How to calculate ROI for your SEO Efforts

Indeed very important question when it comes to give figures to the clients, against their SEO budget. 


It requires very simple calculation and not a big rocket science deal.

You need to calculate the Cost for the SEO Campaign: For eg.
* Resource Cost
* Overhead Cost
* Tool cost
* Content Cost
* System Cost

and Need to calculate the Revenue generated. For eg
* Visitors (Through Web Analytics)
* Leads Generated
* Sales Done


ROI= Revenue- Cost/ Cost

SEO toolbars are highly useful utilities providing us with:

* Lots of useful SEO info at a glance;
* Quick access to more SEO tools and resources;


1) SEOBook SEO toolbar: the recent creation by Aaron Wall is impressive (as well as most of his tools).








You could use their built in site comparison tool and compare up to 5 sites, looking at...

• which site out of a group gets more traffic
• comparing site size to traffic volume (to help determine if creating more content would help create more profits)
• comparing link equity to earnings (to help determine if creating more content would help create more profits, or if the site should focus more on link building)
• which site out of a group is estimated to have more search traffic value (to help you find their top keywords and perhaps emulate the best parts of their site structure)
• which sites out of a group have more traffic (or link equity), but are under-performing in monetizing the search channel (nice for acquisition targeting)

These types of comparisons are subjective and advanced, but most lasting profitable SEO strategies are not paint by number.
 
2) SEOmoz toolbar is only available for SEOmoz registered members but it is really quick and contains essential information. It is mostly based on SEOmoz internal tools and metrics.


3) SEOquake is the first toolbar I started with. It can slow FireFox down but I like it because it is turned off with the click and can be configured in multiply ways.

4) Woorank


source: searchenginejournal

Social Media Marketing Pillars

Facebook
1) Increasing Fans of the Page
2) Use Images to get Shares
3) Ask Questions to get Comments
4) Fans want Discounts and Coupons
5) Keep Status updates under 90 characters

Twitter
1) Increase Followers to page
2) Tweet 120-130 Characters
3) Ask for RT
4)  Best time to tweet is in between 3-5 PM (CST)
5) Use Keywords in # tags


Google+
1) Increasing the # of circles
2) Add rel author to all content
3) Google + strategy to core SEO
4) Review how profile pic look like and adjust


Pinterest
1) Image width > 570 pxl
2) Optimize image name with alt tag
3) Republish popular info graphics
4) Ask for pins when promoting

Online Marketing Strategies through Social Media listening tools

What is SEO?	Internal Ranking Factors
How to generate traffic to your site	External Ranking Factors
Need of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)	Algorithms Change
Website Essentials	Google Updates
On Page Optimization	Off Page Optimization
SWOT Analysis of Website	Directory Submission
Competetors Analysis	Deep Linking
Keyword Research	Creating Blog
Title, Description & Other Meta Tags	Pinging Blog
Hyperlink, Image Optimization	Blog Commenting
Internal Linking, Using Backlinking	Article Submission
One Way, Two Way (Reciprocal ) Links	Forums & Press Release
Keyword Density, Keyword Proximity	Classified Submission
Using Image ALT, Title Tag	Viral Marketing
Header & Footer Keyword Optimization	RSS Feed Submission
Logo Optimization	PPT Submission
Robots.Txt Optimization	PDF Submission
XML Sitemap Creation & Submission	Local Listing (Google Places)
Webpage Size, Weight, Page Rank	Free Backlink Creation
URL Renaming / Rewriting	Call to Action
Using Google Webmaster Tools	Copyscape & Duplicate Content
Adding Site to Google	W3C Validation
Verifying Site with Google	CSS Validation
Fetching & Indexing Webpages	Using Yahoo Answers
Checking site for Crawl Errors	Creating Professional Reports

Module 2- SMO (Social Media Optimization)

Creating Facebook Fan Page	Using LinkedIn for Business
Increasing Likes for Fan Page	Creating LinkedIn Company Page
Marketing using Facebook	Posting Job using LinkedIn
Creating Facebook PPC Ads	Creating LinkedIn PPC Ads
Using Facebook Plugin	Using Slideshare
Using Twitter	Using Pinterest
Promoting Youtube Video	Using Flickr

