15 KPI You Should be Tracking in SEO

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are performance measures that are used to measure and track success of an initiative within a company or institution.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of creating quality content that includes techniques such as key words, content creation, link building and branding to increase ranking in search engine results pages and drive organic traffic.

BrightEdge Research states that 68% of online experiences begin with search engines, so SEO optimization is essential to the success of companies today and is one of the best forms of digital marketing available.

What is a KPI in SEO?

KPIs in SEO measure the success of your marketing efforts through SEO. If you are wanting to grow your business, SEO should be one of your main marketing strategies and you need to be utilizing SEO KPIs to track your efforts and measure your success for continual growth and improvement.

KPI monitoring should be done whether your SEO efforts are being carried out in-house or being outsourced to expert companies. If you are paying someone to manage your SEO content and marketing, make sure they are working towards deliverables and being held accountable.

We live in a world of data and sometimes there is so much of it, that it's hard to make meaningful conclusions. Likewise, there are so many KPIs available that it can be overwhelming and you can end up with so much data it's difficult to utilize to make meaningful assessments and changes to marketing plans to ensure they are successful. It is essential to know the most important SEO KPIs to track to help you build success.

We have compiled a list of the best KPIs to track to ensure you are meeting your SEO goals, while also growing your company in the process. The 15 SEO KPIs we will go into during this article include:

1. Keyword Ranking
2. New Organic Traffic/Growth
3. Organic Traffic
4. Bounce Rate
5. Return on Investment (ROI)
6. Branded vs Non-Branded Traffic
7. Domain Authority
8. Total Number of Backlinks/Backlink Referral Traffic
9. Backlink Quality
10. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
11. Average Session Duration
12. Average Page Speed
13. Percentage of Returning Visitors/Loyal Customers
14. Conversion Rate
15. Revenue per Visitor

Why are SEO KPIs important?

Did you know that according to a 2021 marketing report completed by HubSpot, 69% of marketers invested in SEO in 2021 and this number is expected to continue its growth as more customers and businesses seek services through the web. Companies without a web presence cannot survive as the market continues to become more virtual and people do research online even before visiting a brick and mortar building.

Their report also tells us that 75% of internet users that complete searches within search engines do not scroll past the first page of results. That means if your company doesn't land on that particular page for your target keywords, you are missing out on the chance to increase your organic traffic immensely.

There are many strategies to optimize SEO such as keyword rankings, link building strategies and branded traffic. These methods have proven to be extremely effective when done correctly, however, they can also be very time consuming and expensive, so you want to make sure the methods you are using are effective and cost efficient.

Again, if you are hiring someone to complete this for you, it's important work with them to determine what KPIs they should be reporting to you to show the effectiveness of the efforts you they are making on behalf of your company.

The 15 KPIs You Should Be Tracking:

1. Keyword Ranking

Definition:

Keyword ranking describes your search engine ranking or search visibility for a specific keyword query or queries. Tracking keyword rankings requires regular monitoring to determine where your landing pages rank for target keywords on search engine results pages or SERPs.

Keyword ranking is essential because if your company is not in the top of the search engine results pages, you are missing out on the chance to increase organic traffic. Keyword targeting it is one of the easiest SEO techniques to implement and monitor to create continual traffic growth.

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You should know your current search rankings before you start an SEO initiative. You can then track throughout the process as you begin to implement target keywords into your content. If done correctly, you should see your rank increasing throughout the process.

Tracking the most valuable keywords and ensuring they live within your pages will elevate your search engine results and drive more organic traffic.

Even after your initial efforts are complete, you should continue to monitor regularly to ensure that changes can be made when needed, as things are continually changing.

2. New Organic Traffic/Growth

Definition:

Organic traffic growth is defined as new traffic or clicks that come from search engines that are derived without paid search advertisements. It is important to note that although it doesn't include paid search advertising, it does not mean that organic traffic is not affected by display advertising.

Tracking new organic search traffic is important because it directly impacts leads and sales opportunities. The more visits you are getting on your site, the more likely you are to have increased revenue.

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Organic sessions is measured in Google Analytics, however, if you want to get a more accurate count Google Search Console allows you to exclude branded traffic.

