SEO has almost become a buzzword acronym amongst some businesses, insisting that they’ve ‘done it’ and that because they can be relatively easily found online that their efforts have been fruitful. In truth, SEO is a constantly moving and shifting activity and one in which no business can not afford to stop investing time and effort into.
Without specific SEO expert support, the chances are high that a business’ online search ranking will suffer, and that competitors will benefit from this advantage.
Part of the service that the SEO agency or providers working with your business should be providing, is a regular SEO analysis report highlighting the work carried out, the changes and gains achieved by the consistent SEO work, and any issues to be addressed.
What SEO Is, and What Value Working with SEO Experts Brings
SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimisation: the practice of ensuring the content an organisation produces online can be easily read, understood and ‘filed’ by the search engines who crawl their website. The desired result is for a business to achieve the top listing on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) related to queries made relevant to their products and/or services. Being ranked higher than competitors in search results gives distinct advantage as consumers are proven to click the top links first.
For many years, SEO efforts were focused around the basic usage of relevant keywords or terms in text content. This allowed search engine crawlers to easily and rapidly determine the topic of a site and organise its results rankings accordingly. However, as search engines have developed and grown, their algorithms are now considerably more intelligent and thorough – which has resulted in a wide range of factors contributing toward rankings. Indeed this is an ever-changing picture; with it now being estimated that Google makes at least minor changes to its algorithm twice a week.
It is clear, therefore, that businesses cannot afford to stagnate or stand still when it comes to their SEO work. This is why many find it beneficial to work with SEO specialists. SEO specialists not only keep abreast of all of the latest developments in search engine algorithm updates and best practice solutions, but also are able to provide detailed information on areas for improvement.
Why is a Regular SEO Analysis Report Important?
An SEO analysis report is a detailed document that should be issued on a regular basis in order to provide businesses with a snapshot of their current SEO position as well as any threats to this and any potential areas for improvement.
This report works to keep businesses informed on:
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- Their current rankings and any growth or decline in this position
- The value and ROI of their SEO investment
- Details of the SEO work or changes implemented since the last SEO Analysis Report was issued
- The results of any such SEO work provided
- The growth or benefit to the business receiving increased web traffic as a result of SEO
It is critical that in order to track and analyse ongoing SEO efforts, an SEO Analysis Report must be compiled and issued on a regular basis.
SEO Analysis Report Metrics
A decent SEO Analysis Report should include lots of helpful information for businesses to comprehend their position amongst competitors in search results and on areas in which their efforts could be improved.
Key areas in an SEO analysisrReport include:
Keyword Rankings
Keyword rankings refer to the position in which the business’ website or one of its online presences holds when a search engine user makes an enquiry including a keyword or phrase related to its products and/or services.
The keyword ranking portion of an SEO analysis report will include the keywords and current positioning alongside any growth/improvements and/or any drops in position.
SEO Visibility
SEO visibility demonstrates the level of a business’ online presence when related terms are searched. This will usually include details on organic traffic (non-paid traffic), the keywords most commonly being used to access the domain/s, the conversions being made once on the site, the amount of traffic to the site coming from social media channels (and any other related channels) and the CTR; Click-Through Rate.
SEO visibility gives a great overview of current user behaviour in both reaching the domain and activity once on it.
Traffic
Traffic information delves slightly deeper into the ways in which users access the website. This will usually include organic traffic, paid-for traffic (if appropriate), direct traffic (where a user types the URL directly into their browser search bar), social media referrals and traffic as a result of email contacts; as well as anything else that drives users to the site.
This can be broken down into an overview of current activity, as well as comparisons to year-on-year or relevant period-on-period activity.
Competitors
SEO efforts are made to gain competitive advantage above others. SEO specialists will analyse the top competitors in relation to the business’ website: which may include those the organisation already understands to be their competitors and others they hadn’t considered.
An SEO analysis report will detail the SEO visibility of these main competitors, their keyword ranking, the DA (Domain Authority) of their website and the prevalence/importance of any external links linking back to them.
Bounce Rate and Time On Site
On-site behavioural measurements such as bounce rates are important for not just SEO purposes but also the delivery of a good UX (User Experience). The time users spend on a site is indicative to search engines of the quality of the site’s content, with those who engage consumers for longer likely to rank higher than those who don’t: so businesses must aim to increase this time wherever possible.
The bounce rate of a site is given in percentage format and refers to the amount of users who leave (‘bounce’) from the site. Pages with high bounce rates are unlikely to be providing the perceived value that users are seeking.
Conversions and Conversion Rates
Once on a website, organisations must encourage users to take an action they want them to; such as making an online purchase, supplying their contact details, or registering their interest in a product/service.
These actions are known as ‘conversions’ and are the ultimate goal in having a user visit the domain. A conversion rate is the percentage of users to the site who then take that desired action – and the higher, the better. Businesses should always be looking to improve their conversion rate.
Domain Authority Ranking
The DA (Domain Authority) of a website is a score awarded that ranks how likely that site is to rank successfully on SERPs. Developed initially by marketing company Moz, these scores range from 0-100, with higher scores corresponding the greater likelihood of ranking well.
A DA score is based on a variety of data including the age of the domain, the accessibility of the site, the authority built from other sources mentioning/linking to it and the quality and variety of the content on it. While DA is by no means a prescriptive score, it is now a mainstream measurement that can be considered a good indicator of valid SEO efforts.
Digital PR
One factor often underestimated in its SEO impact is digital PR. This may refer to specifically orchestrated and enacted PR campaigns online that link to the business’ domain/s or the publication of guest posts/features elsewhere online to generate backlinks.
Where this activity has been carried out, details of it will be included in an SEO analysis report.
Do You Receive a Regular SEO Analysis Report from Your SEO Agency?
It is critical when working with SEO specialists that they are able to provide not just regular SEO Analysis Reports but also updates and open communication channels on shifting and changing best practices and algorithm standards.
Woya Digital employ a full-time team of SEO experts who are consistently at the forefront of developments in order to offer a seamless and unbeatable service to gain their clients constant competitive advantage. We create monthly SEO Analysis Reports for each client as standard, to keep them updated, nurturing and coaching them through the process rather than just publishing and presenting a report and not explaining it thoroughly. Get in touch today to understand more on what we can create for you!