Measuring Incremental SEO Changes

One of the things that many people get frustrated with is measuring the progress of their search engine optimization changes. As we know it can take days, weeks, or even months to see results of the changes made to the site being worked on.

And to make matters even worse, it will also depend on how "important" the search engines see the site as well since a site that is visited by the search bots more frequently will be more likely have the results of the changes show up faster.

Recently I decided to test some incremental changes one by one, the site I was testing on is a site that has been established for some time, has a Pagerank of 4, but does not necessarily get updated daily or even weekly.

Since I am a big believer that the title tag is the most important single item you can do for on-site SEO (feel free to argue that one....) I wanted to modify one pages title tag from something that was less competitive to something that was more competitive but when the site was first launched the site would not of had the link juice to rank for.

The term is still directly related to the site content but is the higher searched version of the product term it focuses on.

One thing I like to look at before measuring anything like this is the number of Google search results for the term based on how a typical user would search for the term and not a techie  (without quotes in other words).

In the case of this term there are around 5 million or so results that show up with a solid range of companies on the first 3 pages. Overtime my goal is page one but for now I want to see what one little tweak can do, can that one tweak take the site from not showing up to showing up for the search (at least in the first few pages) and how fast will that happen, or even will it happen.

After I measure the initial tweaks results then I will do one more change, all "white hat".

Results? Well after just two days the site now shows up on page 3 of the Google SERP's for the term and that is before any further optimization is done and without waiting for any real aging on the term.

It would be completely expected, from past experience, that over time that ranking would do even better without any further optimization, since I have the benefit of time for what I am testing I am scheduling to check the results after one month then two months before making any further changes.

After that I will start to make further optimizations to the site, at times we tend to ignore the fact that we need to measure SEO results over time. We expect fast results and with competitive terms it may take time before you see those results.

Sometimes we get spoiled with long tail search terms ranking fast, but when working with more competitive terms it is best to measure over time and not get frustrated.

The Art Of SEO

I finally found an SEO book that I like.

Although I do the majority of my research on topics online I do still like to read real hard copy books, I know hard to believe, I know how to read.

One thing I believe most people get themselves in trouble doing is thinking they know everything about a subject, that is usually the first step to failure. Even though I have had some luck and success with various SEO methods I know there is still much to learn, and I would expect a lot of so called experts would say the same, search optimization methods are always changing so keeping up to date is something anyone involved with site development should always be doing. Most do not though....

All that said, most books on search engine optimization that I have read or browsed through were a re-hash of tips you could find online in a quick search or something that worked in 2002 but really is not relevant now. Or the book focused so much on the technical aspects that you could not read past the first 10 pages without falling asleep.

Well, while at the Affiliate Convention a member of an SEO panel (cannot remember if he was a white, grey or blackhat SEO) said the one book on SEO that was of value was The Art Of SEO.

I decided to give it a read and see if he was telling the truth (he was not one of the authors, although another panel member was referenced in the book a few times).

I can say that this book is different, truly the first book on this very complex subject that I can say I truly enjoy. Within the first 2 chapters I had already sent an email to my team members recommending this book. There are not many books I recommend  but as of late there have been three (on 3 different topics):

The Art of SEO (Theory in Practice)

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves

(Yes those are affiliate links but I have bought and read everyone and recommend them).

The book does a great job going over market statistics, even if you are a pure techie you should pay attention to the marketing statistics to make sure you focus your  search marketing in the right direction.

If you have not read this book yet or have been frustrated by other SEO books, give this one a try. It is different, and the way it is written pulls it all together much better than any I have found.