Frequently monitoring this KPI will allow you to see if your SEO efforts are effective and make changes throughout your digital marketing campaign. It can also help you see if your results are starting to fall short in relation to your competitors after an initial campaign has ended.

3. Organic Traffic

Definition:

Just as you want new traffic, you also want returning traffic as well. Organic traffic is the total traffic or clicks that come from search engines that are derived without paid search advertisements.

Again, paid advertisements can influence this, but it is excluded from the count.

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Google Search Console will allow you to accurately track your organic traffic, while excluding branded traffic and will help you gain insights into the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. Marketing agencies should be actively monitoring and reporting this if you are utilizing them for your SEO needs.

4. Bounce Rate

Definition:

Bounce rate is the percentage of people who enter your page, only view the one page and then 'bounce' or leave. It is incredibly important to track this number throughout your SEO marketing for continual improvement.

It can be a great indicator of changes that need to be made within your initial page to help it become more successful.

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Tracking your bounce rate can give you insights into a number of area of possible improvement for your content. It can tell you:

Whether or not the traffic coming through search queries is relevant traffic.

Whether your content is is catching the attention of users and engaging them.

If you are having issues with slow page speed, because users will likely leave your page if it takes too long to load.

Small changes to content can have a huge impact on your bounce rate, so it is important to track it closely to monitor increases and decreases as it can be the first indicator of something amiss on your landing pages.

5. Return on Investment (ROI)

Definition:

ROI or Return on Investment is the ratio of the money you invested in SEO and the revenue that resulted from that investment. It can also be used to see how efficient an investment is and compare multiple investments.

It's a metric that has been tracked within business goals for a long time and is incredibly important because you need to know whether the money you are spending on SEO marketing efforts is actually resulting in increased income.

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Tracking this KPI can be tricky because many SEO costs are exponentially higher upfront than they are to maintain and you may not see a major increase in ROI for 6-12 months.

To calculate monetary ROI you should utilize your average customer value and customer conversions, but also keep in mind that this metric could include an ROI of number of backlinks, an increase in brand awareness and better search rankings, rather than just being revenue-based.

6. Branded vs Non-Branded Traffic

Definition:

Branded traffic consists of user searches that are carried out by someone who already knows about your company's site and are trying to navigate there.

Non-branded traffic is user searches where a company was located using keywords and search engine optimization increased your rank and SEO success.

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It is important to track these two forms of traffic separately because branded traffic could be from things such as, word of mouth, advertisements or just previous knowledge of your company.

While non-branded is more indicative of the success regarding your SEO performance and your keyword rankings.

7. Domain Authority

Definition:

Domain authority or DA is a search engine ranking score that shows where a company's domain is benchmarked in comparison to other domains. When your DA number increases, so does the traffic to your site.

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As you are applying your SEO strategy, it is important to track your DA number to determine its effectiveness. Initiatives such as backlink strategies, quality content creation/marketing and SEO campaigns can all increase this number.

Even once an SEO campaign is complete, regularly checking this number can ensure you are staying relevant in comparison to your competitors and directing users to your site through search results.

8. Total Number of Backlinks/Backlink Referral Traffic

Definition:

A backlink is a link that is created when one website links to another. Backlinks are one of the best ways to increase your search visibility because the more you have, the higher you rank within a search engine.

Having backlinks is so important that even if you have created quality SEO content, a competitors page will still rank higher if they have a larger number of quality backlinks.

Backlink referral traffic is the number of referrals or 'clicks' you get from individual backlinks.

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The volume of referrals from your backlinks is one of the most important SEO KPIs because it will guide your link building strategy. Creating content that can build more links is a fantastic way to increase your search results. In addition, when you are performing outreach for various marketing efforts you want to know which sites have generated the most leads so you can focus more effort there because they have already proven successful.

9. Backlink Quality

Definition:

A quality backlink is a link that directs a user back to your site that comes from a high domain authority website that is also known and trusted by users. Having multiple links is great, but if they aren't from reputable sites, they can actually hurt your rank.

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There are 4 main components that will help you measure the success of your backlinks and whether they are helping to improve your ranks within a search engine. They include:

How many total backlinks you have earned for your page for any articles you have created for marketing content. Knowing this is essential to know how your marketing efforts are paying off and where to focus in the future.

