Complete Client Retention Strategy Table of Contents Part 1 - Kill the Churn: How to Keep Clients Longterm In part one I layout our strategy we use to produce fast wins for our clients, usually within 90 days, that keeps them happy and paying for continued digital marketing services.In fact, this 90-day action plan (combined with the tactics we discuss in parts two), helped add an additional six figures of gross revenue to one of our agencies in 2019.This action plan is incredibly simple and contains only five steps.But once you implement it, the results will impress clients who were secretly fearing a lackluster outcome.Accustomed to little to no improvements from past online marketing efforts, they are wowed by the new traffic, conversions, and leads these tactics produce. Our Approach to Client Retention Setting client’s expectations can be difficult.Churn is one of the, if not THE, deadliest realities of an agency.The fact is some clients will leave. Some will pursue cheaper services, some will sell their business, and some will make poor decisions with their wealth and go broke.My point is there will always be factors we cannot control that will dictate if a client stays on board or not. While stoicism is key in those situations, I am a firm believer in doing everything possible to retain clients for as long as possible. Obvious stuff, right?The problem is, almost every agency owner I come in contact with does not have defined measures in place to retain clients.A plan. A formula.Something they have developed and added to over time that has quantifiable results when it comes to increasing the amount of time someone will stay on board with your agency.These are not all beginner agencies either. You would be surprised some of the 7-8 figure agencies I have come across with little to no retention mechanisms in place that are putting all of that extra strain on their acquisition system to stay profitable.I think if agencies put retention into a dollar and cents perspective they would take it more seriously and dedicate some resources to making it a core part of their business execution plan.Let me help.If your typical client pays $2k per month and stays on board for 12 months then your average sale is worth $24k.Easy peasy. We did maths.What if we could get the client to stay three months longer? Just three. In a shop that maintains twenty clients that means we are grossing an additional $120k.The dollars and cents of client retention… Here is a quick model of what type of gross revenue we can keep in an agency just by extending the life of your client by three months.This shows the different numbers depending on what you charge and how many clients you have on board.Even on the smaller end of that scale, what would you do with an extra ~$50k in your business? At the larger end of that scale if you are a larger shop with a more robust $5k product then you are adding a beautiful amount of revenue onto your gross.Sold? Okay, let’s get to work. Expedited Results Based on KPIs That Matter If I were to pick one of my biggest pet peeves in this industry it would be that people are still structuring their campaigns around ranking specific keywords. Even if you do groups or packs of keywords it is still a massive disservice to you and your clients.If you are following the strategies we talk about on our blog or the free courses over at Local SEO Community then you are performing a lot of solid optimization items. The culminating effect of this work is going to improve the authority of your domain and GMB listings.Other keywords are going to rank. Visibility is going to improve.The goal here is to identify those points and deliver aggressive results.The image above shows the GMB insight increases with an accelerated GMB campaign just wrapping up. Almost doubling the phone calls that the firm is getting in the first three months is a decent start.Keep in mind this is a lawyer in a somewhat competitive market. We started handling new clients just like we handle problem clients.They go straight to a triage board and are nurtured.Investing heavier in the first 30-90 days to deliver better results that can result in a longer lifespan of the client is just smart. We took a lot of the cookie-cutter productization out of the process and allow the team more freedom to exert additional energy and spend more of the client budget.We released our accelerated campaigns specifically for this person. Here is a list of things you should do ASAP in your campaigns to shake things up for your new clients Audit and fix site hierarchy and URL structure This is a problem that a high percentage of sites we onboard are dealing with and far too often overlooked when the focus always seems to be on performing on-page and building links.You cannot build a house on top of a crumbling foundation lest you want the problems of a house that was built on top of a crumbling foundation. The same applies to SEO. Building links to a site that is not built to rank is going to provide your client with lackluster results. I typically structure our client sites like so: Proper structures prevent cannibalization and help us think in terms of true relevant silos that keep our site organized and easy to navigate.The biggest mistake I see people make is overcomplicating the architecture of a site.It is not an overly complex task to perform. If you want to check what pages competitors are consistently using for their silos then do