The first day of SES London kicked off with a keynote presentation by Google’s Avinash Kaushik. He began with a quote from a Kenyan farmer which read, “information is powerful, but it’s how we use it that will define us.” He suggested that agencies aren’t all using search data correctly and that’s why the ‘definition’ of SEO is a bit mixed.

Avinash seems to believe – like us – that SEO is still a young industry. He likened SEOs who focus on ‘hits’ and ‘page views’ as toddlers; those who measure ‘conversions’ as teens; and those SEOs who value ‘conversation’ as adults.

These are terms we have used in the past to describe black hat methods of ‘gaming the system’. The industry began with these child-like qualities and has only recently started to mature.

The reason for this immaturity is also the reason for SEO’s enduring success. That is, when SEO first began, businesses got involved and data became monetized. Managers wanted to see people browsing their pages just as they wanted to see shoppers browsing their high-street stores. This young industry then began to measure the wrong data.

The Right Data

Avinash proposed that SEOs shouldnt measure traffic, but rather analyse how people interact with the site/brand. For instance, measure loyalty, conversation rate and unaided brand recall instead of clicks, page views and visits.

It’s all about the user. If you can understand how they act, how they buy etc., then you can optimise your site for their benefit. And this becomes more profitable in the long term since you can focus on delayed transactions, referrals and so forth.

At the heart of this problem is something that wasn’t really discussed: the relationship between the business and agency. It’s all well and good agencies changing their focus on metrics, but this also needs to happen at the client level.

The Business of SEO

In the afternoon Lisa Myers from Verve Search added to this topic by discussing how agencies should improve their pitches to prospective clients. She emphasised that the initial proposal can reduce later problems. If an agency can explain the goals, the timeframe and – as Avinash suggested – the right metrics at the very beginning of their relationship, then the business is less likely to misunderstand SEO or request the wrong data.

Ultimately, it’s not just how we use our information that defines us, as Avinash and the Kenyan farmer proposed, but how we explain it to others.

More from SES London

Linkdex will be also be at SES tomorrow, so why not come to Stand 11 and have a chat about your SEO? Alternatively if you can’t make it to SES, keep an eye out for more tweets and updates direct from the conference.