Creating an amazing SEO strategy isn’t enough for success. Without a proper KPI analysis and technique improvement, you may end up with lots of wasted money and time without a decent result.
There are many important SEO KPIs to pay attention to. You should choose the most crucial ones for your project and analyze them regularly, monitoring progress and improving tactics. Once in a while, all of the below will require your attention.
We’re presenting KPIs every analyst and project manager must analyze to find out if their SEO strategy is working. There are financial and SEO metrics with formulas, software and service suggestions for the best outcome, and useful sources with additional information!
1. Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is the number of people visiting your website from SERPs.
The major purpose of any SEO plan is to draw more people to your website. Many of them will stay, and a portion of that group will become leads. Some of those leads will buy your products and services, which will result in a revenue increase. It’s easy to understand.
So, obviously, organic traffic is the most important KPI to look at. It’s easy to analyze the metric in Google Analytics, an essential digital set of tools you have to use to achieve results:
Google Analytics >>> Audience >>> Overview >>> Add Segment >>> Organic Traffic
2. CTR and Bounce Rate
Click-through rate shows the ratio of the total number of people who saw your link in the search results and the number of clicks on it. CTR determines traffic, but it’s a different KPI than ‘organic traffic’.
By analyzing the ratio, you’ll understand:
- Whether you choose proper focus keywords;
- Whether your meta title and description are working;
- Whether you give answers in the snippets so that people don’t need to click on the link.
Every 1 in 2 searches ends up without any clicks. If the description or People Also Ask provides the person with enough information on the query, there’s no need to follow a link. By analyzing CTR, you’ll be able to improve website SEO and get more leads.
Google Search Console will help you with the analysis.
Bounce Rate
When you fix the CTR issues your website might have, there’s a new challenge – bounce rate. This metric is used to measure the engagement of users with the page. If the percentage is higher than 40-60%, this means:
- You’ve chosen the wrong focus keywords;
- The page loads too slowly;
- No call to action;
- No sense in doing any actions;
- Poor content;
- Poor design decisions, etc.
How to monitor the KPI to improve SEO performance?
Use Google Analytics’ Overview section.
3. Backlink Profile
According to Google, backlink profile is one of the most important KPIs. It’s worthy of being a part of your SEO tracking because:
- It determines page ranking;
- It establishes the authority of your source;
- It draws traffic to your pages;
- It increases revenue.
All that given that you have a great profile. Buying links of poor quality on some spammy websites in bulk will contribute to the quantity, but it’s the quality that matters. Instead, paid advertising in guest posts is a great way to earn mentions from credible blogs and other sources.
Track your backlinks, do damage control, and earn better ones to increase the chances of getting to the first SERP. Here are some digital tools that will help you with the analysis:
- Moz Link Explorer;
- Majestic;
- Serpstat Backlink Analysis;
- Ahrefs.
4. Search Ranking and Visibility
As to the search ranking, it’s clearly on the TOP-5 list of SEO KPIs. The higher you are in SERPs, the more attention your links get. Therefore, you get more traffic, leads, conversions, revenue, ROI, etc.
You need to track the ranking for the focus keywords. Your page may rank #1 on a keyword that is rarely searched. And while you will see the #1 and be happy, there won’t be any increase in organic traffic.
To track the metric, use Ahrefs or Serpstat tools.
As to search visibility score, it’s a similar metric that shows how often your domain is included in SERPs for the target keywords. This KPI is great for early analysis when there’s not enough data on traffic and sales.
Google Search Console will help you with monitoring.
5. Financial Aspects (CPC, ROI)
A major factor of any business website success is a financial benefit. The two most important aspects SEO-wise are:
- CPC (Cost per click);
- ROI (Return on investment).
Cost per click doesn’t refer to any payments to Google for being able to get organic traffic. It’s a ratio of your budget and the traffic you get. The formula:
Budget / Traffic
With a successful SEO strategy, the resulting number will drop over time.
As to the return on investment, it’s wise to calculate it for every marketing campaign. This factor depends on whether you’re gaining any profit from the strategy. The formula:
(Sum You’ve Gained – Your Investment) / Your Investment
For new websites with fresh SEO, the resulting number is often negative, which is fine. However, if the situation doesn’t change over time, it’s clear that your optimization needs improvement.
You may not need each of these KPIs at first, but make sure to pay attention to all of them every once in a while. The choice of the most crucial metrics should depend on the purpose of your SEO strategy at the moment, the industry and/or niche you’re in, and the stage the business is at.
If you aim at raising brand awareness, the financial metrics may not be the most important now. Later on, when you start selling products and services, they should be at the top of the list.