not be afraid to check out a ton of top-ranking sites for the query you are optimizing for. Technical Audit and Implementation + On-Page Optimization This is another must in the first 90 days of a campaign. Even though you can see our initial focus is not necessarily organic rankings in the first phase of the campaign, having that solid foundation is essential. We run through a definitive 36 Point Technical SEO guide and checklist with all of the training and SOPs linked out from one central location.This helps keeps things repeatable and holds the team member completing the tasks accountable to ensure they do not miss anything. All of the data piped in from the scrape is imported into sheets that have conditional rulesets in place that allow us to identify issues in datasets that are too large to sift through manually. It also removes the human error component when staring at 1,000+ different lines of data even for smaller sites.This same technical SEO audit is offered to busy agencies in our DFY Technical Audit service or you can check out the blog post for an over-the-shoulder-look. We are not just looking at metadata but also other KPIs. We will talk about some more of those in the following section, but for now, let’s stay laser-focused on getting the website cleaned up and getting the web pages optimized.Another part of the audit is a check early on to see if we are mostly compliant with Google’s Page Quality Rater Guidelines. We reduced the 167 page document into eleven short SOP documents with action items on auditing each main item. We then have a checklist and reporting sheet we use to work through each of the items and determine if we need to add tasks into our job queue to increase our perceived quality in the eyes of Google. If you want some more information on how we do our on-page optimization, we have a metric ton of content out there to help you along the way.Here is a post to help you with on-page optimization training as well.Heck, we could always handle it for you as well with our on-page optimization service. Shameless plug.Essentially we are making sure we have the proper schema, metadata optimized, no technical issues on the website, good site structure, and interlinking, and our content is optimized well in terms of keyword densities and term frequencies.We also want to make sure there is no cannibalization on the site and no thin content issues. Last but not least we like to run through our Google Analytics and prune any content that is providing little to no value to our users or SEO efforts. Early Link Building Strategy + Content + Deeplinking Until we really drill down into achieving organic results, we want to be as solid as possible from a foundational SEO perspective. I know some of you might not understand what we are trying to accomplish because I keep negating organic rankings as a main KPI for the campaign. We are doing a lot of base-level work to build organic rankings on top of but it’s true, organic is not one of the focal points of our campaigns in the first 30 days. This will all come together in the next section but for now, let me stay on track. We run competitors through our anchor text classification system and we determine our exact link building strategy based on link parity, see our post on Keyword Analysis for the entire process.From here on out we are passively link building to meet the quota or the median number of links based on not just volume but the strength of the link as well. We have internal engineering in place to dynamically change strategy based on competitors’ ongoing link building.I assume most of you do not have internal tools to monitor at this level so my best advice early on is to stick to the script. Unless you are in some type of freakishly competitive space where the link building is happening at light speed, your core campaign map should not fluctuate that much in the span of three months.We use guest posts and authoritative niche placements. We currently have internal relationships we just opened up for you guys where we can build links with 400+ referring domains.We mix those with guest posts and as grey hat as this might seem we are putting a second tier of links behind these bad boys.Last but not least we are building a blog post per month that we are using to interlink to our money pages. We are also building links to those pages so we can pass more link equity to our money pages, even with some minor dilution through the internal link, it allows us to increase link velocity without appearing unnatural in the eyes of Google. GMB Time, Baby! Google My Business Time This is what we were waiting for. The grand puba.That’s right, GMB optimization is the focal point of our efforts in the first 90 days.The fact is, organic search is declining and organic clicks are down.This is not “the sky is falling” diatribe, nor do I push SEO doomsday theory, but the data is out. It is not to say that having your site ranking is not valuable, but we love the number of conversions that come ranking your GMB listing in the 3 pack. It can drive a freakish amount of phone calls and other high intent actions. We could show GMB insights all day long. The fact is, there is a lot of things that go into a GMB campaign from auditing the business listing for potential trust problems to identifying possum issues. There is a lot of optimization that goes into pushing GMBs into the 3 pack and increasing the overall visibility across their