{"id":1558,"date":"2013-02-14T14:32:13","date_gmt":"2013-02-14T14:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.microsofttraining.net\/b\/exceltraining\/?p=1558"},"modified":"2023-12-30T23:26:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-30T23:26:52","slug":"how-excel-can-help-you-build-a-successful-seo-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/how-excel-can-help-you-build-a-successful-seo-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"How Excel can help you build a successful SEO campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>It\u2019s important to stay ahead of the game and decent spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel is still regarded as one of the most empowering and flexible ways to track your SEO campaigns. In conjunction with important tools such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.co.uk\/analytics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Analytics<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/adwords.google.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Keyword Tools<\/a>, Excel is able to help provide unrivalled analysis to aid the decision making processes for your business.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/exceltraining\/files\/2013\/02\/Microsoft-Excel-2013-Logo.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1574 alignright\" alt=\"Microsoft-Excel-2013-Logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/exceltraining\/files\/2013\/02\/Microsoft-Excel-2013-Logo.jpg\" width=\"238\" height=\"238\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>This article will provide you with some simple tips and tricks to help you reap rewards in terms of visitors, CTR\u2019s, conversions and conversations.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Keywords<\/h2>\n<p>When discussing SEO, it\u2019d be impossible not to mention keywords. And with this, there are two sides to the story. Firstly, which keywords to settle upon and secondly, tracking their effectiveness.<\/p>\n<p>Deciding which keywords to run with is a big decision. It needs to fit in with both your business goals and marketing strategy, leaving no room for error. Using an Excel spreadsheet as a tool to track your keyword ideas in conjunction with a combination of free and paid online tools, you\u2019ll be able to save both time and money in the long term.<\/p>\n<p>Two of the most popular tools include, <a title=\"Google Keyword Tool\" href=\"https:\/\/adwords.google.com\/o\/KeywordTool\">Google Keyword Tool<\/a> &amp; <a title=\"Google Trends\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/trends\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Trends<\/a>. Use the aids to provide insight as to the search volumes of your terms (both local and worldwide) and also to help with variations upon your keywords (e.g. if your main term is &#8220;Light Bulbs&#8221; you could find alternatives such as &#8220;Halogen Bulbs&#8221;, &#8220;Energy Saving Light Bulbs&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/adwords.google.com\/o\/KeywordTool\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1563 aligncenter\" alt=\"Google Logo \/ Search\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/exceltraining\/files\/2013\/02\/google-blur-300x194.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Add your findings to your spreadsheet using columns<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Keyword<\/li>\n<li>Local Search Volume<\/li>\n<li>Worldwide Search Volume (if relevant)<\/li>\n<li>Competition (Low, Medium, High)<\/li>\n<li>Trend (You can calculate this however you wish)<\/li>\n<li>Additional Notes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This will give you a quick indicator as to which keywords your company should target. By using <a title=\"The difference between Autofilter and Sort in Excel\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/exceltraining\/2012\/11\/the-difference-between-autofilter-and-sort-in-excel\/\">sorting and filtering<\/a> you should start to see some patterns. Put simply, high competition and low search volume is more often than not, worth being left alone.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/tools.seobook.com\/firefox\/rank-checker\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1566\" alt=\"Rank Checker SEO\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/exceltraining\/files\/2013\/02\/Rank_Checker-300x210.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once you\u2019ve decided upon your specific search terms, you\u2019ll need to track these too. Again, free tools are great. <a href=\"http:\/\/tools.seobook.com\/firefox\/rank-checker\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rank Checker<\/a> will provide you with a quick breakdown of where you appear in the three major search engines. Create a new spreadsheet, with the columns;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Keyword<\/li>\n<li>Month<\/li>\n<li>Google Rank<\/li>\n<li>Yahoo Rank<\/li>\n<li>Bing Rank<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019d recommend doing a separate spreadsheet for each month, then you can always cross reference these in the future to analyse trends specific to your website. Alternatively, you could have one page for each, Google, Yahoo &amp; Bing. Knowing which keywords are effective will provide you with insight as to where to channel your paid and organic campaigns.<\/p>\n<h2>Directories<\/h2>\n<p>If you\u2019re a business with an emphasis on SEO (which to be honest, who isn\u2019t these days?), you\u2019re likely interested in spreading a wide net for your content. Submitting your posts to directories is a great way to increase the reach of your content, but merely submitting them shouldn&#8217;t be the end of it.<\/p>\n<p>Measuring the effectiveness of an action or process is key, and there is no simpler or more effective method than <a title=\"excel training london and uk wide\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/excel-2010-introduction.