The authority of the websites that linked to you, the better their domain authority the more beneficial the backlink is for you. You want highly reputable sites with great domain authority for the most benefit.

Whether or not you have any toxic links. A toxic backlink is a link from a page that actually hurts your search engine ranking. These pages have been flagged for attempting to cheat the algorithm and are generally pages that spam out links to multiple sites. If these are found, you should work to have your link removed immediately.

Determining a baseline for the health of your link profile and continual monitoring will help you track and focus your efforts as well as ensure you deal with any toxic link issues right away.

10. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Definition:

Click-through rate or CTR is the the percentage of users who clicked through to your page after seeing it within search results. It is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions (or times your page was displayed) or

CTR = Click/Impressions

CTR is an incredibly important SEO KPI because it takes a great deal of work to get on the first page of organic search results, but if users don't click into your page it's all for naught. SEO includes ensuring that your content is captivating enough that people want to continue onto your page over the pages of your competition.

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If you are on the first page of a google search, you should have a CTR of around 20%. There are two areas that can help you monitor your CTR: Google Search Console allows you to view the CTR of keywords your page appears for in the Search Engine Reports Page or SERPS and Google Analytics.

If your CTR is low then your title and meta description need to be updated to draw in more users. It should be written almost like an advertisement to intrigue people to want to read farther. The best advertisements are should be written with their target audience in mind, so think about who will be searching and clicking into your page. They should also contain high quality writing that is concise, descriptive, honest, emotional and relatable to the reader.

After the initial evaluation of CTR it is important to go back a couple of times a year to re-evaluate and make changes when needed. Users are always changing and evolving and so should your content.

11. Average Session Duration

Definition:

Average session duration is the average time a user spends on a particular page of a website after arrival from any source. This is important for many reasons:

- If users spend longer durations on your page you will rank higher.

- If users like your content you rank higher.

- If users like your content you are more likely to convert users.

- It is a good indicator that your content is quality.

- If users are spending a longer duration on multiple pages it is a good indicator that your site is easy to navigate.

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The standard for average session duration is between 2 to 3 minutes, however, you should also take into consideration your page length. If you have a lot of content on a specific page, a person should be spending around the same time it takes to read the content.

Google likes if you have a lot of content and it correlates with a longer session, it means your site is relatable to the specific keywords in the user's search.

Pay attention to pages that have longer organic sessions, because they could help you to improve other landing pages on your site.

You can track session duration through Google Analytics under Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages. If your times are low, look for ways to improve your content and make sure your ranking keywords align with your website.

12. Average Page Speed

Definition:

Average page speed is the average speed at which each of your pages takes to load. This should be monitored for desktops and mobile versions of your website because many pages have a good desktop score and a low mobile score.

Average mobile page speed is a very important SEO KPI, because low mobile scores will directly affect your SEO performance and most users today are interacting with websites via their mobile devices.

Slow page speed can also:

- Negatively impact bounce rates.

- Lower your search engine keyword rankings.

- Reduce the satisfaction of the user experience for those visiting your webpage.

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There is more than one way to track your page load speed; Google Analytics has a free tool called PageSpeed Insights or you can access it through Google Search Console under the Core Web Vitals tab.

According to a Portant study. the first 5 seconds of your page load time has the greatest impact on your conversion rates, which drops by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of load time within those 5 seconds.

The good news is, if you test your page and it's coming up short there are a lot of things you can do:

Reduce the number of large images, GIFs and videos, you can compress or use smaller versions, but make sure you keep the quality so your site still looks professional.

Make sure your infrastructure is being ran from a high performance server.

Look into using a CDN or Contact Delivery Network.

Reduce the number of http requests.

Look for ways to streamline your HTML.

13. Percentage of Returning Visitors/Loyal Customers

Definition:

The percentage of returning visits is essentially the number of repeat visits over total visits. This is an important SEO KPI for a few reasons:

- It is a good indicator of customer loyalty which is the ongoing relationship between your company and a customer in which a person choses your goods or services over a competitor.

- An increase in customer loyalty is a good indicator of a positive user experience, while a decrease is a good indicator that changes should be made.

- People who are loyal users are a great because they become digital marketers by sharing your content within blogs or social media networks.

- They also help with word of mouth advertising by mentioning you to colleagues and friends.

