Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a incredibly powerful digital marketing strategy. The more organic traffic to your website, the more leads, and better site navigation means more leads turning into business. No website is the same, so it can take many different combinations of statistics and information to gain the most insight on how to run the best SEO campaign. However, throughout each SEO campaign, there are three analytics that Vici uses consistently. Checking a site’s page count, domain authority, and bounce rate help form the strategy of any SEO campaign.
Page Count- The more quality pages you have, the easier you are found.
SEO becomes more complex when a site has hundreds or even thousands of pages simply because that means there are more pages to optimize, more meta tags, keywords and meta descriptions to maintain. You can check how many pages your site has by opening Google and typing in the search area “site:*your site address*”. For example, the Vici site has 343 pages indexed. Google rewards content creators with traffic, so by creating quality keyword-rich pages on a consistent basis will help your overall ranking. If you have a low amount of indexed pages, that typically means you aren’t showing up high in organic search.
Domain Authority- How likely you are to show up.
Domain Authority is a score (from 1-100) that predicts how well a website will rank on a search engine. Domain Authority compares one site to another by tracking the “strength” of your website over time. This is calculated by combining all other link metrics like root domains, number of total links, etc., into a single source. So now you’re asking, what is a good domain authority score? Not so fast overachiever- domain authority is a subjective score based on your site users and your industry. Think of the score as a perception of your site and keep in mind that utilizing SEO tools can help increase positive perception! For a paid tool that ranks domain authority you can check out Moz, or use this freebie at SEO Review Tools.
Bounce Rate- The measurement of visitors staying past 1 page.
Bounce Rate is another handy-dandy tool that helps gain insight to what strategies need to be implemented for an SEO campaign to be successful. Bounce rate is the percentage of users who view only one page of your website and then leave the site. It is NOT a measure of how long a user spent on your site, only a measurement of how many pages were viewed. Similar to domain authority, there is no set number for a bad bounce rate score and a good bounce rate score. Typically scores should range from a 40%-70% to be considered “normal” depending on the information that can be found within the homepage. High bounce rates kill conversion rates and low bounce rates insinuate limited user interaction. However, some sites are made to have users explore page after page, and some sites may want to direct users to one page, such as an article or blog instead of multiple pages. Alexa.com is a reliable source to gain statistics about your site’s bounce rate. Vici’s bounce rate is 38.5%.
SEO is a complicated digital marketing tool that takes many different components, from man and machines in order to be successful. The trick is to stay patient and focused, seeing the results of an SEO campaign can take time, but once your business starts to see the benefits of SEO, your customers will soon feel the impact as well.
