Natural Search Reporting and Analysis: Best Practices

Posted by David Young, Natural Search Analyst

Actionable reporting and analysis is key to the success of a Natural Search Optimization campaign.  Tracking progress against benchmarks, reporting on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and gathering data to analyze strategies is best done with an accurate and clean reporting interface.  Performics recently rolled out a new reporting format focused around natural search reporting best practices.  The new Performics report includes:

• The Executive Summary – A virtual “one-sheeter” intro that gives an accurate, high-level snapshot of the engagement’s health.
• Average Keyword Ranking Report – An extremely legible report that shows month over month keyword ranking changes, complete with hyperlinks to the ranking URLs.
• Emphasis on Accurate Data Sources- Instead of reporting every indexation number or every link popularity number available, Performics now focuses on the most accurate data sources, such as Google for indexation, and Yahoo! or Google Webmaster Tools for link popularity.  This cuts down on erroneous, and often times confusing, data. Of course, additional sources can be added per the client’s request.
• Cleaner Aesthetics- A clean, uncluttered design, along with pages formatted to print correctly and easy-to-read graphs, makes for easier eye flow over the page.