There is software to track just about any SEO data. For marketers, this is both a blessing and a curse. Access to data helps you make smart marketing decisions and, when analyzed correctly, helps you understand your users better.
That said, having access to the data doesn’t necessarily mean you need to monitor it, especially if it’s pointless or seems overwhelming.
For this article, I reached out to marketers and SEOs who shared the SEO metrics they’ll be tracking in 2023 and why they matter.
What are SEO metrics?
SEO metrics are sets of data that help determine the success of the SEO function in digital marketing campaigns.
By analyzing the data, marketers can understand how valuable SEO’s contribution to marketing is. It allows marketers to benchmark success and understand what worked and what didn’t.
Most importantly, SEO metrics help companies refine marketing campaigns to direct them toward delivering marketing goals.
Some SEO metrics are more useful than others. You may be familiar with the term “vanity metrics”, referring to metrics that may increase with marketing efforts but don’t move the needle for the business. In SEO, vanity metrics can include impressions and even clicks.
But does that mean these metrics aren’t important? Do not.
The truth is, the metrics you measure will depend on your goals.
The skill – which comes with time – is knowing which metrics to monitor, which to measure against others, and which metrics to drop.
SEO metrics you can track in GA4
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has arrived and with it comes valuable reports such as traffic acquisition. Also, engagement rate, which (if you ask me) is a much higher metric than bounce rate.
1. Engagement rate
Engagement rate is one of the most recent metrics that has graced us with its presence in GA4.
Engagement rate is an SEO metric that measures significant engagements on your website. Out of the box, engagements include clicks, scrolls, conversions, and more.
On engagement rate, SEO pro Kyle Rushton says:
Low-engagement pages that fall short of expectations will benefit from additional work.
2. Enhanced measurements
GA4 tracks conversion data as an event. Improved measurements provide a level of granularity in user behavior that we didn’t have “out of the box” with Universal Analytics (UA).
Freelance SEO consultant Natalie Slater shares the value of interactions and form submissions. Slater says:
Form interactions versus form submissions provide two big datasets for SEO.
You can use these metrics to identify potential CRO issues on a site.
3. Landing pages
The Google Analytics landing page report seems to be a favorite among SEOs, with many mentioning it when asked about SEO metrics.
The landing page report is perfect for understanding the effectiveness of the first page visited by a user.
You can see which landing pages result in a conversion within the same session – perfect for identifying direct sales from SEO efforts.
Originally, you had to customize your own report in GA4, but (probably) thanks to its popularity, GA4 has now released a default landing page report.
It is important to emphasize here that looking at sales directly from SEO does an injustice to the contribution of SEO to conversion and therefore it is important to monitor other metrics that do not seem so obvious.
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SEO metrics you might not think to track
SEO has obvious metrics like traffic, clicks, impressions and revenue. But you may not have thought to track metrics from other marketing efforts to understand SEO’s contribution to sales.
SEO will always be a traffic driver – and the goal is to drive qualified traffic to a website. Qualified traffic is traffic that is interested in what your website offers and is likely to buy.
For many of your web users, SEO will be the first touchpoint in the marketing funnel. Users will look for a problem and come across your page or article. From here, they can sign up for emails or join an audience for PPC retargeting.
4. Email sign-ups
Zack Reboletti, SEO Consultant at Get Web Focused says:
It’s easy to see how the metrics of other marketing tactics are improved by SEO.
Also, when it comes to email marketing, SEO data provides trending and clickthrough data to see exactly when your users are looking for certain types of content.
For example, an article might be of particular interest at a certain time of year. Instead of waiting for your audience to search and find you (or worse, find your competitor), you can be proactive.
The data provided by SEO should inspire your content calendar for email or even social media. You can put content that you know people are looking for based on SEO metrics in front of your audience.
5. PPC metrics that are influenced by SEO: Retargeting and keywords
SEO drives traffic that PPC can redirect. And long-tail keywords serve ads well by attracting relevant traffic with specific issues.
Think about ranking articles for longer-tail keywords like “[product] for [specific problem]” or your “how to [problem] guides”. Clicks on these pieces of content deliver qualified traffic to ads with specific issues.
Image ads and retargeting messages can be highly targeted to capture attention, nurture the potential buyer, keep your brand top of mind, and then convert.
Leigh Buttrey, paid media expert, says:
As much as SEO supports PPC, PPC also supports SEO. PPC is a fast track to the top of the SERPs. You can test your target keywords for conversion and determine if they are working to rank organically. Align SEO and PPC to dominate the SERPs.