Module 3- Google Adwords

Introduction to Pay per Click- PPC	Search Network vs Display Network
Benefits and Significance of PPC	Importance of Quality Score
Google Adwords Campaigning	CTR- Click Through Rate
Google Adwords Account Configuration	Adwords Editor
Keyword Research	Using MCC (My Client Center)
Creating Adwords Account	Automatic/Manual Payment
Creating Search Campaign	Creating Display Campaign
Standard/Product Listing/Dynamic Ads	Mobile/All Features Ads
Device Targetting	Creating Audience List
Single/Multiple Location Targetting	Tag Based/Rule Based List
Setting Bids- Manual/Automatic	Using Display Remarketing
Setting Daily Budgets	Using Delivery Methods
Using Location/Sitelink/Call/Social Extensions	Ad Schedule
Creating Ad Groups	Ad Delivery
Creating Text Ads	Ad Rotation
Text Ad Guidelines	Frequency Capping
Display/Destination URLs	Display Targetting Methods
Adding keywords to Add	Creating Image Ads
Creating Display Campaign	Using Display Ad builders
URL Renaming / Rewriting	Creating Video Ads
Using Opportunities	Linking Youtube Account
Using Conversions	Video Remarketing
Traffic Estimator Tool	Using Billing Tab- Payment Methods
Placement Tool	Account Access
Contextual Targetting Tool	Notification Settings

Module 4- Google Analytics

Introduction to Web Analytics	Site Search- Custom Search Engine
Setting up Account and Profile	Tracking Search Terms
Report Interface	Using Experiments
Visits, Unique, Returning Visitors	In Page Analysis
Page Views, Bounce Rate	Setting Goals & Funnels
Demographics- Language, Country, City	URL Destination, Visit Duration
System- Browser, Operating System, ISP	Page/Visit
Mobile- OS, ISP, Screen Resolution	Event Tracking
Behavior- New vs Returning Visitor	Using Filters
Visitor Flow	E-Commerce Tracking
Traffic Sources- Direct, Search, Ref, Campaigns	Custom Reporting
Site Speed- Page Timing, User Timing	Animated Reports
E-Mail & Export Reports	Adding Report to Dashboard

Module 5- E-Mail Marketing + Affiliate Marketing + Google Adsense

Image Resizer:  http://pixlr.com/ – no download required
Image editor online – free: http://splashup.com/

http://bibpodcast.com/videoscribe

http://www.sparkol.com/products/videoscribe

http://www.powtoon.com/

The Google Analytics Features Every Site MUST Have

I’m going to lay it to you straight: Google Analytics doesn’t offer any value out of the box. In fact, it’s costing you money because you spend WAY too much time looking at metrics that don’t matter.
But there’s a way to fix this.
Below, you’ll find the 8 critical features that will help you get every possible insight out of Google Analytics. You’ll know whether or not your site is worth the effort, how to protect yourself from corrupted data, and how to evaluate all of your marketing efforts. To figure out how to grow your business, you’ll need to activate each of these features.

1. Ecommerce Tracking

Don’t you want to know where your most profitable customers come from? With ecommerce tracking, you’ll know right where they came from so you’ll be able to brainstorm ways to find more. Nearly every report in Google Analytics can be switched to an ecommerce version so you can see exactly how you’re making money. If there’s only one thing you set up in Google Analytics, it needs to be ecommerce tracking.
Obviously, feel free to skip this one if your customers aren’t purchasing anything from your site.
To set up ecommerce tracking:

1. Go to your Google Analytics standard reports
2. Click on the “Admin” button in the top right
3. Click on “Profile Settings”
4. Go to “Ecommerce Settings” and change the drop down to “Yes, an Ecommerce Site”
5. Click the “Apply” button at the bottom.

Now the hard part starts.
You see, we have to connect the ecommerce part of your site to Google Analytics and send all the important data like which items were purchased and their prices. But this isn’t easy. Your best bet is to find you friendly neighborhood developer/engineer/code wizard and buy him or her a case of PBR (or whatever their favorite beverage is) to connect everything for you. You’re going to want help with this.
If you feel particularly courageous, you can get the gritty details on ecommerce tracking from Google here. Be warned, this is not for the faint of heart.

Isn’t there an easy way to set up ecommerce tracking?

There is, as long as your site is built on the right platform. Shopify will automatically pass ecommerce data to Google Analytics once you connect them together. All you have to do is give Shopify your Google Analytics property ID, turn ecommerce tracking on in Google Analytics, and you’re done.
There are also plugins for WordPress that will do this like Cart66. Once again, give Cat 66 your property ID, turn on ecommerce tracking, and you’re all set. I don’t have personal experience with connecting other WordPress ecommerce plugins to Google Analytics so I can’t vouch for other options.
When you’re shopping around for an ecommerce cart or WordPress plugin, make sure that it easily integrates with Google Analytics. This is one of the most important features to have.

What about Paypal?

Honesty time: Paypal does not play nice. I never found a reliable way to pass data from Paypal to Google Analytics. I haven’t been successful but hopefully you will. If you’ve pulled it off, definitely let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear how you did it!

