SEO Core Metrics
I was recently asked the following question by someone in the SEO community: “How can I show value if traffic and rankings aren’t increasing?”
Many SEOs tend to focus on what I would consider “core seo metrics”, meaning rankings, traffic, and other client specific KPI’s such as leads, revenue, etc…When reporting on these metrics, it can be hard to show value, especially in early stages when you are doing initial work that might not be increasing these core seo metrics.
Another issue to point out is how competitive most “official” keyword lists are. Clients tend to want to load keywords chock full of the most competitive high volume terms relevant to their business and who can blame them? The problem with this for SEOs is that there are usually tons of torso and head terms which the client’s domain is ranking for. Since these aren’t be monitored or included on the “official” keyword list, the SEO consultant/agency usually does not receive credit for these rankings.
These “total rankings” are good way to show value if traffic and rankings aren’t going up. Use a tool like SEM Rush and monitor how many keywords the site is ranking for. Usually good domains are ranking for torso and tail terms that aren’t be monitored by the keywords list. You should be getting credit as the SEO for all keywords the domain is ranking for, even if its not on the “official” keyword list.
There are other metrics you can use depending on the goals of the client. For example you can monitor how much buzz there is around your client on social media sites if one of their goals is to increase visibility/awareness.
Another great way to show success outside of core seo metrics are “soft” metrics. These include things like average time on site, bounce rate, page views per visit, etc… Why are these helpful in adding value? A site’s traffic may not be increasing, but the quality of the traffic may be better. These soft metrics show how valuable/qualified a visitor to the site is. Soft metrics are also sometimes referred to as “engagement” metrics as they show how engaged visitors are.
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I know when I started focusing in SEO I started to seem more organic traffic but the time on site dropped and bounce rate increased. So it really important to what these things as what the point of more traffic if it just bounces.
True, I would suggest looking at the relevance of the page the user is landing on vs. what search term they typed in. Landing users on relevant pages instead of just the home page will help lower bounce rate. Also to increase time on site, make sure you audit your internal linking structure so that it is easy for users to navigate your site and find other relevant pages.