There is an old saying that goes “If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it.”
Image by Andrew Eick
And it holds true for online marketing and PR too. Yet many companies find it difficult to use web analytics for more than reporting and ad hoc investigations. You can get data about your site’s traffic patterns, unique visitor numbers, bounce rates, referring URLs, and other user trends.
By defining requirements, roles, tasks, and benchmarks, analytics can become an efficient process that helps you to figure out what is working and what’s not.
Look at what sites are referring traffic to you. How much traffic is coming from Search Engines? If it’s less than 30-40% you need to pour the coals on your SEO efforts. (fresh keyword rich content in RSS feeds, link building/baiting, directory submissions, blogger outreach.)
Social media is adding a new level of impromptu organization and insight to Web-based content that is accelerating the ability of analysis tools to figure out what’s important and worthwhile in content sources, writes Robin Good
I spoke to Heather Dougherty, Director of Researcy for the US at HitWise, about using analytics for driving content strategies.
Listen to the podcast here. (Be patient while it downloads)
Heather talks about online competitive intelligence - HitWise tracks 10 million internet users and how they search. They measure internet behavior to anticipate trends and help companies get insights so they can make better business decisions. One of the examples she talks about is the launch of the J. C. Penney American Living website during the Oscars. Another is the new iPhone.
Heather speaks about the need for online reputation management and being aware of how consumers talk about your products. PR people need to understand how to tie their news stories into these trends and be aware of the right search language.
You can hear Heather speak about this subject at Search Engine Strategies, San Jose - August 17 - 20, 2008