Especially in a down economy, clients are demanding accountability in each and every one of their marketing programs. SEO campaigns are not exempt from this scrutiny; in fact, it can be argued that interactive marketers face more pressure than print mediums because clients can actually see the direct results of a campaign in the form of rankings, visits, and conversions.
Here at Zeta, our SEO team is comprised of two elements: site-side and link building. Oftentimes, I find that clients are quick to attribute success (rankings and ultimately natural visits and conversions) solely to site-site efforts, which can lead them to ask, “Why am I paying for link building?” Of course, the easy answer is because links influence rankings which ultimately affect traffic and conversions. But how exactly do you show the worth – the direct relationship between links and straight business revenue – of those 20 links you secured in January?
For starters, it’s probably not by simply reporting each link you secure. We’re all guilty of this at some point, but at the end of the day, it’s not the most useful way to evaluate a link building program. Think in terms of quality: I’ll take a single link on the New York Times over 30 directory submissions any day.
One way to prove the value of your secured links is to monitor the direct traffic and conversions, though this tactic might prove futile as most links won’t provide nearly as much traffic as a search engine. However, you never know when you’re going to hit that one golden link that drives thousands of visits. It’s happened to me, so I know that it’s possible. Just make sure you manage the client’s expectations and let them know that the reporting is skewed; a link that drives 2,000 direct visits in January isn’t guaranteed to do the same in February.
You may also want to try keyword isolation. Build links for keywords that the site-side team has not yet optimized for; this virtually eliminates all arguments that the improved rankings, visits, and conversions are the result of anything other than link building. Or on the flipside, isolate a set of keywords that have already been targeted by site-side efforts, wait until after all site-side efforts have been exhausted, take benchmark measurements (keyword rankings, natural search referrals, etc…) and then engage in an intensive link-building/anchor text initiative for those given keywords to see how far you can move the needle.
Though this technique is not perfect in terms of factoring out site-side influencers, this type of narrowly focused link-building program will definitely allow for some level of objective measurement. Start by choosing and building links to just one or two “must own” keywords. For each keyword, keep a monthly record of the number of links secured, the client’s ranking, traffic, and conversions. This type of reporting will help clients visually grasp the relationship among increased links > improved rankings > more traffic > more conversions. Of course, you still have to account for site-side efforts, but it gives the client (and you) a rough idea of how your links ultimately influence their bottom line.
How do other link builders measure the value of their programs?
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Thanx for such interesting tips about building inbound links.
I use special software to research the most competitive keywords from Google Adwords.
All good points regarding link building. Most clients don’t understand link building so if you can do a control test to show them the effects then that may help.
We only do link building so that sort of makes it easier for us to demonstrate a change in rankings
Here are 20 KPIs we use for differentlink building goals here:
http://ontolo.com/blog/b-3-goals-and-20-kpis-for-large-scale-link-building-campaigns.html
nice article however in general having to report the effectiveness on a link building campaign to such a “micro” level is in most cases pointless. If you are delivering results the client does not need to understand every links value – especially considering you can’t know its “true” value – outside of traffic/conversions. Also in respect to monthly reporting – the effects of links you build to today will not have a direct effect instantly – and you don’t build links then wait for results- you keep building – so its “faulty” to report effectiveness of links on a monthly report.
Link building is perhaps the single most important part of SEO, look at the crappy sites ranking high.
Some sites which almost feel like they HATE search engines by making no SEO effort at all, and sometimes even utilizing tools which hinder search engines, yet they rank high. Why, you may ask. Well, most likely due to inbound links, simple as that
Without inbound links, no amount of site side optimization is going to help, and i believe every SEO guy & gal worth their dime is going to agree
Gotta respectfully disagree, Shalom. For starters, we know from experience that our clients are extremely interested in tracking the effects of link-building (we work mostly with Fortune 1000s on enterprise SEO programs).
Moreover, while links do seem to “mature” with time (in terms of their effect on SERPs) we routinely see immediate (within 1-4 weeks) jumps based on specific secured links/anchor text. The idea that links can’t have an effect within a month is simply not true. You’re unlikely to go from ranking 100th to ranking 1st, but there’s definitely some movement that can be attributed. You just need to know how to isolate variables so that you can “see” that movement.
Quantifying a link building program is always difficult, because it simply defies being pinned down as the internet is changing too fast for that. Reports and metrics are the standard way to do that as an attempt to keep the client updated on their current rankings, but chances are they won’t be satisfied unless their traffic and conversion rates go up, no matter what is done for them on or off the site.
Articles also play some part in internet marketing. As articles are read by visitors there are more chances for visitors coming to the sites. Articles should be relevant to the theme of the site
Basically I agree 100% with you about how to prove the value of link building. These are the stats I like to show, filtered with a segment to keep apart what is not a pure referral.
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