A top SEO consultant and digital marketing agency Singapore emphasises the importance of integrating SEO metrics to amplify PR measurement strategies. By focusing on key SEO metrics, PR experts can better understand their audience, optimize content, and quantify PR impact. Here, we outline 12 essential SEO metrics to elevate your digital PR measurement program.
1. Comprehensive Audience Research
Effective audience research reveals who your customers are, what they search for, and where to reach them. Tools like SparkToro V2 can provide insights into search volumes and audience behaviours.
For instance, approximately 119,000-151,000 people search for “electric vehicles” each month. This tool helps you identify the websites they visit, the keywords they use, and their demographics, giving you a clear picture of your target audience.
2. Thorough Keyword Research
Keyword research is vital to measure search interest in a topic or search term. Google Trends is a powerful tool that shows what search terms people are using.
By analysing these trends, both PR and SEO professionals can gauge interest in specific topics before creating content. Utilise the Trends Explore tool to see rising and top search interests, enabling you to create relevant and timely content.
3. Monitor Share of Search
Measuring the share of search is crucial as it correlates with website traffic. Google Trends allows you to compare the share of search for up to five topics or terms, such as brands of electric vehicles.
For example, comparing Tesla, Ford, Toyota, Chevy, and BMW can reveal shifts in search interest, helping you adjust your PR strategies accordingly.
4. Compare Release Views
Understanding the number of release views is essential. However, some views may come from bots and crawlers. Using tools like SparkToro’s audience research tool can provide a more accurate estimate of real views.
For instance, prnewswire.com attracts 12 million visitors per month, while businesswire.com has 6.2 million. These insights help you gauge the reach of your press releases more accurately.
5. Count Link Clicks
Counting link clicks from press releases is another critical metric. Google’s Campaign URL Builder can help track these clicks accurately by adding campaign parameters to your URLs.
This tool generates a campaign URL that can be used in your anchor text or shortened with Bitly, ensuring you measure genuine engagement with your content.
6. Track Events with GA4
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is indispensable for tracking events, which measure specific interactions on your website. For example, tracking events over the last 90 days might show that users scrolled to the bottom of pages 1,450 times and read 2,153 blogs. These insights help you understand how users interact with your content.
7. Measure Key Events
GA4 has shifted from ‘conversions’ to ‘key events,’ focusing on significant interactions. For PR professionals, key events might include scrolling to 90% of a blog post, playing 50% of a product video, or completing a tutorial. For lead generation, key events could be downloading a white paper or subscribing to a newsletter. In e-commerce, key events might involve beginning the checkout process or making a purchase.
8. Increase Website Traffic
While SEO managers focus on organic search traffic, PR professionals should track referrals and organic social traffic. GA4 reports the websites users were on before arriving at your site, providing valuable insights into referral traffic. For example, referral traffic might be the second-highest source of new users to your site, followed by organic social traffic.
9. Improve User Engagement
User engagement is a crucial metric in GA4, replacing the old metrics of bounce rate and time on site. Engagement rate now measures the percentage of sessions that last longer than 10 seconds, have at least two pageviews, or include a key event. This provides a more accurate measure of user engagement with your content.
10. Raise Brand Awareness
To raise brand awareness, use GA4’s Business objectives collection. The Demographic details report provides key characteristics about your users, including language, interests, location, age, and gender. The Pages and Screens report shows data about the pages users visit, helping you understand their journey across your platforms.
11. Generate Leads
For lead generation, the Landing page report in GA4 is invaluable. It helps you understand how visitors interact with your website by showing the initial pages they arrive at. This data can identify high-performing landing pages and highlight areas for improvement.
12. Drive Online Sales
To drive online sales, GA4’s Business objectives collection includes reports such as E-commerce purchases and the purchase journey. These reports show which products or services are being sold and detail the user journey through the sales funnel. The Checkout journey report provides insights into each step of the checkout process, helping you optimise the user experience.
By incorporating these 12 SEO metrics into your digital PR measurement program, you can enhance your understanding of audience behaviour, optimise your content, and measure the impact of your PR efforts effectively.
If you like this article, you may want to read this article about How Much Should Be Your Budget for SEO Services in Singapore.
