Anyone with a website needs to know what SEO is and how it works. That’s why I have a section called SEO Resources on the right sidebar. If you don’t know anything about SEO, I suggest you take a look at those links and also this fantastic intro to SEO from Corbet Barr over at ThinkTraffic—he does an awesome job of breaking it down to the basics.

There are basically two parts to SEO, and that’s what I want to focus on here today: on page vs. off page.

On Page SEO

On page SEO occurs when you change things on your site so that search engines (Google, for the most part) can find you. You may have heard terms like title tags, clean URLs, meta information, and H1 tags—these are all part of on page SEO. The goal is to make your website findable by the search engines by translating your content into a language the search bots can understand and “crawl.”

On page SEO is like being added to the map—people will be able to find you now. This stuff if fairly easy to put into place and anyone can do it in a few hours, depending on how large the site is and how much content there is.

Off Page SEO

Off page SEO is all about the links pointing to your site. It’s called off page because you can’t control it as directly as you can the on page stuff. It’s one thing to make all your URLs descriptive, but it’s something totally different to get links. You have to work for them.

If on page SEO is like being added to the map, off page SEO is like having a huge star next to your city on that map. Something that says “this place is important and worth visiting.” When you see it on the map, it makes you think, “this looks like a place I need to check out.”

When search engines pull the content they can “see” (thanks to all the on page stuff you’ve done), they then rank it in order of importance. So if you search for “Apple,” the bots will check to see which sites have more links pointing at them and the quality of those links. That’s why if you search for Apple you won’t see anything about the fruit on the first page, it’s all about Apple the company. And Apple.com is at the very top—all because of the big-time sites that link to it (and because that’s what Google assumes you’re looking for).

As for the quality of the links, that’s a Google algorithm we don’t know the secret to, but we can see a site’s pagerank to see how highly Google thinks of a site. This number (from 1–10) essentially “grades” each site/page on the Internet according to how high it would rank in a search.

Why Everyone Focuses on On Page SEO

On page SEO is much easier to do than off page, and that’s why most people like to spend so much time on it. Webmasters, like most of us, like to focus on the things they can control. SEO is no different because it’s like math: you make the changes, follow the rules, and boom—you can tell everyone your site is “SEO ready.” Done. Sure, you’re on the map now, but it doesn’t mean anyone is going to come to your site.

Take the keyword “gadget news.” There are over 47 million sites that show up on that search—who is going to show up on that first page (which is the holy grail, by they way—the higher up you are the more traffic you’ll get)? Check it out:

Why is Gizmodo at the top? Why are CNET and Engadget next in line? Because they have kickass sites that people love. People love them so much that they will link to them all the time whenever they find a story/review they want to share with someone else.

These links are the currency of the web and are a crucial part to what SEO is all about.

Which is More Important?

On page SEO is easy. Off page SEO is hard. That should probably answer the question. The problem is that people prefer to sit around and talk about on page SEO because off page is so much harder—you’re trying to accomplish two very hard things:

1. Create quality content/products people love
2. People have to show their love by linking to you

This stuff will drive management crazy because they can’t just throw money/time/resources at the problem to solve it. It’s not one of those problems that can be solved that way. Sure, you can buy links on sites that point back to you, but that doesn’t really scale. Instead, you have to create something so cool and so successful that people with quality sites (high pagerank) link to you.

An Example

Take the writing I do on The Writer’s Coin as an example: I once wrote a guest post on GetRichSlowly (pagerank 5 to my site’s 4) that included a link back to my site. That told Google that a higher quality site (their 5) was “endorsing” this other site (my 4)—essentially bringing up my 4 a little bit closer to a 5. With enough of these links, I can get my site up into a pagerank of 5, which in theory means more traffic.

I could write 1,000 guest posts for sites with a pagerank of 7 or 8 and that would do it, but that’s very hard to do and would take me years. It’s much easier to install Headspace on my, say “OK, I’m SEO ready,” and forget about the whole thing.

And as tells Marcus Aurelius tells Maximus in Gladiator: “That is why it must be you.”

