'M THE NUMBERS GUY. IN an they go on a site. I can tell you
interactive agency full of where users run into trouble by
creative, vibrant, idea where they leave a site,
people, I'm the guy wearing the particularly if they leave in the
Coke-bottle glasses and pocket middle of a process. I can tell
protector who counts all of the you about users' expectations of
traffic to our clients' sites. the information architecture by
the paths they take, the paths
I analyze Web traffic, campaign they don't, and by which ones
data, and the like to describe convert better.
and explain users' behaviors and
how those behaviors impact But I've got to admit that Web
business goals. Something not traffic data can't tell you
many people do or understand. And everything. It can't tell you
when you've done what I do for as much about users' intent. It
long as I've done it (about seven can't tell you what users are
years now), you tend to get a really looking for or how they
little full of yourself. Well, at would describe what they're
least I do. People in marketing looking for. Fortunately, that's
are often anxious about math and where my friends in the search
Microsoft Excel. I do what I can engine marketing department come
to foster that angst in the name in.
of job security.
Of course I believed that I
However, being the results guy understood search for years. Yes,
has led me to the often mistaken I understood the difference
conclusion that I can get the between an organic and a
whole picture using the site data sponsored listing. I understood
at my disposal. I can tell you what paid inclusion was, how some
what users' needs are by where engines powered others, and why
your search rankings may not selected for optimization and
improve overnight. I even created logical groups. By
understood what meta tags were, looking at keyword groups, we
why they were so important in the were essentially building
past, and why they are now so customer segments that gave us
marginalized, poor things. greater insight into behavior. We
can now track the popularity of
What I didn't see was the big searches within keyword groups to
picture. Understanding how users see the effect of business
search, what keywords and engines cycles, news, and promotion on
they use, and how they respond to search behavior. We can also
content within the context of track conversion by keyword group
their search peels another layer to better understand how our
off the onion of true client's site meets the needs of
understanding (I'm sorry for that different audiences.
analogy, I really am). By looking
at how users find your site, you I will resist the temptation to
can learn so much more about say that after working with our
intent and perspective than you search marketing team, I now know
can by simply looking at a user's all there is to know. What I
path out of context. think I've learned is that I had
better take the thick glasses off
A great example of this deeper before they ruin my vision. And
understanding occurred while I hopefully what you've learned is
was working with our search that there's a lot more to site
marketing team to develop and traffic and search marketing than
measure keyword categories. We meets the eye.
took the keyword list we had
About the Author:
Jerry Moyer writes about SEO, SEM and search engine optimization .
Read more articles by:
Jerry Moyer
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