ANALYZE

SEM Action Checklist - Analyze

• Evaluate your tracking and monitoring needs, and determine the best solution for your site. Consider factors like the type of information you require, how often you require it, and your budget. Some solutions require nothing but a free piece of code, while other solutions can be more expensive. Determining the information you need versus the cost of implementation will help you find the right option.
  
  
• Develop a strategy to monitor and track your results over time. This will allow you to clearly understand which pages and keywords successfully drive traffic, and what elements you can improve upon.
  
  
• Reevaluate your relationship with your search engine rankings. Remember, positions constantly shift, and any keyword positioning report only reflects a moment in time. Consider a strategy to evaluate general keyword positioning trends rather than absolute positioning. That is, going from #2 to a #7 position (and then bouncing back to #4) for a particular keyterm is nothing to worry about. However, if you are noticing a downwards trend that continues over a few months, it's time to reevaluate the keyword strategy.
  
  
• Set aside time each month to manually check your search engine positions. After researching your main profit-driving keyphrases, see if you position well for other relevant keyterms found in your page content. When a page has strong content, it will position well for a variety of keyterms - not just the terms that you focused on during the optimization campaign.
  
  
• Remember that search engine marketing is an ongoing effort. Use intelligence gained from your tracking and monitoring system to improve your current search marketing campaign. If customers are quickly exiting your key pages, determine if a page redesign or rewrite is in order. If you are not positioning for your main keyphrases, consider reevaluating your keyphrase strategy or developing additional content. Gathering the data you need and making necessary adjustments will help guarantee your SEO success.

Other SEM Action Checklists:

SEM Action Checklist - Strategize
SEM Action Checklist - Maximize
SEM Action Checklist - Optimize

Back to Analyze