(Updated 8/3/2011)

You’ve performed keyword research. You optimized your website for the search engines. You have even started a link building campaign to gain untold numbers of relevant, inbound links. So, you’re done right? Wrong. It’s time to see the effects of all this work, re-evaluate the optimization, and plan your next move.

Take a look
Tracking and reporting are as natural to search engine optimization as weighing yourself when you’re on a diet. Yet, many people don’t track the results of their SEO work. Some people track the results of the optimization and link building simply by noticing whether their site seems to be busier. Others go as far as running a search ranking report a few weeks after the initial SEO is completed, but don’t continue running reports assuming their rankings will not change. Meanwhile, they may be targeting the wrong keywords, their rankings may be dropping, and they may be missing great opportunities.

By tracking the various metrics of SEO…

• You can see if the SEO is working or if the optimization for some keywords needs to be re-evaluated do to poor performance.
• You can determine what keywords need more than just on-page optimization and thus need to be targeted when link building.
• You can determine what link building strategies are working best.
• You can learn what keywords have the best conversion rates so you can focus on those keywords.

Finally, there is the emotional and psychological effect.  As you see your rankings improving and your website traffic increasing, it can encourage you and motivate you.  This makes you more likely to continue to maintain the optimization of your website and continue your link building campaigns.

What Do We Track?
There are essentially four things we track in SEO.

1. Search Rankings
2. Links
3. Traffic
4. Conversions

In the next few articles, we’ll take a look at each of these tracking and reporting metrics, see how to track them, and discuss how to use the information we gather.  We’ll start by exploring the benefits of monitoring and tracking with an analogy, the SEO Diet.

Picture by gerlos

(Updated 4/20/2011)

If optimizing a website is like giving your car a tune up, link building is like putting in a bigger engine. Simply put, there are going to be keywords that are out of your reach if all you do is on-page optimization, especially if your church is in a large city or having church ministries targeting competitive keywords, like “unplanned pregnancy”, Link building is needed to bring those keywords into your grasp.

Links are like votes for your website. The more votes your website gets, the more important the search engines think your site is. That causes then to move you up in the search results for the keywords you are targeting and can get you ranking well for keywords you can’t currently rank well for. So, what is link building and how do you do it? Read on my friend. Read more…

(Updated on 3/31/2011)

Are the pages of your website optimized for the search engines? If not, you are missing out on visitors to your website and to your church, missing out on people who are looking for God.   On-page optimization is the essence of search engine optimization and the key to targeting the keywords that can make your website a success. Read more…

(Updated on 3/15/2011)

Like a foundation for a building, there is one aspect of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that is more important than any other. Without this foundation, you may be wasting all your time and resources. Proper keyword research should be the basis of your optimization.

Why is Keyword Research Critical? Read more…

At a small college a group of incoming freshmen marketing majors gathered for their first class. As the wise, old Professor of Search Engine Marketing made his way to the front of the room, one of the students asked him, “Professor, what is SEO?”

The professor looked over the classroom full of young students and replied, “Let me tell you a story…” Read more…