How do you measure the success of your SEO?
Every business owner wants to be number one on Google; there’s no secret about that. We all know the only way to get there is with an effective Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy.
There are different approaches that businesses use to carry out SEO activities. Some use an SEO Marketing Service through an agency, some do their own, some haven’t yet decided! The question that really matters, though, is how do you measure your SEO work?
Which SEO metrics are important?
Let’s set the foundation first – we do Search Engine Optimisation to drive traffic to our website; to encourage contact; or to help people physically find our business. SEO is not an end in itself; it’s a means to drive a purchase or engage a service.
It’s easy to get caught up in the notion that your SEO is working (or your agency is doing a great job) if you have 10, 20, 50 different keyword searches and for each of those, your website has a page 1 result. Sounds great – but that’s not the point. We need the user to engage with our business.
Your metrics must be CLICKS, CALLS or DIRECTION SEARCHES from SEO.
Each of the above are measurable and should form part of your KPIs for SEO. You still need to monitor your keyword ranking, but this ranking is just part of the story of your SEO success.
How to get these metrics
Google Analytics, Google My Business and Google Search Console will give you all the information you need.
Google Search Console will show you how many times your website showed up in search results, where you are ranked, and how many times your site was clicked on. This conversion rate is critical for measurement and adjusting your SEO strategy.
See below – as an example:
Looking at the four keywords, the first query provides the biggest opportunity for improvement. At seventh position, the result is evidently on page 1 and impressions are high. We need to increase the click through rate (CTR) in order to boost the success of this keyword. Though the CTR is high on the fourth query, the impressions are low – we are better off spending our time on the queries where we are shown more frequently.
Google Analytics will show the clicks from SEO, and you can link this through to your pre-determined goals.
Of the 2,804 clicks to the website, 105 resulted in a goal completion. This percentage rate is reasonable, but we’re aiming for higher. We therefore need to look at the page to see how it can work harder to push visitors to a goal completion.
Google My Business will let you know how many people have called you, asked for directions, or clicked on a page result. It provides month-by-month reporting.
We’re pretty happy with these results. We now need to touch base with the client and find out what happened with those phone calls and those who visited in store.
Once these metrics are set up and monitored, you can ensure that your SEO strategy is working as it should, informed by these strategic measurable results.
Want to have a conversation about Search Engine Optimisation? Can we help in setting up these metrics for you, or optimising your website for search? Would you like more details of the success stories we’ve had in providing an SEO Marketing Service to our clients? Call us on 0424 397 207 to have a chat.