How to Improve Your Data-Driven Marketing Results with a Free SEO Dashboard using SEMrush & Databox

Here at Stream Creative we love SEMrush, in fact we rely on it heavily for building our data-driven SEO strategies. Whether the strategy is for a manufacturer, law firm, university, or any other business, SEMrush has it covered for a deep-dive SEO analysis (top SEO experts agree with me).

With the fast pace that business moves today, marketing teams are expected to perform at the same fast pace, and produce measurable results. Rightfully so. Measurement and monitoring are part of the daily marketing mix for good reason. If you blink, you may have missed an opportunity. And if you’re only checking in on your data weekly, it may be too late – especially in highly competitive markets. Industry experts agree:

Peter Caputa, Databox CEO and former Hubspot VP says it best, “Companies need to move away from the idea of a monthly or quarterly reporting cadence. That's good for Wall Street. But, businesses shouldn't wait until the end of the month to measure how their marketing, sales or services organizations are performing. They should be measuring performance weekly, daily and in some cases, multiple times per day. To do this efficiently, they need to setup custom dashboards, goals and alerts so that they're notified when their key metrics change -- good or bad." 

"For agencies specifically, many of them talk about being agile, data-driven and ROI-focused. But, most don't live up to it. You can't call yourself data-driven if you check performance once per month and change your marketing mix, campaign focus or activity plan even less frequently. Agencies need to know about these issues as they're happening, so they can adapt the marketing plan to still hit their clients' goals. To me, the most important part of being agile: using data to guide decisions on a daily or even hourly basis.”  Totally agree, Peter.

Martin Weinberg, Director of Marketing at SEMrush backs this mindset, "I think reporting challenges are multiplied for agencies. Most have a stack of best-of-breed applications, hand-picked to suit their preferences. But many of their clients have never worked directly with these platforms, including Google Analytics. Sure, big spreadsheets and slide decks get passed around in meetings, while everyone nods knowingly. It’s what I call the 'emperor’s new data' syndrome. Everyone pretends to understand it, but there’s no actionable business insight. By allowing clients to easily track key metrics over time across platforms, though, they can be more engaged and actively participate in the strategic process."

So how do marketers access their most valuable business KPIs in one place, in real time, and from multiple platforms?

Databox solves this in a big way. With Databox, you can combine metrics from Google Analytics, SEMrush, Salesforce, HubSpot, Wistia and many more on a single dashboard accessible from your phone or any device. Then, you can monitor anytime, anywhere. With prebuilt templates and a free version, set-up takes only minutes. (Sources tell me that next on Databox’s development list are connectors for more awesome marketing tools including Moz, Magento and Marketo.)

Let’s take a look at how Databox works with SEMrush and what it can do for you and your clients.

Start with a template.
There are many Databox templates to choose from. (You can create your own custom layouts later.) Make your selection based on your goals. We’ll walk through the benefits of one of my favorites. 

Databox Template: SEMrush Keyword Mission Control

The SEMrush Keyword Mission Control template is recommended for companies in competitive markets and anyone wanting to keep a close eye on their target keywords. If improving keyword rankings in SERPs is among your marketing goals, use this dashboard. 

This Databox dashboard (called a Datawall) provides data to measure and monitor:

• Targeted keywords by position, volume, and % change
• Ranking distribution
• Visibility trend - organic traffic and visibility based on CTR 
• Top channels by session

The data is pulled from SEMrush and Google Analytics to your Databox Datawall. And it’s easy for clients to view on their phone or desktop. Here's an example of how selected SEMrush and Google Analytics data is displayed in Databox:

Let’s break it down. Where is databox getting this data from? And why are these specific metrics important?

Top Keywords by Position
A drop in search rankings from position 3 to position 8 (or worse) can happen in an instant. When do you want to be alerted? SEMrush provides this data to your Datawall from your Rankings Overview in your SEMrush tracking campaign.

Displayed in a list-view, you’ll see your current rankings for keywords in the Google top 100 and position changes over a selected period of time.

Data source: SEMrush Rankings Review (from your tracking campaign)

Keyword Rankings (Volume & Position)
Also pulled from your Rankings Overview, this list shows your keyword positions along with the total monthly search queries for each. If you’re tracking a long list of keywords, this list will give you a quick view of where you stand with your keywords that have the highest search volume.

Data source: SEMRush Rankings Review (from your tracking campaign)

Rankings Distribution
This list provides your current metrics for keywords ranking in Google’s top 3, top 10, top 20, and top 100, and % of change over time. When your keywords in the top 3 or top 10 slip, you can jump on it. When these numbers rise, it’s time for a quick check-in with your client. :)

Data source: SEMrush Rankings Distribution (from your tracking campaign)

Visibility Trend - Position Tracking
This view displays your CTR (click thru rate) progress in Google’s top 100 for keywords from your current SEMrush tracking campaign. If you’re not already at or close to 100% (first position on SERPs), a steady climb is what you want to see here.

Data source: SEMrush Position Tracking (from your tracking campaign)

Top Channels
This view displays top channels by sessions from Google Analytics. Monitoring your top channels allows you to zero in on organic traffic performance driven by your SEO strategy, and compare to traffic coming from other sources including email, social, direct traffic and more. 

Data source: Google Analytics Top Channels

With content marketing, social marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing and referral outreach, results vary. Social posts may bomb. SEO rankings might be usurped by competitors. Email campaigns might fall flat. Landing pages might not convert as expected or like they used to. Question is - when do you want to be informed? 

Much like other marketing addictions, once you get started with Databox and feel the power of having your metrics at your fingertips, you’ll wonder how you lived without it. You may also wonder if your competitors are living without it. Join me in beating them to the punch.

Have marketing questions? Wondering what to track? We can help – give us a shout.