Search engine optimization plays a huge role in helping you attract a relevant audience and capture quality leads.
It allows you to generate traction organically and increase your website traffic without having to break the bank.
However, search engine optimization is easier said than done. Search engine algorithms change over time, and each update may render your previous SEO strategy ineffective.
It’s important to track your SEO performance and see if you’re headed in the right direction. There are a few metrics that you should consider monitoring to determine whether your efforts will yield the desired results.
This article showcases the key metrics that will define whether your SEO strategy is working or not.
So, without further ado, let’s get started.
What are SEO Metrics?
Before diving into the key metrics that can help you assess your SEO performance, let’s explore what SEO metrics are.
SEO metrics are indicators that represent the outcome of your search engine optimization activities.
Around 93% of online experiences start with a search engine query. People leverage different keywords to explore relevant information online and seek viable solutions to their problems.
Businesses optimize their content using relevant keywords to dominate the SERPs and make useful information readily accessible to the intended audience to get more eyeballs.
These optimization changes, along with many other efforts, contribute to your search engine performance, and SEO metrics help you measure the impact.
These metrics facilitate your access to useful insights, allowing you to identify your mistakes and devise effective strategies for improving your search engine presence.
Key SEO Metrics You Should Monitor
The following are some notable metrics that may help you identify if your SEO strategy is working or not:
1. Organic Traffic
Organic traffic represents the visitors you attract to your website through search engines without having to invest in ad placement.
It’s one of the core indicators that represent your search engine performance, showcasing the performance of your pages as per the respective focus keywords.
People use relevant terms and queries when leveraging search engines to explore useful information. If your content is well optimized as per those phrases or queries, search engines will likely recommend it to its users, which will grow your organic traffic over time.
This helps you present your solutions to the right audience without breaking the bank and steadily grow your conversions.
So, if your organic traffic is gradually rising, it means that your SEO strategy is working, and you are able to target queries that align with your niche.
2. Search Rankings
Monitoring search rankings and tracking your performance helps you know if your SEO strategy is paying off.
Here, you explore the position of your web pages with respect to the keywords or search queries you target.
For example, if the focus keyword for one of your web pages is ‘online meeting software’, you should track where that particular page ranks on a search engine results page when a user enters the targeted phrase or query.
Around 70% of people using Google consider only the top 5 search results. So, the higher you rank on the targeted query, the greater your chances of attracting the intended audience.
Search rankings are volatile and keep changing over time. Even when you’ve scored a top spot, you have to be consistent in your efforts to maintain it.
A number of factors may cause you to lose your search rankings, such as algorithm updates, loss of quality backlinks, competitors' better strategies, and so on.
So, keeping an eye on your search rankings helps you know if your current SEO strategy is working and consider necessary improvements if needed.
3. Organic Impressions
Organic impressions represent the number of times your web pages appear on the search engine results page and are viewed by your target audience.
It’s an important metric to track the performance of your SEO strategy because it increases the chances of a relevant audience visiting your website.
Not every user who comes across your search snippet will click on it and visit your website. So, a higher number of impressions increases your chances of attracting relevant traffic.
A growing number of organic impressions tell you that your SEO strategy is working. It’s like the first sign that indicates that your efforts will get you the desired results in the long run.
4. Organic Click-Through Rate
Imagine your web pages appearing among the top search rankings, but not many users click on the search results and land on your website. Would you call it the success of your SEO strategy?
Monitoring your organic click-through rate is important and helps you know about your SEO performance. It refers to the percentage of users who clicked on the search snippet representing a particular page and visited your website from the search engine results page.
It shows how efficient you were in grabbing the attention of the intended audience and convincing them to explore the content published on your website.
The way you craft the titles and descriptions for your respective pages plays a major role here and helps you attract your target audience.
To calculate your organic click-through rate, you need to divide the total number of clicks on a particular snippet by the total number of impressions and then multiply the number by 100.
5. Domain Authority
Another important metric that helps you assess your SEO performance is domain authority. It represents the likelihood of your website ranking higher on the search engines compared to your competitors.
You grow your domain authority by improving your on-page, off-page, and technical SEO. Plus, you need to consistently create engaging content to build authority in your respective industry. So, the metric indicates the efficiency of your SEO and content strategy.
Measuring your domain authority by yourself may be challenging. However, there are a variety of SEO and keyword planner solutions out there that can help you keep an eye on your authority score and compare it with that of your competitors.
6. Average Time on Page
The average time on a page represents the time spent on a particular page by visitors to your website.
Different factors can help increase the average time on a page, such as the quality of the content published, the user experience, website performance, and navigation structure.
However, it can also be a viable metric to assess the performance of your current SEO strategy. This is where the searcher's intent comes into play.
When a user explores a search engine, stumbles upon your page, and spends a considerable amount of time there, it shows that your page is optimized for relevant queries and intent.
With your SEO efforts, you were able to attract the right audience, who found your content useful and explored the information published for an extended period of time.
7. Exit Rate
The exit rate represents the percentage of visitors who left your website after viewing a particular page. This indicates that the page failed to engage the intended audience, as they left without taking any action.
Again, a number of factors may come into play here and influence the exit rate of the respective pages. However, it may also be a viable indicator to assess your SEO performance. There may be a possibility that your top exit pages are poorly optimized and fail to align with the searchers’ intent.
Optimizing these pages may help improve your performance and make it easier for you to engage your target audience.
8. Load Time
Around 40% of visitors will leave a website immediately if it fails to load in 3 seconds or less. Your website's load time plays a key role in helping you engage your audience and grow your conversions.
It also serves as a viable metric to assess your SEO performance, as improving your load time helps you offer a better user experience and climb search engine rankings faster than your competitors.
Search engine giants like Google regard user experience above all else. A high number of people leaving your site due to poor load time may severely affect your search engine presence and organic traffic in the long run.
9. Website Health
Your website’s health is another key metric that helps you assess the performance of your current SEO strategy.
It’s influenced by different things, such as page speed, website security, mobile responsiveness, browser compatibility, and other indicators representing on-site SEO.
The pages of a website with a decent health score are quickly crawled by the search engines and have greater chances of scoring higher rankings.
Your website’s health score represents the user experience you have to offer, which strongly influences your website’s search engine visibility and your chances of engaging the intended audience.
Final Words
There you have it: the nine key metrics to define if your SEO strategy is working. If you’ve been wanting to gauge your SEO performance and know how likely your pages are to attract the intended audience organically, keeping an eye on the indicators mentioned in this article will help.