6. Images
In 2022, Google launched its continuous scroll for SERPs. With continuous scrolling, websites may need a listing that stands out on the SERPs more than before.
It’s no secret that scrolling is addictive, and users may have an easier time navigating the SERPs until they land on a more engaging listing.
In 2023, as we explore this new form of search, it may be worth watching the impact of high-quality images.
Using Google Search Console, you can see how many clicks you’ve gotten from your images. To get to this report:
Which pages are generating the right clicks? What images might be contributing to this?
Bonus tip: Increase your chances of ranking images in image SERPs by optimizing your alt text. (And remember to be natural when doing so.)
SEO metrics that aren’t going anywhere in 2023
There are some metrics that are as old as SEO itself and are still as useful as ever. Here are some of the metrics that, if you’re not already tracking, you probably should be.
7. Content engagement
Content monitoring has been improved in GA4. The loss of bounce rate and the new engagement rate means that the value of great content is less likely to be undermined by bounce.
In GA4, you can measure, per page:
All of the above metrics help determine the value of a page. If someone scrolls down to 90%, reads an entire article, and leaves the site, the content was still useful. In UA, the bounce rate can hurt these meaningful actions.
Content that generates a deep scroll or file download is an indicator of an engaged audience that can be retargeted or nurtured through marketing automation later.
8. Customer lifetime value
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is extremely important when tracking SEO revenue. Subscription-based businesses are a great way to demonstrate this.
If a user lands on your site through an unbranded Google search and signs up for a subscription, the initial payment can be $10 for the first month.
But, if they signed up for 10 months, the value of that interaction is actually $100. If that customer gets a referral scheme and brings three friends to a subscription, the CLV goes up again.
Customer lifetime value lets you see the longevity of your SEO efforts.
9. Brand visibility
Tracking branded mentions and clicks from branded search terms can help marketers determine how branded searches are converting. In theory, those looking for your brand are looking for exactly you and what you have to offer.
Tracking branded searches can be helpful in understanding which pages receive branded clicks and which don’t. If you have pages that receive clicks from Google, but don’t have many (or any) brand-related queries, then the SEO can be attributed entirely to the click.
If those pages also result in a conversion, SEO is likely to be solely responsible for the click and conversion. These conversions are harder to achieve, but great when they happen!
Brand search tracking lets you see how people are searching for your brand. You’ll find branded searches you might otherwise miss.
10. Missed brand searches
If you track how users search for your brand, you’ll gain insights into how users trust your brand.
Search Engine Land contributor Sara Taher says:
If you don’t stay on top of branded searches, you could miss out on rankings and lose clicks (and users) to competitors or unofficial sites.
Potential buyers who are close to converting but maybe a little nervous might search for things like:
A good example of these search terms can be found on Groupon.
The nature of the industry (discounts and coupons) potentially increases shopper caution, but these searches can be found for many other brands.
Reviews, in particular, can result in lost clicks for brands with sites like Trust Pilot or Facebook ranking over the site’s domain.
Brands can manage these queries by creating pages that satisfy the intent. By doing this, the branded website is more likely to rank, gain a click, and control the narrative the potential buyer sees.
11. Conversions and conversion rate
Conversions and conversion rates (CVR) are metrics to watch against each other.
Conversion is a significant action taken on your website. For eCommerce this could be sales, but it could also be a contact form submission, download or otherwise.
Rebecca Oliver, Digital Marketing Manager at Sixty Eight People, shares the importance of tracking conversion and conversion rate.
12. Revenue
Marketing should always be a revenue generator. After the initial investment, if marketing isn’t earning more than it costs, it’s failing.
When tracking revenue, consider organic metrics, but don’t neglect overall revenue. Remember, SEO contributes to other marketing channels that drive qualified traffic to your website.
On revenue tracking, eCommerce SEO expert Louis Smith says:
13. Clicks and impressions
Finally, gaining clicks and traffic to a website will always be one of the main goals of SEO. So clicks are likely to be something you’ll be tracking in 2023. You don’t get conversions without earning a click, and you don’t get clicks without impressions.
When it comes to tracking the value of clicks, you need to track clicks along with other SEO metrics like:
The key is to identify which SEO efforts are driving qualified traffic to a website.
Benefits of tracking SEO metrics
The benefits of tracking SEO metrics include a deeper understanding of:
Which SEO metrics shouldn’t you track?
It’s not easy for anyone to tell which metrics are valuable and which aren’t. The truth is, the metrics you value will depend on what you’re trying to achieve with your marketing.
The important thing is to look at the bigger picture. When looking at SEO metrics, you need to look at some metrics in conjunction with others.
