Do you know how to properly measure your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) success? SEO success should be evaluated by the increase in organic search engine traffic. For those online companies that are seasonal, they should be comparing a year by year increase in organic search traffic.

Needless to say, you have to bear in mind that “branded searches” are not what good SEO should be all about. Better if you just spend a lot of money on national television branding campaign which could really boost your website ranking than rely on branded searches.

Now that you know SEO success is evaluated through organic search traffic, you will need to make certain that your analytics are set-up perfectly. And, if you are one of those companies trying to compare traffic year by year, you will need a year’s worth of data on the same platform.

Make Sure your Analytics Work Properly

If you think you or your client’s analytics are not working properly then you should consider running Google Analytics. Google Analytics is free, can be installed easily and with it, you will be sure that all your important data are correct and accurate.

In addition to faulty analytics, some sites also do not have any tracking codes installed on every page of their site. The best way to ensure a tracking code is on every page of your sire is to make sure a universal file is included across your site. If you do not have a universal file, make certain that you verify each page source so as to make sure each page has a code. Again, you have to be certain this is done before creating the baseline for your SEO efforts.

Another common error is PPC data reports that are not segregated from all the organic search data. You need to make sure that you have separate reports for PPC and organic search results so you can monitor which among your SEO strategies are the most effective.

You may want to consider using the Google Analytics URL builder solely for generating PPC data results.

Other Issues

Aside from specific issues mentioned above, make certain that you are not creating a redirect on the landing page you are sending the traffic to for the reason that this will disconnect tracking which might result to your URL be stripped off and be reported as an organic traffic.
Another possible issue you need to look at is that your Google Adwords and Google Analytics account should be properly linked. Better if you call a Google representative to assist you in the linking process if you are not very familiar with it. More often than not, Adwords accounts are linked to a wrong Analytics profile.
There are actually several ways to mess up your SEO reports. It is not enough that you are confident with your SEO skills, it is also important that you make certain your SEO tools are working properly.