If your goal is to increase traffic and measure your SEO results, one of the best ways to do this is to implement SEO performance metrics. Even if you’ve never used metrics to measure your search engine optimization before, there are dozens of options that can help you improve your SEO efforts and earn better rankings for your site.
The Top 5 SEO Performance Metrics for Website Owners
1. Organic Traffic Rates
Search engines today have migrated away from methods like paid search and are leaning toward organic search, instead. With this in mind, measuring organic traffic is one of the best ways for website owners to keep tabs on their SEO.
Since the production of healthy levels of organic search traffic is the primary goal of many SEO programs, watching for dips or spikes in organic traffic rates can clue you into strong or weak points in your SEO strategy.
If you notice that your organic traffic rates have spiked, it’s your job to hunt around for the cause, and incorporate it into your SEO strategy in the future. If, on the other hand, your organic traffic rates have dipped, you’ll need to identify the cause and seek to fix it immediately.
2. Referrals By Search Engines
Together, Yahoo, Bing, and Google comprise 95% of all the U.S.’s search traffic. Outside of the U.S., Google is responsible for upwards of 80% of all search traffic. With this in mind, it’s clear that measuring search engine referral rates is essential for keeping tabs on SEO performance. If, for any reason, the referrals you receive from search engines drop sharply, you’ll need to understand the contributions each search engine is making, and identify what you can do to boost them.
3. Keyword Rankings
Keyword rankings are critical for understanding SEO performance. Take KISSmetrics, for example, which earns 91% of all of its search traffic at the hands of long-tail keywords. While keywords play different roles in different SEO strategies, they’re an important metric, and their rankings should be monitored carefully. By doing this, you’ll be better equipped to spot any negative SEO impacts and stop them before they reach a crisis point.
4. Authority
Authority is established through quality backlinks, and monitoring it can help you gain a solid idea of how well your SEO strategy is performing. If your backlink game is lacking, it’s wise to boost it by earning new backlinks through quality content and engaging in smart link-building campaigns.
5. User Time On-Page
You can implement the greatest SEO strategies in the world, and it’s all for naught if your users don’t love your pages. With this in mind, be sure to measure the time users spend on your pages. If your times are very small, consider improving your content to make it more relevant and exciting. If your times are high, monitor them for any sudden drops or changes that may indicate SEO weak spots.
Good Metrics = Great SEO
What is measured can be improved, and it’s critical to measure your SEO performance metrics on a regular basis. Because search engine optimization is so dynamic and varied, watching these metrics will allow you to spot SEO problems and address them before they cause long-lasting damage to your site – a tactic that’s good for you and your customers, as well.
To learn more about best SEO practices or for help implementing the strategies discussed above, contact Thrive Internet Marketing today!
