How Do You Measure Search Engine Optimization? 

Whether you are a small business owner or a large brand, if you have invested in search engine optimization (SEO), you want to know how your efforts are going. Understanding how to measure SEO is important because it will allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy and determine if any changes need to be made or if you are on track with your goals. 

Keywords

Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they are looking for. Using keyword research to identify relevant keywords for your website is an essential part of the SEO process, as it allows you to target potential customers and improve your rankings in the SERPs. 

A good way to start is to use a keyword tool like the one we have in our SEO toolkit to identify some key terms and topics for your website. This will give you an idea of what your audience is searching for, and help you to understand which keywords you should be targeting and which you should be avoiding. 

Then, you can optimize your site for those keywords to increase your chances of ranking on top of the SERPs. This can be done through on-page and off-page SEO tactics. 

Organic Traffic

Search engines are the most direct way for customers to find your business, so it is crucial that your website gets as many visitors from these channels as possible. A high level of organic traffic will increase your conversion rates and will give you a better idea of what your target market is looking for. 

Click-through Rate

The CTR is the percentage of people who clicked on your link on a search result page. This is a great way to measure the effectiveness of your title tags, meta descriptions, and URLs. 

Bounce Rate

A high bounce rate isn’t good for your site or your rankings in Google, so make sure you have a good site structure and content to keep users on your website. This can be measured with Google Analytics and can be a good indicator of what content is working and what needs some extra TLC. 

Backlinks

Getting other sites to link to your site is a vital part of your SEO strategy. It helps search engines to understand that your content is authoritative and relevant, which will increase your organic rankings. 

Pages Loaded Quickly

Page speed is also a critical factor when it comes to SEO, as studies have shown that faster page load times will lead to higher conversions and lower bounce rates. As of 2018, Google is taking page speed into account for your site’s SEO rankings, making it an important metric to monitor and focus on. 

Visibility

Search visibility is another critical metric that shows you how well your SEO efforts are affecting your online presence. This metric will tell you how often your business appears in search results and will let you know what opportunities you have to rank for featured snippets or other keywords.