An effective search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy only gets you halfway; you also need to know how to track SEO performance. This is where SEO reporting enters the equation—it’s like the scoreboard that tells you whether your online marketing efforts are winning or you need a new play.
If you want to get ahead in the game, you need to make the most of SEO reporting by understanding what KPIs to monitor and learning how to interpret the data to drive better results. Ready, set, go!
Why SEO reporting is a game-changer
A successful SEO strategy is multifaceted and encompasses technical optimisation, content creation, link building, and user experience enhancements. Each of these facets needs to be measured to determine whether they’re achieving the desired results, which is why SEO reporting plays an integral role in determining how well your strategies are working.
Without effective reporting, it’s nearly impossible to gauge the success of your SEO strategy or make data-driven decisions that allow you to optimise your approach.
With SEO reporting, you can:
Track Progress: Regular SEO reports let you monitor how well your website performs in search engines over time.
Justify ROI: By tracking specific SEO performance metrics, you can determine your return on investment (ROI).
Identify Opportunities: Analysing report data allows you to pinpoint areas needing improvement, such as underperforming keywords or technical SEO issues.
Align Goals: Your SEO strategy should have specific objectives, and reports can help ensure your strategies align with your goals.
Key performance indicators for SEO
The key performance indicators (KPIs) you track will depend on your website type and your business goals. This means key performance indicators for SEO for an e-commerce site will differ from those for a business site that’s more informational than transactional.
Here’s how to track SEO performance using KPIs:
Organic traffic
Organic traffic measures the number of visitors coming to your website through search engine results. It’s a foundational SEO performance metric that shows whether your efforts are attracting more users, and you can measure it with tools like Google Analytics or Ahrefs. A steady increase in organic traffic indicates your website’s visibility is improving in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Keyword rankings
Keyword rankings refer to your website’s position in SERPs for specific target keywords. Monitoring these rankings for SEO KPIs using reporting tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Google Search Console that provide detailed insights into your keyword performance helps you understand how your optimisation efforts impact visibility. Higher rankings typically lead to increased visibility, clicks, and traffic.
Click-through rate (CTR)
CTR measures the percentage of users clicking on your website after seeing it in search results. Google Search Console displays the CTR for individual pages and keywords, making it easy to monitor. A low CTR might indicate that your meta titles and descriptions need optimisation or that you need more structured data for rich snippets.
Bounce rate
Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page. While not a direct ranking factor, it can indicate user experience issues, such as irrelevant content or poor website usability. Using Google Analytics for SEO, you’ll get a clear view of bounce rates for individual pages that show where your visitors are dropping off.
Page load time
Page speed plays a role in your bounce rate, but it also affects the overall user experience and satisfaction. From as far back as July 2018, page speed for desktop and mobile searches was a confirmed ranking factor, so it’s a good idea to use Google’s PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to evaluate your site’s performance.
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are a set of SEO performance metrics measuring overall user experience. They focus on loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability and are a key part of Google’s ranking algorithm. Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights offer Core Web Vitals reports that make tracking these metrics straightforward.
Conversion rate
Conversion rate measures the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a resource. This KPI directly ties SEO efforts to business objectives, as it provides a clear correlation between browsers and buyers. Once again, using Google Analytics for SEO is a great way to measure your success for this metric, as it includes a conversion tracking feature.
Domain authority (DA)
DA is a score developed by Moz that predicts a website’s likelihood of ranking in SERPs. While it’s not a direct Google ranking factor, it provides insight into your site’s overall authority, as higher authority generally correlates with better rankings.
Backlink profile
Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors for SEO. Your backlink profile includes the total number of backlinks, their quality, and the referring domains and you can analyse it with Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush, or other SEO reporting tools. High-quality backlinks signal to search engines that your content is trustworthy and authoritative.
How to interpret SEO data
Once you have your data from SEO reporting tools, you need to correctly interpret it so you can make data-driven decisions. To do this, you should:
Identify Trends: Look for patterns over time rather than focusing on short-term fluctuations. For example, if your business is seasonal, you might experience natural dips in organic traffic.
Set Benchmarks: Compare your metrics against industry benchmarks or your own historical data to measure success.
Focus on goals: Align your SEO KPIs with your business objectives. For instance, if your goal is lead generation, prioritise SEO performance metrics like conversion rates and organic traffic.
Address anomalies: Sudden drops or spikes in performance always warrant investigation as they could be caused by algorithm updates, technical issues, or external factors like market trends.
Segment data: To gain more granular insights, it’s best to break down your data by channel, device, or geographic location.
When all this data is interpreted correctly, you can use it to improve and refine your SEO strategy to make your website even more visible online. This will ensure it ranks high on search engines, attracts more organic traffic and potential customers, and ultimately increases conversions.
Make sure your SEO measures up
Whether you’re focused on improving visibility, boosting user experience, or increasing conversions, key performance indicators for SEO provide the insights you need to track progress, identify opportunities, and refine your strategy for maximum impact.
If you’re ready to take your SEO reporting to the next level, we offer a free SEO audit to help you get a clear overview of how your website is performing. Get in touch to get on track.
