You’ve been working on your website’s SEO for months. You’ve optimized your content, built backlinks, and tidied up your site structure. But now you’re curious, “Is all this actually working?”
Well, you’re not alone. Measuring SEO results feels like trying to catch smoke with your hands. But fear not! Here’s a guide to help you through the process of measuring your SEO success without getting lost in the metrics.
Set Goals
Before we get to measuring, you need to know what you’re aiming for. Are you looking to increase organic traffic? Boost conversions? Improve your search rankings for specific keywords. Having clear, measurable goals gives you a target to aim for.
Track Organic Traffic
The easiest way to measure SEO success is to track your organic traffic. This is the number of visitors coming to your site via search engine results, not paid ads or direct visits.
Tools like Google Analytics make this easy. Look for trends over time – are you seeing steady growth? Sudden spikes? Seasonal fluctuations? Understanding these patterns will give you an idea of the overall health of your SEO strategy.
Monitor Search Rankings
Your position in search results affects your visibility and traffic. Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to track your rankings for target keywords. Remember, rankings can change daily, so focus on long-term trends, not daily changes.
Pro tip: Don’t just track your main keywords. Track long tail variations and related terms to get a full picture of your search presence.
Analyze Organic Conversions
Traffic is good, but what really matters is what visitors do once they’re on your site. Set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics to see how many organic visitors are taking desired actions – whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a contact form.
Calculate your organic conversion rate by dividing the number of conversions by the total number of organic traffic. This will tell you how well your SEO is working for you.
Measure Page Performance
Individual page performance can be helpful. This means you should measure the following:
- Page views
- Time on page
- Exit rate
- Bounce rate
These will give you an idea of which pages are working and which need some love.
Track Backlinks
Backlinks are still a key part of SEO success. Use tools like Ahrefs or Moz to track your backlink profile. Look at:
- Total backlinks
- Quality of linking domains
- Anchor text distribution
A growing number of high-quality, relevant backlinks is a good sign that your SEO is working.
Technical SEO
Don’t forget the technical bits. Regularly audit your site for:
- Crawl errors
- Page speed
- Mobile-friendliness
- XML sitemap status
Use Google Search Console and Screaming Frog to keep on top of these technicalities.
Consider Share of Voice (SOV)
SOV is a metric that measures your brand visibility in terms of competition for your target keywords. It’s a relatively advanced metric, but it is one that can provide some competitive insights. A tool like SEMrush offers SOV tracking features.
Assisted Conversions
It’s also worth noting that SEO plays a supporting role in most of the conversions. Users may find you through organic search, leave, and return later via another channel to convert. Google Analytics Multi-Channel Funnels report might help you understand these assisted conversions and give proper credit to SEO in the customer journey.
Be Patient and Consistent
Keep in mind that SEO is a long game. It might take several months to get significant results from your work. Consistency is key; ensure you set up a regular cadence for reporting, such as monthly or quarterly, to measure progress over time.
Paying attention to these will provide a full understanding of your SEO performance. The process of trying to monitor every metric may be overwhelming. Focus more on those metrics that will more or less point toward your goals. With patience and persistence, you will be able to clearly demonstrate the value of your SEO effort. Contact Capstone Digital Marketing today for SEO help!