SEO KPIs to track and measure SEO success

SEO KPIs to track and measure SEO success

If something can be measured, it can be improved. 

By carefully measuring your SEO with metrics that matter to your business, you can understand where you are currently and what value SEO brings to your marketing. 

SEO KPIs bridge the gap between your business and marketing objectives and the data available in SEO tools and web analytics. 

This article outlines the many SEO metrics and KPIs and how to tailor a set of SEO KPIs to your business. 

What are KPIs?

A KPI is a key performance indicator. This is a quantifiable measurement of performance in relation to a specific objective. KPIs help you define targets and milestones and measure progress toward those goals.

What are SEO KPIs?

SEO KPIs are metrics used to measure SEO performance. 

Typically, SEO KPIs track visibility or traffic and how it fares in relation to your goals. 

Such metrics will quantify traffic from major search engines like Google and Bing and the real-world results of SEO strategies and tactics (leads and sales).

Using SEO KPIs

Careful measurement and tracking provide a control system to ensure your tactics deliver results and your time and effort are spent on productive tasks.  

Diligent measurement also provides feedback if your tactics are not working and inform you of how changes in the search landscape or algorithm impact performance. 

KPIs can be tiered to provide understandable metrics for all stakeholders. The marketing team will need more detail to ensure time is spent wisely on SEO vs. PPC, but the board may only need to see top-level performance figures. 

Tailoring the KPIs to your situation is the key to creating truly useful SEO KPIs. 

Objectives and KPIs

Your SEO KPIs should act as an extension of your overall business and marketing goals. 

You ensure you aim at relevant goals by considering your SEO goals as an extension of your overall marketing goals. Your SEO KPIs then track performance toward that goal. 

The key is in the name (literally and figuratively): KPIs are key performance indicators.

They force you to ask whether your SEO approach drives performance. If not, what can you do about it?

This is really important but all too often overlooked.

SEO can be so complex that you need clear objectives and ways to measure progress toward those goals to ensure your time and effort are spent wisely pursuing the right goals. 

SEO KPI Process 

The following is a simple process that you can use to determine your SEO goals and KPIs. 

Step 1: Determine your SEO goals

The first job is to identify your SEO objectives. What are the important tasks you need to achieve now, in a month, three months, six months and a year?

The SEO goals should connect to established organizational goals, and you should clearly articulate how the SEO goals drive the overall business goals. 

I suggest three to five goals initially to keep focus. 

You should then define your SEO goals using the SMART goals system

Alternatively, you can use

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Why SEO experts rarely share actual success stories

Why SEO experts rarely share actual success stories

Most SEO experts are still afraid to publish their success stories, with a few notable exceptions. 

Many are simply unable to share their work even when it’s successful. How can SEOs stop practicing “ghost optimization”? 

Before we dive into this question, let’s look at the reasons for the ongoing secrecy and still prevailing negativity among SEO practitioners.

SEO horror stories, anyone?

One of the most popular SEO hashtags within the industry over recent years has been #seohorrorstories. 

Why are SEO experts much more likely to share the horrible failures of the industry and their colleagues than their own success stories? 

Is this the overall prevailing negativity of society as a whole? Or do we have an internal problem aggravating the situation? 

I think it’s probably both.

First off, the recent years have led to a never-ending, downward spiral of public debate. Diplomacy has made way for trolling. 

When even presidents provoke people online to get attention, how is everybody else meant to stay civil in day-to-day conversations? 

Also, social media like Facebook and Twitter have been capitalizing on fear and anger.

Such “bad news” goes straight to our lizard brain and elicits fearful and angry reactions without consulting the parts of the brain responsible for logical thinking.

No wonder that even within the relatively professional SEO industry, the discourse has degenerated into the realm of “OMG! Look at that nonsense! How stupid!”

I’m exaggerating a bit, but that’s the essence of most shares where #seohorrorstories are involved. 

These are more than cautionary tales. It’s also a way of ridiculing those reckless enough to get caught red-handed while employing outdated SEO tactics.

Perhaps the thought process is that when one can’t shed light on their actual successes, then highlight others’ failures. This way, they indirectly stand in a better light by sheer comparison.

Of course, this is merely guesswork. The motivation behind the many horror stories may vary. It won’t simply gloat or malice, in most cases. 


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‘Look at this random graph, please – the growth is stellar!’

There is also a compromise, anonymized “success” stories – where the alleged success can’t be fully reviewed by peers.

Such stories seem to be the middle ground between failure and success stories. So what is the logic behind them, then?

You will find lots of social media posts shared of random graphs without any URL connected to them.

It’s usually an analytics screenshot clumsily anonymized before publication. Ultimately, the stellar growth they exhibit lacks any credibility. 

I’m usually acquainted with those who share such success stories, so I know they won’t lie.

In most cases, they also add as much context as possible without giving away any meaningful detail so that you cannot track down the website they’re talking about.

What about industry outsiders and potential clients?

They have no idea who the people sharing the graphs are and how trustworthy the information is.

What is the purpose of sharing graphs without any context?

