Planning and implementing an SEO strategy is a good start for any professional or business owner. But after doing this crucial first step, what now? Are there ways to know if SEO is working for you?
Several metrics can measure this objectively. After all, Google uses hundreds of ranking factors to assess websites.
You don’t have to monitor all of them, though. But you need to narrow down your options and focus on those that matter to your business.
Here are a few to get you started.
Conversions
SEO strategies work together to boost organic traffic, reduce bounce rates and attract potential customers. When successful, these result in the most exciting key performance indicator of all: increased sales.
If visitors are happy with your business and buy your products or services, that only means one thing. Your well-optimised website is effective, and SEO is working for you.
Not only that. An increased conversion rate equates to a return on investment (ROI).
How to Monitor Leads
Before discussing conversion rate monitoring, we’d like to stress that your leads also let you know if SEO is working for your business.
While actual sales are the metric that count, these won’t happen without generating leads or capturing consumer interest first.
So, when you do your monitoring, give equal weight to your leads and revenue. Both of them matter.
And there are several ways to measure your leads. For instance, you can quantitatively monitor them through inbound phone calls, free trial or email sign-ups, demo requests or whitepaper downloads.
Contact form submissions and live chat logs are sources of lead information as well. Reviewing your Google Analytics or email inbox and getting monthly reports from the SEO agency you work with are crucial to lead auditing, too.
How to Monitor Conversions
Like leads, there are several means to measure your conversion rate. One way to do that is to set up goals in Google Analytics.
And you can choose from these three options, depending on the kind of action you want to monitor.
1. Use a goal template.
This type lets you set actionable goals based on your business objectives. And it has four categories: revenue, acquisition, inquiry and engagement.
You can start by creating one goal for each category to get a feel of how your visitors use or interact with your website.
Goal templates for specific business industries are also available, and you can edit them whenever necessary.
2. Create a custom goal.
Similar to goal templates, the custom type has several categories to match the action you want to track.
For example, you can select the “destination goal” to analyse the pages or screens a user visits. You may also set a minimum “duration goal” or page session time to count as a conversion.
Setting “event and page per session goals” also provide helpful information, especially when you want to measure user interaction or engagement.
3. Enable smart goals.
This type is accessible when you meet the prerequisites. Once enabled, this can help you examine and identify significant website signals that turn into conversions.
Examples of signals monitored are location, device, pages per session and session duration.
Every session has an assigned score. And if the score meets the set threshold, it will be classified as one of your best sessions and translated into goals.
Google Analytics will then monitor these goals for you.
Note that monitoring your leads and conversion is not only to know if SEO is working and if you are getting higher revenue. You can also use the same data gathered to improve your web design or content to attract more customers.
Ranking
The ranking metric is all about the keywords, single or long tail, used to make your website and content appear on search results.
Before even putting your SEO plan into action, conducting keyword analysis is one of the initial steps you should take.
This process lets you know which keywords are worth targeting. Later, you can use the same list of keywords to determine whether your rankings have improved.
These can also alert you if there is a considerable change in your organic traffic. Rankings also help you identify which pages are doing great or need tweaking.
But the truth is, this SEO performance metric is not as valuable and objective as conversions. And there are several reasons why.
For instance, displayed results vary even if different users search for the same term or phrase. It’s because factors like location and browsing history can influence the search results we get.
Keyword value also depends on search volume and business relevance. Moreover, a drop in keyword ranking does not always mean a significant organic traffic impact.
How to Monitor Rankings
Most business owners and marketers tend to focus a lot on rankings. While monitoring this metric is essential, changes in rankings do not usually require immediate attention or action.
For instance, fluctuations in rankings during the first three months are normal and only mean your SEO efforts are at work.
Afterwards, you can monitor more closely in the sixth month and aim for better goals, like getting on the first page.
At this time, you should concentrate your resources more on target keywords that drive conversions, too.
It’s also best to use reliable tools for monitoring keyword rankings. Here are some examples:
- Semrush. Semrush is one of the leading SEO tools with features for keyword research and rank tracking from several domains. It also lets you see the monthly keyword search volume and difficulty rating. With this feature, you can target the right keywords easily and find ways to update content when needed.
- Serpstat. Serpstat does not have a keyword database as extensive as Semrush and other premium tools. However, this more affordable tool has a well-designed user interface and databases for several countries. Also, its global and local tracker can monitor your mobile and desktop ranking in real time.
- Google Search Console. The best thing about this tool is it’s free! It’s ideal if your business is new and on a tight marketing budget. Using Google Console lets you track your rankings, identify your best-performing pages and see what queries users are typing online to find you. It syncs with other Google tools like Analytics, too.
SERP Visibility
Checking your search engine results page (SERP) visibility is another way to know if SEO is working for you.
Aside from looking at organic results, paid ads, featured snippets and video or image carousels can affect your online presence, too.
Google can also display listing information when users search for local businesses or companies.
The higher your SERP visibility, the higher the chances that users will click your site, become potential customers and, eventually, convert.
However, making your website more visible is not easy and instant. It takes a lot of optimisation work. Also, it’s up to the search engines and their ranking factors which sites should be at the top of the SERPs.
As a business website owner, it is your role to know how to get noticed by Google, monitor the SERPs, and keep working for first-page spots.
How to Monitor SERP Visibility
The SERP visibility score determines how visible your website is. And there are different methods to calculate it.
But generally, the formula considers your keyword ranking, an approximate number of impressions and estimated click-through rate.
Like the other metrics discussed earlier, you can measure your SERP visibility using premium tools.
But if you prefer something free but equally accurate, use Google Search Console and its performance report.
The best thing about this tool is that it shows real-time data from the search engine.
Try logging into your Google Search Console account, then do the following:
- On the left-side navigation panel, click Performance, then Search Results. It will display a report summarising your Google search results status. The total impressions metric is similar to search visibility scores. The higher the impression score, the more visible you are online. You can adjust the date range if you like to see or compare your visibility at specific periods.
- Click +New to see your search visibility score for specific keywords or pages. Select Query from the drop-down menu. Choose the correct search filters to enter an exact query or keyword. You can also adjust the date filter to see the impressions you got for each within a specific time.
With a few clicks, Google Search Console can give you an idea which keywords or pages affect your search visibility. The report also identifies when they are effective.
These should help you improve your website, utilise high-value keywords, update content and more.
Conclusion
Business owners need several SEO strategies (and lots of hard work) to succeed online and beat competitors. And the means to know if SEO is working is as overwhelming.
So, it’s best to narrow down the metrics you use and focus on those that deliver helpful information.
The tools for measuring conversion rates, rankings and SERP visibility can give you figures that SEO experts can quickly interpret.
Moreover, these valuable data are not only for SEO performance assessment. They also keep you motivated to continue monitoring and improving your optimisation efforts.
Ultimately, these metrics will be your key to better business gains for years to come.
