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author
Gabby Regalbuto
M Posted 3 years ago
t 4 min read
Digital Marketing

Knowing which KPIs – or key performance indicators – for SEO are the most important to track is crucial to the success of your organic strategy and can help guide future content creation. Today, 53.3% of online traffic comes from organic searches. Not only does this mean that SEO is more important now than it ever has been before, but it also means keeping track of your SEO metrics and KPIs is even more relevant today.

What are KPIs for SEO?SEO Metrics and KPIs

SEO KPIs are used to determine whether current strategies are working and indicative of your channel’s performance against your goals. Tracking the correct metrics and knowing which ones are important will help you to drive organic traffic to your site. However, with so many metrics to choose from, which KPIs are most important to SEO?

Some SEO KPIs that will provide value to your website include:

  • Ranking keywords. Knowing how many keywords you’re ranking for, what those keywords are, and where they rank, will allow you to better understand which keywords you should be optimizing to build a strategy.
  • Organic conversion. rate Knowing what content resonates with your audience and how they navigate through your site is critical to online success. Leverage your analytics platform to identify pages that need to be optimized for more conversions. If you use Google Analytics and/or Adobe Analytics, use analytic integrations with BrightEdge to find the engagement metrics that matter.
  • Share of voice. Tracking share of voice will help you figure out how you fare against the competition in the SERPs.
  • Organic click through rate. Monitoring your CTR will help you determine the success of your content. A high CTR doesn’t always mean success, though. Take note of not only CTR but also, sales or conversions after CTR. If your conversion rate is low, you may be targeting the wrong audience with your content.
  • Backlink profile. Building link authority will allow your site to be seen as a thought leader and trustworthy to both Google and users. Receiving external backlinks from reputable sites will drive more referred traffic to your site.
  • Number of pages indexed on Google. For your site to appear in the SERPs, your pages need to be indexed by Google. The more pages Google has indexed, the more opportunity your site has to rank for relevant keywords. You can check whether or not your pages have been indexed via Google Search Console.

Tracking your KPIs in BrightEdge

  1. Leverage Keyword Reporting to determine how many keywords your website is ranking for in the SERPs. Using Keyword Reporting, you can see how you compare to your competitors with valuable keywords. You can also extract rich data sets that include search volume for individual keywords, SERP rankings, universal results, and more.
  2. Use StoryBuilder to create reports and dashboards to keep track of and report on SEO data and KPIs to executives and managers.
  3. BrightEdge offers backlink reporting that is seamlessly integrated with Majestic’s “Fresh Index” backlink database. Leverage this feature and build a strategy around and discover competitor links you don’t have.
  4. Use Data Cube to gain insights into which of your site’s URLs are winning with high ranking keywords. Track the success of your keywords and expand your knowledge of how they perform over time. 

Demo BrightEdge and Start Tracking Your KPIs ASAP!

What other SEO metrics should I track?

SEO metrics are data points or indicators you should track and monitor to measure performance and keep a healthy, optimized website. Whether it’s to track engagement or reflect on SERP authority, monitoring your SEO metrics can assist you in planning strategies for the future. Chances are, if your SEO metrics are strong, your KPIs will be too.

While there are countless SEO metrics you can keep tabs on, some of the metrics you could most benefit from tracking include the following:

  • Bounce rate
  • Exit pages for organic traffic
  • Pages crawled per day
  • Location
  • Local visibility

What are content marketing metrics?

Content marketing metrics are measurable metrics you can track in order to find the relevant data you need to determine the success of your content or campaigns. You can leverage content marketing metrics to evaluate ROI and alter strategies. Some metrics you should consider tracking include:

  • Social media engagements and shares
  • Web traffic
  • Bounce rate
  • Sales
  • Retention
  • Engagement
  • CTR
  • Backlinks
  • Time on page
  • Email opt-in rates

If your content isn’t performing well, it’s likely that you will see poor CTRs, little time on page and overall low engagement. In order to increase the success of your content marketing metrics, leverage both BrightEdge and analytic integrations, like Google Analytics, to find which content, strategies, and campaigns are performing best. This will give you an idea of strategies to repeat or improve moving forward.