Frequently asked -Search Marketing & Web Analytics questions

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of adjusting web content, design structure, indexing, descriptive tags, and titles of pages in efforts of gaining higher placement in the search engine results. Search Engine Optimization (organic) is a non paying tactic utilized to attract more visitors to your website.

Why is Link Building Important to Search Engine Optimization?

Link building is a process of searching for valid website's that will place a link to your website on one of their pages. It’s an important step in the search engine optimization process because the linking profile for a website plays a large role in that site’s search engine ranking. The main components of a successful link building campaign are getting links to authority sites, getting links from a high volume of sites, getting some deep links (to other pages than the home page), getting links from local sites, and setting good anchor text (the actual text that is hyper linked).

What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

Search Engine Marketing combines both organic and paid search marketing. An organic or natural search refers to search engine results produced by a search engine's rules when indexing unpaid website submissions, developing keywords and supportive content, and meta data. A paid search refers to search engine results that are determined by the amount a business pays to appear in sponsorship banners or placement at the top of search engine pages such as Google, MSN, or Yahoo. In some cases, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads will appear in the right margin and/or at the top of the list search results.

What is Web Analytics?

Web Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage. - The Official WAA Definition of Web Analytics

Through the use of web analytics, we can identify the following information:

1. Which site referrers generate the most traffic and revenue?
2. What products have the highest browse-to-buy ratios?
3. Which campaigns work?
4. Measure the impact of your online channel on your overall business.
5. Discover which visitor groups are the most likely to become customers, subscribers, or members. 

Why is Conversion Tracking Important?

Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Marketing (PPC) are tactics used to increase visitors to your website.  The ultimate goal is to have visitors fill out a form, purchase a product or services, etc. It is also important to identify which sources, landing pages and content, segments that drive conversions.  Identifying this information will help to eliminate the guess work and reduce the cost per acquisition.