SEO consists of different elements and knowing what they are and how they work is key to improve the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. Key Performance Indicators or KPIs are among one of the most crucial parts of any SEO strategy or campaign, and yet one of the most frequently overlooked components.

There are certain SEO metrics and KPIs that everyone must track in order to enhance the chances of success of their campaign. These KPIs act as a basis to measure and report your campaign’s progress, improve your performance, and allow you to manage expectations with project stakeholders.

In this article, we will help you understand the 7 most important SEO Metrics and KPIs to monitor in your SEO campaign.

Note: You need to have Google Analytics set up in order to track these metrics correctly.

 

1. Organic Traffic (Sessions)

Organic traffic means the total number of visitors who come to your website through the link that appears on the search engine result pages (SERPs) and not paid ads or referring channels. Sessions are a group of interactions that take place on your website within a given time frame.

An easy way to track your organic sessions on a website is by using the Google Analytics tool. Go to Acquisition > Channels > Organic Search and you’ll see the Sessions as the first column.

 

2. Keyword Rankings

Ranking keywords helps you in getting closer to the audience of your dreams. Google Search Console is one such tool that can help you track the keywords that are driving traffic to your website. And the best part is, it’s a free platform.

You also need to track the rankings of your primary keywords, making sure that their rankings are increasing and your strategy is getting successful. Some of the tools you can use to track your primary keywords are SEMrush, RankWatch, etc.

 

3. Backlinks (and Referring Domains)

Backlinks help in connecting one website to another. There are a few things to keep in mind while analyzing your website’s backlink profile, such as the relevancy of the referring domains, the total number of backlinks, the number of backlinks lost, and the diversity of backlinks.

You also need to compare your backlink profile to your closest competitors to find the gap and new opportunities.

 

4. Bounce Rate

A website’s bounce rate tells the percentage of visitors who left the site without performing an action, such as initiating a purchase, clicking on a link, etc. Tracking and measuring the bounce rate of web pages is important because it conveys how well the users are engaging with the website’s content.

You should focus on keeping the bounce rate as low as possible by making your pages easy to read, having a good site design that is optimized for mobile or desktop, and checking the time users spend on the site.

 

5. Organic Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rate or CTR is the percentage of clicks to impressions of a website in the SERPs. It is highly influenced by how the web page appears in the search engine results pages, which includes the post title, meta description, URL, etc. Tracking and improving your CTR is important as it can have a direct impact on your keyword rankings.

 

6. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors on a website who fill out a form, initiate a sale, and finally convert into a lead. Most SEO professionals use Google Analytics to track conversions, and open e-commerce reports to track the sales by different channels.

One of the common mistakes that SEO people is that they track only the last click in a conversion path. The right way is to observe the entire customer journey.

 

7. Page Load Speed

In a recent survey, it was discovered that almost 80% of the marketeers do not test their page speed. Things such as unoptimized images, too many HTTP requests, ads, coding errors, etc. can hamper the page load speed. This ultimately degrades the user experience of the website.

And even if you have already spent time optimizing your PageSpeed score, these metrics can still change over time. Thus, it’s important to analyze and keep a close eye on your site’s speed.

There are various tools online to check site speed (such as GTmetrix, Dareboost, Pingdom, etc.).

 

Conclusion:

Instead of focusing solely on your SEO strategies like link building, guest blogging, etc. focus on tracking and measuring the above-listed SEO metrics too.

Although SEO techniques might help you get a boost in your rankings, tracking these SEO metrics and KPIs will help you consistently improve your performance and stay there. By following these simple tips, you can boost your chances of success, and also track the progress of your campaign from time to time.

As a leading digital agency in Philadelphia, we help our partners get an edge over their competitors by paying attention to the details. Contact us to know more about how we can help you advance your website and so much more!

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