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10 Ways To Optimize Your Site For Future SEO Success

10 Ways To Optimize Your Site For Future SEO Success

Additionally, Google is working on upgrading its search capabilities through AI technology like MUM, which promises to make search more flexible.

This valuable knowledge will push you towards the best way to optimize your site.

Let’s make sure your SEO strategy matches the flexibility of your customers and Google’s constantly changing algorithm.

How To Optimize Your Site For Voice Search

Now that we know how people typically use voice search, let’s get to work.

Making your site voice-search-friendly can help people find you – and, more importantly, choose you.

How can your business leverage voice technology?

1. Find & Use Conversational Keywords

As you know, short and vague keywords are the enemy of SEO.

In most cases, mid-tail and long-tail keywords are much better: the more specific they are, the more likely they are to bring you a customer.

Voice search takes it a step further: even long-tail keywords aren’t enough.

Instead, you have to use full phrases and questions that are normally used in conversations between real humans.

Such as, “What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?”

Fortunately, keyword-finding tools can pick up such phrases and questions for you just fine.

Look no further than WebCEO’s Keyword Suggestions.

Voice Search: 10 Ways To Optimize Your Site For Future SEO SuccessScreenshot from WebCEO, April 2022

Once you’re inside the question research tool, select all conversational phrases.

Hint: they often begin with the words who, what, why, where, when, and how.

Good alternatives for voice search keyword research are Google’s autocomplete and “People Also Ask” features.

To take your research across the finish line, be sure to also look in forums and websites frequented by your target audience.

A really good example is Reddit. Find a subreddit related to your niche and check the thread titles – those are the questions asked by your potential customers.

All that’s left is to use them on your site.

2. Build An FAQ Section

You often hear that having an FAQ page on your site is great for your SEO, and it’s absolutely true.

Users come with questions, and you should have the answers ready.

SEO experts advise creating content that fulfills the users’ needs, and it’s hard to think of a better example than an FAQ.

But the important words here are “questions” and “answers” – that’s the essence of voice search!

Those questions and answers are the drivers of conversational language, which we’ve just talked about.

Using your research from step 1, list the questions on one of your site’s pages – then simply follow them up with answers.

Make them detailed, but not too long; users prefer quick answers, and voice search answers tend to be on the shorter side, too.

 

Voice Search: 10 Ways To Optimize Your Site For Future SEO SuccessScreenshot from Siri User Guide, April 2022

3. Go Multilingual

Chances are, you have a diverse pool of visitors who speak more than one language.

If that’s the case, you need to prepare content they can find and use.

With voice search involved, the quality of your content’s translation needs to be very accurate.

You want to

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9 roadblocks to Seo success

9 roadblocks to Seo success

Search engine optimization can be a high-priced financial commitment, so, understandably, you’d want to do all the things to get the most out of your financial commitment. But, to do so, you want to be informed of frequent roadblocks that can hinder Seo results. 

In my working experience, 9 issues have historically saved my customers from having effects. Figuring out these roadblocks can help you get in entrance of them and avert them from creeping into your marketing campaign and derailing your progress. 

1. Not defining marketing campaign goals

If you really do not know what plans you’re trying to attain by means of Search engine marketing, measuring achievements is extremely hard. 

Similarly, if you have set ambitions but haven’t discovered any essential effectiveness indicators (KPIs), it’s hard to know how prosperous you’ve fulfilled your marketing campaign goals. 

There’s almost nothing even worse than possessing a variety in someone’s head (e.g., add 100 new sales opportunities for every thirty day period via Website positioning) and not discovering out right up until months into attempts and discovering that you are not undertaking to that expectation.

Defining objectives and KPIs and speaking these with your workforce will assistance you have a successful campaign and meet your bottom line. 


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2. Lack of means

Performing with a deficiency of assets is incredibly irritating, and it can hinder your Search engine marketing good results. 

Beneath are some illustrations of resources you need to have to operate a thriving marketing campaign and what can take place when you really don’t have them.

  • People today: A absence of human resources dedicated to Search engine optimisation can stall your marketing campaign and maintain you from building your preferred development. Search engine optimisation is a commitment that needs dependable perform from a devoted personal or staff. You can just operate on Seo when you really feel like it or have a number of excess minutes if you want to see good results. On top of that, you are going to generally want methods for material, UX, IT and other spots over and above Search engine marketing to implement Seo suggestions and ideas.
  • Funds: A deficiency of economical assets can significantly slow your marketing campaign. You have to have an Search engine marketing spending budget that can accommodate shelling out a personnel member or company to manage the campaign and purchase the necessary equipment to conduct essential Seo investigate and monitor your achievement. 
  • Resources: There are numerous analysis and reporting tools essential to thoroughly optimize your internet site. Though there are absolutely free selections out there, and you can make do with out acquiring a plethora of instruments at your disposal, you’re probably to hit a plateau that can slow Search engine optimization progress.
  • Info: Analyzing facts is an essential part of an Search engine marketing campaign at literally every single phase. You may be still left in the darkish without the need of the info needed to advise essential selections with
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