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If you’re serious about improving your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the first step is getting clear on what success looks like.
It’s not enough to say you want more traffic or better search rankings.
What do those outcomes actually mean for your business?
Are you trying to increase leads, drive sales, or grow brand recognition?
Without a clear understanding of what you’re working toward, it’s impossible to measure progress or make strategic improvements.
This is where KPIs, key performance indicators, come in.
What Is a Key Performance Indicator?
A KPI is a specific measurement that helps you decide if your business is on track to achieving a particular goal.
It’s the key data points you track to see what’s working in your business and where you can improve.
With respect to SEO, the right KPIs tell you whether your SEO efforts are attracting the right audience, driving meaningful engagement, and supporting your larger business goals.
Ever heard the saying, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure”?
If you’re serious about SEO, tracking is non-negotiable.
Defining a handful of measurable, relevant KPIs is the foundation for an effective SEO strategy.
You don’t need to (nor should you) track every number available; but you do need to choose the specific metrics that matter for your specific goals.
If you need inspiration, here are 6 KPIs that may be important to your small business’ SEO strategy:
1. Traffic And Impressions
Traffic and impressions are foundational metrics that reveal how visible your website is.
Impressions measure how often your site or content appears in search results, even if no one clicks.
This metric is particularly useful for new websites, where impressions often increase before traffic starts to grow.
If impressions are rising, it’s a sign that your content is being indexed and shown to users searching for relevant terms.
Traffic, on the other hand, tells you how many people are visiting your site.
But quantity isn’t the only consideration. Quality matters just as much.
A small but steady flow of visitors looking for your services or expertise is far more impactful than a lot of poorly-aligned traffic.
Together, traffic and impressions help you measure the reach of your SEO strategy. They’re essential for gauging visibility, but they should always be evaluated alongside metrics that measure engagement and impact.
Best place to measure: Google Search Console and Google Analytics are the gold standard for tracking real time traffic and impressions.
How to interpret: If impressions are climbing but traffic is stagnant, your meta descriptions or titles might need refinement to better attract clicks.
If traffic isn’t translating into engagement or conversions, it’s worth examining whether the content on your site matches user expectations.
2. Number Of Ranking Keywords
Each keyword your website ranks for represents an opportunity for your content to connect with a searcher.
The more keywords your site ranks for, the more visible it becomes to your target audience.
Tracking the keywords your website ranks for is a powerful way to gauge its reach and the scope of your SEO strategy.
Where to measure: Tools like Google Search Console, Ubersuggest or SEMRush make it easy to track your keyword rankings.
They can also show which keywords are climbing in the rankings and which might need more attention, helping you adjust your strategy accordingly.
How to interpret: If your number of ranking keywords is increasing, it’s generally a sign that your SEO efforts are broadening your reach.
If it’s stagnant or declining, it might mean your content needs to be refreshed or optimized for relevance.
Pro tip: Don’t let this measurement become a vanity metric.
Keep an eye on the specific keywords that are rising in the search results and make sure they’re ones that are valuable to your business.
3. Branded Search Volume
Branded search volume is a special case of “tracking your keywords”.
It’s a measure of how often people are directly searching for your business name or one of your branded products.
It’s also an indicator of growing brand recognition and trust.
Google is increasingly prioritizing brands it deems trustworthy and authoritative, and it uses branded search traffic as one proxy for the credibility of a brand.
Tracking your branded search volume a meaningful way to gauge how your broad brand awareness aligns with Google’s evolving standards.
How to measure: Tracking your branded search volume can be as simple as setting up keyword tracking within a tool like Ubersuggest.
Or, when you check your KPIs, simply note and track the search volume associated with your name, brand or products.
Pro tip: Branded searches often increase when you’re actively engaging in content creation, PR efforts, or other visibility-building strategies like podcasts or guest blogging.
The best way to increase your branded search volume is by engaging in activities that expand your brand awareness.
4. Increasing Domain Authority
Domain authority is a measure of how trustworthy and credible your website is in the eyes of search engines.
It’s a metric developed by a third-party tool, Moz, to approximate how likely your site is to rank well compared to others.
While it isn’t a direct ranking factor for Google, a higher domain authority often correlates with better search performance.
A rising domain authority signals that your site is gaining credibility, which comes in large part from earning high-quality backlinks.
These are links from other relevant, reputable websites pointing to your content, serving as votes of confidence in your expertise.
While domain authority doesn’t tell the full story, it’s an important metric for tracking your website’s overall health and competitive edge.
How to measure: Tools such as Ubersuggest or SEMRush will provide a measure of domain authority with their standard audit.
Or, go directly to Moz and request up to 3 domain authority reports per day, for free.
5. Conversions
Conversions are any action your website visitor takes from your website.
These could be signing up for a discovery call, subscribing to a newsletter or making a purchase.
While impressions and traffic show how visible your website is, conversions reveal how effective it is at turning visitors into engaged leads or customers.
This metric connects your SEO efforts to real business outcomes.
Conversions are one of the most direct indicators of how well your SEO is working but they also indirectly DRIVE SEO success.
Great SEO doesn’t just drive traffic, it should drive the RIGHT traffic.
Tracking conversions enables you to gauge whether your content aligns with searcher expectations.
If you’re attracting the right traffic, your visitors should be taking action on your website.
If you’re attracting a lot of traffic but seeing few signups or purchases, it may mean your keywords aren’t connecting you to the right searchers, your calls-to-action aren’t compelling, or your website design needs improvement.
Google also tracks user engagement on your website.
Clicks are one measure of engagement that Google considers in it’s ranking algorithm and high user engagement is a positive ranking signal for future searches.
Note: There’s no one-size-fits-all way to measure conversions.
Google Analytics is great for tracking things like form submissions or purchases, but you can also track conversions in the tools you’re already using.
Your CRM might handle discovery call bookings, and your email platform can tell you how many new subscribers you’re getting.
The most important thing is knowing where your conversions happen and using tools that make it easy to measure them.
6. Revenue
Revenue is perhaps the ultimate metric for measuring the success of your SEO.
Are the leads you’re getting from your website making you money?
Are your SEO leads making you more money over time?
While other metrics like traffic, conversions, and branded searches highlight progress in specific areas, revenue ties it all back to your bottom line.
The beauty of SEO is that its impact grows over time.
As your content gains momentum and your website becomes more authoritative, the revenue generated through organic traffic should compound, delivering even more value in the long run.
When it comes down to it, revenue is the clearest way to connect your SEO strategy to the success of your business.
Choosing the Right KPIs for Your Business
Not every KPI will be relevant to every business, and that’s the point.
The most effective SEO strategies focus on the metrics that align YOUR specific business goals.
If you’re a service provider, conversions like discovery calls or email signups might be your top priority. For an e-commerce businesses, direct sales might take center stage.
Start by asking yourself what success looks like for your business.
Are you trying to grow brand awareness, drive sales, or increase engagement?
Once you’re clear on your goals, it becomes easier to identify which KPIs matter most and where to focus your energy.
By choosing the right KPIs, you’re giving yourself a clear roadmap for progress. You’ll know where to invest your efforts and, just as importantly, where not to.
Your SEO strategy should deliver results you can see and measure.
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