A common frustration among business owners who undertake an SEO campaign is that they don’t understand how to measure and monitor whether or not their campaign is going well or poorly. Much of this is due to a lack of understanding within an industry that has a reputation for “hiding behind the curtain.” However, a good SEO partner will take the time to help you understand what to look for and how to interpret data that’s presented. It all starts with actually tracking key metrics. As Thomas S Monson stated, “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.” At Firestarter SEO, the key metrics to help you monitor SEO progress boil down to rankings, traffic, and leads.
Rankings
Rankings are fundamental to measuring SEO success. The entire premise of SEO and inbound marketing revolves around the idea of being visible for what your clientele are looking for as it pertains to your services & products. So, a foundational metric to keep an eye on is how your rankings change over time. Ideally, your SEO company has chosen target keywords that are relevant to your business, and have search volume associated with them.
Traffic
Assuming you’ve chosen the right keywords, as your rankings increase over time the organic traffic to your website will naturally follow suit. Measuring traffic is crucial, simply because it can validate whether or not your keyword strategy is working. For example, lets say you see a massive improvement in the number of keywords you show up for on the first page of Google. However, over a period of time you see that there is no change in your traffic. This can indicate that the keywords you’ve chosen may not have much search volume, and therefore won’t have a big impact on your bottom line. Conversely, if you see that along with the increase in rankings, your traffic has also gone up, you will know that it has been an effective strategy.
Leads
A natural result of increased traffic is an increase in conversions, or leads. This ultimately is the most important metric a company can monitor. You can have all of the first page rankings and organic traffic in the world, but if no one is converting then there is a core issue at hand, and an adjustment is required. Leads are the lifeblood of your business growth, so make sure that your SEO company is helping you monitor them.