2. Goals

With a bit of creativity, you can tag just about anything you want as a goal. But why do we love goals so much? Because they’re how Google Analytics tracks conversions.
And conversions pay the bills.
To figure out what you should be tracking, start with the most critical element (yes, singular) of your site. Are you looking for leads? What about newsletter signups? Do you have a site that sells ad space by the page view? Whatever keeps the lights on is what you want to track. If you’re just starting, keep it simple and focus on a single goal. Worry about everything else later.
To reach the goal settings:

1. Go to your Google Analytics standard reports
2. Click on the “Admin” button in the top right
3. Click on “Goals”
4. From one of the Goal sets, click “+ Goal” (goal sets are just a way for you to easily group goals)

You’ll first need to decide what kind of goal you want Google Analytics to track.

• URL Destination: Tracks a goal when people visit a specific URL.
• Visit Duration: Tick off a goal every time someone spends a certain amount of time on your site.
• Pages/Visit: Set a threshold for a number of page views that will set off a goal during a visit.
• Event: You’ll need to define an event by adding a snippet of code to your site. Once Google Analytics is tracking the event, then you can set it as a goal. See Google’s Event Guide for the lowdown.

If you’re looking to build one of Google Analytics fabled goal funnels, select URL destination, define the goal URL (the final URL that you want people to reach), check “Use funnel”, and punch in the preceding URLs of your funnel. Here’s what the final settings look like:

3. AdWords

If you’re using AdWords, you’ll need to connect it to your Google Analytics account. AdWords has a wealth of data that you’re paying for, you need to make the most of it. If you don’t take the time to set everything up correctly, your paid search traffic can be reported as organic search traffic.

Step 1: Enable Auto-Tagging in Google AdWords

This tells AdWords to tag each of your links which will tell Google Analytics that the visitor came from AdWords.

1. Log in to AdWords
2. Click on the “My Account” Tab, then “Preference”
3. Make sure Auto-tagging is set to yes. If not, click “edit” and check “Destination URL Auto-tagging”

Step 2: Link Google AdWords and Google Analytics

This will import all your other juicy Google AdWords data into Google Analytics.
But sadly,  this is a tad buggy right now. My best guess is the recent UI changes to Google Analytics v5 haven’t been completely streamlined with Google AdWords. Generally speaking, you follow these steps:

1. Log in to AdWords
2. Click on the “Tools and Analysis” tab, then “Google Analytics”

Normally, you’ll see a screen asking you if you want to create a new Google Analytics account or if you want to use an account you already have. Select the “already-have-one” option, pick the Analytics account you want to connect to, and you’re all set.
During the past week, I wasn’t able to get the setup to work with Google Analytics v5 at all. So try using the old version (click the link in the top right) of Google Analytics and it should give you access to the setup process.
You can also find your AdWords settings in Google Analytics v5 here:

1. Log in to Google Analytics, click “New version” at the top if you’re not already there
2. Click “Admin” in the top right
3. Select your Google Analytics account
4. From the list of tabs at the top, click “Data Sources”

4. Site Search

What if you could find out what people think is missing for your site? That’s easy. Just connect your Google Analytics account to your internal site search and you’ll have a list of every keyword people search for on your site. You’ll know exactly what they think is missing and what they have trouble finding.
To set up site search:

1. Go to your Google Analytics standard reports
2. Click on the “Admin” button in the top right
3. Click on “Profile Settings”
4. Go to the bottom where you’ll find “Site Search Settings”
5. Select “Do Track site Search”

Now you need to find out how your site identifies internal search terms. Your site uses what’s called a query parameter for this. We need to make sure Google Analytics knows to look for the same query parameter and identify them as internal search terms.

How to Find Your Search Query Parameter

Go to your website and search for something. On the search results page, look at your URL and find your search term.
For example, I get this URL if I search for “google analytics” on the KISSmetrics blog.

Before the search term, there’s an “=” and the letter “s”. The “s” is the query parameter for the KISSmetrics Blog site search. Now your letter might be different (it’s usually “s” or “q”) and you may even have a complete word like “search”. The key is to look for your search term and find the letter or word before the “=”.
Once you know what letter or word your search query parameter is, plug it into the Query Parameter box in the Site Search Settings of Google Analytics.
If you’re not already stripping other URL parameters from your URLs to clean up your data, don’t worry about doing that here. Feel free to leave the “Strip query parameters from your URL” box unchecked.
Check the “Search Categories” box if your search field has a way for people to search within a category on your site (through a drop down for example). If you do, you’ll need to figure out the category parameter the same way that we just figured out the search query parameter. Otherwise, leave it unchecked and apply your changes.
You’re all done. Once it’s connected, all you have to do is wait for the data to come in, find the trends, and fix what your customers have trouble with.

5. Campaigns

Measuring the ROI of search traffic is great. But it’s even more important to measure the ROI of all your marketing campaigns. After all, you’re spending money and time on them. We need to know if it’s worth it.
Google Analytics will track any URL that you can edit. Emails, Facebook, banner ads, you can track it all.
It’s also super easy to set campaigns up. There’s no settings on your profile to manage and no new reports to activate. All you have to do is start building campaign URLs via Google’s URL Builder tool.

