Description:Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process designed to increase and improve Web traffic to a particular site. It is a complex process that uses algorithms from search engines to retrieve visitor data and drive traffic to and from Websites; and it has been primarily used for marketing strategies as it provides a wide-array of information about Web traffic. SEO goes beyond the examination of Web traffic by examining the interactions of Web pages and search engines, providing you with information about site ranking, keywords, visitor demographics, site history, and site linkages. It uses past user behavior to help predict future user behavior. There are many tools and online sites to conduct SEO. Each site varies in the services and the amount of information they provide to the user. For example, one SEO site/tool may focus primarily on keywords that drive traffic to particular businesses while another site might focus more on the demographics of visitors to a specific site. The amount and variety of information provided through SEO make it an ideal tool for the intelligence analyst – whether it is for Competitive Intelligence, Law Enforcement Intelligence, or National Security Intelligence. As a Competitive Intelligence tool, SEO can be used to help understand the marketing strategies of the competition, as well as guide your company’s own marketing strategy. By understanding the visitor demographics of a particular site, or area of the Internet (such as food, commerce, entertainment, etc.), the analyst can help marketers target specific populations through the other sites they frequent. For example, if SEO reveals that visitors to the Acura Websites tend to be Caucasian with a above average number of Asian visitors, who both tend to be more affluent and educated; the Acura marketing campaign can focus their advertisements on sites that attract the same type of population – such as high-end electronic and sound equipment sites. As a Law Enforcement Intelligence tool, SEO can be used to help identify to popularity and interconnectedness of illicit Websites, particularly sites engaging in illegal downloading, child pornography, bomb making instructions, illegal pharmaceuticals, and other Websites that promote a variety of other illegal information. SEO visitor traffic will reveal the popularity of particular keywords and even identify high visitor traffic geographically – allowing the Analyst to help identify the areas most prone to the illegal behavior. Resources can then be distributed in a manner that will have the most impact on reducing crime. As a National Security Intelligence tool, SEO can be used in the same manner as it would be used in Law Enforcement Intelligence. Specifically, SEO would be useful in monitoring and understanding the visitors of Websites affiliated with extremism, as well as Websites associated with international crime. In addition, alerts can be set up that will notify you of any changes to a particular Website – decreasing the analyst’s chances of missing important information. Strengths:- Insight into the World Wide Web. The biggest advantage of SEO is that it provides insight into a tool (the Internet) that otherwise seems extremely mysterious. Without SEO we would be left to wonder who goes where on the Web. As the Internet has become part of the daily routine of our lives, it is ever more important to understand the users of the Internet. Finding information about what sites are visited and how often, who visits those sites, which keywords drive traffic to what sites, the popularity (ranking) of Websites, etc. etc. is more important than ever before. Not only is it important to companies trying to increase their competitive edge; but also it is important to companies who are trying to understand their competition, to law enforcement agencies, and to the national security sector. SEO analysis provides us with information about Internet users; information leads to analysis, and analysis leads to better decision-making.
- Multi-purpose. As mentioned to earlier, SEO can be used for a variety of reasons, making it an extremely useful tool for the analyst. Because of the popularity of the Internet, SEO can be applied to practically anything related to the Web. It is a cross-disciplinary technique that provides a wealth of information related to a variety of areas.
- SEO tools are widely available. A multitude of Websites provide SEO services, making it easy to find information. Because SEO sites are competing for customers, many display a respectable amount of information for free. In addition, having multiple SEO Websites sometimes allow for additional information to be displayed that was not available on a different SEO site.
- Uses Web 2.0 technology. Advanced SEO analysts can use Firefox add-ons to help push information. Add-on features usually consist of quick displays – allowing the user to view a variety SEO information, from multiple SEO sites, without actually having to visit the SEO sites individually. In addition, these add-ons will typically allow the user to filter what information thy want to display, allowing the flexibility of only having particular sources/information displayed. For a list of Firefox add-ons that are popular as of Spring 2009, please refer to the resources section of this article.
- Quantitative data. Since SEO is based upon algorithms, most of the information you receive is quantitative. Having information in the form of numbers has a variety of benefits. First it leaves your analysis open to other analytical techniques, particularly ones dealing with statistics and probability – this will likely increase the accuracy of you findings. In addition, it provides a sense of reliability to your analysis as it increases the transparency of your methods and findings.
Weaknesses:- Not everything is free. While there are a plethora of free SEO tools available, paid subscriptions are a standard among SEO Websites to get access to in-depth SEO analysis and reporting. Subscriptions vary in amounts and service and are usually quite costly (anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to thousands of dollars per month). Some companies also sell SEO software that can be downloaded as an application, but again, this usually bears a heavy cost. In order to get a variety of information at no cost, the analyst has to be willing to search multiple SEO Websites and collect as much free information as possible.
- Many sites/tools, many different services. Because there is a market for providing SEO information, there are plenty of companies trying to vie for customers. This competition makes it difficult for the analyst with little to no budget to find all the information he/she needs. Multiple sites and tools will have to be searched and utilized in order to find the information for which the analyst is looking. In addition, many SEO sites tend to “specialize” in a particular SEO function. For example, many of the sites focus on keyword analysis, while others focus on user demographics or linkages between Websites. These specializations force the analyst to visit multiple sites within each are of expertise in order to collect the desired information. Visiting multiple sites requires the user to dedicate a significant amount of time to finding information. However, once you become familiar with the sites and services, time allocation for collection will be dramatically decreased.