city or service area.I do not want to turn this into a definitive GMB ranking guide because, well, we already made those for you, for free. Check out some of the best GMB training on the web, absolutely free at Local SEO Community.We also have a ton of case studies and content on the blog that talks about our GMB strategies and problems we have solved.Google My Business Ranking Guide (Updated)Local Backlink Strategy for Increased GMB Rankings A Case Study Focusing on GMB Optimization and…so. many. more. Just dig through and learn the stuff.If you want to take a closer look at the actual campaign we run, specifically, here it is…We actually crafted accelerated GMB campaigns at Web20 to emulate what we are doing for real clients in hyper-competitive local spaces. I shot this short video because I did not want to spend time on a redundant list. But, you can see what goes into the accelerated setup.It is designed when you want to try and deliver the hardest hitting set of results possible in the shortest period of time.I could have made this a GiF but the quality would have suffered a bit, I think. So, you have a short silent video showing the list of GMB goodies we hammer out as soon as we sign a client.If you want a link to the organizational workbook we use for GMB then here is a link for that as well. Just make a copy and use the heck out of it internally. Now that You Have Achieved Results, Quickly I wanted to start with the idea of delivering faster results so you guys could get a better idea of the expectations to set in part two.In the next post, I am going to cover how to set the proper expectations to keep clients on board for a long time.No, it is not as simple as telling a client, “SEO takes time” or anything like that. We are going to dive into the KPIs to look at that really matter, not vanity metrics or non-ROI centric activities.The final piece will be how we handle touchpoints and communication to ensure clients stay with you for the long haul. If you have any questions or comments let me know and I will be happy to help. Part 2 - Showing the Value: How to Do Better Client Reporting Although many marketers dread doing monthly reports, it’s essential if you want to keep clients month-to-month.Read on to find out how to do better client reporting and increase retention rates.Client reporting is an inescapable and integral part of the marketing process!Doing it regularly helps you stay on top of your goals while also keeping clients happy.Despite this, many agencies don’t have a standard client reporting process – and they’re losing clients because of it.In this section, you’ll learn about client reporting, which metrics you should focus on, and a breakdown of our proven client reporting system. By the end, you should have everything you need to implement an effective reporting strategy in your agency. What Is Client Reporting & Why Does It Matter? Client reporting is where you (the agency) and the client discuss how your marketing campaigns have been performing.During these meetings, the agency is expected to present charts and/or data about website traffic, clicks-to-calls, and other important metrics. Client reporting meetings are done on the regular; usually on a per year, per quarter, per month, or even a per week basis.We all know why client reporting is important for the client. It helps them see where their money is going and it helps them measure how close they are to achieving their business goals.But why is it important for you?Frequent client reporting allows you to track your progress, get feedback from the client, analyze your problem areas, and tackle them with informed solutions. But there’s a more important reason for client reporting – and that’s ‘client retention’.Client retention is a huge problem for many agencies.They spend a lot to get a prospect into the pipeline, only to lose them after a few months, forcing them to spend even more time and money to gain new leads.Sometimes, it’s the quality of work that makes clients cancel contracts. But more often than not, it’s because the agency wasn’t able to show how they provided REAL economic value to the business.This is where client reporting comes in handy.Many agencies try to sell keyword rankings and #1 Google SERP placements to businesses, so they report rank increases every month. But some business owners (especially those that aren’t tech-savvy) won’t understand what that means. Keyword rankings aren’t valuable on their own, so you need to show them exactly what value you’re providing in a way that they understand. Great client reports don’t sell rankings, they sell specific results.They feature a variety of metrics that are easy to understand for business owners. Most importantly, it allows you to place those metrics in context, showing the journey from increased keyword rankings to increased traffic to increased conversions.Client reporting lets you draw a direct link between your marketing efforts and the client’s profits.The ultimate goal of a client report meeting is to keep your clients paying. If you conduct client reporting regularly, then clients will have a higher level of confidence in your agency because they’re seeing actual results every period. This encourages client loyalty, making it easier for you to renew contracts and maybe even increase your rates.Every interaction with a client is an opportunity – an opportunity to get them to sign on, an opportunity to upsell your