Any skilled SEO consultant would advise businesses and entrepreneurs to assess and regularly monitor how their online marketing efforts are doing. This is usually carried out through website audits to check site health, conversion, penalties, security, issues that need fixing, and other important factors. These will show how things are going and would in turn give you key performance indicators or KPIs. While most people would associate search engine rankings to success, it is not the only metric you can use to measure progress.
Good Traffic
You have a lot of competition for the number one spot and although higher ranked sites get more attention, they don’t always get a lot of clicks. What you should turn your attention to instead is the quality of traffic that’s coming into your website. Traffic is determined by the number of visitors you get directed to the site via organic search. This is measured through three more metrics: bounce rate, pages per visit, and average visit duration. If the numbers for your traffic are not looking good, you need to use better keywords aligned to what your target market is looking up online.
Impressions and CTR
CTR or click-through rate and impressions are also very important metrics that should not be overlooked. Impressions is the number of times a URL from you site appeared in search results and is seen by a user; CTR, on the other hand, is the number of times a link to your website has been clicked on. Normally, the number for your impressions rate would be higher than the CTR, but that is no reason to panic yet unless it’s way below the average and is negatively affecting your sales and rank. You can make a few simple tweaks if you want to see improvements with these numbers. For instance, if you have low CTR, upgrade your meta description content. If you have low impression, improve the relevancy of your pages.
Conversion Rate
The conversion rate is measured by how many visitors performed a desired action. It could be to buy a product, place an order, schedule an appointment, sign up for a free newsletter, or call to a hotline. Measuring your conversion rate is important to see which keywords or SEO technique is working for you and bringing customers to your site. Tracking the monetary value of your conversions will also give you an idea of your ROI for your SEO campaign.
Measuring your progress in digital marketing can help you plan better for the future of your company. Consult with a trusted SEO agency like 5 Star Brand to guide and advise you on the best possible strategies.
Sources:
Search Engine Ranking is Not The Point – Check These Progress Signals Instead, KissMetrics
How to Measure SEO Success, Search Engine Watch
