Your value as an SEO comes from your ability to demonstrate your results How to Measure SEO Performance: 9 SEO Metrics You Must Track.
It’s the ability to point and say, “You were on page 50, now you’re number 1!”
It’s the only way to get your customers to bow down and kiss your feet.
Or to retain bragging rights over your SEO friends and show that you actually know what you’re doing .
Sounds simple enough, but this is where things get a little confusing.
You can’t measure your success solely by ranking improvements (unless you want to cry yourself to sleep every night).
Fortunately, there are plenty of other ways you can measure your SEO performance .
And that’s exactly what you’re about to learn. So read on, my friend.
Why measuring SEO effectiveness seems impossible
If you’re new to the world of SEO, nurse database you’re probably feeling a little unsure. You’ve been working for months, your eyes hurt, and you’re implementing daily. But you don’t really know if what you’re doing is actually working.
We’ve all been there before.
So, you’re tracking a single metric. Most likely, keyword rankings. You see some keyword rankings improve, and you breathe a sigh of relief, thank God, and get back to work.
But here’s the problem: Using a single SEO metric won’t give you the whole picture. It’s like calling a puzzle complete when you’ve only put one piece on the board.
The solution is to track multiple metrics . These metrics come from your analytics and SEO tools of choice.
It’s time to prove your worth with cold, hard data.
Mmm, sounds delicious. Let’s dive in!
1. Keyword rankings
Everyone’s favorite SEO metric—keyword how to identify your target audience using rankings. I don’t know if it’s an ego thing, but SEOs love to brag about keyword rankings. Well, it’s a solid metric, and holding the number one spot makes you feel…
The keywords you rank for will tell you a lot of things:
Whether you’re targeting the right keywords. If your website isn’t ranking anywhere for your target keywords , then you need to shift your strategy to less competitive keywords (at least temporarily).
Whether your website is actually growing. Over time, you should see an improvement in your rankings as well as an increase in the total number of keywords your website ranks for. Growth in these two areas will show you that your website is gaining authority and that your posts are starting to attract more long-tail traffic.
Whether you have good keyword rankings is not that important (especially if you are just starting out).
However, what is important is that you either see an increase in the number of keywords you rank for or that your ranking positions improve .
If you start ranking for more keywords, that means you’re picking up long-tail traffic. Good work!
If you see one of your keywords rise from #20 to #2, then you are doing absolutely everything right.
2. Quantity and quality of backlinks
There are over 200 different factors that contribute to your rankings. It’s nearly impossible to track them all. But you don’t have to worry, because…
Backlinks are still one of the most important ranking factors .
Focus on improving the quality and quantity of your backlinks, and Google will show you lots of love.
If you are not getting any new backlinks or those backlinks are of low quality , then you have a problem with your strategy and it is time to correct course.
Tracking your backlinks will provide you with very important information such as:
How effective your link building strategies are . For example, if you ‘re doing broken link building and you get 10 links out of 100 emails sent, then you’re achieving a pretty solid response rate. Keep it up!
Potential sources for future link building. It’s likely that not every link pointing to your website originates from you. By tracking your links, you can identify potential opportunities for future links.
How cost-effective your strategy is.
If you spent $500 acquiring a single usa lists link and that link didn’t improve your rankings, then it’s time to shift your strategy to more cost-effective link acquisition options.
A lot of low-quality links won’t improve your rankings. But getting a few links from high-quality sources, and you’ll definitely see an improvement.