Many people rush into the SEO world without understanding how it all works and what should they do. One of the most important things anyone who wishes to dive into SEO should be KPIs. So, today our experts from AZ Citation Services are going to explore what exactly are KPIs, and what SEO KPIs you should track if you want your website to be successful!
What is a Key Performance Indicator?
KPIs or Key Performance Indicators simply indicate the progress towards the result. Sure, this explanation may sound too wide, but in essence, it is just that. When you’re tracking KPIs, you can focus on strategic and operational improvement, focus on what matters the most, and create an analytical basis for your decision-making. All in KPIs are indicators, numbers, signs of how you can improve your SEO strategy.
Search rankings
Maybe one of the most important KPIs you have to track are your search rankings. And it is not a secret that the higher this indicator is, the more your website will rank. There is a direct correlation between search rankings and SEO success.
Also, don’t forget to track your rankings for the right keywords. There are SEO tools like Ahrefs and Serpstat that can help you do just that! It’s not a secret the higher your website ranks for the relevant keywords, the better.
Organic traffic
Organic traffic indicates just how many visitors your website gets from organic search results. Next to search rankings, organic traffic is one of the most important KPIs. And like search rankings, this KPI is in direct correlation with how good your website is doing.
You can use Google Analytics to track daily searches in your site traffic. Simply follow this path: ‘Audience > Overview’ report, click on the ‘Add Segment,’ and select the ‘Organic Traffic’ filed.
Links
Another group of very important SEO KPIs you should track are links. They are especially important for SEO experts and content marketers. Backlinks are one of the most important ways to increase your traffic and improve your SEO standings.
But does that mean that the more links you get, the better SEO is? Not really. You have to make sure that you are getting high-quality links since Google can punish pages with low-quality ones. This means that you have to be careful when choosing links. Your SEO can suffer if you choose to use low-quality links.
Search visibility
This KPI shows you how often your domain is shown in search results for the keywords it is ranking for. By tracking it, you can see if you are on the right path even before you start attracting visitors.
Search visibility score can be a key for your SEO-based activity. SEO experts usually use this indicator to see if their web optimization is any good early in the process.
Branded traffic
This KPI is the traffic that comes from people who are searching for the terms that contain your company’s name. If you heavily rely on brand awareness, this should be one of the most indicators you need to follow.
If this KPI is high, you’ll be getting the highest conversion rates. There is nothing better in the SEO world than having a base of searchers who are searching for your brand.
Organic CTR
CTR stands for click-through rate. This is an indicator that measures the ratio between the total number of clicks on your link and the total number of users who viewed your link in search results. CTR directly correlates with high traffic. This is why it is one of the most important metrics you should track.
Click-through rate as a KPI indicates how appealing your link is to searchers. You can have amazing rankings, but if you don’t have a good CTR, all of your SEO efforts could be in vain. Low CTR can make your rankings lower, as it signals to Google that your link doesn’t meet users’ expectations.
CTR is one of the most important KPIs, but people often overlook it. With this indicator, you can see why your impressions are not working. It is often considered as a ‘hidden problem of SEO’.
Average session duration
This KPI has changed our civilization. All major and minor websites are trying to keep users as long as possible looking at their content. Is it for better or for worse, we do not know?
However, as a website owner, you’ll want to get the most of your users. This KPI measures how much users are engaging with your website. With this metric, you’ll be able to measure how much joy your website brings to users, and how much they are engaging with it.
If you want to have a high average session duration, you have to focus on the quality of your content and good content structure.
Bounce rate
Bounce rate simply measures what percent of your visitors bounced from your website without taking any action. This KPI is crucial since Google considers it as one of the most important ranking factors.
However, with the bounce rate, you shouldn’t opt for how numbers. A healthy bounce rate should be between 40-60% or around 50%. If you have too large of a percent, this indicates that your page is not relevant to the search query.
You can track this KPI in the Overview report in Google Analytics. Bounce rate will not tell you how you can fix the problem, just that there is a problem. With a little bit of experimenting, you can try to fix your bounce rate.
ROI
ROI stands for Return On Investment. In some sense, this may be the most important indicator that ‘spills over’ in the internet world. It is an indicator that you can use to measure all of your internet marketing campaigns and see whether your income is worth the money and time you spent optimizing your websites.
There even is a formula for this KPI: (Gain from Investment – Cost of Investment) / Cost of Investment
You should keep in mind that almost always this parameter is going to be low at the beginning of your campaign. However, if this number is still low after a while, you should reconsider your approach to the campaign, and if your efforts are worth it. This is why ROI may be one of the most important SEO KPIs you should track!