services, or an opportunity to extend their contract. A client reporting meeting is a perfect time to set expectations and prove your value to your client, which can help increase your client retention rates. Our Client Reporting SOP Despite the obvious importance of client reporting, it’s shocking how many marketing agencies don’t have a standard system in place. This leaves a lot of room for error, not to mention inconsistent quality depending on who’s handling the report.Even a simple standard operating procedure is better than none, especially as you scale up. Once you stop handling client reports and hand them over to your associates, it’s difficult to keep the quality in check. An SOP prepares your team to conduct client reporting (freeing you up for more important tasks) while still maintaining great performance and full control.The SOP we layout below is the one that we use at Web 2.0 Ranker and our other agencies. Before we get into the details, here are a few tips first:Don’t overburden your clients with hundreds of different metrics, which could be confusing and overwhelming for them. Instead of pulling tons of data, focus on a few important metrics. This reduces client confusion as well as the amount of time you spend preparing for the meeting.Show visual proof to reinforce your message. If you conduct most of your client reports over the phone, consider using a conferencing tool like Zoom, which lets you do screen sharing. You can also email the files before the meeting so your client can have easy access.Keep a log of all your interactions with the client, especially calls. Zoom lets you record meetings, which is great for quality assurance and documentation. Step #1: Schedule The Meeting Timing is everything when it comes to marketing, and it’s no less true with client reporting. When you schedule your meeting can have just as much impact as the content of the meeting itself.We recommend scheduling client reporting meetings just 24-48 hours before the client is about to renew their contract. If you schedule too early, the impact of your meeting will wear off, leaving room for doubt and hesitation. If you schedule too late, then you miss your chance to reassure them of their investment.Scheduling a meeting doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time. There are many tools (both free and paid) that automate the task for you. We use Calendly, a popular free tool that lets you embed your calendar on a webpage or send it directly to clients. It also integrates with both Zoom and Google Calendar so that your meetings are synced across different platforms.Then, once you have booked a time with your client, you can use tools like Burst SMS to send appointment reminders, instructions, and other info. Finally, if you use a CRM like Salesforce, make sure to log all your contact attempts and interactions before the meeting. Step #2: Prepare For The Meeting There are two main things you need to prepare before the meeting: your script book and your month-on-month metrics. Let’s go into further detail: MoM Workbook Collect all the necessary data into your progress tracker. You can add any metrics that are relevant to you and your clients, but we focus on the following:Keyword market shareReferral trafficNew users from organic searchNew users from direct searchPages per sessionGoal completionsLocal visibility*Local conversions*Local GeoGrid**We use Local Viking to get these metrics. For all other metrics, you’ll need Search Console, Google Analytics, and a call tracking system.This month-on-month workbook gives your clients a glance at how your marketing efforts are going. It also helps you identify your wins as well as the problems that you need to tackle, which then helps you create an action plan.You can check out our template for the workbook, or create your own. Script Book The best thing about a script book is that you only need to make it once, then you’ll just update it as you go with more effective practices and processes.Ideally, you should have a script book before you even begin putting together your reports. But if you don’t have one, there’s no better time to get started than right now. Keeping everything systematized lets you control the conversation. By having an SOP, your team will know how to present their reports so that clients understand exactly what it is you do for them. Script books also prepare your team to work with tough clients, handle challenging campaigns, and turn a negative into a “win” for your agency.Your client reporting script book should outline a comprehensive SOP so that your clients have a uniform experience no matter who they talk to. It could also include your reporting strategy as well as sample scenarios and recommended verbiage when talking to clients.You can use our client reporting script book directly, adapt it for your business, or make an entirely new one for your agency. Step #3: Conduct The Meeting We divide every client reporting meeting into four parts: identifying challenges, action planning, metric reporting, and closing.Let’s go through each of those parts in detail: Identify Present Challenges Always address your clients’ concerns first before anything else. Many marketers shy away from this approach because it starts the meeting on a “bad note”, but it’s beneficial for you to get the negative things out of the way.If your campaign has a major trouble area, or if your client feels that there’s a problem with the