Overall Web Presence Reporting

[ErinKas]

We are working on our 2019 marketing goals. Is it possible to determine our overall web presence? One of our goals is to increase our web presence by 10%, but I am not sure how to measure that.

How do you all measure your website performance year over year?

Thanks!

[trevorjones71 · Accepted solution]

Hi @ErinKas,

Thanks for the tag @jennysowyrda!

In this case, I think you need to get clear on what it means to increase your web presence in terms of measurable goals. Until you know that it'll be hard to choose the right tool.  Even worse, you'll end up letting your tool define the metrics, rather than letting your marketing strategy define the metrics.

The best goals are SMART. (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Reasonable and Time Bounded).   I would argue that as defined, inreasing your web presence is neither specific enough nor measurable enough.  

So - start by asking yourself: what does it mean to increase your web presence?  Here are a few measures you could use, many of which show up on the HubSpot Competitors report that @jennysowyrda mentioned.

• Do you want to increase website page views?  By how much? When?
• Do you want to grow the number of keywords you rank for in the top 10 on Google?  How many to you want to get to?  By when?
• Do you want to grow your social presence? Are followers most important or is engagement most important?  How many followers or engagements do you want? By when?
• Do you want to engage more with prospects and customers on review sites and social sites (ie Quora, Yelp)?  How many interactions?  By when?

If you want to create an overarching "increase my web presence by 10%" goal, you'll need to understand how each of the items you choose contribute to that overarching goal. For example, is a Twitter follower more or less valable than a Facebook like? And are either of those more or less valuable than moving up a notch on a strategic keyword in organic search?  That may be a tough calculation, and you'll definitely need to make some judgement calls, but it's doable.

Hope this is useful!

- Trevor

[jennysowyrda]

Hi @ErinKas,

I waanted to share a few resources with you: 

6 Amazing Tools We Use to Measure Web Performance

Competitors report

Additionally, I wanted to tag in some subject matter experts: 

@Phil_Vallender, @MFrankJohnson, @trevorjones71 do you have any suggestions for how to measure your web presence? 

Thanks,
Jenny

[MFrankJohnson · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the tag @jennysowyrda and Happy New Year.

Great question @ErinKas. I'd say that "web presence" is too general to use as goal criteria. When setting marketing goals (using HubSpot or not) we like to be very specific and set those goals in alignment with the tools we'll be using to measure progress.

HubSpot calls them SMART Goals -- (S)pecific (M)easurable (A)ttainable (R)elevant (T)imely

Something as subjective as web presence doesn't meet the standard for specificity or measurability.

Here's some great info to get you started.

- How do I set SMART goals in HubSpot?
- Setting (and Reaching!) Your Marketing Goals With the Goals App
- Marketing & Sales Lead Goal Calculator

Hope that helps.

Help answer your question? If so, remember to accept this solution now.

Best,
Frank

Author the Perfect HubSpot Series

---

MFrankJohnson.com | Connect on LinkedIn

Help find posts quickly ... accept this solution now.

[trevorjones71 · Accepted solution]

Hi @ErinKas,

Thanks for the tag @jennysowyrda!

In this case, I think you need to get clear on what it means to increase your web presence in terms of measurable goals. Until you know that it'll be hard to choose the right tool.  Even worse, you'll end up letting your tool define the metrics, rather than letting your marketing strategy define the metrics.

The best goals are SMART. (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Reasonable and Time Bounded).   I would argue that as defined, inreasing your web presence is neither specific enough nor measurable enough.  

So - start by asking yourself: what does it mean to increase your web presence?  Here are a few measures you could use, many of which show up on the HubSpot Competitors report that @jennysowyrda mentioned.

• Do you want to increase website page views?  By how much? When?
• Do you want to grow the number of keywords you rank for in the top 10 on Google?  How many to you want to get to?  By when?
• Do you want to grow your social presence? Are followers most important or is engagement most important?  How many followers or engagements do you want? By when?
• Do you want to engage more with prospects and customers on review sites and social sites (ie Quora, Yelp)?  How many interactions?  By when?

If you want to create an overarching "increase my web presence by 10%" goal, you'll need to understand how each of the items you choose contribute to that overarching goal. For example, is a Twitter follower more or less valable than a Facebook like? And are either of those more or less valuable than moving up a notch on a strategic keyword in organic search?  That may be a tough calculation, and you'll definitely need to make some judgement calls, but it's doable.

Hope this is useful!

- Trevor