From SEO Fast Start 2007, Chapter 7: "The fifth step in the SEO Fast Start process is measuring your results. Every web site should have some way of measuring its performance, every campaign (SEO or otherwise) should have some way of measuring the outcome."

We all read that and know that it's true, but the truth is that very few SEO campaigns are really measured in anything but rankings. Which is sad, because rankings are nice, but it's hard to justify the continued use of resources without being able to point to what you did and show profits.

Why should you care about measuring results? The true success of an SEO campaign should be measured in terms of real business results – more leads, more sales, more ad revenue. If you can't measure the results, you don't know if what you're doing is working… and in fact, you will have no information to guide you on what to do next.

Why should you read SEO Fast Start? Rather than offering you a "one size fits all" prescription, SEO Fast Start will guide you, step by step, through the process of establishing key metrics and implementing systems to measure the impact of your efforts.

Detailed Process Map for Step Five – Measuring Results:

If you have questions about any stage in this process, please visit the Measuring Results Q&A page.