- Data differences among sites/tools. Different Websites and services derive their information from different sources and algorithms. These differences among sites often create discrepancies among the same information from a different site/service. Due to the rule of large numbers, information differences among Websites and services typically are not statistically significant enough to skew analysis. Best practice is to check data among other competing SEO sites and be consistent with the sites you use to compare data. For example, if you are comparing two different Websites using site-ranking information, make sure that you decide on one source to compare the sites. Do not use the ranking from one SEO site and compare it to a different company using a different SEO site. Be consistent with the sources you use to compare data.
- Data overload. SEO provides the analyst with so much information about Web users that it can at times be overwhelming. Try not to be dazzled with all the information available, and stick with the kind of information that you know you can use for analysis.
- Not all data is easily downloadable. If you are willing to pay for SEO subscriptions and services you will most likely be able to have permissions to download the information you want – typically into Microsoft Excel via a .CSV file. However, if you are going the freebie route, finding sources that allow you to download the information might prove difficult. Some sites do allow you to download some data, but most do not. In addition, many of the sites display impressive charts, graphs, and data using Flashware, making it impossible to even copy and paste information – Screen-shots or fat-finger data inputting will be necessary if you want the information.
- Most data is not real-time. Because of the vast amount of SEO information, it would be nearly impossible for SEO services to provide you with a real-time picture (as the information would fluctuate in the matter of nanoseconds). Typically, SEO information reflects the month prior to when you are searching.
How-To:SEO analysis will vary depending on the information needed; therefore there is no structured methodology for conducting analyses using SEO. Instead, this “How-To” section is designed to act as a guide to aid you in the SEO analytical process, particularly if you are doing it without a subscription to a SEO service. Because of the rapidly changing environment of the Internet, no specific SEO tools or sites will be included in this section due to the great possibility that new and better SEO sites and tools will emerge over time. Instead, please refer to the “Resources” section of this article for a list of current SEO tools and sites. 1. Identify your needs. Since SEO can provide you with vast amounts of information, it is important to identify what information you need to conduct your analysis. Understanding your needs is an extremely important step to SEO analysis process. By separating the information you need from the information that is interesting but unnecessary, you will be able to streamline the collection process and avoid SEO sites that are unrelated to your search. The following is a list of some different types of information that might be useful to the analyst: - Site popularity: This is most-commonly known as “site-ranking.” Site ranking information provides the analyst with an idea of how popular a Website is. This is particularly useful when you compare two or more Websites, as it illustrates the gap between the two sites in terms of visitors. Watching the site-ranking over a period of time will reveal trends in the Website, letting the analyst know whether the site is become more popular, less popular, or is following a cyclical pattern. This information could also be particularly useful in the law enforcement and national security realms, as it will identify whether or not illicit/extremist Websites are becoming more popular, indicating trends in the following of those who frequent those sites.
- Site background information: Short and simple, this identifies when a Website first came online.
- Keyword information: This information will provide you with what keywords are being used to search something on the Web. For example, if someone was looking into how to build a pipe bomb, keywords related to this search will be revealed. In addition to identifying what keywords drive searches and traffic, there are SEO tools that will aid you in deciding on what keywords you want to tag to drive traffic to your site. This is beneficial particularly to the Competitive Intelligence analyst. Knowing what keywords your company uses to attract visitors and discovering which keywords your competitor uses can be extremely useful to the marketing campaign of your company. Lastly, there are SEO tools that will identify the search volumes of a particular keyword or keyword chain. This is useful as it tells you how many people use a particular keyword or keyword chain to search for information.
- Visitor demographics: This is one of the most insightful uses of SEO, as it provides information on who is visiting Websites. Demographic information includes information about the frequency of visitors to your site (letting you know whether they are addicts to your site, regulars, or just passing-by), visitors’ sex, age, ethnicity, affluence, education, and even whether or not they have children and the ages of those children. Knowing the demography of visitors has obvious benefits to all three fields of intelligence.
- Visitor behavior: Identifies the behavior of a site’s audience. Typically this information includes what other things the audience has an interest toward, what other sites the audience visits, and what other things the audience searches for.
- In and out linking: This SEO function identifies what other sites are referring traffic toward a particular site, as well as what sites that same site refers its traffic toward. Essentially it identifies the links coming in and out of a Website. In addition it also identifies how much traffic a Website directs to another. For example, a Website might be getting 25% of its traffic from Google, and only 7% from Yahoo, letting you know which search engines you should focus your marketing toward. This can be particularly useful for a link analysis of Websites and Web traffic.
- Ad words: This provides information about the keywords a Website will spend money on to help advertise their Website through a particular search engine. Keywords prices vary and fluctuate as they are based on a market system. This SEO function is mainly useful to the competitive intelligence analyst.
2. Choose your weapons. Find the best SEO Websites and tools for the job. You may need to use multiple SEO sites in order to find all of the desired information, as different sites provide different types of SEO information. 3. Collect the information. Use a method to collect and organize the data that is appropriate for the kind of analysis you wish to conduct. 4. Analyze the data. Because SEO information can be used for a cariety of analysis, you will have to choose the analytical method that best supports the results you need. Many analytical methods can be applied to SEO, including: comparative analysis, trend analysis, time-series analysis, competitor analysis, link analysis, mapping techniques, etc. Select the best method for the job.
5. Compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges. Make sure that when/if you are comparing two or more data sets, that you compare the data from the same source, and that the data is derived during the same time frame. Comparing the demographic information of site “A” against site “B” is dangerous if you obtaining the same type of information (i.e. education levels) from two different SEO sources (i.e. Site A’s visitor education levels from Quantcast.com and Site B’s visitor education levels from Compete.com). The same goes for time frames – ensure that the information is from the same time period. |
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