Enter in your domain and some basic info about the link so you can keep track of it in your Campaign reports:

• Source – What domain are you placing the link on? Which email list?
• Medium – Use things like banner ad, PPC, affiliate, email etc.
• Term – This is for paid keywords but in general, you won’t use this because there’s a better way to connect Google Analytics to AdWords.
• Content – Use this to separate different versions of the same ad.
• Name – This is how you’ll easily differentiate groups of ads in your reports. Google groups campaign links by name so this is the first item you’ll see in your reports, make sure you can tell what the link is from here without having to look at any of the other info.

Punch everything in, grab your new link, and drop it wherever you want. When people use the link to access your site, it’ll come up under the campaign you defined.
Don’t worry about adding campaign URLs to AdWords, your ads get tagged automatically if you’ve enable auto-tagging and connected AdWords to Analytics.

6. Safety Net Profiles

What happens if you have a typo in one of your filters? Or you set up your goals incorrectly and don’t catch it until 3 weeks later? That mistake will corrupt your Google Analytics data as long as it’s in use. So what can you do to make sure you always have a backup plan?
You want to create two additional profiles for your Google Analytics account that will protect you from data corruption.

The Raw Data Profile

This profile does exactly what it sounds like. Set up a new profile, name it Raw Data, and never touch it again. That’s it. Don’t apply filters, set goals, or change the settings in any way.
The purpose of your Raw Data Profile is to silently collect data in the background and serve as a last resort if something goes horribly wrong on your other profiles. You’ll have a set of data to work with and depend on no matter what happens.

The Test Profile

Before rolling out new settings on your main profile, test them on a junk profile that you never use for analysis. This way, you’ll be able to experiment with settings as much as you want and you’ll never have to worry about corrupting your data.
Set your Test Profile up with the exact same settings as your main profile so you can see exactly how they’ll change your real data. If the test goes well, apply the new setting to your main profile. If something goes wrong, keep making changes until everything works or remove the new settings altogether.

How to Create a New Profile

This takes no time at all:

1. Go to your Google Analytics standard reports
2. Click on the “Admin” button in the top right
3. Click on “New Profile” on the right
4. Name your profile, then select your country and time zone
5. You’re done, apply any settings you want

Word of Caution: Every account on Google Analytics is limited to 50 profiles. For most people, this isn’t a problem. But if you have a bunch of different website, you can hit this limit pretty quickly. Rumor has it that you can petition this limit and get it raised but I wouldn’t count on it. You’ll probably be forced to split your sites up between different accounts or avoid creating any new profiles.

7. Filters that Exclude Internal Traffic

Google Analytics collects data on every visitor (as long as they have cookies and javascript enabled) and that includes you. And if you’re constantly checking your site, tweaking details, and updating content, a sizable portion of your overall traffic could be you and your team.
This will skew every metric in your reports. Instead of gaining insights about your customers, you’ll learn how you behave on your own site. And the way you use your site is going to be VERY different than how your customers use your site.
But never fear, you can exclude all of your internal traffic to your own site. We’ve already posted a great step-by-step tutorial for how to set up filters that exclude internal traffic.
Use your newly created Test Profile and make sure you’ve set everything up correctly. To verify it, just compare the traffic from your state/country between your main profile and the test profile. If the filters are doing what they’re supposed to, you’ll see less traffic from your location. Go ahead and apply the same filter to your main profile when you know it’s working.

8. SEO Reports via Google Webmaster Tools

Google recently released a batch of SEO reports for Google Analytics. They help you see how you perform within Google’s search rankings. Previously, we could only get data on which keywords people click through on. Now, we can also see what Google sees:

• Which keywords give us the most impressions
• What our click through rates are
• How we rank for individual keywords (and our average position)
• Click through data for our top landing pages

But we have to jump through a few hoops to get the SEO reports activated. You’ll need to activate Google Webmaster Tools on your site and connect it to your Google Analytics account. Check out the KISSmetrics Beginner’s Guide to Google Webmaster Tools for help on how to set up GWT for the first time.
And the KISSmetrics 2012 Guide to Google Webmaster Tools will show you how to connect Google Analytics to GWT (it’s towards the bottom of the post).

Bottom Line

If you want to make the most of Google Analytics (and learn how to grow your business), you need to set up these features:

1. Ecommerce tracking
2. Goals
3. Connect to AdWords
4. Site Search
5. Campaigns
6. Safety net profiles
7. Filter out your internal traffic
8. Connect to Google Webmaster Tools

So grab yourself a cup of coffee and get ready to unleash all that valuable data you been missing from Google Analytics! If you have any questions please ask them in the comments below.

source: kissmetrics

source: Google

Tracking PayPal with Google Analytics and Google AdWords

Setting up ecommerce tracking is essential if you are selling online (if you don't sell online check out Monetizing Non-Ecommerce Sites). But not all ecommerce systems integrate with Google Analytics. And if you are selling online chances are you accept PayPal® as a method of payment. So how do  track visitors who have purchased via PayPal?


