The Shark Tank

Trying to measure the success of SEO efforts can be a daunting task. The number of factors that play a role in Google’s search algorithm coupled with overwhelming pools of data can make it difficult to reach cut-and-dry conclusions.

The solution? Identify which key performance indicators (KPIs) are most relevant to your business’s objectives, measure their success, and filter out the rest. To give a good idea of what metrics you may want to look for, here are three KPIs that effectively measure SEO success.

Organic Traffic Volume

Any SEO campaign should result in higher organic traffic to your site. After all, organic traffic is a direct, measurable result of ranking higher on a SERP. Monitoring your organic traffic over time can give you an idea of how well your SEO is performing. To track the level of organic traffic to your site, you can use Google Analytics. From the Audience Overview page,

• Choose the button Add Segment
• Select Organic Traffic
• Click Apply

You will be able to see the amount of organic traffic your site received in a given time frame. Since traffic can vary from day to day, look at the overall trend of traffic over weeks or months. Typically, successful SEO should mean an upwards trend.

Conversions

While there are many metrics that can be effective at tracking the success of SEO, conversions (or case acquisitions) will ultimately be the most important KPI to your business. To track whether your SEO strategies are resulting in more conversions, there are several different touchpoints you can look at: contact form submissions through Google Analytics Goal Tracking, live chat conversions, and phone call conversions.

Using Google Analytics Goal Tracking, you can set a particular page as a goal, and Google will log a conversion anytime someone reaches that page. So, a “Thank you” page after someone fills a contact form submission is an example of tracking those conversions. Many firms also use phone call and live chat tracking tools to determine conversions. Depending on the number a potential customer calls or where a live chat directs a user, these tools can track those actions as conversions.

Keyword Tracking

Tracking how your site ranks for specific keywords and phrases is vital to your SEO success. A better ranking for a specific keyword means increased visibility and brand awareness to your audience. Achieve the best results for this KPI through continuous tracking and innovation. Keywords and phrases are constantly changing, so staying on top of these changes early and often allows for quick solutions that keep you ahead of the curve.

Various tools are able to track keyword rankings from a local perspective all the way to nationally or internationally. Keyword rankings are useful for seeing the results of your SEO efforts but do not necessarily explain why those efforts are working or not working, so the best practice is to analyze this KPI simultaneously with other metrics.

It is important for any firm to track and measure the success of their SEO campaign. Doing so can point out what strategies are working, which are not, and the result of those strategies. Staying ahead of the curve in your digital market can propel you ahead of your competitors and boost your firm in the long run.