Content
1. Set up a Project
1. 1 Search engine selection
1. 2 Adding keywords
1. 3 Adding tags
1. 4 URL tags
1. 5 Events
1. 6 Benchmarks
1. 7 Analytics
1. 8 Visibility Guard
2. Project Management
2.1 Tag Keywords
2.2 Add keywords and tags to already existing project
2.3 Delete keywords
2.4 Delete tags
2.5 Delete project
2.6 Shift project
Where? Settings/ Projects/ Overview
- Button on the top right corner.
Things that have to be considered when creating a project
- It is essential to click on "Apply changes" after each change in the project settings! Only in this way the entered data can also be taken into account in the analysis.
- Enter the domain without "www". Why?
- Please note the 2 weeks lock: After a project has been newly created, it will be locked for deletion for the next 2 weeks. Also the entered domain can not be changed during this time. Search engines and keywords can still be added during this time.
- If new keywords have been added to the project and the "Apply changes" button has been clicked, it will be blocked for the time the changes are entered. So during this time you will not be able to save any more changes. However, you can still add more keywords, these will then be stored in the "waiting area" until the button can be clicked again and they are permanently stored in the project.
- It can take up to 24 hours until the changed data is evaluated in the project.
1. Set up a project
First the project domain has to be entered. Beside the domain you can also choose a color, which will be used in graphs for visualization of the performance.
Caution: We recommend to enter the domain always without the addition "www" in order to track everything, that is happening on the SERP for your domain (e.g. searchmetrics.com, not www.searchmetrics.com). Why?
After that the project can be named. If no name is entered, the name of the domain will be used. You can also add a description. Click on "Complete Project" to continue.
1.1 Search engine selection
Now you have to select for which Search Enginge the performance should be evaluated. Therefore you have to chose a country first, then the searchengine and then the device. The Searchmetrics Suite differantiates between Desktop and Desktop local, where the performance within a selected city is evaluated. Smartphone and tablet (Android or Apple) can also be evaluated. Here you can also choose between national and local analyses.
- National: When you plan to optimize and analyse your content to be visible countrywide.
- Local: When you plan to optimize and analyse your visibility in a specific region.
Afterwards a tracking update frequency must be determined. This is the frequency with which the ranking data of your keywords are updated per week. A higher tracking frequency provides more up-to-date ranking data.
Up to 100 Search Engines can be added and the ranking data can be updatet up to 5 times a week.
Good to know: For an overview on which Search Engines you are able to choose for your project, please have a look at following list.
Caution: Keyword Queries are charged for this. The amount of available keyword queries can be viewed in Settings/ Licenses/ Overview.
The amount of required Keyword Queries is calculated by multiplying the number of your keywords, the number of the selected search engines and their tracking frequency.
Example: 10 Keywors, 2 Search Enginges and a tracking frequency of 5 times a week would need 100 Keywords Queries (10x2x5= 100)
1.2 Adding keywords
This step is probably the most important in the creation of a project. The added Keywords should be based on extensive keyword research so that the subsequent analyses are as informative as possible and optimization potential can be uncovered.
There are different ways to add keywords to your project.
I would like to add keywords to the project during research:
Based on the entered domain there will be keyword suggestions that can be added directly to the project.
I already have a keyword set:
If you already have a keyword set, you can directly upload this file to the suite. (Instructions: click here.)
I want to add keywords to the project manually:
After clicking on "Add new keyword" the keywords must be entered one below the other in the appropriate field. Once the input is complete, the keywords can be loaded into the project (and the desired tags) using the arrow. To do this, check the box next to the "Project" and the tags to which you want to add keywords.
Important: Never forget to click "save changes" after any changes you have made, to save the keywords in the project and to enable analyses to be performed correctly.
1.3 Adding tags
In addition to keywords, you can also add tags to your project. In order to do this, click the "+" sign next to tags in the "Manage keywords" tab.
In the window that opens, the tags must be entered one below the other. Then click "Submit" to add tags.
Additional subtags can be added to each day. Additional subtags can be added to these subtags (and so on). This creates a hierarchical tag structure that can be extended down to the product level. For more information, see the PDF file on hierarchical tagging in the appendix.
To create a subtag, simply click on the three small dots next to the tag you want to add the subtag to and select "Add Subag". Write the subtags one by one in the field that opens.
Important: after every change, you must click on “Apply changes” so that the keywords are saved in the project and the analysis can be carried out correctly.
1.4 URL tags
This is where URLs can be grouped by tags (see also: Tag or How do I use Tags?). After you create URL tags, you can filter them in the Search Experience.
The corresponding URLs and tags need to be exported using a table. To set up this table correctly, please download the sample CSV and add your URLs and tags before uploading them again.
1.5 Events
|
At this step, important events can be added to the project, which can then be displayed as data points in charts. For example, you can analyze whether restarting a website has resulted in significant performance changes. It can also make sense to create changes in the project as an event. For example, SEO visibility can change abruptly when new keywords are added to the project. Such jumps can then still be associated with the addition of new keywords after a certain time. First of all, the event needs to be given a name. You can then customize event categories to summarize future events in the same category. You can then set the status and date of the corresponding event so that it appears as a data point in the tables. Once an event is set to inactive, it is no longer displayed.
|
1.6 Benchmarks
You can add up to 10 benchmarks to a project so that you can then conduct a search engine comparison between your own domain and the benchmarks. Depending on the subject area of the project, there suggested several benchmarks that can be added directly to the project. You can also enter benchmarks manually in this area.
