Social Media Metrics For Dummies

Gaming the System — Not!

Give Google credit that the major changes it’s been making to its search algorithm over the last year or so and to its Analytics and AdWords tools in the last part of the year have started making it just that much harder to game the system when it comes to metrics and search results.

If you wonder what I mean by game the system, I’m referring to using black-hat SEO tactics, such as link farming, irrelevant landing pages that live outside of your site structure, duplicate content, baiting, link stuffing on social media, and comment and forum spambots to improve your page results in search.

You don’t need to game the system to get good metrics and use that data to organically appear higher in search results. You simply need to know how to read your data and listen to your customers and potential customers.

Use your metrics instead to gather data on the content your visitors view the most and create touch points within that content to help your ROI. Use advanced segmentation to create converting calls-to-action on your page, including a welcome message designed to make visitors from certain sites feel welcome in a manner fitting the site that sent them your way.

You still need to do your basic SEO, too. Even though search is skewing toward the three R’s — recent, related to you (your social graph), and relevant — having the SEO basics in place will only help ...