Off page SEO is far more important than on page SEO and everyone with a website should be focusing a large part of their time on it.

• It will serve a dual function of networking and getting the word out into the world
• It’ll teach you the importance of social media
• You will get more traffic
• You are more likely to stay focused on your users/customers instead of the title tags on your site

Let’s not forget that Google is all about finding the “best” result for a user making a search—that’s all they care about. So while you’re catering to Google, you’ll also be catering to the best interests of people searching the web, and that’s a good thing.

Image by Map Center at the BPL

1. Write: Write down the top three questions you have about your site. Something you want to know, something that bothers you, something you want to improve—whatever it is. But write down three specific questions whose answers would help you make your site a better, more effective place.
2. Ask: Send those questions to me by email or via the form at the bottom of this post.
3. Wait: I’ll get back to you and we’ll get to the bottom of these questions together.

Pretty straightforward, right? What are you waiting for?

Image by Steve Keys

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—the best way to use web analytics is to answer specific questions. Otherwise you’ll spend hours sifting through numbers and at the end of the day all you’ll be able to say is, “Well, that was interesting.”

But even the most innocuous question isn’t as easy as it sounds. Say the boss comes to you and asks you a question like this:

So we changed the image on the homepage, did the bounce rate go down?

Easy enough, right? Just open up Google Analytics, check the report for the days leading up to the change and then see what it was afterwards. Should be a simple matter of yes or no.

Wrong.

As much as your boss would like it to be that easy, it’s not. You have to look at all the moving parts on your site if you want to answer the question as honestly (and effectively) as possible. Some of the things you’d have to consider:

• Did we make other changes to the site the day we changed the image?
• What happened overall on the site that day?
• Was traffic any different that day? Did any high-bounce traffic get a spike (or a dip) that day?
• Did we send any emails that day that might pollute the data?
• Was our bounce rate trending in a certain direction to begin with?

You have to take all this stuff into consideration—you can’t just look at the overall bounce and answer yes or no. You’d be selling the analytics (and yourself) short.

This is why analytics is part science, part art. It’s not just about looking at the numbers and reporting on them, you have to use your brain too—that’s the fun part. It’s like being an investigative reporter—the best ones don’t just rattle off quotes from witnesses and police reports, they tell an engrossing story with all the information they’ve collected. That’s what keeps us coming back.

This is why it’s important that whoever is running the analytics be intimately informed about the site he/she is covering. If the person in charge of the analytics doesn’t know that an email blast is sent out every Wednesday the analysis will be wrong.

Of course the bounce went down! We always send emails on Wednesday and those people never bounce! Duh!

Does that mean you shouldn’t hire a consultant? No—it means the consultant needs to get to know the site as much as possible and constantly talk with someone who is knowledgeable. Your company should make it a top priority to give the consultant all the information he/she needs and assign someone to soak all this stuff up so that after a few consulting projects that person can run most of the analytics themselves. It should be part of the process.

Once you can run this stuff yourself, you’ll be in a much better position to spot anomalies. And if a huge problem comes up that you can’t solve—you can always bring the consultant back for help.

So next time you’re ready to shoot off a quick email to answer what looks like a simple question, step away from the keyboard and think about all the parts that need to be taken into account before you give your answer.

Image by Tallkev

This post was included in the Home Business Blog Carnival

Yesterday we took a look at some of the basics around bounce rate and the details behind what it measures. Like I said, your site has window displays all over the Internet and the more effective they are, the more people will visit.

What the bounce rate measures is how good your site is at getting those people who have showed up to do something once they arrive.

Today I want to take a closer look at the different pages bounce rates are measured and how you should think about them.

Home Page vs. Single Page

For bloggers, the bounce rate on your home page is typically lower than on any post page you’ve written. The reason is that people coming to your homepage aren’t expecting to get a specific piece of information or entertainment the way they would on a post. So they are more apt to browse and click around.

Non-blog sites typically have landing pages that serve as personalized welcome signs catered to where people are coming from. Let’s say you clicked on an ad from ESPN.com and you’re going to BestBuy.com—a landing page would probably try to sell you a big-screen TV for the World Cup or something like that.

