A Metric Here, A Metric There, A Metric Everywhere

Posted on 28 August 2009

There are loads of SEO tools out there. Loads. They all use different metrics to rate and optimize your site- and there are a lot of metrics to choose from. The majority of my posts are based on different metrics that search engines use to determine rank and how to optimize them. Today, I wanted to give you an overview of other metrics that are traditionally used by most SEO tools. 

• Domain age-  this is something you as a website developer have very little control over. It can’t be faked (unlike my age.) This is probably why many people believe that search engines give it more weight. The older a domain is the more trusted it is by the search engines. There is quite a bit of debate surrounding exactly how much or how little weight domain age is given, but I think, at the very least, it is safe to say it is taken into account. 
• Server Response Time- the longer it takes for your server to respond the less likely it is that users and search bots alike will stick around to enter your site. Accessing your site should never be an issue- if it is, then fixing it should be one of your first priorities. 
• Alexa Rank- the Alexa Rank takes a statistical sample of “typical” users and their internet trends and uses it to assign rank to your site. Hmmm, this is a tough one. There is quite a bit of controversy over how accurate the Alexa Rank is. In fact, many SEO experts have dismissed it completely. Most tools, however, still include the Alexa Rank because, if nothing else, it is at least a starting place. A good Alexa Rank doesn’t mean that your website is highly ranked on any of the search engines but it probably does mean you are being successful at attracting traffic to your site . Take it with a grain of salt. 
• Compete Traffic- shows you your sites traffic trends on specific keywords over 3 months, 6 months, or a 1 year. This is very helpful for competitive analysis. It lets you see how your biggest competitors are faring on keywords and allows you to compare you and your competitors head to head. Most SEO professionals go here first to see how sites compare against one another in traffic and keywords. This can be very useful when creating an SEO strategy to edge out the competition. 
• Number of Page- this is something you do have control over. The more pages you have on your site, the more search engines have to crawl and index. More pages gives you the ability to create more unique content that incorporates more keyword terms. Let me stress that every page should contain unique content (not rubbish); you won’t earn any ranking points for nonsense. The more relevant unique content pages you have the better the chance for ranking on a plethora of keywords.
• Indexed Pages- obviously considering the bullet point above- you want search engines to crawl and index all of your sites pages (except for the one you choose to have them skip, see the post on Robots.txt). The more pages search engines have indexed the better your chance to rank on those pages. You want this. If it seems as if the indexing is taking too long try submitting an XML Sitemap- it may expedite the process. 

In summary,

Domain Age- older is better,

Server Response Time- faster is better,

Alexa Rank- don’t pay too much attention to it,

Compete Traffic- great way to compare your site and your competitors sites,

Number of Pages- more is definitely better, 

Indexed Pages- more may be better; at the very least it gives you a good indication of how well the site is being indexed and might possibly speak to the site’s value in the eyes of search engines.

These were just a few metrics that are traditionally used by SEO tools and that I hadn’t already covered in previous posts. It is by no means a comprehensive list. The tools you use might not even take some of the above into consideration- that’s fine, everyone uses their tools in different ways and some tools are meant to have a very specific focus that doesn’t include the metrics above. This is just an FYI post. Enjoy your information.

 Other Resources on these Metrics

* http://blog.rankpay.com/the-benefits-of-extending-your-domain-age/

* http://www.seomoz.org/blog/rewriting-the-beginners-guide-to-seo-rewriting-server-hosting-issues

* http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/thoughts-on-alexa-data/

* http://www.seobook.com/archives/002351.shtml

(Photo credit goes to lusi at sxc.hu )