SEO

Track These 9 SEO Performance Metrics for Success

Boosting your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) takes a lot of time and effort. Make sure your hard work is paying off through SEO tracking, a way to measure SEO performance.

Nearly every aspect of SEO has a key performance indicator (KPI), so there are thousands of SEO metrics. Plus, SEO changes when Google updates its algorithm.

Which metrics are the most important to focus on? Let’s review nine SEO performance metrics to assess as part of your marketing strategy. Contact WebFX today to learn more about boosting your SEO!

What are SEO engagement metrics?

SEO metrics are quantifiable data measurements for a specific SEO strategy. These data points measure your SEO performance and keep your website healthy and optimized.

SEO metrics show whether your strategy is working. You can review a metric over time to see if your website is doing well in that area or needs improvement. Addressing lagging SEO performance metrics corrects any issues before they hurt your rankings.

9 SEO performance metrics to track

Unsure which SEO performance metric to analyze? Here are the top nine metrics to watch.

1. Organic traffic 

Organic traffic includes all the visitors coming to your website from an organic, or unpaid, search listing. This metric focuses on the visitors who found your website from search results, not those who went to your website directly.

If you have a solid SEO strategy, your organic traffic should increase over time. Good SEO tactics make your website more visible on search engines for industry-related keywords. High organic traffic means visitors are finding your website from these important keywords.

2. Click-through rate (CTR)

CTR is the percentage of visitors who visit your website after seeing your page in a search result. The formula for CTR is:

[clicks/impressions] x 100 = CTR

Let’s say ten people saw your page on the search engine results page (SERP), and one visitor clicked the link to go to your website. You’d calculate the CTR by dividing the number of clicks, one, by the number of impressions, 10, then multiplying that result by 100 to get a CTR of 10%.

CTR shows if your pages grab attention over the other links on the SERP. High CTR directly correlates with ranking position, with the first three results on the SERP getting the highest CTR.

A good CTR for your website varies depending on your industry, but your CTR should be higher than your competitors’.

3. Bounce rate

A bounce is when a visitor views only one page on your website and doesn’t click to another page. The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after one page.

Bounce rate is not a ranking factor for Google, but this metric tells you if your website’s content is what visitors expect. A high bounce rate might mean the visitor went back to the SERP to choose a different page, meaning your page wasn’t helpful to them. A low bounce rate suggests your page gave the visitor the information they needed.

4. Keyword rankings

A critical component of SEO strategy is improving your website’s rankings for certain keywords. Assessing your keyword rankings shows if your ranking for these keywords has changed. If you see improvements, that means your SEO strategy is working.

You can see your keyword ranking by typing your keyword in Google and seeing where your page ranks or if it even appears on the SERP at all. You can also use a keyword ranking tool to see your position for every keyword.

5. Conversions

The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete the desired action, like filling out a form or signing up for emails. The formula for conversion rate is:

[converted visitors/total visitors] x 100 = conversion rate

For example, say your website had 5000 visitors, and 500 of those visitors bought a product. To calculate the conversion rate, you would divide the converted visitors — 500 — by the total number of visitors — 5000 — and multiply it by 100 to get a conversion rate of 10%.

This metric represents how your SEO strategy impacts your company’s leads and sales. A high conversion rate means your company is closer to reaching its goals.

Conversions coordinate with organic traffic. If you have a lot of traffic but a low conversion rate, your ranking keywords don’t match your customer acquisition funnel.

You can see your conversion rate by setting goals for certain actions and seeing how many visitors complete this action.

6. Domain authority and rating

Domain authority is how reputable your website seems to Google. This metric is calculated based on factors like the quality of referring domains and the number of backlinks. Scores range from 0 to 100, and the higher the score, the better the chances of your website ranking high in search results.

Though domain authority is not a ranking factor in the Google algorithm, it comprises ranking factors and indicates your SEO strength. A high domain authority means your website is credible and has a strong link-building strategy.

7. New backlinks and referring domains

A backlink — or an incoming link — is a link to your website on another website. Referring domains are the number of unique website domains that have links to your website on their pages. 

The Google algorithm considers this metric important because it’s a trust signal. If another domain links to your website, they likely regard you as trustworthy and authoritative.

Relevant backlinks from a high-quality domain and links from domains that haven’t linked to your website before are crucial for improving your domain authority. They also show how your link-building campaign is doing.

8. Page speed 

Page speed is how fast the page content loads after the visitor clicks the link. Page speed is critical for user experience, so it’s an important ranking factor for Google.

Visitors are more likely to stick around if your pages load quickly. As the page load time increases, conversion rates decrease. Slow load speeds can also harm your rankings.

If you’re optimizing or redesigning your website, make sure your changes don’t hurt your page speed.

9. Indexed pages

The Google crawler analyzes pages for content and meaning and stores this information in the Google index. Once your page has been crawled, it’s an indexed page.

A page must be indexed to show up in search results, so unindexed pages cannot earn organic traffic. You can see which pages are indexed and if they’re appropriately indexed on the Google Search Console.

Measure your SEO performance metrics with WebFX

SEO performance metrics help optimize your website. You can learn which parts of your strategy are effective and what improvements to make.

WebFX has a suite of free marketing tools to help you measure your website performance. You can use our:

• SEO Checker for an SEO report about your website’s keyword optimization, backlink building, page speed, etc.
• Google Preview Tool to see what your pages look like on search engines.
• Links Counter to identify internal and external links for a specific page.
• CTR Calculator to get the CTR of your ad or website.
• Conversion Rate Calculator to determine how successful your ad or website is at converting visitors. 

WebFX is a full-service SEO agency ready to improve your SEO performance. Contact WebFX or call 888-601-5359 to get started today!

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