Apply and Monitor:

The process of calculating the percentage of repeat visitors can be tricky and will be unique to your site's vertical and business model. The important part is determining whether or not the number is increasing or decreasing.

A decreasing number can help you by allowing you to:

- Make changes that help you better resonate with your target users and

- Make sure your page speeds are not deterring return customers and increasing bounce rates.

14. Conversion Rate

Definition:

A conversion rate is the percentage of users that visit your page that take a desired action within a specified timeframe. For example; if your desired action is for them to make a purchase or sign up for a subscription, you would use the equation:

Conversion Rate = Total Purchases/Total Site Visits

Your conversion rate is one of the most important SEO KPIs because while visits are great, they are not what directly fuels your company and brings in revenue. Tracking your visits in relation to sales is essential.

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Tracking conversions is helpful as you start an SEO campaign because it is something you can start measuring immediately, whereas something like ROI takes time to reveal. This process can be done within Google Analytics. Make sure you get a baseline conversion rate for at least 3 months before you start, so you can differentiate from pre and post SEO strategy implementation.

It is also essential to track this important SEO regularly because it will differ depending on the timeframe you use for your calculation. Knowing any trends or changes that happen within a course of year can help you discern between whether there is an increase as a result of SEO performance. Or a decrease as a result of issues within your page vs due to normal trends.

Conversion rates are any desired actions and can include but are not limited to:

- Direct sales

- Signing up for a subscription

- Signing up for an email subscription

- Contacting your company for an inquiry

- Or any other call to action that can be monitored

Tracking the conversion rate for your whole webpage in addition to individual pages can be helpful as well. If you notice there is a higher conversion rate for a specific page you can utilize the layout, content and call to action to make your other pages more successful and increase overall success and sales for your company.

If you would like to increase your conversion rates you can try using things like pricing discounts, special offers, certain images, customer reviews, updated content, etc. to see what is the most effective for your customer base. If you do this on different page levels you can later update your website as a whole to mimic what is most effective.

15. Revenue per Visitor

Definition:

Revenue per visitor is pretty self explanatory, it is the amount of revenue generated divided by the total number of visitors during a selected time or

Revenue per Visitor = Total Revenue/Total Visitors

Don't let its place as number 15 fool you, this is also one of the most important SEO KPIs because your end results should be revenue success. Visits, backlinks, page speed, all of your SEO strategies should be helping you see the end result, which is increased income for your company.

If your company's revenue is not increasing, then you can utilize all of the previous SEO metrics to determine where you are falling short. Chances are if your SEO KPIs are moving in the right direction, so is your revenue.

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Calculating this value is easy if you have already been working on other metrics you already know your total unique page views and every company with business goals knows their revenue in a given time period.

Track this number throughout your SEO process and know your trends so you can see if it is a result of your efforts, or normal trends throughout the year.

Which SEO KPIs Are Right for Me? And How Should I Track Them?

Ultimately, the KPIs your company tracks should be determined by your business goals and SEO strategy. What is the most essential for one company may differ for another.

The most important thing is to ensure you are consistent with your tracking efforts. Consistency allows you to accurately see if your SEO KPIs are changing over time and also help shape your SEO success.

• If the metrics you are tracking start to shift away from your goals, it can help you pinpoint issues and adjust your efforts or focus on other SEO metrics.
• If the metrics you are tracking are starting to shift towards your goals this is your SEO strategy's ultimate goal. Keep pushing on and continue putting resources towards those efforts that are bringing you positive results.

Summary

Tracking SEO Key Performance Indicators or KPIs is an essential part of an SEO strategy and will set your company up for success. Some key takeaways that will help guide your efforts include:

• If possible, start tracking before you implement your SEO marketing plan.
• Google Analytics and
• If you are using an SEO professional, make sure they have a plan to demonstrate their success through KPIs.
• Which SEO KPIs you should track should depend on your SEO goals.
• Data is your friend, but make sure you are using it in a meaningful way to incite changes and measure success rather than pulling every indicator out of curiosity.
• It is important to be consistent and continually measure KPIs, even if they are headed in the right direction, things are always changing and it's important to be notified if any of them start to head in the wrong direction.
• Keep in mind that some indicators, such as ROI, will not show results immediately, so be patient.

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