You know how they always say that SEO is an ongoing process. That is true!
Any expert who promises to deliver results in one go is definitely scamming you. No matter how many years of experience you have, SEO is almost always a trial and error. What works for one business may not work for another. That is why tracking is an essential part of the process.
Any Search Engine Optimization Company needs to track and measure SEO performance in order to further optimize it. They need to focus more on what’s working and change what isn’t. Since Google is always changing its algorithm, every time, you get to see a long list of metrics. While it isn’t confirmed, most SEO gurus agree that there are more than 200 SEO ranking factors for Google alone.
Don’t get too overwhelmed by the number. Despite all those ranking factors, there are only a few SEO metrics you need to concern yourself with. Today, we will discuss twelve of the most important metrics that can help you analyze and optimize your SEO company’s performance.
Track Your Organic Traffic
You know you are doing something right when you get traffic without spending a penny. Paid adverts, referral marketing software, and marketing can help to an extent, but at the end of the day, SEO is all about bringing more people without spending a lot of money. You can easily check your organic traffic through Google analytic tools.
You need to track your organic traffic Click Through Rate CTR to check your organic traffic. Use powerful meta title and description to improve your CTR.
The best way to acquire organic traffic is through effective keywords. The better your keyword ranking, the higher your organic traffic; keep an eye on your keyword ranking and try to make use of the keywords that help you gain a shining spot on search engines. This is the surest shot way to enhance your SEO performance.
Check Your Bounce Rate
Increase in the bounce rate is an alarming sign because it means people are leaving your site without helping you make money. They aren’t taking any action that can be counted as a conversion. In simpler words, it means you are attracting the wrong traffic, or your website content is not impressive enough.
However, a higher bounce rate on some pages is worse than bounce rate on other pages. It all depends on the CTA. For instance, if there is a blog page and people are leaving without clicking any of the links, it may not be that big of an issue. For a checkout page, however, users leaving without buying indicates a major SEO lag.
Track the bounce rate for all your landing pages and compare why some pages are doing better than others. If you have a high bounce rate, try to optimize the content and also see if the page loading speed is up to the mark.
Backlink Acquisition
Backlinks establish your authority. The more people using your website link on their site means you are definitely sharing something worthwhile on your own site. It is easy to track how many backlinks you are acquiring. If the number isn’t growing, you need to review your SEO strategy.
However, the quality of backlinks is just as important as the quantity. Acquiring backlinks alone isn’t the only thing you need to focus on. You should also make sure the links are shared on pages with good domain authority. A single backlink on a high authority website can bring you more value than 100 links on low authority sites.
That said, the number of referring domains is also important. If all of your backlinks are coming from the same domain, it won’t be as valuable as fewer backlinks from several different referring domains.
Average Time on Page
Why do you spend time on a page?
You do it when the page is relevant and interesting. Therefore, the average time spent on a page is a very important SEO metric that can say a lot about your performance. You need to dig into the average time spent metric for all your key conversion pages. It helps to see how much time a user spends on the page before they decide to buy or leave.
Pages that have short time-on-page and higher bounce rate usually require the content update. It is a clear sign that your audience is unimpressed. That said, keep in mind that there is no particular value to define a good time on page. It depends on how long or concise the content is. You should have a rough idea of how much time users should spend on the page before leaving.
Returning Visitors
Returning visitors bring in a lot of organic traffic. It is one of the most important SEO performance metric that people don’t talk about too often. But think about why you would return to a website again and again. You would if the content is so engaging and the product/service is too amazing. Either way, it means you are doing something right.
It takes an entirely different marketing strategy to ensure returning customers. They are most likely to convert and bring you more money. Plus, these are the leads that don’t cost as much as acquiring new leads.
Tracking the number of returning visitors is easy through your website or any SEO tool. Keep an eye on how many visitors return, and their previous interaction on your website as that has a lot to do with why they are back.
Conclusion
To sum it up, SEO is indeed all about knowing what works and what doesn’t. You need to continuously update your SEO strategy to maintain good SEO performance. Most of the metrics mentioned above are interlinked. One factor depends on another. That is why tracking all 200+ metrics isn’t always the smartest strategy. Focus on the most crucial ones. Track them. Make changes where needed, and all other SEO factors will naturally fall in place for you.