For example, users spending a lot of time on the site is often a good indicator when taken in isolation, but if your traffic isn’t converting, maybe you’re attracting the wrong people or the site is cumbersome to use and people are struggling to navigate to it. the desired page.
SEO metrics: A summary
If you were to track all the metrics recommended by our experts, you would be tracking:
This is not an exhaustive list, but these items certainly came up time and time again when we reached out to experts. Not all metrics apply to your site or goals, but if they do, track them and see what you find.
Remember: Have fun tracking SEO metrics and approach them with curiosity.
Don’t fall victim to analytical paralysis. Instead, enjoy the journey. You can get incredibly close to the data with reports in GA4 and track audience behavior with granularity.
It doesn’t hurt to crawl “a lot” and if you’re just exploring SEO monitoring, it might even be better to crawl more until you find the metrics you find most valuable to you and your site’s goals.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily those of Search Engine Land. Team authors are listed here.
Zoe Ashbridge is a senior SEO strategist and co-founder of forank. Zoe has a background in digital marketing and digital project management. Zoe supports companies worldwide with actionable SEO strategy for internal teams, search engine marketing consulting and implementation. Zoe writes about SEO, Digital Marketing and Entrepreneurship.
What are the three main metrics?
Why is it important to measure SEO performance?
SEO professionals track everything from rankings and conversions to lost links and more to help prove the value of SEO. Measuring the impact of your work and continual refinement is critical to SEO success, customer retention and perceived value. It also helps you shift your priorities when something isn’t working.
What reason is it most important to continuously measure the performance of your SEO strategy? One of the most important aspects of achieving SEO is gaining new links to your website and content, so it’s important to analyze all aspects of your backlink profile to verify that you’re gaining relevant links from quality domains.
Why is it important to use measurements to track your SEO performance?
Tracking and measuring SEO is an essential aspect of the search engine optimization process. You can use it to assess whether your strategy is working, whether you’re achieving your desired results, and to understand where and how you can improve in the future.
How do we measure SEO performance and success?
10 KPIs to track your SEO performance and drive better results
- Organic traffic. This KPI measures how many visitors come to your site from organic search results. …
- Search ratings. …
- Search visibility. …
- Connections. …
- Organic CTR. …
- Brand traffic. …
- Bounce rate. …
- Average session duration.
What is performance measurement in SEO?
SEO is the act of editing your website content to appear higher in search results and using it to drive more traffic to your website. So when looking at SEO performance, you are measuring your rankings. However, there are other important elements that you need to consider and measure as well.
How do we measure SEO performance and success?
10 KPIs to track your SEO performance and drive better results
- Organic traffic. This KPI measures how many visitors come to your site from organic search results. …
- Search ratings. …
- Search visibility. …
- Connections. …
- Organic CTR. …
- Brand traffic. …
- Bounce rate. …
- Average session duration.
What are the advantages of measuring success rate in SEO?
This tool allows you to evaluate your site’s link building progress, identify new backlinks, and find out when backlinks are deleted. Knowing the number of new backlinks to your site is valuable information when analyzing your link building efforts.
What are the key metrics to measure success of search engine marketing?
10 KPIs to track your SEO performance and drive better results
- Organic traffic. This KPI measures how many visitors come to your site from organic search results. …
- Search ratings. …
- Search visibility. …
- Connections. …
- Organic CTR. …
- Brand traffic. …
- Bounce rate. …
- Average session duration.
What are metrics in search engine marketing? SEO metrics allow you to measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts and make corrective changes based on the data. If you don’t stay on top of key metrics, you will likely miss opportunities and threats.
What is SEO performance metrics?
SEO metrics are data points or indicators that you should track and monitor to measure performance and maintain a healthy and optimized website. Whether it’s tracking engagement or reflecting on SERP authority, monitoring your SEO metrics can help you plan strategies for the future.
What are the 3 SEO KPIs you should be tracking? Once you’ve set up your Google Business Profile, you’ll see a number of metrics tracked by default across the platform. Including searches, views, clicks, direction requests and calls. All these metrics are extremely important for a local business and should be tracked as SEO KPIs.
What is the most important reason for using SEO?
In short, SEO is crucial because it makes your website more visible, which means more traffic and more opportunities to convert prospects into customers. Check out the SEO tools you can use for optimal ranking.
What is the most important thing for SEO? The #1 Google Ranking Factor At WebTek, we say that the most important parts of SEO and the most important Google ranking factors are web page titles and title tags. Headlines represent the main asset of any website – they are your best chance to tell Google exactly what your website or webpage is about.