At STEAK, we strongly believe that actively integrating online campaigns provides the strongest overall results. Shared knowledge between experts in different disciplines creates a dynamic atmosphere, essential in an industry that moves forward so rapidly.

How does this benefit our clients? One way is that, through active integration of paid search, SEO and affiliates, client sites can gain more exposure in the search space.

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We’re often asked by interview candidates what an “average” day is like in the STEAK offices. Amongst the regular posts we make about digital industry topics, we’re posting a series of “day in the life” pieces to give candidates a flavour of what it’s like to work at STEAK, under the title “STEAK Digital Days”.

Here’s the latest by STEAK Co-Founder and COO, Duncan Parry.

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By Simon Wong

If the below tickles your fancy, and you are either a recent grad or about to graduate, get applying to work for STEAK… vacancies here.

My life began in middle summer of 2009 when I graduated from the University of Exeter with a degree in Geography. Having spent two of those three years freeze-drying soil samples in sandwich bags, I decided not to pursue a career in this area and began searching for a more exciting alternative.

During this period I worked in a financial research company as a Marketing Assistant for nine months. The marketing side was interesting to an extent, but it felt very ‘Sega Master System’ and one dimension, and I needed variation in the work that I did.

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By Duncan Parry

 Building an agency from scratch means reviewing piles of CVs and spending a lot of hours interviewing – especially in an industry where competition for staff is fierce at all levels. I’ve been in a few really good interviews where I’ve wanted to hire the person there and then, many mediocre ones – and a few so terrible I’d rather forget. Here are my tips (and some of my frustrations laid bare).

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By Gareth Owen

Google is going to change the way it displays search results in order to ‘answer questions’ rather than provide a list of sites that might contain the answers. That’s good, hopefully it will enhance user experience etc. – I personally use Wolfram Alpha when I want an actual answer to a question, rather than a list of sites, so I can completely see how this would be useful. HOWEVER, I had a think about what exactly Google has in its arsenal to ‘answer’ my questions and this was just the start of the interesting list of URLs they could use to answer keyword queries I might use: [Read more →]

By Gareth Owen

STEAK is hiring interns, and interviewing for summer internships as well. If you have a passion for competition, a bit of a fascination with analysis of data and a strategic mind, you could be the next digital superstar! Below is a breakdown of the training we do for SEO interns, and sometimes for our clients too.

If you want to apply for one of our internships, send your CV across to us by the 20th March.

In the meantime, you could do worse than read up on some of these techniques and tools to really impress us!

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By Gareth Owen

1. What do you call Princess Zelda in stockings and suspenders?

Link Bait

2.What type of music events do SEOs like to go to?

Heavy Meta gigs

3. What’s an SEO’s favourite Deodorant?

Lynx [Read more →]

By Gareth Owen, Search Engine Watch, 18 January 2012

One area that search engines have made a number of significant advancements in recent years is in how they evaluate content on a website. So what does a perfectly optimised page look like in 2012? Let’s look at 10 elements.

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By Gareth Owen, Search Engine Watch,  October 26th, 2011

I am not usually one for a conspiracy theory, unless it’s contained within a decent yarn like the Da Vinci code… but over the last year in particular, I am becoming increasingly convinced that Google wants rid of natural search results – to the point where I would really like them to make a statement of some kind and put people out of their misery.

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Hussein Ebied, SEO Manager, Steak

Web analytics can be a bastion of data, the answers to every digital marketer’s little (and big) problems. But to others, it’s data overload: TMI from the tech geek world; more info than some site owners know what to do with. How can you find the needle in the haystack, that juicy nugget to set your data free?

Meet Hussein Ebied – one of Steak’s venerable SEO managers with five analytics-crushing years of digital marketing experience. Hussein joins us from Steak’s sunny New York offices to explain analytics options, best practices, and how to use your analytics tool to  not just run web reporting, but develop eye-popping analysis and insights

Before we delve into strategy, let’s review basics.

