When you’ve invested time and money into SEO, you want to be able to clearly see how well your efforts are paying off.
The challenge with tracking SEO progress is that not all of the data you’ll get from search platforms is relevant to your business. Knowing what SEO metrics are important to track will help turn SEO from a guessing game into a viable marketing strategy.
We work with clients across the country to build SEO campaigns that adapt and improve based on key metrics. Here’s a walkthrough of the most important SEO metrics to track and how to interpret and apply them so you can start making sense of your site’s performance.
What Are Search Clicks?
Search clicks are tracked anytime someone visits your site via a search engine. Using tools like Google Search Console, you can access click data and break it down based on the search term, or query, that a user entered into Google to reach your site.
Interpreting Search Click Data
Clicks from organic search aren’t the only source of traffic to your website, but they’re one of the best measures of how well your SEO efforts are working. By looking closely at what queries are leading visitors to your site, you can track keyword performance and make changes to your SEO strategy based on this data.
Keep in mind that not all data recorded in Google Search Console is non-branded. GSC also records traffic from branded queries, which include your business name in them. In general, non-branded traffic growth is a far better indicator of SEO success than branded traffic.
What Are Search Impressions?
Impressions represent how many times your website showed up in search results for a specific query, whether or not someone clicked on one of your links. This number is trackable with tools like Google Search Console, which you can access for free via your Google account.
An increase in impressions generally means that your pages are starting to be served to more web users in a variety of ways, including through AI overviews. Growth in this metric is usually a good early sign that your SEO efforts are starting to pay off.
Are Impressions as Important as Clicks?
In general, clicks are more objectively valuable to your business than impressions for one simple reason: a click signifies that someone actually interacted with your content. A disproportionate amount of impressions vs. clicks can mean that your content is ranking on search engines, but it’s not compelling enough to get engagement.
What Does Click-Through Rate Tell You About Your Content?
The ratio of impressions and clicks can tell you a lot about how your content is performing. This ratio is called click-through rate (CTR).
You can measure your CTR in Google Search Console, but you can also easily calculate it by dividing your click count by your impression count. This will often get you a fractional or single-digit number.
What Does a Healthy CTR Look Like?
The average CTR in organic search results can vary extremely widely based on the position you rank in. For example, the highest-ranking pages on a search engine results page (SERP) often get double-digit CTR, but pages that rank in lower spots may get only 1-3%.
If your CTR seems low, carefully analyze what might be missing from your pages’ titles, meta descriptions, and thumbnails. These are the features that show up in a SERP, and they’re often what sets your page apart from others in a list of similar content.
Keep in mind that CTRs have generally dipped in the age of AI overviews, which encourage users to read content pulled from a site without clicking. Working with an agency that specializes in GEO and AEO for small businesses can help you handle this shift in search confidently instead of getting left behind.
What About Keyword Tracking?
Keyword ranking measures where your pages land in search results for the specific terms that matter most to your business. This metric is a direct indicator of how competitive your content is against other businesses in your industry and service area.
How Do You Track Keyword Performance Locally?
If you run a small business that offers local services to a fixed area, tracking keyword performance locally will serve you far better than analyzing global data. You can do this using a tool like SEMRush, which provides you with up-to-date information on how you are ranking for certain searches in your service area.
Do You Need To Track Your Site Conversions?
If your goal for SEO is to grow your business, clicks, impressions, and other metrics will never matter as much as conversions. Depending on what product or service you offer, tracking conversions might mean looking at phone calls, orders, or forms filled out.
When clicks and impressions are rising but conversions are staying stagnant, something is off. This is why you should always make conversion data your number-one priority. A trustworthy SEO agency should have this as their main KPI as well.
Tracking Conversion Data
You can track conversion data using tools like Google Analytics, which can help you clearly see where a customer clicked before they called or placed an order. Gathering data as specific as possible will help you make informed changes to your SEO strategy for more leads and conversions in the future.
Let’s Put These Metrics to Work for Your Business
Knowing what SEO metrics are important to track can help you feel more confident about your digital marketing investment. Even so, it’s easier to interpret and apply the data when experts have your back.
If you’re ready for real results from SEO, we’d love to talk. Reach out to our team today to schedule a call.