results they’re seeing, it’s best to address it at the onset of the meeting. You can say, “I know that [metric] is a big concern of yours, let’s talk about that first.” Then, you can do one of two things:Change their perspective on the problem. You can do this by pointing to another metric that shows a “win”, or by explaining why the “problem” isn’t an issue in the first place.Example: John, you emailed me about your concern that new users took a dive in June, so let’s start our call there. It’s great that you are being proactive, new users are an important metric. I know you’re worried about what appears to be a sudden drop in new users, and I want to address the issue head-on. Once we explain the root cause of the drop in new users you’re going to be really relieved. [Explain the new perspective]Present a plan of action. Even if there is a real problem with the campaign, you can reinspire confidence in your agency by outlining what you will do to fix it. Make sure your solutions are backed up by data.Example: John, you emailed me about your concern that new users took a dive in June, so let’s start our call there. You are right to be concerned about new users, it’s a huge metric. I know how worried you are about this, and I just want to address it head-on. We are going to fix this issue ASAP! Once we implement our action-plan, we’ll be back on track. Let me go into detail. [Present the plan]Leading with the worst information puts you in control of the conversation, allowing you to direct it towards something more positive. Tackling challenges head-on also lets you diffuse any tension and reassure clients before moving on to the next step. Plan For Overcoming Challenges An action plan is crucial if you’re seeing unsatisfactory results because it shifts the client from a negative perspective (“the campaign isn’t working”) to the positive (“here’s what we’ll do to make it work”).Any plan that you present should always be detailed, thorough, and relevant. If you can, include a timeline for when the client can expect to see a more positive trend. No matter what your plan is, the trick is to always present with confidence and expertise – if you seem unsure about your ability to succeed, the client will be unsure as well.If the source of the client’s frustration is a misunderstanding of the data, this is the time to set the record straight. We like to call this “mental judo”, or countering negativity from the client with positivity and facts. Here’s what you can do:Reframe their understanding. If your client feels like they’re not getting any additional calls or visits, they may think that your marketing strategy isn’t working. Back up your claims with data to show them that there is progress, even if they don’t “feel” it.Example: I know that you believe that new users have declined this month. This data shows that new users have actually been steadily increasing over the last few weeks.Validate and explain. This is a good way to agree with your client while also addressing their concern. Explain that while their observation (e.g. drop in referral traffic, fewer calls) is correct, there are other factors to consider. If you have an action plan, lay it out here. Even better, be proactive and get started on the action plan before you meet with the client! It’s better to tell the client what you are already doing to solve the issue versus what you will Example 1: You are right, new users have declined this month. But with that said, organic users have increased 30%, and organic CTR is also way up. New users declined due to a sudden drop in referral traffic. So to make up for the decline in traffic, our plan is to…[explain action plan].Example 2: You are correct, calls are way down this month. They also tanked this time last year. I pulled the year-to-year reports from the call tracker, and every year around this time, the calls drop off.Example 3: You are right, referral traffic did see a serious dip because we lost an important link. That is why our link outreach team is working overtime on your campaign. We sent 300 outreach emails this week, and we also commissioned our top writer to create an expert roundup that will drive new link growth. We’ve also arranged for your brand to get mentioned in a top industry journal. Report On The Metrics After you’ve addressed the client’s biggest concerns and laid out your action plan, it’s time to go into your metrics.We prefer a month-on-month report to show clients how our current successes have built on the successes of previous months, while also setting realistic expectations for next month’s performance based on trends.You can present any metric that is important to you or the client. But only focus on your most important wins – this isn’t the time to bring out hundreds of charts detailing every single metric.Too many metrics are a distraction from your message, and they take more time to prepare. Organize your metrics based on how exciting and valuable they are to your client, and zero in on the best for your report. If the client challenges you or requires more “proof”, then you have more data that you can bring out.Present your metrics in a visual format. Charts and graphs are great, but even an Excel sheet showing how the numbers have changed over the months can have a huge impact. Showing something visual to non-technical people can drive the point home. Just make sure you explain what the data is and what it means to their business in