Post by lizaseo11 on Nov 9, 2024 22:27:09 GMT -5
Have you ever had to communicate with management about the implementation of tasks?
Boss: “If we take your recommendations into account, how will it affect traffic?”
You: “It depends on many factors.”
Boss: “If we launch a new social media campaign, will it generate a lot of traffic?”
You: “It depends on many factors.”
“It depends on many factors” is a typical answer from SEO specialists regarding traffic and one of those answers that irritate management.
Of course, every SEO specialist will tell you that it is impossible to accurately predict traffic, since much depends on external factors that are beyond your control. This is indeed true - you cannot take into account all of Google's ranking factors. You cannot predict how competitors will behave in the market. And you cannot accurately predict how users will react to a particular action.
At the same time, you can evaluate these factors that you cannot influence and give an approximate traffic estimate, taking into account all these factors.
Let's take a look at what you need to take into account in order to make an SEO traffic forecast.
Basis
The first step is to create a baseline, which is based on traffic sources and potential volumes. Make sure everyone is using the same data to get their information - always specify the sources of information used for forecasting to avoid possible disagreements and ambiguities in assessments in the future.
Seasonal fluctuations
The next point is to evaluate the seasonality of traffic. You should evaluate how seasonal fluctuations affect traffic in your case - for this you can use trend fluctuations over the past 3-5 years.
How to do it? The easiest option is to use Google Trends. To get information, you need to enter the region of the request, the request itself and the time period for which you need to get information.
Trends1
The example above shows seasonal fluctuations for the term, which allows us to make predictions about possible traffic volumes to the site.
Search Engine Updates
Search engine algorithms are constantly updated. These shopify website design can be general, large-scale updates (Panda, Penguin, etc.), as well as minor ones, which provide for changes to only a certain part of the algorithm.
Such changes can negatively affect traffic, especially if you do not follow the official recommendations for webmaster promotion. However, even in the case of proper SEO promotion, significant changes in the site's positions are possible.
How to check this? Quite simply: if you notice a drop in positions for most keywords, and also observe similar changes in competitors, then there is a high probability that these changes are the result of a search engine update.
It is quite easy to test this theory - all you need to do is use the capabilities of our service.
In this case, the SEO specialist cannot influence the external factor, so search engine updates are one of those cases that should be mentioned as an independent circumstance when assessing the volume of possible traffic.
Changes in competitors
Unfortunately, competitors continue to evolve as well. They may release better content, create a more attractive UX, or add new features/services/products that rank for the same or similar keywords.
This is one of the proofs that SEO will never stand still. And when forecasting possible traffic, you should preliminarily evaluate competitors and, if possible, track possible changes in them.
Planned projects
No one can predict the future, but if you have an existing project and there are changes you want to implement, you should evaluate them when planning future traffic volumes.
In other words, when adding innovations to the basic traffic generation model, consider two scenarios - the best and the expected. In turn, this will help to make a rough estimate of the possibilities for traffic growth.
Finally, we note that all of the above points are necessary to get as close as possible to a realistic estimate of visitor growth. These points will not completely eliminate the phrase “it depends on many indicators,” but will reduce the number of such indicators, which will ultimately have a positive effect on further planning.
Boss: “If we take your recommendations into account, how will it affect traffic?”
You: “It depends on many factors.”
Boss: “If we launch a new social media campaign, will it generate a lot of traffic?”
You: “It depends on many factors.”
“It depends on many factors” is a typical answer from SEO specialists regarding traffic and one of those answers that irritate management.
Of course, every SEO specialist will tell you that it is impossible to accurately predict traffic, since much depends on external factors that are beyond your control. This is indeed true - you cannot take into account all of Google's ranking factors. You cannot predict how competitors will behave in the market. And you cannot accurately predict how users will react to a particular action.
At the same time, you can evaluate these factors that you cannot influence and give an approximate traffic estimate, taking into account all these factors.
Let's take a look at what you need to take into account in order to make an SEO traffic forecast.
Basis
The first step is to create a baseline, which is based on traffic sources and potential volumes. Make sure everyone is using the same data to get their information - always specify the sources of information used for forecasting to avoid possible disagreements and ambiguities in assessments in the future.
Seasonal fluctuations
The next point is to evaluate the seasonality of traffic. You should evaluate how seasonal fluctuations affect traffic in your case - for this you can use trend fluctuations over the past 3-5 years.
How to do it? The easiest option is to use Google Trends. To get information, you need to enter the region of the request, the request itself and the time period for which you need to get information.
Trends1
The example above shows seasonal fluctuations for the term, which allows us to make predictions about possible traffic volumes to the site.
Search Engine Updates
Search engine algorithms are constantly updated. These shopify website design can be general, large-scale updates (Panda, Penguin, etc.), as well as minor ones, which provide for changes to only a certain part of the algorithm.
Such changes can negatively affect traffic, especially if you do not follow the official recommendations for webmaster promotion. However, even in the case of proper SEO promotion, significant changes in the site's positions are possible.
How to check this? Quite simply: if you notice a drop in positions for most keywords, and also observe similar changes in competitors, then there is a high probability that these changes are the result of a search engine update.
It is quite easy to test this theory - all you need to do is use the capabilities of our service.
In this case, the SEO specialist cannot influence the external factor, so search engine updates are one of those cases that should be mentioned as an independent circumstance when assessing the volume of possible traffic.
Changes in competitors
Unfortunately, competitors continue to evolve as well. They may release better content, create a more attractive UX, or add new features/services/products that rank for the same or similar keywords.
This is one of the proofs that SEO will never stand still. And when forecasting possible traffic, you should preliminarily evaluate competitors and, if possible, track possible changes in them.
Planned projects
No one can predict the future, but if you have an existing project and there are changes you want to implement, you should evaluate them when planning future traffic volumes.
In other words, when adding innovations to the basic traffic generation model, consider two scenarios - the best and the expected. In turn, this will help to make a rough estimate of the possibilities for traffic growth.
Finally, we note that all of the above points are necessary to get as close as possible to a realistic estimate of visitor growth. These points will not completely eliminate the phrase “it depends on many indicators,” but will reduce the number of such indicators, which will ultimately have a positive effect on further planning.