How would you measure the SEO success of new site launch?

[OlivierChateau]

It has been 12 months, and it is time for some serious SEO reality check up. I think we have done some really nice things (social integration, on page optimization etc) but we honestly could do a million time better on some other elements (anchor, text, link building etc...).

Would love to hear from the community what would be the top 10 criteria you would use to judge the quality of the SEO work done for a new site during is first 12 months.

PS: we are a very content rich over 1,500 new articles/post in our niche with 12 months -  our site is migraine.com

Thanks

[OlivierChateau]

Thanks for the answer. We want to educate and yes 80% of people are staying well over a minute. It is a bit vague although the answers to all your questions are YES.

That said we look at ourselves with a critical point of view and we want to do a lot better. We think our link profile is weak (but what is a strong link profile after 12 months of existence). Same is true with our anchor text etc...

Thanks anyway

Olivier

[EGOL]

To answer this question you should look back at the goals of the site.  Was it built to....

-- sell something - then ask how many units did you move

-- solicit leads - then ask how many people called you

-- educate - then ask how many people spent more than a minute on your site

-- save souls - see how many people know you after entering the Pearly Gates

Those are the ultimate goals and the true measure of success.  However, there are small wins that you can count.  Others might include....

-- are your rankings moving up?

-- are your traffic numbers rising?

Now the real measures...

-- is the size of your average shopping cart rising

-- is the average visitor staying longer

-- are people tweating, liking, linking, etc without any effort from you?

-- are you still energized