Nobody wants to waste time and money on their SEO campaigns! A good SEO campaign should return twice the revenue it costs, at least. Plus, if you bring outside contractors to help with SEO, you want to make sure you make the right hiring decision. How do you know the right questions to ask?
Interpreting SEO can feel like a really complicated part of marketing. However, the ways you handle it can make or break your website’s engagement and its ability to show up on the screens of internet searchers. A few types of metrics don’t matter that much, so you want to make sure you pay attention to the ones that make the biggest impact on your traffic and, ultimately, conversions.
To help you with SEO on your website and SEO hiring decisions, I’ll share the SEO stats that I use on a weekly basis. You should keep an eye on these, too! And if you want to hire an SEO specialist to manage your website engagement, ask the interviewee how they look at these stats. If they don’t pay attention to these, it’s an indication they probably aren’t up to date on the latest and greatest SEO strategies.
Also Read: 7 SEO Tools Real Experts Use Weekly
Why Do SEO Analytics Matter?
Analyzing data for SEO campaigns can be overwhelming. What numbers are the most important? What should you look for, and how should you keep track?
Once I’ve determined the stats I need to follow most often, how do I know that I’m doing a good job keeping up with them? How do I make sure my campaign actually brings in more traffic?
Keeping up with SEO metrics does take some time and consistent effort, but the payoff is worth it! Remember, more traffic leads to more revenue, which leads to more profit… which is something we all need as we recover from the pandemic.
As an SEO expert, I help businesses every day with website analytics. Let me point out what I look at to determine my actual success. You can learn from my experience and recreate some of my methods for your own online marketing tools.
Also Read: Organic SEO Methodology Explained
The 3 Most Important SEO Stats
These are the most important statistics that make the biggest difference. If you pay attention to these areas, you’ll see the effects in your website’s growing traffic.
- Organic Traffic
This aspect of your website’s traffic is actually the most important. In fact, organic traffic is the heartbeat of SEO campaigns.
It comes not from people clicking on advertisements, but from finding your website through online searches. Any SEO improvements should ultimately boost organic traffic. When you make updates, watch to see when organic traffic on your website has upward trends. Subscribe to Google Search Console, or another similar service, to view the analytics of your organic traffic.
- Search Rankings for Certain Keywords
Determine whether your website’s rank is high for certain keywords by borrowing somebody’s phone and trying to find your website through Google searches. (I say borrow someone else’s phone because search results can be skewed depending on past searches or location. Your other options would be to turn off location services to your web browser or search engine app, or disable all cookies.) Pay attention to your rank, and make note of the differences you get for search terms BEFORE and AFTER making SEO tweaks.
For example, if anyone in the world searches “Maui SEO” on Google, my website shows up as #1. I wouldn’t be happy if it came up fifth on the list, so I’ve optimized my SEO to improve the search results. Having my website as the first option helps to attract traffic to my page before searchers consider any other options. Plus, it shows businesses around me that I really do know what I’m talking about when it comes to SEO.
- CTA Clickthrough Rate
Every business website needs a call-to-action (CTA), preferably located on every page. Your CTA might vary depending on the nature of your business. It could be a link to book an appointment, make a call, sign up for an email newsletter, purchase a product, visit an e-commerce page, or open a “contact us” form… to name a few. You want to make sure that when people search for you, they find what they wanted, and you convince them to take a concrete step in their buyer’s journey.
So, do site visitors find and use these links easily? Is the writing on your website (known as copy) effective to influence how they interact with your site?
Your copy should be clear so visitors know to click the right button. When they read through your website, they need to find what they want. Your copy should persuade them to take the next step forward with your brand, whatever that may be.
It’s one thing for people to look at your website. It’s another for them to commit. The best SEO work in the world doesn’t matter if it doesn’t drive revenue for your business.
One local salon includes a helpful link leading to a calendar. When someone wants to set up an appointment, it’s easy to launch that page and view the business location from the copy on the button that invites them to “Book Appointment.”
If you need to start somewhere to improve your business’s search engine optimization, look at these stats first. Soon, you’ll be able to enhance your website’s traffic and see the fruit of your marketing efforts.
If you want to learn more or want help with your SEO, reach out to us today!
Further Reading: The Three SEO Moves Hawaii Businesses Should Make Right Now
Photo Courtesy of Pascal Debrunner