10 Value-Metrics for Internet Marketing Services

It's easy to demonstrate value from a new toaster or a more efficient television. With intangible services like search engine optimization, it becomes a little harder! Today we check out 10 metrics and methods you can use to assess the value and results from your search engine optimization service.

Some products and services demonstrate their own value easily; some are more difficult to see value in. Search engine optimization is one of the more difficult services - one of the end goals is to increase search engine rankings for a company, but in a new world of personalized search and with the realization that rankings mean nothing without conversions, seeing value in your SEO can be a little trickier. Today we look at 10 metrics you can use to quickly and easily measure the results that your search engine optimization and internet marketing spend is getting.

1. Daily traffic numbers Reports on your traffic day by day are one of the easiest to access methods of assessing the results your SEO is getting. Given that increased search engine rankings get more clicks, you can usually equate traffic to SEO marketing value. Of course, viral marketing measures and social media campaigns need to be considered also.
2. Organic search engine referral traffic This is a more specific way of testing how much of your traffic is coming from your organic search engine results ... and therefore from your organic search engine optimization investment.
3. Engagement data Often SEO marketing campaigns involve putting some effort into site structure and usability. The pudding which provides proof of the efficacy of these actions comes through your web analytics, in user engagement type metrics like time spent on site, bounce rate, and of course your ultimate conversion rates.
4. Brand mentionsLook at how often your brand is mentioned across the net - this is one of the few solid metrics that can help you quantify value in terms of 'branding' and other such insubstantial aspects.
5. Link building reports Looking at the number of incoming links that have been built since the start of your SEO campaign is a fast and easy-to-measure value metric for SEO. You can also consider it in the context of your referring site traffic numbers - links built by your search engine optimization company that actually bring you traffic are far more valuable than those that only Google sees.
6. Built links value Check out the value of the links that your internet consulting service has built - Pagerank of the site, number of inbound and outbound links on each page all determine the relative weighting of that link building in the Google equation, and provide a bit more data than mere numbers.
7. Conversion rates Strictly speaking, conversion optimization and search engine optimization are different practices. However, SEO often involves on-site optimization, and if the site structure, content readability and keyphrase inclusion have been improved in a way that pleases people as well as search engines, conversion rates should corresponding increase.
8. Status reports Some search engine optimization firms (though definitely not all) have a project management interface that is open to clients also. This lets you see exactly what sort of SEO marketing measures are being implemented for your site.
9. Search engine rankings The only reason that your end search engine rankings aren't at the top of the list of value-assessment methods is that with Google personalized search, they will appear differently to everybody. Google preferentially shows you sites that you have visited and spent time on before, so for most business owners and also most SEO marketing professionals, the results are skewed. The technology seems to do some personalization even when you are logged out of your Google account, and even when personalized search is turned off.
10. ROI How much money are you putting into SEO? How much are you getting out? A good web analytics solution is essential to measuring this value metric, and is well worth the investment.