{"id":91,"date":"2015-05-22T20:36:08","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T20:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/?p=91"},"modified":"2015-05-22T20:36:08","modified_gmt":"2015-05-22T20:36:08","slug":"deborah-carver-katie-pennell-humans-make-search-happen-behavioral-data-to-debunk-seos-sullied-reputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/deborah-carver-katie-pennell-humans-make-search-happen-behavioral-data-to-debunk-seos-sullied-reputation\/","title":{"rendered":"Deborah Carver &#038; Katie Pennell: Humans Make Search Happen &#8211; Behavioral Data to Debunk SEO&#8217;s Sullied Reputation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fightwithknives\" target=\"_blank\">Deborah Carver<\/a>, Content Marketing Manager, and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KatiePennell\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Pennell<\/a>, Senior Content Marketing Specialist, both with Nina Hale, Inc., drop some SEO protips.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Chapter 1: SEO&#8217;s Reputation &amp; How Google Works<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>12 billion worldwide unique searches on Google every month<\/li>\n<li>51% of traffic to websites comes from organic search<\/li>\n<li>Top 5 spots take majority of traffic<\/li>\n<li>Google driven by robots mimicking humans, not by humans mimicking robot behavior<\/li>\n<li>Search data is behavioral data\n<ul>\n<li>Frequent\n<ul>\n<li>People use Google multiple times per day<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Unguided\n<ul>\n<li>No one tells you what to enter in search bar<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Reliable\n<ul>\n<li>Massive, repeatable sample size<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Top 4 Organic Ranking Factors<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Click-Through Rate\n<ul>\n<li>% of people who choose your search result after seeing it in results page<\/li>\n<li>Found in GWT (Google Webmaster Tools)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Co-Occuring, Relevant Terms\n<ul>\n<li>How people use the same words related to your topic without using the synonyms themselves\n<ul>\n<li>Your target KW: birthday cake<\/li>\n<li>Related terms: chocolate; recipe<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Google&#8217;s authority metric (TF-IDF) is not publicly available<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Social Sharing\n<ul>\n<li>How many people think your content is good enough to share<\/li>\n<li>Found in Google Analytics referral traffic and social analytics tools<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>High-Quality Backlinks\n<ul>\n<li>Good backlinks are built on quality content and relationships\n<ul>\n<li>News websites<\/li>\n<li>Influencers in your vertical<\/li>\n<li>Well-known brand links<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Found in Google Analytics referral traffic and other tools (e.g., Majestic)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Chapter 2: What to Measure &amp; How to Find Metrics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Know your goals. Love your goals.<\/li>\n<li>Data useless without knowing what goals they map to<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Tools<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Google Analytics (GA)<\/li>\n<li>Google AdWords Keyword Planner (GAKP)<\/li>\n<li>Google Webmaster Tools (GWT)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Data Balancing Act<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Keyword-Level Metrics\n<ul>\n<li>GWT<\/li>\n<li>GAKP<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Page-Level Metrics\n<ul>\n<li>GA<\/li>\n<li>Other tools<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Content Metrics in People Terms<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>How are people finding my content?\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Avg. monthly search volume\n<ul>\n<li>GAKP<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Website impressions\n<ul>\n<li>GWT<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Social trackbacks\n<ul>\n<li>GA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Impressions by keyword\n<ul>\n<li>GWT<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Referral source\n<ul>\n<li>GA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>What content do people find most often?\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Unique visits\n<ul>\n<li>GA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Pageviews on top organic pages\n<ul>\n<li>GA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Is my content valuable and engaging?\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>CTR\n<ul>\n<li>GWT<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Bounce rate\n<ul>\n<li>GA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Session duration\n<ul>\n<li>GA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Social shares\n<ul>\n<li>Individual social tools<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Are people interested enough to convert?\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Email sign-ups\n<ul>\n<li>GA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Lead forms\n<ul>\n<li>GA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Revenue per page\n<ul>\n<li>GA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Content Groups<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Tool within GA<\/li>\n<li>Any consistent naming taxonomy that lets you look at multiple aspects\u00a0of content\u00a0and their measurements simultaneously<\/li>\n<li>Each group has page, keyword, and core conversion KPI<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Channels<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Paid\n<ul>\n<li>Paid Search<\/li>\n<li>Paid Social<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Owned\n<ul>\n<li>Website<\/li>\n<li>Email<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Rented\n<ul>\n<li>Social Profiles<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Earned\n<ul>\n<li>Social Shares<\/li>\n<li>Referrals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>How to Benchmark<\/h3>\n<p>Focus here: owned channel (your website)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Look at data from past year<\/li>\n<li>Take seasons and fluke days into account<\/li>\n<li>Discern a reasonable average<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Chapter 3: Search Metrics in the Real World<\/h2>\n<p>Data stories validate your content decisions.<\/p>\n<h3>The Case of the Lone Metric<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Problem: One single metric is out of whack\n<ul>\n<li>E.g., bounce rate is high<\/li>\n<li>Other organic metrics are in line with or better than benchmarked expectations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Solution: This page has an introductory purpose in the content ecosystem\n<ul>\n<li>Examine several before disregarding content with a high bounce rate, lower than average pageviews, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Moral of the story: don&#8217;t look at this one metric without context<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>The Case of Unexpected Interference<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Problem: organic revenue is down compared to the benchmark\n<ul>\n<li>Revenue from other channels are on par with the benchmark or better.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Solution: Paid campaigns are influencing organic revenue\n<ul>\n<li>Look into recent changes in paid campaigns<\/li>\n<li>Ensure you&#8217;re employing an efficient media mix<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>The Case of Apples and Oranges<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Problem: Two separate content groups are behaving complete differently<\/li>\n<li>Product page group has high conversion rate<\/li>\n<li>Idea page group doesn&#8217;t have high conversion rate<\/li>\n<li>Solution: Content types are producing different engagement\n<ul>\n<li>Tweak ideas page to promote more conversions<\/li>\n<li>Link product pages back to your idea pages clearly<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Moral: each content type produces unique combinations of engagement metrics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>The Case of the Star Player<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Problem: Social engagement is way up.\u00a0Social referral traffic and social conversions are down.<\/li>\n<li>Solution: Aren&#8217;t enough backlinks in social posts.\n<ul>\n<li>Link to your website in social posts using keywords<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Moral: Even when rented channels are doing well, your owned channels still matter.\n<ul>\n<li>Talk to all your teams. Collaborate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>The Case of the New Kid on the Block<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Problem: Social referral traffic is way up. All other organic metrics are stable.<\/li>\n<li>Solution: Something happened in the social realm\n<ul>\n<li>Determine the source of the spike<\/li>\n<li>Either create a profile or optimize your current profile<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Moral: Your content doesn&#8217;t exist in a vacuum.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Chapter 4: How to Tell Your Own Data Story<\/h2>\n<p>Justify your content with numbers that matter.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Establish your benchmarks.\n<ul>\n<li>Start small and scale up<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Consider all the metrics that lead to conversions\n<ul>\n<li>Set up analytics to help your data stories<\/li>\n<li>All metrics matter as long as you put them in context<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Consider how much time you spend on your content\n<ul>\n<li>The content comes from somewhere and that somewhere is your department<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Graph it out with multiple metrics\n<ul>\n<li>Weaving together multiple metrics gives fuller picture of what&#8217;s happening with your content<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Tell your data story\n<ul>\n<li>Explain your story in terms of people, not numbers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deborah Carver, Content Marketing Manager, and Katie Pennell, Senior Content Marketing Specialist, both with Nina Hale, Inc., drop some SEO protips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-confabmn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions\/114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}