and export reports in PDF format.

- Custom Dashboard: No more digging through reports. Put all
the information you need on a custom dashboard that you can
email to others.

- Trend and Over-time Graph: Compare time periods and select
date ranges without losing sight of long term trends.

- Contextual help tips: Context sensitive Help and Conversion
University tips are available from every report.