First step, create a thank you page for successful PayPal transactions and set that URL within PayPal so visitors are returned to your site.



The problem is that when the visitor returns to your site after payment has been received (or cancelled) PayPal gets the credit for the conversion and not the original way the visitor found your site.

Steps For Tracking PayPal With Google Analytics:

1. Log into PayPal.

2. Under the 'My Account' tab click on the 'Profile' link.

3. Click on 'Website Payment Preferences' (under 'Selling Preferences' in the right column).

4. Turn 'Auto Return' on and enter the URL of your PayPal thank you page.

Then add ?utm_nooverride=1 to the end of your URL (highlighted in blue below), this will ensure that transactions (i.e. conversions) are credited to the original traffic source, rather than PayPal.



For example, if a visitor came from a Google search for 'gardening book' the conversion will be credited to Google, organic, gardening book (and not PayPal, referral).

At this point if you simply want to track the conversions using goals you can setup a new goal for the thank you page within Google Analytics. However, if you want to also get Google Analytics ecommerce tracking up and running you will need to get a little more technical.

PayPal's payment data transfer allows you to receive transaction details once a visitor is back on your site (visit the PayPal technical overview article for details).

Getting Advanced With Ecommerce Tracking:

6. Turn 'Payment Data Transfer' on.



Please note that once you turn on 'Payment Data Transfer' it will be applied to all Auto Return payments unless otherwise specified within the button or link for that Website Payment.

7. You will now either have to create your 'Buy Now' buttons or modify your existing buttons.

If you are creating new 'Buy Now' buttons leave the return URL blank (or if you specify a different URL ensure it has ?utm_nooverride=1 at the end).

If you already have buttons on your site you will need to look for the following code:

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">

And add the following before the </form> element (with your correct thank you page URL):

<input name="return" type="hidden" value="http://www.site.com/paypal-thanks.php?utm_nooverride=1" />

8. Finally you will need to modify your thank you page to grab the PayPal data being transfered using either the POST of GET methods (you will have to talk to your web developer or IT person if you are not familiar with the coding of your site).

Basically, you will need the Google Analytics ecommerce tracking code to automatically (or dynamically) grab the correct values and place them in the code. You will be able to get total price, tax, shipping, transaction id, item name, quantity, etc.

Example Google Analytics Ecommerce Tracking Code:

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXX-1");
pageTracker._trackPageview();
pageTracker._addTrans(
"6NB836968U296223E", // Order ID
"", // Affiliation
"20.00", // Total
"2.00", // Tax
"0.0", // Shipping
"", // City
"", // State
"" // Country
);
pageTracker._addItem(
"6NB836968U296223E", // Order ID
"ProductId123", // SKU
"Green T-shirt", // Product Name 
"T-Shirts", // Category
"20.0", // Price
"1" // Quantity
);
pageTracker._trackTrans();
} catch(err) {}
</script>

For Google AdWords conversion tracking you simply need to grab the total value and pass that into the conversion script as the value.

Example Google AdWords Conversion Tracking Code:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var google_conversion_id = 12345678;
var google_conversion_language = "en";
var google_conversion_format = "2";
var google_conversion_color = "ffffff";
var google_conversion_label = "U10bCNfstvhghO6gM";
var google_conversion_value = 0;
if (20) {
  google_conversion_value = 20;
}
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js">
</script>
<noscript>
<div style="display:inline;">
<img height="1" width="1" style="border-style:none;" alt="" src="http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/12345678/?value=20&label=U10bCNfstvhghO6gM&guid=ON&script=0"/>
</div>
</noscript>

source: analyticsresults 

source: moz.com

Tools for creating simple infographics and data visualizations

1. Piktochart

2. Easel.ly

3. Infogr.am
Infogr.am is another free, web-based tool with some really nice themes and a great interface for creating simple infographics. This option also allows you to create charts using real data. There are 31 chart options that offer some really cool displays, like a radial bar graph, scatter charts, bubble graphs, and map charts. You can also add your own images and video. When you're done creating your infographic, you can embed it on a website and publish it to the infogra.am site (I wasn't able to find a way to download). This app is also in beta, but again, seemed pretty solid to me.

---

5. Tableau

Tableau has some free tools for creating data visualizations. It is not web based, so you have to download the software. Once you do, you can upload a spreadsheet or CSV and create a variety of interactive data visualizations types, including heat maps showing density of an activity by location, Venn diagrams to show associations, bar charts, line graphs, and others. This tool is for Windows only. See Tableau's gallery for examples of the types of visualizations you can create or learn more about how it works.

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[Bonus!] Looking for some more fantastically geeky data viz options?

