10 SEO Metrics to Track Performance

Measuring the performance of your website is crucial from the very beginning. You need to track the outcomes of every activity that you do for promoting and distributing content for your website. From blogs to landing pages, there is an SEO metric for every critical aspect.

In this guide, we will talk deeply about these SEO metrics and how to utilize them effectively to track the performance of your website.

Moreover, you will learn how to compare different results on various instances to find the scopes for optimization for enhancing SEO performance.

But before we get started, let’s first understand what are SEO metrics and why we should consider them.

What are SEO metrics?

SEO metrics serve as a critical data-driven approach for evaluating the effectiveness of SEO efforts within digital marketing campaigns. Analyzing these metrics will help marketers gain invaluable insights into the value proposition of SEO and its contribution to overall marketing success.

This data-driven approach fosters continuous refinement and optimization of marketing campaigns, ensuring they remain aligned with overarching marketing goals. However, it’s crucial to distinguish between impactful metrics and those that may be misleading.

Certain metrics, often referred to as “vanity metrics,” might exhibit an upward trend due to marketing initiatives, yet fail to translate into a tangible benefit for the business.

In the context of SEO, vanity metrics may encompass elements such as impressions or even clicks, which don’t necessarily equate to conversions or revenue generation. For agencies specializing in organic search strategies, SEO metrics provide a treasure trove of valuable insights.

By leveraging this data, agencies can make informed decisions to optimize their client’s online presence, enhancing visibility on SERPs, ultimately driving qualified traffic, and achieving desired marketing objectives.

Why You Should Track SEO Metrics?

Consistent monitoring and reporting of SEO metrics are crucial for measuring the success of your campaigns. Moreover, this process empowers businesses to figure out what’s working and what’s not by analyzing data-driven stats.

Here’s a breakdown of the compelling reasons to track SEO metrics:

1. Analyzing Progress

SEO metrics such as impressions and organic traffic analytics provide clear insights into website visitor trends, revealing increases or decreases in website traffic. This data allows you to effectively communicate the impact of your SEO strategies on website visibility and user engagement.

2. Recognizing Errors

Regular SEO site audits play a vital role in uncovering technical errors and potential issues hindering your website’s health and search engine visibility. Not doing so will leave these critical issues undetected, impeding your ability to optimize the website and achieve optimal results.

3. Optimize for Performance

Uncovering and fixing website issues through SEO audits is crucial for boosting your client’s online success. A healthy, optimized website is the foundation for driving conversions and leads. By identifying and addressing technical problems and making data-driven improvements, you can maximize your website’s potential.

4. Drive Increased Traffic

Website traffic is a clear indicator of SEO effectiveness. More visitors mean more opportunities for leads and sales. By carefully monitoring organic traffic, you can strategically attract a larger audience.

5. Measure and Improve

Tracking SEO KPIs is essential for understanding what works and what doesn’t. By analyzing performance metrics, you can identify top-performing content, assess target audience reach, and make informed decisions about your marketing strategy. This data-driven approach empowers you to optimize your campaigns and reduce PPC spending.

The metrics you measure will depend on your goals. The challenge is knowing which metrics to monitor, which ones to measure in consideration with others, and which metrics to put aside.

10 SEO Metrics To track

As you know it is crucial to measure the success of your SEO campaigns, let’s dive deeper to know the top SEO metrics you should be tracking.

1- Organic Traffic

Organic traffic refers to website visitors acquired from SERPs without paid advertising. It represents the natural discoverability of your website for relevant search queries.

Analyzing organic traffic trends provides valuable insights into your website’s search engine visibility for keywords related to your business and industry. An upward trajectory in organic traffic signifies the effectiveness of your SEO strategies in attracting visitors organically.

To track organic traffic within Google Analytics, navigate to your dashboard and utilize the “Add Segment” function within the default Audience Overview. You can choose the “Organic Traffic” option to isolate and analyze organic traffic from your overall website traffic calculation.

2- Organic CTR (Click-through Rate)

Organic CTR measures the percentage of users who click through to your website after encountering your webpage listings in SERPs. For instance, if 1,000 searchers see your webpage listing and 100 of them click through, your organic CTR for that page would be 10%.

Organic CTR serves as an indicator of how compelling your webpage listings are (including meta title, description, and URL) in attracting user attention and prompting clicks.

A low organic CTR might suggest the need to optimize your title tags and meta descriptions for better user engagement, or it could highlight a potential mismatch between users’ search intent and your content’s relevance.

3- Keyword Rankings

Keyword rankings represent a website’s position in search engine results pages for specific keywords. Some keywords hold greater significance for your business than others, typically those that are highly relevant to your products or services.

Tracking keyword rankings empowers you to monitor your SEO performance over time for the most critical keywords associated with your business. Improvements in rankings for key terms often indicate an overall improvement in SEO performance, potentially impacting rankings for related long-tail keywords as well.

Monitoring keyword rankings allows you to gauge the effectiveness of your SEO strategies in enhancing your client’s website visibility for targeted keywords.

4- SERP Visibility

SERP visibility goes beyond just keyword rankings as it decides how accurately your website appears in search engine results for relevant keywords. This metric incorporates traditional keyword rankings alongside the presence of SERP features like featured snippets, knowledge panels, and image packs.

