The Most Important SEO Metrics That You Should Track at All Costs
In 2015, around 43% of the population headed to Google or Bing daily to search. As of last year, that number shot up to 53%.
The takeaway from this data is that search is more vital than ever to a business. As an ambitious small business owner, you will have to grasp SEO if you want your website to get your customers’ attention.
You’ll also need to track the performance of all your SEO efforts using key metrics. Here is our guide to the vital SEO metrics you need to know.
Table of Contents
Domain Authority
The famous SEO brand Moz first developed the score known as Domain Authority. Now, domain authority is a widely used metric to tell you how trusted your site is (in the eyes of Google).
Domain Authority offers a score from one to a hundred for every website. The higher the score, the better your ranking.
Top news sites like the BBC and CNN will have a score of over ninety. A brand new website with little to no content will score below ten. The average small blog or business typically achieves somewhere between ten and thirty.
Referral Domains
Most SEO tools will include metrics on the number of new referring domains to your website. That figure outlines the number of websites linking back to your site (also known as backlinks).
You’ll want to monitor this number. If you are doing off-site SEO (such as guest posting), you should see regular new referrals to your website to help maintain your search rankings.
Organic Traffic Referrals
The most important indicator of a successful SEO strategy is whether Google is sending you organic traffic. That will show in your Google Analytics dashboard. You want to see a gradual uptick in this number if you invest in SEO.
However, you will see peaks and troughs throughout the year depending on your target keywords and whether your business offers seasonal content, products, or services.
Keyword Rankings
While traffic numbers are vital, the quality of your traffic is equally so in your marketing efforts. You want traffic that converts, which means you want your website to get ranked on the most relevant keywords.
The best way to track this performance is to monitor your keyword rankings weekly or monthly. Most SEO tools will allow you to do this.
You type in the keyword you wish to rank for, and the tool will tell you where Google lists your website. This homepage has more advice on how to boost those rankings.
Top Pages
Monitoring the pages that perform best will help you see what SEO strategies are getting the right results for your business. So in Google Analytics, it’s worth keeping track of your top referring pages from Google.
You can start to analyze the killer content on these pages to understand why these do so well and how you can replicate that success elsewhere on your website.
Start Tracking Your SEO Metrics
Don’t assume everything is always ticking along nicely with your website traffic. Things can change rapidly, and you’ll need to stay on top of your crucial SEO metrics if you want to stay ahead.
Continue discovering more tips to help your SEO efforts by browsing our marketing section.