1.7 Analytics
The Searchmetrics Suite also offers the option to connect an analytical program (Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics). The analytics area is currently still in the evaluation stage in order to be able to offer it in an improved form. Here you will find an overview of all features compared to the Suite 6 and the new Searchmetrics Suite!
1.8 Visibility Guard (read more about the Visibility Guard)
The last step is to set up the Visibility Guard. This can be seen as a kind of "protective shield", as it permanently monitors the URLs of the domain for the most important problems and changes. The difference to a Site Experience crawl is that the Visibility Guard crawls the URLs every day and only checks the pages for changes. The Site Experience Crawl scans the entire domain for all technical components.
The setup is done in three different steps. In the general settings, the first step is to set the check mark for automatic URLs. This means that the most important URLs are automatically crawled based on the project. If URLs are to be included manually in the crawl, the desired URLs can be uploaded via manual URLs.
Then the maximum number of pages to be monitored is specified. If this number exceeds the number of URLs in the project, the most important domain URLs from the Research Cloud (which are not included in the project) are also included in the monitoring. If the number of maximum pages is below the URLs in the project, only the most important URLs are included in the monitoring.
Similar to a Site Experience Crawl, you can then select whether Javascript pages should also be included or whether static IPs should also be used.
In addition, one of the search engines defined in the project must be specified and the user agent and region must be selected.
In the Monitoring section, you can select the problems to be monitored. Next to the listed problems there are two fields each. The Notify fields indicate the changes and problems for which a notification by mail should be sent out immediately. The Report fields are used to specify which issues should be checked and included in the report. The report then receives information about all changes that were found.
The frequency of mail reports can be changed in " Reports and Notifications" (daily or weekly). There all recipient mails can be entered as well.
|
Page credits are calculated for the Visibility Guard monitoring. Once all settings have been made, the estimated number of page credits required for the execution is displayed on the right side. Because Visibility Guard crawls all selected URLs every day, the monthly costs are also displayed directly. In the example on the right, 1,000 URLs are to be monitored. This would cost 1,000 page credits. The monthly cost would be 30,000 (1,000 page credits x 30 days). Note: A Javascript Crawl costs more Page Credits! |
2. Project Management
2.1 Tag Keywords
Tag keywords when adding
Once you have completed entering the keyword, first check the box next to "Project" and then in the tags (see also: How do I use Tags?) in which the keyword should be included (2). The arrow shows keywords moved to the selected tags (3).
Tagging already existing keywords
Possibility 1:
If you need to add only individual keywords to your tags, or if you need to move the already tagged keywords to other tags, this could be done in the Keyword Manager.
All keywords are automatically tagged with a project tag. Therefore, if you need to tag keywords that have not yet been found during the day, click on the "Project" tag. Select "Only keywords of tag" (IMPORTANT: keywords can be postponed or moved only in this mode), and then check the boxes for the corresponding keywords. Then click "Action" in the lower left corner of the box and then click "Move". There will be shown a pop-up window with all the tags for your project. Select the tag where you want to move the selected keywords, and then click "Confirm".
Possibility 2:
If you prefer to work with spreadsheets, all keywords of your project can be exported to a spreadsheet (Excel/CSV). Go to "Project" under the "Manage keywords" tab and select "Keywords of tag and subtags" to display all the keywords in the project. Click the Import/Export button and then click "Export project as CSV" or "Export project as XLSX".
Then open the table with a suitable program (such as Excel or Office) and store the tags there as follows:
Once all the desired keywords have been saved with tags, the file can be saved as CSV and then uploaded again using the same "Import/Export" button in the "Manage keywords". Just click "Import CSV file".
2.2 Add keywords and tags to already existing project
In order to add individual keywords and tags, proceed exactly as described above.
If you need to add several keywords and tags to your project at once, it is recommended to import them via a CSV file. The sample file can be downloaded as a help. In the " Manage Keywords" section, click "Download example CSV", and then enter the desired keywords and tags in the specified areas of this file.
Once all the desired keywords and tags have been entered, the file needs to be saved as CSV and then it can be uploaded again using the Import/Export button via "Import CSV file".
After the file has been selected for the upload, a pop-up window opens where you can choose whether to Replace all tags and keywords or Add only new tags and keywords.
Tip: If you want to replace all tags and keywords, we recommend exporting and saving the list of old keywords beforehand so that you don't accidentally loose anything.
2.3 Delete keywords
If you want to replace an old set of keywords with a new one, please proceed as described in the previous chapter and replace all tags and keywords.
If you only want to remove individual keywords, you can select them in the keyword manager under "Manage keywords" by checking the boxes next to the respective keywords, and then remove them from the project using the "Action..." button.
2.4 Delete tags
Tags can also be removed in the keyword manager under "Manage keywords" by clicking on the 3 small dots next to the respective tag. The keywords in the tag are still retained when the tag is deleted. Then they can be found in the "Project" tag and retagged.
2.5 Delete project
To be able to delete a project, you must first go to the Project Overview. All projects are listed there. Just click on the little trash can icon next to the project and then click "Delete Project".
2.6 Shift Project
If a project should be moved to a sublicense, the sublicense must first be created and then resources must be assigned to it. Please have a look at this article.
Once the necessary settings have been made, please contact your CSM or support (support@searchmetrics.com) with this request and we will take care of it for you.