Mastering Search Analytics Brent Chaters Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Sebastopol • Tokyo Mastering Search Analytics by Brent Chaters Copyright © 2012 Brent Chaters. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://my.safaribooksonline.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or [email protected]. Editors: Mike Loukides and Mary Treseler Indexer: Seth Maislin Production Editor: Jasmine Perez Cover Designer: Karen Montgomery Copyeditor: Rachel Head Interior Designer: David Futato Proofreader: Jasmine Perez Illustrator: Robert Romano October 2011: First Edition. Revision History for the First Edition: 2011-10-07 First release See http://oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781449302658 for release details. Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O’Reilly logo are registered trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Mastering Search Analytics, the image of a burrowing owl, and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O’Reilly Media, Inc., was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information con- tained herein. ISBN: 978-1-449-30265-8 [LSI] 1317928147 This book is dedicated to my late mom, Mary-Lea (Rivet) Chaters, who always wanted to write a book, as well as my sister, Tricia, my father, Gary, and the rest of my family for their support. Lastly, a special thanks to my better half, Caroline, who has helped me keep my sanity, supported my late nights, and made sure I found time to eat and socialize. Table of Contents Preface .................................................................... xiii 1. Introduction to Search Analytics ........................................... 1 How Is Search Data Different from Clickstream Data? 2 Who Are You Optimizing For? 4 What Are Others Trying to Measure? 6 What Do Companies Most Want to Measure? 8 What Challenges Do Companies Face? 9 Business Objectives 10 What Auditing Tools Should I Be Using? 11 Website Analytics 11 Link Tracking 12 Page Authority 12 Ranking Position 12 Keyword Search Volume and Competition 13 Social Links and Social Noise 13 Keyword Volume or Keyword Density on Page 13 Mobile and Geographic Traffic Estimations 14 Competitor Insights 14 Multiuse Tools and Sites 14 Spreadsheets 14 An Explanation of Macro, Micro, Value, and Action Metrics 15 Presenting Search Analytics—Who’s Your Audience? 17 Setting Expectations 18 Establishing What You Will Track 19 What Website or Websites Do You Want to Monitor? 20 What Keywords Do You Want to Track? 22 What Keywords Are Considered Branded Terms? 22 What Keywords Are Considered Nonbranded Terms? 23 Concluding Thoughts 23 v 2. Establishing ROI ....................................................... 25 ROI—The Universal Metric 27 Capturing Actual ROI 28 Capturing Estimated ROI 29 Presenting ROI Data 30 Why Search Matters to Sales Online and Offline 31 The Problem of Only Capturing ROI 32 Interpreting Data and Studies to Build a Case 33 Where Do People Click in the Search Results? 33 What’s the Average Spend of SEO and Paid Search? 43 What’s a Visit Worth? 44 An Example of Calculating Values 45 Quickly Identifying Bad Investments 45 Paid Search and ROI 46 How to Estimate ROI for Paid Search 46 How to Capture and Track ROI for Paid Search 49 Conversion Rates by Keyword 50 SEO and ROI 56 How to Estimate ROI for SEO 56 Accounting for the Butterfly Effect in Your SEO 62 Capturing ROI for Site Search 64 Tracking Offline Sales 68 Concluding Thoughts 69 3. Tracking and Optimizing SEO and Paid Search Traffic ......................... 71 Tracking Visitors and Segmenting Traffic from Search 71 Segmenting and Tracking Offline Transactions 75 Using Campaign Segmentation Data 77 Tracking Pathing Through the Site 79 High Bounce Rates 80 Low Bounce, High Site Search 80 Low Bounce, High Pathing Exit 81 Using Pathing and Bounce Data 81 Landing Page Optimization 82 A/B and Multivariate Testing 84 Running a Multivariate Test 85 How Testing Improves Your Search Campaigns 91 Measuring Engagement 92 Example 1 of Engagement 92 Example 2 of Engagement 93 Engagement and Search Campaigns 94 All Traffic Is Not Created Equal 94 Volume of Traffic Versus Number of Conversions 96 vi | Table of Contents Traffic from Search Engines: Not All Engines Are Created Equal 98 Seasonality and Traffic 100 Is There Value in CTR? 102 Capturing Traffic Volume Based on Positioning 103 Tracking Mobile Traffic—SEO Versus Paid Search 107 Tracking International Searches and Linguistics 107 Optimizing Conversion Rates for SEO and Paid Search 109 Concluding Thoughts 110 4. Tracking Words—SEO and Paid Search ................................... 111 Tracking SEO Keywords 113 Developing Keyword Clusters and Finding the Short Head and Long Tail 114 Segmenting Keywords in Clusters 116 Keyword Research for New Opportunities 120 How Are People Finding Me Today? 121 Tracking Paid Search Keywords 123 Broad Match 123 Phrase Match 124 Exact Match 125 Negative Keywords 126 Tracking Broad Match Words 127 Tracking Top-Performing Words and Underperforming Words 130 Tracking Paid Search Quality Score 131 Seasonality and Words 133 Concluding Thoughts 134 5. Coordinating SEO and Paid Search ....................................... 135 Monitoring CTR from Paid Search and Applying Your Findings to SEO 136 A/B and Multivariate Testing—Applying Insights from the Paid Search Page to SEO 137 Testing Titles and Descriptions in Paid Search 138 Finding Your Gaps and Plugging Them with SEO or Paid Search 139 Running SEO and Paid Search Together 140 When 1 + 1 = 3, and When It Doesn’t 142 Concluding Thoughts 142 6. Site Search Analytics .................................................. 143 Site Search as Navigation 144 Establishing Your Site Search KPIs 145 Capturing Terms with High Exits 146 Capturing Secondary Searches 149 Capturing Pages with High Searches 151 Table of Contents | vii Capturing Pages with High or Low Success Rates 151 Tracking Special Campaigns 152 Tracking Spider Volume 152 What Is the Value of Your Site Search? 153 CRO for Site Search 154 Search and Refinement 154 Language Use 156 Depth of Search 156 Repetition of Search 156 Average Ranking Clicked 157 Tracking Trends 158 Site Search Seasonality 158 Concluding Thoughts 159 7. Correlating SEO/Paid Search and Site Search ............................... 161 Pulling Terms from Site Search for SEO/Paid Search 162 Applying Site Search Patterns to SEO/Paid Search 164 Site Search—Capturing and Using the Second Term 166 Testing Paid Search Pages on Site Search First 168 Pulling Terms from SEO/Paid Search to Improve Site Search 169 Testing the Effects of Optimization on Site Search and SEO 169 Concluding Thoughts 170 8. Competitor Research and Competitor Tracking ............................. 171 Tracking Share of Voice 172 Refining Share of Voice 175 Tracking Against Competitors 179 Capturing Competitors’ Keywords 181 Mining Metadata 181 Mining Links 182 Mining Footers 182 Capitalizing on User Behavior 183 Tracking Competitors’ Branded Keywords 184 Capitalizing on Competitor Spikes and Marketing 185 Tracking the Effectiveness of Your Competitors’ Marketing Through Metrics 186 Brand Conquesting 187 Concluding Thoughts 188 9. Tracking Off-Site Trends ............................................... 191 Analyze: Explaining the Bumps and Spikes 191 Auditing General Trends 193 Measuring Off-Site Link Diversity 194 viii | Table of Contents