layman’s terms. You can use Zoom’s screen sharing feature and pull up the metrics on your computer as you’re talking.Finally, since you already tackled the problem areas, you can omit any low-performing metrics from your report. Again, focus on your wins to counter the negativity from the start of the meeting. If your client has goal completion targets, end the report with those.Example: Our target page gained nearly 2,000 additional impressions. This means that our target page continues to be shown for more keywords and to more people, and shows our keyword market share is growing. All of this has led to a 10% month-over-month growth of new users from organic search. These are people who are searching for keywords, finding your site, and clicking through. Close The Meeting The closing thoughts of your meeting will heavily impact how a client feels about your interaction. We use some sales psychology to influence clients emotionally, and close the meeting on a good note; here’s how:Cause and effect statements. It’s important to draw a direct line from your campaign to their current successes. This subtly reinforces the positive value that your agency brings.Example 1: Just looking at all these really solid metrics should make you feel really good about the performance of your campaign.Example 2: Seeing the results of your SEO strategy in action should make you confident about the direction of the campaign.Yes-set questions. Yes-set questions are poised questions where the only answer is ‘yes’. You can put the client in a positive state of mind by setting these questions up at the end of the meeting.Example 1: It’s great seeing organic users rising month over month, isn’t it?Example 2: Keyword impressions are up, referral traffic is increasing, and goal completions are rising month over month. It’s a great feeling when everything comes together like this, isn’t it? Retain More Clients With Our Proven Client Reporting System The Month-Over-Month Metrics Breakdown In this section, we’ll go over the most important metrics that we include in our monthly reports. Aside from advising on how to present these wins, we’ll also give recommendations for diagnosing problems for specific metrics. Here are a few general tips to keep in mind when figuring out why your metrics have a negative or downward trend:Ignore any minor variations month over month, but track them in the workbook to see downward/upward trends.Focus on negative changes. If there’s a long downward trend or extreme losses, do intensive research to find the root cause.Check if there have been any site changes recently that could explain losses. Also factor in seasonality by comparing the data to data of the same month in the previous year.It’s up to you to decide how you want to structure your metrics, but we’ve included it in the order we present them below. There’s a reason for this specific order – it shows clients the path from your SEO/marketing efforts (e.g. increased keyword market share, referral traffic) to their goals (e.g. increased goal completions). Keyword Market Share - Site & Page Instead of keyword rankings, we like to start with keyword market share or the number of relevant keywords that your site/page appears in the SERPs.This shows you the entire breadth and depth of your online visibility, not just how you’re performing for a specific search term. It’s a much better metric than individual keywords because tracking just a few dozen blinds you to the bigger picture.To get your keyword market share, you have to look at your total impressions minus your branded searches. Where To Find ThisTool: Search ConsoleSite-Wide Keyword Market ShareClick on Performance, and change the date range to “Compare last 28 days to previous period”.Click on “ + New” to add a query filter to filter out brand name searches. Choose “Queries not containing” and enter the brand term you want to exclude.Example: For Web 2.0 Ranker, we filtered out queries with the number “20” to find non-branded impressions.Page Keyword Market ShareGet the URL of the page you want to analyze.Under the Performance tab, and still with the same query settings, click on “+ New” to add a Page filter.Under Filter > URLs containing, place the target URL.Specific QueriesYou can scroll down the Search Console to see the specific keywords that you are showing for. How To Present These WinsIf there’s a significant gain, explain how increased keyword market share could result in more traffic and new usersExample: This month, our keyword market share is up by over 2,000 additional impressions. This means that our target pages continue to be shown for more keywords and to more people. These are great numbers, more impressions directly relate to an increase in new visitors to the site, and we know that brings more leads and more conversions. Referral Traffic Referral traffic shows you how many people have arrived at your site after clicking on a link on an external page. This is somewhat of a minor metric in terms of overall importance – unless you offer SEO services, since referral traffic is a major touchstone for link building success. Where To Find ThisTool: Google AnalyticsClick on Acquisition > Overview.Change the date to “Last 30 days”, then hit “Apply”.Click “Compare to previous period”.Check the gains/losses next to “Referral”. You can also click on it to get more details about the referring domains. How To Present These WinsGo through what referral traffic