Just came across this case study on RE/MAX and Google Analytics. Sutton recently started using Google Analytics as well on sutton.com.
I’ve found a standard web stats parser like awstats combined with Google Analytics gives the best view into what our users are doing and the kinds of things they’re looking for.
One of the comments made in the RE/MAX article was “we were able to see that more than 90 percent of visitors who came from search engines used search terms that included “remax” in their search query, and about 70 percent of those visitors subsequently searched for properties on the site” and this is exactly what I am seeing from google analytics.
As well, you mention combining google analytics and awstats and I agree with you on this point too. Awstats is very good to see overall trends and what search engine terms people are using to find your/my site.
I’ve been on the web since ‘96 and have always had a nagging thought that although most of the traffic to the re/max site as mentioned above had the search term “remax” in the search query, does this mean that the search engine brought the people to the remax based upon the content on the remax site? Or is it that the remax site is optimized for the search engine term “remax” and that is why the traffic comes to the site?
In a similar way most of the search queries to my site include the word mississauga, does this mean that the search engine brought the people to my site based my content on my site or is it that my site is just optimized for this search engine query and that is why the traffic comes to my site?
In other words, which came first, the optimized site page or the query results?
Thanks for an absolutely awesome website, wish I had found it years ago and I would not have made all the mistakes I have made so far.
Mark
Re: which came first, the optimized search page or the query results…
I’m not a SEO guru but I suspect some of both. I can share some experience with mostlygeek.com and sutton.com which are essentially web1.0 and web2.0 sites. This site is built on Wordpress which out of the box is quite search engine friendly with the content.
Much of the traffic on this site comes from google or people clicking on an article lead from the RSS feeds. So for my blog good content matters. If you google:
google reader cell phone
zillow canada
thinstation freebsd
I have pretty good search result rankings for those. Those actually bring in a big part of my traffic. Oddly enough the Controlling Google Reader with a Cell Phone has been my most popular post. One of my random, 5 minute technology posts turned out to be one of the site’s most popular.
Now on the other end of the spectrum is Sutton.com. The current site is very search engine unfriendly and the content isn’t all that easy for search engines to find. However, google “sutton” and we’re the top hit result. Why? Probably because we’re big, we’ve been around for a long time and we’re well known in Canada.
However, if you google “real estate”, the top results are:
MLS Online
globeandmail.com: Real Estate
REALTOR.com: Real estate listings & homes for sale
RE/MAX Canada: #1 in Canadian Real Estate
Notice that three out of the top 4 have “real estate” in the title. Sutton isn’t even on the front page. In this case it’s about the search engine optimization. So a little of both…
Overall there are fundamental rules for building traffic to your site.
#1. Make sure it is search engine friendly. See: 21 Great SEO Tips from Google’s Matt Cutts
#2. Write / have good content
#3. Blogging is an easy way to accomplish #2
#4. Make sure people link to you
#5. Participate in other people’s blogs. (Like this one)
#6. Participate in forums.
#7. Link back to yourself everytime. (See: How to Market Your Blog in 2007)
Good luck! :)
Hi Ben,
More great advice! I agree with all of your 7 rules for improving traffic, easier said than done.
I like the security message that appeared before I could read your email, I’ve never seen that before. Unfortunately, there is really nothing in that message that makes me believe that it is authentic. I clicked through after checking the email header information. Maybe this will be the way of the future to combat all the spam we receive.
I don’t watch TV or have heard of the Betelnut girls, but that is very interesting. The photo of the two girls on your blog is what caught my eye, it’s an amazing photo, very inviting and makes one want to follow through on any link that may be behind it. Speaking of links, why don’t you have links to other sites open in new windows, it’s frustrating to continue to hit my back key to get back to your site as opposed to just closing the new window… just a thought.
My goodness, it appears you have written about 20 articles today, how do you keep up and what makes you so dedicated?
Thanks again,
Mark
Regarding posting 20 times a day, I don’t. :)
I probably should tweak the web page to show posting date more clearly.