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Tools for diagraming and wireframing

6. OmniGraffle

This is a desktop application that I use all the time at work. The interface is very intuitive, and it's quite an effective tool for wireframing in detail. You can customize and stylize objects to the extent that you can use the tool to create whole infographics exactly as you want them using this tool (it's difficult to do data visualizations with actual data, though). There are tons of free downloadable stencils which make it super easy to diagram mobile and web interfaces, architecture diagrams, and even office/home layouts. This tool has its cons, though; it's not the cheapest tool at $99 for standard and $199 for the pro version, and it's offered for Mac only.

---

7. Balsamiq

This is another nice wireframing tool good for creating simple diagrams of web and mobile interfaces. It's $79 for the desktop version, but there's also a free web demo which is sufficient for simple diagramming.

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Other tools for visual communication

8. Make a video

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9. TimelineJS

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10. Present.me

Present.me allows you to create presentations where you record yourself talking next to the slides you're presenting. This tool might be a good way for people working remotely to share a proposal or concept, or for documenting presentations you've given on your blog or site.

---

Planning your infographic

So now you've got a bunch of tools you can play with, but before you go too crazy adding bubble charts and radial bar graphs, take some time to really plan out your infographic and what you want people to take away from it. Here are some tips on researching and planning a great visualization:

1. Learn from others

• Visual.ly has a ton of great infographics to inspire you or your designers.
• Informationisbeautiful.net has a ton of great data visualizations.
• Datavisualization.ch has a variety of interactive data visualizations and information graphics.

2. Understand graph options and themes

It can also be helpful to think about the different types of visualizations that exist and the purpose they serve. Many Eyes by IBM Research made a really great list of graphing types and when to use them (i.e. when to use a stack graph vs bar chart vs scatterplot). Visual-literacy.org also made a really awesome Periodic Table of Visualizations that shows examples of every kind of graph type you can imagine.
There are also a few themes you can identify in the world of infographics; I've listed some of them below. Consider where yours might fit in.

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Module Wise Contents

• Search Engine Optimization
– SEO is about attracting the right customers at the right time. This module will

equip you with the core understanding, technical knowhow and insight to

build an SEO strategy that will stand up in today’s fiercely competitive online

marketplace.

– Topics include:

 Key SEO concepts  Keyword selection

 Search results and positioning  Content updates and layout

 Benefits of search position  Meta Tags

 Stakeholders in search  Site Maps

 Mechanics of search  SEO Webmaster tools

 The SEO process  Off-page optimisation

 On-site / Off-site optimisation  Ranking

 Customer insights  Inbound Links and link building

 On-page optimisation  Analysis and review

 Keyword research  Laws & Guidelines


 
• Pay per Click or Search Engine Marketing

– Pay per click (PPC) advertising campaigns allow you to maximise your

company’s visibility on key search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

You will learn to develop an effective PPC strategy and achieve demonstrable

return-on-investment (ROI). This module provides you with the essentials of

planning and managing PPC campaign

– Topics include:

 Key Concepts of SEM  Budgets

 Strengths of Pay-Per-Click  Scheduling

 Keyword Research  Display Networks

 Google PPC  Ad Centre

 Research Tools  Campaign Management

 Search Campaign Process  Conversion Tracking

 Keyword Selection  Conversion Metrics: CPA, CTR

 Ad Copy  Bidding

 Landing Pages  Analytics

 Targeting  Laws & Guidelines


• Email Marketing

– Email Marketing, when carried out properly is still one of the most

effective forms ofdigital arketing. This module will teach you about

Data Protection, Opt-In Subscriber Management, E-Mail Design and

Content, Email Delivery and Reporting

– Topics include:

 Key Concepts  Email Structure

 Campaign Process  Email Delivery

 Data Capture: online  Email Systems

 Data Capture: face-to-face  Filtering

 Segmentation  Scheduling

 Email Design  Measurement

 User Behaviour  Key terms and metrics

 User Characteristics  Split testing

 Email Copy  Laws & Guidelines



• Social Media Marketing 1
– This module will provide you with the know how to plan and manage

your communications and marketing through the rapidly emerging and

influential social networks. It will provide you with techniques and

tools to understand and harness the opportunities provided by best

practice social media marketing and online PR.