is, why it’s important, and what the numbers are. You can also connect this to the other metrics since link building often results in an influx of new users.Example: Your website’s referral traffic increased by x % over last month. That’s a result of our link acquisition, outreach campaigns, and our unique strategy of promoting those linking pages. We’ll continue to see the link increase as we move forward. New Users - Organic & Direct “New users” is pretty much self-explanatory, but it is one of the most important metrics for you and your client, especially if you’re doing SEO.If you can show improvements month over month, you’re showing direct evidence of your campaign’s success. This metric also impacts other metrics – for example, when more new users are directed to your site, your goal completions are more likely to improve as well.Organic new users are users that arrive at your site from organic search. More new users from organic search are usually a result of improved keyword market share. On the other hand, direct new users are site visitors that typed your URL directly into the browser. This could mean that you have better brand visibility thanks to your marketing efforts. Where To Find ThisTool: Google AnalyticsClick on Acquisition > Overview.Change the date to “Last 30 days”, then hit “Apply”.Click “Compare to previous period”.Check the gains/losses next to “Organic Search” for organic new users and “Direct” for direct new users. If you click on each section, you get more information about where people are searching and finding your site. How To Present These WinsAside from sharing the numbers, you need to explain what this metric means to their business. More new users could mean that you’re one step closer to goal completions and, eventually, sales.Example: We achieved our target of month-over-month growth for new users from organic search. For organic search new users, these are people searching for keywords and phrases and discovering your website every day from our SEO efforts. For direct search, which is a result of our ongoing digital branding, this means that more people are hearing about your business. This past month we achieved a 10% growth in organic search and a 14% growth in direct search. Pages Per Session “Pages per session” is an underrated metric that can give you a lot of insight. This reflects how intuitive, satisfactory, and thorough your content is as well as how effective your conversion path is.Users generally don’t convert from a single page, so a high pages-per-session could mean that visitors are being brought further into the customer funnel. Most traffic comes from a blog or article – if they’re not clicking on your “Services” page or learning more about you, they won’t convert.You can improve this metric by creating high-quality content and structuring it in a way that encourages visitors towards conversion points. Where To Find ThisTool: Google AnalyticsClick on Audience > Overview.Change the date to “Last 30 days”, then hit “Apply”.Click “Compare to previous period”.Check the gains/losses under “Pages/Session”.Tip: Don’t look at just the percentage – check the actual pages per visit. A small decimal decrease (e.g. from 3.8 pages to 3.7 pages) isn’t cause for worry since users are still checking a similar number of pages.How To Present These WinsWhile presenting stable or upward-trending pages per session is helpful on its own, it’s much better if you bridge it to other metrics. More pages per session lead to more goal completions (e.g. sign-ups, calls, etc.), while fewer pages per session mean that you need to optimize the conversion path.Example: Pages per session remained stable this month. This is good because that means our conversion path is optimized. Visitors are finding the information they need and moving further into our funnel mouths. Goal Completions - Calls & Forms A goal is completed when a site user takes a desired action such as signing up for a newsletter, calling a phone number, or filling out a form. Goal completions may vary from client to client but they all have a direct economic value, usually in the form of leads, which is why this is one of the most important metrics to discuss. Where To Find ThisTools: Google Analytics, call tracking platform, lead management systemTo do this, you need to set up Goals on Google Analytics first. You can track a variety of goals, but for your client reports, focus on economic goals (e.g. form fills, calls, etc.). Performance goals (e.g. page scroll, link clicks) and other micro-conversions should not be included in your report.Click on Conversions > Goals > Overview.Change the date to “Last 30 days”, then hit “Apply”.Click “Compare to previous period”.Check the gains/losses of your economic goals.You can also use any call tracking or lead management system to track this metric. How To Present These WinsAlways start at the “beginning” of the customer journey (e.g. keyword market share, referral traffic, new users) before going into your goal completions. This will link your marketing efforts to the client achieving a significant business goal.Example: Our lead forms and click to call goals are outperforming last month’s numbers significantly. This is a direct result of our successful marketing campaign. Local Visibility - Indirect, Maps, & Search For local business clients, the first thing you should look at is Local Visibility. This includes indirect queries (non-branded