SEO Tracking: Key Metrics for Business Owners to Track

If you are a business owner, you must know how important it is to perform on search engines. In this digital era, a business’s online presence alone can make or break its fortune. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the ultimate way to make your presence felt in this highly competitive landscape.  

You must have already read many blogs or consulted with multiple SEO experts for your business website’s performance optimization. But do you know how to track the performance? What are the key metrics to track?  

In this blog, we will clear your grey area of the SEO performance tracking knowledge. We will present the key SEO metrics that matter when you are looking to assess the performance of your business’s website. We will also discuss the tools you can use for accurate tracking of these metrics. 

The Definition of SEO Tracking

Before discussing the key metrics, we must develop a clear idea of what SEO tracking is. The term ‘SEO tracking’ refers to the process of analyzing the performance of an SEO campaign and the efforts included in it. During SEO tracking you can assess how accurately your SEO strategies are working for your business’s website. 

Now the question is how do you track the performance of your SEO campaign? The answer is simple, by monitoring the key metrics like rankings, traffic, visibility, organic impressions, and more.  

You can easily identify the areas for improvement and optimize your business’s online presence accordingly. 

What is an SEO Metric?

The term ‘SEO metric’ refers to the vital data that guides you to evaluate the performance of your business website and identify the areas for improvement. SEO metrics help us by providing in-depth insights into engagement levels and SERP authority, informing future strategies.  

By analyzing these datasets, SEO experts evaluate the effectiveness of the optimization campaigns. This data assessment not only helps the SEO experts but businesses as well. From goal setting, and campaign setup, to planning and restructuring plans and efforts to achieve objectives.  

While some metrics may seem superficial (“vanity metrics”), they still offer valuable insights when considered alongside others. Discerning which metrics to prioritize requires experience and a keen understanding of overarching goals. 

Key Metrics to Track Your SEO Performance

Keyword Rankings

Do you want to know how your website is doing on search engines? Then you need to check your keyword rankings. These are the positions that your website gets for different words that people search for. These words are very important for your business because they show how well your SEO efforts are working.  

You want to rank higher for the words that matter most to your customers. To do that, you need to keep track of your keywords and see how they change over time. You can do this yourself for the most important words, or you can use some cool tools that do it for you and tell you more about why your rankings go up or down. 

Organic Traffic

When people search for something on Google or other search engines, they see two kinds of results: paid ads and organic results. Organic traffic is the number of people who click on the organic results and land on your website. It’s a great way to measure your SEO performance because it tells you how relevant your website is for the words that people search for. You can use a tool called Google Analytics to check your organic traffic (just follow these steps: Acquisition > Channels > Organic Search). You can also see how many sessions you have, which means how many times people interact with your website. 

As SEO’s primary goal is to enhance organic traffic, tracking this metric provides clear insights into campaign performance and search visibility. In essence, an increase in organic traffic signifies improved SEO success, evident through heightened visits from search results. 

Visibility

You want people to find your website on search engines, right? Then you need to pay attention to your SEO visibility. This is how often and how high your website pops up on search results when people search for something that has to do with your site. It shows you how easy it is for people to spot and click on your website, which means your SEO is rocking and bringing more visitors to your site. 

Organic Impressions

Organic impressions occur when users encounter your website in search results, even if they don’t click on it. Tracked through tools like Google Search Console (GSC), they are early indicators of SEO progress.  

Increased impressions signal improved keyword relevance and search engine understanding of your content. Monitoring impressions aids in identifying optimization opportunities for keywords and pages, facilitating targeted SEO strategies. 

Exit rate

Ever wondered what makes visitors bid farewell to your website? Exit rate spills the beans! It reveals the percentage of sessions ending on a particular page. But here’s the twist: high exit rates aren’t always bad! They could mean users found what they needed and left contented.  

Want to keep them hooked? Optimize page layout, add internal links, and boost content with visuals. 

Pages per session

Pages per session tracks how many pages visitors explore in one visit, offering insights into user engagement. A higher value indicates users are delving deeper into your site, a positive sign of interest. It serves as a gauge of navigation effectiveness and content engagement. Low numbers may signal uninteresting content or navigation issues. 

Access this metric in Google Analytics under Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels, right next to Bounce Rate. 

Average page load time

Are you interested in uncovering the speed secrets of your website? Average Page Load Time is your go-to metric for gauging how swiftly your pages load in browsers. Speedy sites are crucial for both user experience and SEO rankings, especially in the mobile era.  

Wondering how you measure average page load time? Head to Google Analytics’ Behavior > Site Speed > Page Timings to find out. After all, in the world of SEO, slow and steady doesn’t win the race! 

Backlinks

Although on-page optimization and metrics are critical for the SEO performance of your business website, off-page SEO efforts specifically backlinks are still valuable. Backlinks are one of the proven strategies to improve rankings on Google SERP.  

In order to track the backlinks tools like Ahrefs can help your business significantly. Not just the backlinks but the number of domains and their URL can also be accessed using the tool. This can help you verify the backlinks’ quality as well. 

Local SEO Metrics (if applicable)

Parameters like “Impressions” and “Reach” are critical from a local SEO perspective. Because these metrics reveal your business’s visibility to the probable clients within a specific region or area.  

5 Popular SEO Tools Recommended for Accurate SEO Tracking

Without quality SEO tools you can never be able to access accurate information for the above-discussed SEO metrics. 5 of the most popular SEO tools are discussed below for a successful SEO performance tracking 

Google Analytics: Google Analytics is one of the most popular SEO tools in the world. It is also a must-have if you are a business owner and want to run a successful business in the online landscape.  

This tool can help you access important data about your website. For example the referring channel type of the visitors (Organic or via any paid channel), their activities on the website, and most importantly how many of them converted to customers. 

Google Search Console: Google Search Console (GSC) is another tool you need in your arsenal if you are looking to maximize your chances of generating more business via your website.  

From the keywords or user queries your website is ranking for, the number of clicks on your website, to the number of impressions, and most importantly issues that are not allowing Google to index your website you can access all this information via GSC. 

Ahrefs: Ahrefs is one of the best and most highly rated SEO tools you can find today. You can use this tool to access information like backlinks, keywords, and competitor website metrics like traffic, DR, UR, and more. 

Semrush: Semrush is a like-to-like replacement for Ahrefs. This is also an all-in-one SEO tool just like Ahrefs. Metrics like keyword rankings and backlinks can be easily tracked, and most importantly competitor website assessment can be done using Semrush. 

Moz: Moz is another popular SEO software among business owners. Keyword research, auditing, and even rank tracking can be done via this tool. Additionally, you can also track your SEO performance, and mark out areas to be improved for better visibility, and other metrics using Moz. 

Token Creative Services – Proven SEO Experts in Canada

Token Creative Services is your trusted SEO agency in Canada. By hiring our team, you get the luxury of truly proven SEO experts and specialists dedicated to maximizing your online visibility and success. With a track record of delivering results-driven SEO solutions, we specialize in optimizing your digital presence to ensure top rankings and increased traffic. Trust our team of seasoned professionals to elevate your brand’s online presence and drive sustainable growth through expert SEO strategies tailored to your unique needs. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that we have developed a clear understanding of what SEO tracking really is and what are the metrics that truly matter. From keywords ranking and organic traffic, to exit rate, page load time, and more are all part of the most important SEO metrics list for a business website that needs to be tracked.