it is important to tie your SEO campaign to the
results it brings to the business. A fundamental piece of that is measuring the conversions
driven by organic SEO traffic. Here are some of the most common types of conversions:
Sales/sales revenue
This is the one that everyone assumes is part of conversions. Sales and sales revenue (or
better still, margin) conversions can be the simplest things to track, except when you are
selling many different products at different price points and in different quantities. In this
case, the process would need to be a bit more sophisticated.
If your site is advertising-driven, you need to look at the impact of organic search traffic
on advertising revenue. If you have no financial goals for your site, you need to look at
some of the other types of conversions.
Email/blog/newsletter subscriptions
Anytime a user signs up to receive regular communications from you it is a win. Even
though there are not direct financial consequences to this it is still a conversion. Someone
who has subscribed to something you offer is more likely to become a customer than a
first-time visitor to your site, so you need to credit this type of conversion.
Sign-ups
Closely related to the notion of subscriptions are other types of sign-ups. Perhaps you offer
a service such as a tool that people need to sign up for to use. Even if the tool is free, you
should track this as a conversion.
You most likely received the person’s email address in the process, and even if she indicates
that she does not want to receive commercial communications from you, you should be
building loyalty with the tool you provided her access to (or whatever she signed up for);
otherwise, why would you be providing her that service?
Downloads
Many sites offer free downloads, such as white papers, or free downloadable tools. Even
if you do not require a sign-up of any type, you should still count this as a conversion.
You are getting your message out there with the downloads you offer.
results it brings to the business. A fundamental piece of that is measuring the conversions
driven by organic SEO traffic. Here are some of the most common types of conversions:
Sales/sales revenue
This is the one that everyone assumes is part of conversions. Sales and sales revenue (or
better still, margin) conversions can be the simplest things to track, except when you are
selling many different products at different price points and in different quantities. In this
case, the process would need to be a bit more sophisticated.
If your site is advertising-driven, you need to look at the impact of organic search traffic
on advertising revenue. If you have no financial goals for your site, you need to look at
some of the other types of conversions.
Email/blog/newsletter subscriptions
Anytime a user signs up to receive regular communications from you it is a win. Even
though there are not direct financial consequences to this it is still a conversion. Someone
who has subscribed to something you offer is more likely to become a customer than a
first-time visitor to your site, so you need to credit this type of conversion.
Sign-ups
Closely related to the notion of subscriptions are other types of sign-ups. Perhaps you offer
a service such as a tool that people need to sign up for to use. Even if the tool is free, you
should track this as a conversion.
You most likely received the person’s email address in the process, and even if she indicates
that she does not want to receive commercial communications from you, you should be
building loyalty with the tool you provided her access to (or whatever she signed up for);
otherwise, why would you be providing her that service?
Downloads
Many sites offer free downloads, such as white papers, or free downloadable tools. Even
if you do not require a sign-up of any type, you should still count this as a conversion.
You are getting your message out there with the downloads you offer.