– Topics include:

 Key Concepts  LinkedIn Engagement

 Social Media Goals  LinkedIn Company page

 Setting Goals and Priorities  Google+ Setup

 Facebook Setup  Google+ Privacy

 Facebook Privacy  Google+ Engagement

 Facebook Engagement  Google+ Brand Page

 Facebook Business Page  YouTube Search

 Twitter Setup & Profile  YouTube Setup

 Twitter Engagement  YouTube Channels

 LinkedIn Setup & Profile  YouTube Engagement

 Building connections  Laws & Guidelines


• Social Media Marketing 2

 Implementing Social  Facebook Platform

 New Social Challenges  Apps & Plug-ins

 Listening First  Facebook Groups

 The Quality Scale  Facebook Analytics

 Facebook  Page Insights

 Landing Pages  LinkedIn

 Facebook Promotions  Groups

 Facebook Offers  Events

 Facebook Events  Job Search

 Promoting Events  Advertising

 Event Updates  Promoted Tweets

 Event Follow-up  Promoted Accounts

 Facebook Places  Promoted Trends

 Facebook Advertising  Analytics

 Sponsored Stories  Third Party Apps

 Goals and Targeting  Reporting


• Digital Display Marketing

– This module will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of

the creation deployment and management of Digital Display

Advertising including display, search, affiliate, email, mobile & social,

to give delegates the broadest view of digital advertising opportunities

– Topics include:

 Key Concepts  Campaign Steps

 Benefits of Digital Display  Target Audience

 Challenges with Digital Display  Campaign Objectives

 Business Value  Campaign Budget

 Running Effective Ads  Creative Formats

 Ad Formats  Targeting

 Ad Features  Tracking the campaign

 Ad Display Frequency  Optimising the campaign

 Campaign Planning  Laws & Guidelines


• Mobile Marketing
– This module provides you with a solid understanding of the rapid

evolution of mobile marketing landscape. Focusing on cutting-edge

case studies you will gain knowledge of the technologies and

terminology of mobile marketing.

– Topics include:

 Key Concepts  Proximity Marketing

 Trends in Mobile  Bluetooth

 Opportunities and Risks  QR Codes

 Mobile Devices  Mobile coupons and ticketing

 SMS Content  Implementation

 SMS Strategy  Strategic Steps

 Mobile Advertising  Marketing Goals

 Mobile Optimised Websites  Review and Testing

 Mobile APPS  Key Trends

 The Big APP decision?  Social Media Channels

 DMI '6 Step' Process  Laws & Guidelines


• Website Analytics

– Your digital marketing is only as effective as the analytical insights

derived from online activities. This module guides you through web

analytics and other data sources to better understand site visitor

characteristics and behaviour. You will understand the most important

and appropriate metrics and how to use them to improve your digital

activities.

– Topics include:

 Key Concepts  Bounce Rate

 Goal and account setup  Site speed and site search

 Analytics Code and Profiles  Events and conversions

 Goal Configuration & Funnels  eCommerce

 Dashboard  Standard reporting

 Audience  Real Time reporting

 Technology  Intelligent reporting

 Advertising  Customised reporting

 Traffic Sources  Laws & Guidelines


• Planning Integrated Digital Marketing Campaigns

– Digital Marketing is driving the agenda in marketing departments and

this module will teach you the complexities of planning, buying and

executing a marketing campaign that integrates traditional marketing

with all digital activities including display, search, affiliate, email,

mobile and social.

– Topics include:

 Main Concepts  Setting Objectives

 First Steps  Appropriate Tools

 Planning  Action Plan

 Situation Analysis  Setting the Budget

 Information Gathering  Measurement

 Target Audience  Iteration and Enhancement

How to measure SEO success

Recently we learned that most SEOs still consider that rankings are a performance indicator, just less of a value than in the past. Or at least according to a recent poll we held. This all begged the question, what ARE the metrics of measuring SEO success?

Well, in short, there is no cookie cutter approach that is going to work in all situations. What follows are some notes that we (Dojo warriors) put together over some forum threads and chat sessions. And the question was….

What benchmarks and key performance indicators are worth watching?

As we made our way through the various potential benchmarks and KPI metrics, it became clear; all is not at it first would seem. Right away you should understand that each website, each business model and market creates new challenges. This is where the art of SEO comes into play. What is a key metric in one situation may be of secondary value on another.

What is are KPI and benchmarks

To get things started we need to go backwards quickly and ask; what is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)?

• A metric that an organization measures to help determine its progress towards a goal;
• A reflection of the tactical performance of an organization;
• Is used to substantiate an organization’s objectives.

Essentially, for our purposes, they are a metric to aid in gauging performance of the SEO program. They are signals that tell us how well we’re accomplishing a given set of goals (and how). Obviously this is going to vary from site to site dependent on the business model, but we should be able to at least get a feel of what should be looked at.

And a benchmark? For the sake of this discussion these would be secondary metrics. In many cases the benchmarks can be items that give substance to the larger goals/data. The names aren’t as important as the concepts as far as I am concerned. It really doesn’t matter as much what we call them. Understanding that there are core and secondary metrics is the important part of the exercise.

And so where does one start? Simple… define success.

Define What Constitutes Success

This is where I believe the most important part of this journey begins. The KPI part is far more elusive than the ‘benchmarks’. Meaning one needs to understand each market and each unique business/site that they’re dealing with. Even two sites in the same niche, in the same region, are going to have slightly different needs and goals. This means that establishing which metrics are important is going to be situational.

