Top SEO companies know this mantra: Metrics, metrics, metrics. Hopefully you and your agency have agreed on the top metrics to track success for your online campaign. Ever wish you could peek inside a really successful campaign, check on the metrics that were used as yardsticks for success, then emulate that success for yourself? Try committing to and tracking these three metrics as you and your search engine optimization company build your online presence:

1) Top landing pages: What are the top pages that site visitors land on when they visit your site? These can be pages they click in links when they find you on social media or on search engines, or maybe they saw your URL on a sign on one of your company vehicles and then typed it directly into their browser. In any of those cases the user will be lead to a page on your website. If you have Google Analytics or another tracking system installed on your website, you will be able to discern which pages were the most popular landing pages. Since Google has instituted higher security in recent years, it is very difficult to discover all of your most important keywords that people use to find you. It’s easier and actually more informative to read landing page reports. You can surmise which keywords brought people to these pages and you can examine the content to theorize what it is that your visitors like about it. Then you can work to create more content like it so you can drive even more traffic. Landing page reports can be created and added to a dashboard in Google Analytics so you can update the reporting easily every week or month.

2) Social media referrals: The holy grail of social media ROI is not a moving target; it can be defined and should be defined by every marketer. Your friend’s definition of social media ROI may not match yours, and that’s okay. In fact, that’s the main problem some marketers have had with social media; they think that ROI, if it cannot be universally defined, doesn’t exist. That simply is not true. Top SEO companies set realistic expectations and make social media one arrow in the quiver. For example, if you want to sell 100 house plans in 90 days, then first assign social media the role of delivering a set number of interested people to your site each month. Then break it down further; assign social media the role of delivering a set number of people who requested more information from you each month. And finally assign social media the role of delivering a set number of site visitors who bought a house plan. Track all of these social media metrics. In this way you will be able to see the total contribution that social media makes to your campaign, not just if someone who found you on Twitter bought a house plan in January. You will want to see how people interact with your social content and what drives them to conversion. You will have to track multiple metrics to discover this.

3) Email marketing stats: We have actually spoken to customers who have run sophisticated email marketing campaigns but who do not mine the stats for the insights they can provide. Turn your email marketing over to your search engine optimization company, as top SEO companies can help you get the most from your investment in email. If you don’t want to do that, then turn over the interpretation of the stats to the agency. Let them segment your lists and dig deep for meaning. They’ll be able to deliver insights into what your recipients like and how you can market to them better. It definitely beats sending out mass email blasts and hoping for the best.

Does all this seem a bit overwhelming? Top SEO companies can help you get your arms around these tasks. Each month, hand your agency one of these three tasks until all three are delivering you new leads and new business. Working with the info from these three metrics can really make a difference in your online success!