Chapter 9. Tracking Off-Site Trends
A good portion of search takes place outside of your website.
Tracking off-site trends for both SEO and paid search is critical to understanding and running successful campaigns, as well as being able to explain exactly why or how a ranking or traffic volume has changed. SEO requires an understanding of links, neighborhoods, social media, and more, while both paid search and SEO require you to understand what other marketing activities are happening off-site. Do you have any print, TV, or radio spots running that may drive more search volumes and therefore more clicks on your paid search campaigns? Do you have specific terminology in these campaigns that should be incorporated into your paid search campaigns to maximize your findability from other marketing sources? Further, knowledge of off-site trends that may affect your overall campaigns may help you resolve questions that arise about any spikes or dips.
Tools you will need in this chapter:
Clickstream tracking package (Google Analytics, Adobe SiteCatalyst, etc.)
Spreadsheet program (Excel or something similar)
Link measurement tool (SEOmoz Open Site Explorer, Majestic SEO, etc.)
Link authority and page trust measurement tool (SEOmoz Open Site Explorer)
Google Webmaster Tools
Social media tracking tools (Radian 6, SocialAnalytics, etc.)
Analyze: Explaining the Bumps and Spikes
Data analysis is part storytelling, and part detective work. The storytelling part is where you need to explain the data. Where ...
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