A higher SERP visibility percentage translates to a greater likelihood of attracting visitors to your website. This score is often derived from CTR and reflects your website’s progress in achieving top 100 search results for keywords within your tracking campaign.

A 0% SERP visibility score signifies your domain isn’t ranking within Google’s top 100 results for any tracked keywords. Conversely, a 100% score indicates your domain holds the number one position in SERPs for all your tracked keywords.

5- Exit rate

Exit rate refers to the percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing a single webpage. It is crucial to identify these “exit pages” because users might not be interested in the content that is described on these pages, which results in engagement drops. High exit rates on specific pages warrant investigation and potential optimization efforts.

Analyzing your top exit pages can reveal valuable insights. A substantial portion of traffic exiting after a particular page suggests the content or user experience on that page may require improvement.

To track exit rates for individual pages within Google Analytics, navigate to “Behavior” > “Site Content” > “All Pages.” Here, you can identify pages with high exit rates and prioritize them for optimization.

Strategies to reduce exit rates can include:

• Ensuring clear and user-friendly page layout and content structure.
• Implementing clear internal links and calls to action that guide users towards relevant content and deeper engagement within your website.
• Optimizing the content with impressive visuals like images, GIFs, or videos to encourage visitor engagement.

By addressing pages with high exit rates, you can improve user experience, encourage deeper interaction, and potentially reduce bounce rates.

6- Bounce Rate

Bounce rate measures the percentage of website visitors who leave after viewing just one page. In simpler terms, it’s the number of people who arrive, take a quick look, and then bounce away. Google Analytics considers a visit a “bounce” if the person doesn’t click on anything or navigate to another page before leaving.

While the SEO impact of bounce rate is a subject of debate, with Google not directly using it as a ranking factor, it remains a valuable metric for assessing your website’s internal funnel performance. A high bounce rate might indicate issues with user engagement or navigation.

You can access your bounce rate within Google Analytics by navigating to “Behavior” > “Site Content” > “All Pages.” Industry benchmarks for the bounce rate vary widely, ranging from 10% to 90%.

To potentially reduce the bounce rate, consider analyzing your average session duration alongside the bounce rate. A low session duration for a high bounce rate page might suggest a content mismatch with user search intent. Here, incorporating relevant internal links can encourage users to explore further.

7- Pages Per Session

Pages per session is a crucial on-site user engagement metric that reflects the average number of pages a visitor views before leaving your website. A higher value indicates deeper user engagement, as visitors explore multiple pages and stay longer.

To view pages per session for various traffic channels, navigate to “Acquisition” > “All Traffic” > “Channels” within Google Analytics.

A low pages per session metric could signify a lack of engaging or relevant content, or potentially user-friendliness issues with your website navigation. The optimization strategies mentioned for top exit pages can also be applied here to improve user flow and encourage deeper exploration.

8- Conversions/Leads

Conversions and leads represent the ultimate success metrics for most businesses. They directly translate into revenue or future sales opportunities. Implementing on-page and off-page SEO best practices can ultimately contribute to improved conversion rates and lead generation.

Several quantifiable measures can track leads generated, including:

• Inbound phone calls
• Contact form submissions
• Email newsletter sign-ups
• Live chat interactions
• Free trial sign-ups
• Demo requests

Google Analytics event tracking allows you to monitor conversion rates for specific page features. By setting up “events,” you can track clicks on buttons like “Book Now” or measure how many users reach a “Thank You” page after submitting information. This data helps visualize the conversion funnel and identify areas for improvement.

9- Backlinks and Referring Domains

Backlinks and referring domains are crucial metrics for gauging your website’s SEO health and authority. A backlink refers to any link on another website (also known as referring domains) that points to a page on your website.

High-quality backlinks from established and credible websites signal to search engines like Google that your website is relevant and trustworthy. Extensive research has established a strong correlation between a website’s backlink profile and its search ranking position.

10- Domain Authority

Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that attempts to predict a website’s potential to rank well in search results. It’s essentially a score reflecting a website’s overall strength and authority.

DA is primarily calculated based on a website’s backlink profile. The higher the quality of backlinks you acquire from websites with strong DA themselves, the higher your own DA score will become.

Several factors contribute to DA, including the number of unique linking root domains and the total number of backlinks. While valuable for website comparisons and tracking SEO performance over time, it’s important to remember that DA is not a direct Google ranking factor and doesn’t directly influence search engine results pages (SERPs).

Enhance SEO Performance with eSearch Logix

By keeping a close eye on these key SEO metrics, you gain a comprehensive understanding of your website’s health, user experience, and overall SEO performance. This data empowers you to make informed decisions and implement strategic optimizations to achieve your desired results.

The challenge lies in selecting the most relevant metrics for ongoing monitoring, understanding how various metrics interrelate, and discerning which data points deserve the most focus while de-prioritizing less impactful metrics.

Managing crucial SEO metrics and continually optimizing website performance can be a complex and time-consuming process. This is where eSearch Logix steps in. Our team of experienced SEO specialists leverages cutting-edge tools and proven strategies to streamline SEO metric tracking, provide insightful data analysis, and implement data-driven website optimizations.

Contact eSearch Logix today to discuss your SEO goals and explore how we can help your website achieve superior organic search visibility and drive measurable results.