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">creating an Excel spreadsheet<\/a>. First, you\u2019ll need to find those directories, if you haven\u2019t already. A quick Google search will provide you with a comprehensive list for your specific needs. Once you\u2019ve got the list, create an Excel document with columns for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Directory Name<\/li>\n<li>Date Link Submitted<\/li>\n<li>Date Link Confirmed<\/li>\n<li>Pricing<\/li>\n<li>Additional Info<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Knowing where and when you submitted a post to a directory will save you time (and money) in the future, reducing the occurrence of duplication and ineffective listings. (If you are worried you have entered something twice, have a look at this post describing <a title=\"How To Display Unique Entries in an Excel List\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/exceltraining\/2013\/02\/how-to-display-unique-entries-in-an-excel-list\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">how to deduplicate data<\/a>). It always pays to include an additional info column to remember login details and the like.<\/p>\n<h2>Expenses<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1564\" alt=\"Budget \/ Money\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/exceltraining\/files\/2013\/02\/money-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Tracking your spend makes simple accounting sense. Excel is a fantastic way to note down where your SEO budget is going. From paid directories to PPC campaigns and everything in between. Your spreadsheet may include the following columns:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Expense<\/li>\n<li>Average Monthly Cost<\/li>\n<li>Annual Cost<\/li>\n<li>Additional Notes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now, this document in itself provides little more insight than where your money is going. However, when analysed in conjunction with conversation rates for example, Excel will allow you to decipher the exact effectiveness of a campaign per cost. It\u2019s also a great \u201cgo to\u201d document when making budgeting decisions.<\/p>\n<h2>Competitor Analysis<\/h2>\n<p>Of course, in order to stay one step ahead of the competition, you need to know what they\u2019re up to. That\u2019s just common sense, right?<\/p>\n<p>Again, there are plenty of tools out there to help you track the numbers of backlinks to your site, paid and unpaid. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensiteexplorer.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Open Site Explorer<\/a> is a handy tool to quickly scan a webpage and offers insight to domain authority, page rank and the links from other sites to your page.<br \/>\nFurther to this, you can do exactly the same for your competitors. Where are their links coming from? Why aren\u2019t these sources linking to you? You\u2019ll soon be able to see what their site offers which yours doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensiteexplorer.org\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1565\" alt=\"Open Site Explorer\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/exceltraining\/files\/2013\/02\/Open-Site-Explorer-300x86.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"86\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To make things easier to analyse trends, use your spreadsheet. See if there\u2019s one domain that favours your content across any number of posts. For this you can add as many or as little columns as you desire, but you may wish to include;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>URL<\/li>\n<li>Total Links<\/li>\n<li>Linking Root Domains<\/li>\n<li>Page Authority<\/li>\n<li>Domain Authority<\/li>\n<li>Facebook Shares<\/li>\n<li>Tweets<\/li>\n<li>Google +1\u2019s<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It goes without saying that a link from a site with a higher domain authority will increase the likelihood of your content reaching a greater audience. The more links and shares that you receive can only be beneficial too for spreading your word.<\/p>\n<p>To conclude, there\u2019s a world of data out there which you can analyse. Excel can help you put these into graphs, charts, columns, rows and more to ensure your findings are digestible. It can also help you decide whether a particular SEO campaign has been successful in terms of return on investment and much more. We\u2019ll discuss more of these in further posts, so stay tuned.<\/p>\n<p><em>Interested in sharpening your own Excel skills so you can build your own SEO spreadsheet management dashboard? Attend an <a title=\"Excel training london and uk wide\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/excel-2010-intermediate.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Excel training course<\/a>\u00a0from Best STL where you&#8217;ll learn about formulas across worksheets and how to manage large lists of data.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s important to stay ahead of the game and decent spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel is still regarded as one of the most empowering and flexible ways to track your SEO campaigns. In conjunction with important tools such as Google Analytics &amp; Keyword Tools, Excel is able to help provide unrivalled analysis to aid [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[140,220,224,240,331,478],"class_list":["post-1558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-excel-training","tag-data","tag-excel-training-y","tag-excel-training-london","tag-excel-spreadsheet","tag-keywords","tag-seo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6855,"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558\/revisions\/6855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}