We can’t seek to pigeon hole a set of metrics that can be plugged into any situation. One must seek a deeper understanding on the construction of KPI to ensure you’re fluid. The benchmarks aspects, will be more of the lesser metrics and health points of the site and SEO program.

The process works from the business/site model outwards. Also, a single site may serve a mixture of purposes(ecommerce + support for examples). You will need to define the primary and secondary goals accordingly.

Examples of conversion points

Now, with most sites we will have primary and secondary conversion points. As an example a ecommerce store might have sales as primary conversion points, and possibly ‘inquiries’ or downloads as a secondary. As with the above, the valuation comes from working with the client to better understand the business model.

Possible Primary conversions

• Products (onsite)
• Affiliates sales
• Lead Generation (off site commerce)
• Ad Revenue (targeted traffic)
• Memberships
• Page impressions (ad revenue based sites)

Some examples of secondary conversions might include;

• Contact form completions
• PDF/brochure downloads
• Reviews submitted
• Press Release Views
• Case Study/White paper downloads
• Lead gen pre-qualifier
• Newsletter Signups
• RSS subscribers
• Social visibility

But, if this is an informational site, not an ecommerce, some of these may actually be primary objectives. These are simply some examples, how one organizes them, (primary/secondary) will depend on the situation and goals. One needs to establish the importance of each element. We want to start off by defining the goals… primary and secondary.

You will need to decide on these for yourself in each situation.

Understanding the model

The next element we’d want to look at is the actual model of the site in question. What’s the business model? What is the core type of activity being conducted? For the most part it will break down into one or more basic types, (and often websites will perform multiple functions);

What types of sites are there?

• Information/News Portals
• Educational Websites
• E-commerce Websites
• Lead Generation Websites
• Support Sites

More details;

	Informational sites – in most cases these sites are ad driven or via download for informational products. There are often actual sales at the core of the primary not just traffic driving Ad views and revenues. Secondary conversion points often are in the form of sign ups or email collection for list building. Other secondary conversion points might also include RSS subscriber increases and even social visibility. The challenges are often in the form deciding if one wants to focus on the primary/secondary terms or go for the long tail. In the case of a primarily ad driven model, one would likely have a long tail heavy approach. If there are informational products involved, then further attention should be paid to brand related queries. Growth in this area, as with any product, is paramount.

	Ecommerce sites – obviously the goals for these sites are going to primarily be the products/services themselves. Secondary conversion points often involve list building of some type. Further secondary conversion points can include inquiries and lead acquisition. One of the more common challenges one can face, especially with service businesses, is when products/services aren’t sold directly on the site. The site is more about lead generation than actual online sales. This requires some more involved planning in order to properly track. Another challenge is being a re-seller of a producer whom is also online.

	Lead Generation sites – as noted above, some websites aren’t actually selling a product or service online, they are generating leads. These can be particularly challenging as far as setting up tracking for the offline elements of the business model. Secondary conversions can often be newsletter sign ups, white paper downloads and other email gathering approaches. Depending on the market, social media visibility might also be a secondary conversion point.

	Support sites – this category isn’t one we really see all that much and speaks to a limited presence who’s goal is to support offline elements of a business. For the most part the primary conversion points are people finding the information and support for the given situation. Secondary conversion points might be qualitative data collection and feedback on the products/services, newsletter sign ups and the like. The main challenges here are ensuring a strong brand presence and logical structure for the engines to easily parse. Terms being targeted would be heavy on brand terms as well as informational modifiers (‘how to’ Brand Name etc..).

Once more, these are example for the sake of this excercise. The important part is to remember to take stock of the various elements and the business model of the site. This helps identify conversion points and goals, which ultimately lead us to our own success metrics.

Potential KPI and Benchmarks for SEO

Ok, so we’ve looked at how we reach the point of establishing some relevant metrics for the program. Remember, the goal of this exercise is to establish the essence of the program so that we can decide which metrics are important to our situation.

Before we get going, I’d like to warn against getting overly intense on actual conversions. In many cases we as SEOs do not have the amount of control required to effectively affect actual conversion optimization – it is a messy metric at times. Our job is to bring targeted traffic for the site owner to convert. Don’t be blind in measuring SEO success by pure conversions alone.

It also bears mentioning that we decided to just list some potential metrics and allow you to break them into values (KPI or Benchmark) on your own. As we discussed various organizations, it was found that they are often interchangeable depending on the situation. Thus I will just present them en mass for you to do with as you please.

Metrics to watch

At this point we start to put our SEO hats back on. You will have researched the business model and decided on some primary and secondary conversion points. You have gone the due-diligence with the KW research and nailed down the on-site. We’re ready to start watching the program to begin evolving it further.

Some common SEO metrics can include;

source: reliable-seo