April 13, 2007
Make Your Metrics Meaningful: 3 Must-Have Rules for Any Report
If you’ve ever presented the results of your SEO or SEM efforts to a client of yours then this scenario will be familiar:
You spend hours (or days) compiling the data. You conduct your analysis, create your graphs and package it up. It’s been a great month and you make sure to convey that in your email, though the charts speak for themselves. You send it off.
Questions like these are the ones that come back:
"What does this chart mean?"
"Why did our numbers go down here?"
"What caused this increase?"
Now, if you’re fortunate enough to have clients who actually read your reports, consider yourself lucky. An informed client is more likely to be a champion for you and your future efforts than one who never opens your attachments.
However, that also means you have a responsibility to anticipate your client’s questions and take the necessary steps to make your metrics meaningful.
How to do this? While there are many paths to the creation of meaning, below are 3 Must-Have Rules for any SEO or SEM report:
