Measuring results is a huge part of SEO and marketing in general.
Afterall, how are you going to know if your strategy is working if you can’t measure the results?
When it comes to delivering SEO services, there are many different metrics that you can measure to determine if what you’re doing is actually working.
There are also a few that don’t matter so much and can get you bogged down if you spend too much time looking at them.
The Important Metrics
Here are the metrics that you should pay attention to when it comes to SEO campaigns.
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is probably the most obvious stat to look at.
The whole point in running an SEO campaign for your business is to get more traffic to your site. Organic traffic tells us if we are achieving this.
Traffic for your business site can come from a number of sources including social media, direct searches and others.
Organic traffic comes from people who search for keywords related to your business or industry then land on your website.
A successful SEO strategy will show a consistent rise in organic traffic to your website over a period of time.
Just like the strategy we executed over at Lyons Estates.
All in a day’s work for our in house SEO superstars!
CTR (Click-Through-Rate)
CTR is the percentage of people who see your website in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) and click on it.
The higher the CTR the better, as more people will be clicking through to visit your website. If it isn’t as high then it may be down to the headline or meta description.
Click Through Rate Formula
CTR = (Clicks / Impressions) X 100
Having a meta description and title that is both engaging and persuasive is a surefire way to increase that CTR.
And if you struggle to write engaging and persuasive copy then don’t worry.
Luckily for you we have a team of excellent copywriting experts who can do exactly that!
Exit Rate
An exit page refers to the last page your website visitor was on before they decided to leave your website.
It’s important to know what your exit pages are as they’re the ones where users suddenly lost interest and got off.
Each page will have an exit rate percentage, so if one particular page has a significantly higher exit rate than others, then the content may need work.
Exit Rate Formula
Exit Rate = Number of Exits From a Page / Number of Total Users to that Page
Here are 3 tips to improve your exit rate:
- Content must be easy to understand and in a clear structure.
- Add internal links to that page and ensure there is a clear call to action.
- Ensure images and videos are added to engage visitors even further.
Pages Per Session
It’s cool when you get a first time user on your site.What’s even cooler is when they stay on your site and browse through your other pages!
Pages per session measures exactly what it says on the tin.
It refers to the number of pages users visit on average before bidding farewell to your site.
You want people to stay on your site for longer and view as many pages as possible.
So a higher pages per session number the better.
Average Page Load Time
Page speed is so important for SEO.
If your page is taking longer than a couple of seconds to load then not many users will stick around.
We all live fast paced lives these days so we are used to getting information instantaneously.
You really think people have an extra 3 seconds to spare so they can get access to your site?
Pffttt.
Nobody got time for that!
Keyword Rankings
As you start adding content to your site there will be specific keywords that your webpages will start to rank for.
There are opportunities to be found in keywords.
One opportunity is spotting which relevant keywords your site isn’t ranking for then adding them to your site with new pages and content.
Another opportunity is seeing which keywords your site is currently ranking for then trying to optimise for them even further.
Some could get a lot of search traffic on a monthly basis so it’s important to know which ones your site is showing for.
Conversions
Conversion rate refers to the important actions that users take on your site e.g. checking out, subscribing to a service, signing up etc.
While measuring your conversion rate is still important there is something to keep in mind when analysing the data.
Conversion rates may seem like the holy grail when it comes to measuring the success of an SEO campaign but this figure can be misleading.
What if your site’s conversion rate is high one day then the next it’s lower?
Does that mean your site has gone to pot one day?
No, of course not.
You want conversion rates to be high but they don’t paint the full picture.
A conversion for one business could be different to another business. One may have email leads set as a conversion, whereas one may have a product sale as a conversion.
Both are seen as conversions but only one has a direct impact on business revenue.
So don’t get too hung up on conversion rates.
Focus on the other metrics and your conversion rates should take care of themselves.
Metrics Which Aren’t as Important
We’ve talked about the metrics to look out for.
Now it’s time to look at the metrics which aren’t as important but may get more attention than they should.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rates indicate the percentage of users who come onto your site and leave after just one session.
On the surface this doesn’t sound good if your site has a high bounce rate.
You may think your site is useless or that you have a boring brand nobody likes.
But your site could have actually been exactly what the user was looking for and now they have left completely satisfied.
Both of these scenarios are possibilities, yet both still contribute to your site bounce rate.
Looking at bounce rates for individual pages on your site could be a better strategy as opposed to your overall site’s bounce rate.
Average Time Spent on Page
The average time a user is spent on a page can be a misleading number to base campaigns off of.
It’s a very similar scenario to the bounce rates as the time someone spends on your page doesn’t exactly paint a full picture.
The user could have gone on the page and found exactly what they were looking for and bought something within 30 seconds.
So spending 30 seconds on a page could be seen as either a positive or a negative without proper context to it.
SEO at Blaze Media
As you can see there are quite a few variables to consider when it comes to measuring the success of your business’ SEO campaign.
At least now you have a better understanding of what metrics actually matter.
At Blaze Media we have an experienced in-house SEO team who work with a variety of clients on a daily basis to deliver world class results for their SEO campaigns.
They use adaptive and innovative strategies to ensure sites have a steady flow of traffic throughout the year.
Contact us today and we can get an SEO strategy sorted for your business or conduct a free SEO audit on your site.