Google Analytics is a free tool offered by Google that reports key statistics about visitors to a website, used primarily by marketers. One study notes that Google Analytics is used by 81.6% of all the websites, whose use of traffic analysis tools is known. This sample is 52.4% of all websites. (See market share of all analytics tools.) GA can track visitors from search engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, e-mail marketing and side materials such as links within PDFs.

The difference between Google Analytics (GA) and other analytics tools lies in cost, usability and expanded features. There are many free and paid analytics tools that allow you to track site traffic, keyword success and KPIs. Tracking these results allow you to shift your campaigns according to detailed metrics.

Other paid analytics tools have similar or more robust features, discussed below.  But tracking your website and keyword rankings does not tell a marketer about missed opportunities. We’ll discuss how to create web reports that provide analysis your clients will love.

What are the advantages of using Google Analytics (GA)?

Hussein Ebied: Google Analytics’ strengths are clearly its usability, accuracy, zero-cost and advanced features. Companies without a large budget for analytics, or advertisers who are new to the digital ad space would like GA for its quick elevation of key metrics and easy integration into any website.

GA also has a lot of features that come automated right out of the box, such as segmentation of paid and organic traffic and even tracking, which you might have to manually configure on other analytics tools.

What are the advantages to using paid analytics tools?

HE: Paid tools like Webtrends and Omniture’s Adobe SiteCatalyst could provide an advertiser with greater insights and segmentation features.  Until recently, multi-channel conversion tracking was not available on GA (currently in beta) but other paid tools have been doing it. Paid tools have a more robust integration with social media channels. Some tools have exclusive partnerships with large social properties that allow them to pull in unique data sets. Some paid tools are starting to combine analytics and campaign management under one platform.

What are the drawbacks of paid tools?

HE: Some analytics tools can come at a hefty price (in the thousands), which vary by packages and levels of customer service. If a web team does not budget for a higher level of service and does not know the tool, they could be in for a surprise. For example, Omniture, which powers Adobe SiteCatalyst, offers different types of platforms and service levels.  Implementation is also an issue.  While these tools are very powerful, it takes a serious commitment and resource level to ensure they are implemented correctly.  You’re definitely going to have to earn that increased level of insight.

What are the drawbacks of Google Analytics?

HE: Perhaps accuracy, but with any type of analytics solution your numbers will never match reality, even when compared to the accuracy of paid products. Also, you’re giving the people that create the keyword pricing direct insight into what those keywords are worth to you.  While Google has clearly stated that they don’t share data between AdWords and GA, it’s something to be aware of when making a decision on providers.

A Google Analytics Dashboard

What do marketing managers typically report with analytics?

HE: At the most basic level, marketers typically report KPIs (key performance indicators). Obvious KPIs like site visits and click-through-rates are compared on a month-over-month or year-over-year basis. Some agencies use this data to create custom reports showing easy-to-read metrics.  These reports, though, may not provide actionable learnings or recommendations.

Typical reporting also includes user actions or conversions. It’s important to not only look at the number of conversions, but also your conversion rate, which is the number of conversions over the number of visits to your site.

OK, we got the basics out of the way.  Let’s let’s get into the Steak, err, the meaty stuff.

So what’s the difference between web analysis and web reporting?

HE: The difference is that web reporting alone can be death-by-data – pages of info with no clear conclusions – while web analytics provides insight, actions and impact on the company.  (For more, read what the godfather of search and analytics, Avinash Kaushik, outlines in his colorful blog on real web analysis.)

Say you launched an SEO campaign for your website that sells the best, albeit most expensive, winter coats in the world.  When measuring on a year-over-year basis to account for seasonality, you might notice the following winter that your website saw an increase in traffic, but a dip in year-over-year sales. What went wrong? Now analysis becomes vital to the survival of your online business. A comprehensive web analysis should uncover several possible causes for this dip in traffic.

Step 1: Market Analysis

Your web analysis should question whether the previous winter was a special time for your business.  Was it the first time your coats entered the market? New product launches are susceptible to media buzz and word-of-mouth advertising. Monitoring your brand online is a great way to account for these trends.  Also, consider whether competitors’ discounts or economic factors have led customers to choose a more affordable product.

