This past month, HubShout hosted a special panel discussion on how to measure search engine optimization strategies after the encrypted search changes by Google.

It was an honor to join the discussion alongside HubShout’s CEO Chad Hill, SEO Technician Collin Jarman from Click Optimize and Brett Snyder who is Director of SEO at Nebo.

Here is the full video of our Google+ hangout where we described how we are reporting on SEO campaigns after this major change in the industry:

Here’s a recap of what I had to say during the discussion:

My initial concerns were being able to properly target a website for the search phrases that people were using to find a brand or business. Often, brands have one idea of the keywords that people may use to find their website, but those are usually phrases that they use internally or within the industry. Once you are able to dig into the keyword referrals, you can find opportunities for different phrases that consumers are using to find your website.

SEO will have to once again rethink itself in terms of reporting and analysis. In terms of reporting, third party providers are becoming more and more relevant in addition to focusing more on landing pages rather than keywords.

For example, if you utilize the keyword planner to use the term “smartwatch” for your brand but your landing page that you optimized for “smartphone watch” is gaining the most traffic, you can confer that that phrase is how consumers are finding your website. Third-party SEO tools can help in reporting to pull those statistics as well as track lead generation, which is now even more relevant today.

This change in Google reporting will weed out more traditional SEO methods. Traditional SEO focuses on mainly metadata to manipulate keyword referrals from SERPs. By focusing on landing pages and lead generation, the industry continues to move to rely on content marketing and conversion in terms of proving success.

Thanks to HubShout for including me in their SEO panel discussion!