It’s a page that knows where you’re coming from and talks to you in a relevant way. These pages should have a much lower bounce rate because they are so tailor made and know so much about you…unless they’re not wrong.

Bloggers don’t have to worry about this as much because every page looks pretty much identical. What you have to worry is the intent behind each visitor: what brought them here and how can I give them more of it?

Google vs. Referring Site

A user Googles “how to change a flat tire” and lands on your page. Well done! The user reads your page, gets what she wants, and then leaves.

Congratulations: you just gave that user exactly what she wanted. The user will bounce—as will most users coming to the page from a Google search like that. And that’s OK…to a point. You succeeded in serving that user but you’d like to have them stay a while instead of taking off so quickly.

Now picture a user coming in from a forum on cars that you frequent. She has read your comments and now is curious about your site. So she clicks on a link you posted that takes her to the very same page on changing a flat tire.

She recognizes the voice, she likes the images you used for the post, and she wants to see what else you’ve written about cars.

A user coming from a referring site is going to have a lower bounce rate—they are exploring vs. trying to get at a very specific piece of information, which is typically what a Googler is doing. It’s the difference between going on a blind date (Google) and leaving early vs. going out with someone you kind of know already and at least staying through dinner.

See here:

See those low bounce rates? That’s because people on Wisebread and FrugalDad have already gotten a taste of me—they know me a little bit. So when they click over to The Writer’s Coin, they aren’t looking for information on how to open a brokerage account, they just want to see what I’m doing on the other site.

Boom— you’ve got a lower bounce rate.

The Goal

This is all theory, but the reason I point it out is so you can understand why some channels have a lower bounce than others. If you know a Googler is out for specific information, how can you keep them from leaving so soon? Maybe you can offer them other specific information that’s relevant to them?

Maybe a free coupon for an oil change on the page on changing a tire? That seems pretty valuable—and it would certainly keep me coming back.

Just remember to keep one thing in mind and you’ll be fine: the user comes first. Always think of the user.

Remember all the crowds that gathered around Apple Stores around the country when the iPad came out? What if all those people just walked in, took a quick look at the iPad, and then walked out without buying anything? It would be a complete disaster for Apple.

The same thing happens every day on your site. It’s called bounce rate.

The bounce rate measures how inviting your site is to people and good it is at getting visitors to stay a while.

Want the technical version? Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that see one page on your site and then leave without viewing another.

How Good is Your Window Display?

Your website should have hundreds of tiny window displays around the whole Internet. Every time you leave a comment on another site with a link back to your own, that’s a tiny window display showing off what your site is about. Every ad unit you (or Google) places on another site is a window display tempting users to come visit. And when other sites write about you and mention your site, that’s another bit of window dressing.

There are hundreds of ways users could come to your site. If the window display is any good, the visits will come.

And that’s great—but how good is your site if all you can do is get them in the door? Bounce rate is a quick-and-dirty metric that tells you if visitors are doing more than just coming in to browse.

Not All Bounce Rates are the Same

Looking at the bounce rate for your site is useful, sure. It gives you an idea of how well you’re doing at engaging people once they come to your site. But the real value lies in looking at the bounce rate by traffic source and by destination.

In other words, how does the bounce rate differ from people coming via a Google search vs. people coming through that sweet review that got written up in the New York Times? How about the difference in bounce between your homepage (the biggest, baddest window display there is) and a specific page deep inside your site?

If someone searches for “how to install google analytics on my blog” and gets to your site, you can expect a fairly high bounce rate (80%+). Why is that? Because they’ve probably found what they were looking for at that moment and aren’t interested in anything else.

This doesn’t mean you’ve failed—you’ve actually succeeded at giving the user what he was looking for. Good job.

But you can do better. There are several things you can do to lower the bounce rate so people will hang out on your site for more time, increasing the odds of them doing whatever it is you want them to do (read more, subscribe, buy a product, etc.).

We’ll cover that topic in depth tomorrow.

Part II: How Visitors Come to Your Site and Why They Bounce

Image by goodrob13