Step 2: Site Usability

If your traffic numbers are up year-over-year but your conversions (sales) and conversion rate went down, the problem could be usability and the conversion path users must follow on your website. Web analysis should help you pinpoint the sections of your site that experience the greatest bounce rate. Remedying design flaws on your website could increase the likelihood users will convert upon visiting.

Step 3: Search Trends / User Behavior

What if traffic did not increase, but your conversion rate improved year-over-year? A seasoned analyst might look at the actual keywords that drove traffic to your site but generated a lesser volume of traffic than the previous year. Using search engine tools, you may find there has been a general decline in search volume for those terms.

People may be less interested in searching for coats overall online.  Users may still be purchasing coats online, but rather than conducting generic, brand-neutral searches for “coats” on search engines, a great percentage of them now prefer to visit niche department stores or shopping aggregator sites, such as Amazon, that sell all types of brands including yours.

Web reporting - not analysis - despite the pretty colors.

How do some marketers provide reporting vs. analysis?

HE: Many agencies and in-house marketers overlook the importance of marrying the data in analysis to specific learnings and action items that could impact the overall goals of the business. A major part of any successful online marketing campaign is to ensure that your objectives are in line with the client’s business goals.

Some marketers don’t highlight causality.  Normal analytics tools don’t always reflect offline factors, environmental issues or shifts in consumer demand.  These tools can do the heavy lifting, but the operator must deliver the insights.

What factors should good web analysis include?

HE: You can’t just show that traffic has gone up or down. You have to uncover factors of why this increase or decrease occurred. If you examine offline factors, the possibilities are endless: facility changes, PR/ad campaigns, walk-ins, phone campaigns, public sentiment, etc.

Let’s say that one of your KPIs is conversion rate.  If the CR (conversion rate) has gone down, what are some of the related factors you should look at? Have impressions increased?  Has click through rates decreased?  What about the external factors?  Was there a price change on your site or on a competitor’s?  Did you get a mention in the press?

With online factors, however, you need to check what keywords drove traffic: Have they been changing over time? Are there major changes to the site? What changes have competitors implemented that could affect your company’s visibility?

Tailor KPIs to your clients

 On what level, or for whom, should you write reports?

HE: A web analysis should address the needs and concerns of all stakeholders across different departments, levels and understandings.  Reports should be tailored across different levels of management: Your contact may be concerned with traffic and conversions, while top management is concerned with revenue. It’s impossible to create a report for everyone, but pay attention to who your stakeholders are and who your audience is.

Also, make sure you speak in a language everyone understands. The hotel industry, for example, may track REVPAR (reservation per available room) while the retail industry may want to see same store sale volumes.

What should marketers avoid?

HE: They should be careful about data overflow, because the amount of information they can pull from analytics could yield endless spreadsheets of data.  But great metrics are useless if not analyzed.  You also want to start with an open mind.  Many analysts want to prove a hypothesis that they already have.  Instead, I urge people to look at the data and let it guide your thinking.  Otherwise you’re just creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What reporting do marketers often mistake for analysis?

HE: Rather than have a report full of graphs and numbers representing your conversions over time, you should supplement the report with a brief description of what the graphs means, how it affects the business, or how you can further improve your KPIs. 

Web Analysis Fundamentals Diagram by analytics guru Avinash Kaushik

What else should web analysis explain?

 Find reasons behind your metrics; connect the dots.  Marketers know how to present numbers, but not all marketers provide analysis.  Your analytics will tell you traffic has increased by 30 percent. What it won’t tell you is what online/offline factors contributed to this increase. These answers are always in the data; it’s just knowing where to look.

In summary, what key points should marketers use to ensure better analysis and less data-drenched reporting?

1. Determine the best analytics tools for your needs and resources.
2. Make sure your marketing objectives are in line with the client’s business goals.
3. Uncover factors that lead to increases and decreases in your performance metrics.
4. Tailor your reports across different levels of management.
5. Ensure that analysis includes insights, actions and impact on the company.