searches), Google Maps views, and 3-pack views on the search results page or Local Finder. Where To Find ThisTool: Local VikingChange the date to a 30-day data range.Check the following metrics:Indirect queries – Shows you how many people have seen your listing after making an indirect or non-branded search.Listing on Maps – Shows you how many people have seen your GMB listing on Google Maps.Listing on Search – Shows you how many people have seen your listing on the SERP or Local Finder results. How To Present These WinsBetter local visibility often translates to better local conversions, so make sure to stress that connection if the numbers show an upward trend.Example: The number of people who are finding your business locally is remaining steady. At the moment, we are continuing to make month over month improvements in local visibility, and this is reflected by the increases we’re seeing in our local conversions. Local Conversions - Visits, Calls, & Driving Directions Local conversions are a major metric for local businesses because it demonstrates how many people are engaging with your business after finding it through a local search. This metric represents how much of your Google My Business listing traffic turns into a lead or customer.Driving directions and phone calls are better to show during your client reporting meetings. “Visits on website” is still an important metric, but you should prioritize the other two the most since those have the most economic value for your client. Where To Find ThisTool: Local VikingChange the date to a 30-day data range.Check the following metrics, in the order of least important to most important:Visits on website – Shows you how many people have clicked on your website URL from your GMB listing.Phone calls – Shows you how many people clicked on your phone number from your GMB listing.Note: This tracks every time a user clicks on your phone number, not if they pushed through with the call. Always double-check with a call tracking system to get the most accurate numbers.Driving directions – Shows you how many people have requested for directions to your business on GMB/Maps. How To Present These WinsPositive numbers already have significant economic value for your client, so you can present them straight. If there are negative numbers, point to other metrics (e.g. increased Local Visibility, increased keyword market share) to show how you expect numbers to rise in the coming months.Example: The local conversions that matter most for your business – in this case, phone calls – has increased by over 44% from the last month. We also saw continued growth of website visitors. We know that out of 10 phone calls, eight are checking prices, and on average, one will convert into a paying customer. Local GeoGrid GeoGrid reports are pretty much the same as your local visibility reports, except they show you how your campaign has improved your stats over a specific period. They come in handy if you want a visual representation of your metrics to drive your point home.Where To Find ThisTool: Local VikingClick on Location.Scroll to the “Keywords” section. Click on “View history” for your chosen keyword.Screenshot to grab an image or click “Create new animation” to get a GIF. How To Present These WinsCombine your GeoGrid reports with other local metrics to reinforce upward trends.Example: You can see from the GeoGrid report for our top keyword’s visibility that we are solidly positioned in the 3 pack throughout the entire market. Now, this is only for one keyword, but as our team creates more signals every month, this visibility will expand outwards and we will also capture new keywords. And all of this will continue driving the growth of new leads and prospects finding your business from our local search efforts. Reducing Client Churn and Retaining Clients Longterm One of the most common reasons that marketing agencies lose clients is because the clients don’t understand the results they’re getting. If you don’t explain what your results mean and what kind of value it provides to their business, then those clients aren’t going to be signing up month after month.The best way to retain clients is by conducting monthly client reporting meetings. The SOP we’ve outlined here guides you through every stage, from timing your meetings before a rebill cycle to turning negatives into “wins” for your client. DFY Google Analytics and Data Studio Better Client Reporting, No Monthly Fee Get Better Reporting Today Share this post Share on FacebookShare on Facebook TweetShare on Twitter Author: Chaz Edwards Chaz began his SEO career in 2009, with professional experiences including local SEO and SEM, PPL and lead generation, and eCommerce marketing. He has written and spoken extensively on local search, appearing on Business Innovators Radio, LCT Live - Google My Business Ranking Factors, a panelist at the Rocks Digital Local Search Day Expert Panel - The Future of Local Search, and is a contributor at Marketing Digest. He spends his time developing local SEO strategies for franchises, launching new services for Web 20 Ranker, and generally slaying the local SERPs. Post navigationPreviousPrevious post:SEO Updates September 11, 2020NextNext post:The SEO Vault: Episode 54Related postsThe SEO Vault: Episode 52September 3, 2020How to Sell More SEO ServicesMay 14, 2020Large Scale Client Acquisition PlansApril 27, 2020Agency Survival Guide and Recession-Proof StrategyApril 16, 2020
