Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for your business, as it can attract online users to your website. This means more prospective clients will be aware of your brand, which can affect their purchasing decision. As a result, you can generate more sales and boost your chances of success in your industry.
As you leverage SEO, you must be able to monitor the performance of your digital marketing campaigns. In other words, you must know how much traffic and leads your SEO efforts generate. Once you gain insights, you can plan data-based strategies with the help of an SEO agency to improve the results of your future campaigns.
With this in mind, you must be able to know the metrics that can affect your performance and determine if they’re worth pursuing or not. Not all metrics are created equal; some are more important than others when measuring your success. If you can identify and learn how to use them, you can optimize your website and increase conversions over time.
The following is a list of the essential SEO-centric metrics that you can track and use:
1. Average Time On Page
This is one of the most critical metrics in SEO. It lets you know how long visitors stay on your website and how much time they spend on each page. You can use this metric to get insights into what content is engaging and whether people are staying on your site for a long or short period.
If your average time on the page is low, you must find out why this is happening. Perhaps your content isn’t relevant enough, or too many distractions on the page cause web visitors to leave quickly. For instance, annoying plug-ins might pop up as they read your content. Or, maybe the design of your website makes it difficult for users to navigate from one page to another quickly and easily.
If most users leave after viewing one page, consider improving the information on that page. Similarly, remove unnecessary distractions from it to create a smooth navigation experience for the viewers. This way, you’ll be able to increase the average time they spend on each page, which improves their experience with your site.
2. Conversion rate
The conversion rate is a vital factor in website optimization. It shows the number of users who took a specific action on your website, including the number of times they took it. Tracking this metric will help you determine whether or not you’re doing well with traffic generation. From there, you can optimize your site for more conversions and grow your business.
You can track your website’s conversion rate using Google Analytics, which shows how many page visitors were converted into leads and customers. You can also compare this data over time to see if any trends indicate that people are becoming less interested in what you offer.
For example, if you notice people aren’t clicking on links or checking out product pages, it may be worth re-organizing those elements on your site. In doing so, your pages will be more appealing to your target audience while making them more mobile-responsive.
3. Search and local visibility
Search visibility is the number of users who search for your keyword and find your content. You must ensure your campaigns are visible to your target audience within your locality to attract foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar location. This means you’ll be able to boost your sales and gain a competitive edge against your local competitors.
You can monitor your search and local visibility using the Local Search Advanced Segment in Google Analytics. This feature allows you to segment data on a geographic basis, making it easier to set goals, create reports, and evaluate progress over time for each location separately. This way, you’ll be able to track how many people who viewed your business listing visited your physical site through your contact information online.
Once you collect these insights, you can use them as part of an integrated strategy with SEO and search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns. Doing so can drive traffic toward your store locations and increase revenue.
3. Search crawl errors
Search crawl errors are issues search engine algorithms discover when they crawl and index your website. This can happen because the server doesn’t respond promptly or the page has no content. The most common causes for search crawl errors include broken links, duplicate content, or redirecting to pages with non-responsive content.
You can track this metric using Crawl Stats on Google, which gives you a report showing the crawling history on your pages. For example, if you have an error with a particular page, it will show that Google tried to crawl that page more than once but could not access it successfully. This means that Google could not read your page’s content because of some issue on your site.
In that case, you can fix this issue by optimizing the code of your website and repairing broken links. Alternatively, ensure that your site’s uniform resource locators (URLs) point to functional pages rather than 404 errors. This results in higher rankings on the search engine ranking pages (SERPs) while delivering a better user experience.
4. Bounce Rate
The bounce rate is the percentage of a single-page visit on your site. A high bounce rate indicates that people visit only one page and then leave without going deeper into the site or clicking any links. This means that they may have been ‘bounced’ from the site by an overly long or complicated landing page or by poor quality content on the landing page itself.
You can monitor this metric using Google Analytics and your traffic sources report. If your bounce rate is high, you must focus more on improving web design and copywriting. You can also make it simple for visitors to find relevant information on your site, such as contact information, pricing, and product description.
On the other hand, a low bounce rate indicates that your web visitors aren’t closing the page after reading it once. Aside from that, they may also be clicking on the links and exploring other pages of your website. You’ll likely generate better user engagement, which may translate to higher conversion rates.
5. Domain Authority
Domain authority shows the possibility of your website ranking on SERPs. Tracking this metric is essential, as it helps you understand how much your content is worth and how much you can use your domain for link building. In other words, you’ll be able to see the strength of your backlinks and their potential to boost your rankings.
You can monitor your website’s domain authority by using a domain authority checker, which delivers insights into how strong or weak it is compared to other websites in its niche. If the result is high, the site has a high chance of ranking on SERPs. A low domain authority shows that the page needs extra work before ranking well on SERPs.
After collecting these insights, you can boost your site’s domain authority to rank higher in SERPs. You can produce link-worthy content, upgrade page structure, or remove non-responsive links. In doing so, your website will gain a better ranking on search engines and improve organic website traffic.
6. Social Shares
Social media platforms have become significant sources of information for people looking for content. These platforms allow users to share their thoughts with friends and family. The more content is shared on social media, the more exposure it receives.
As such, you must track a metric called ‘social shares,’ as it shows how often your content has been shared across different social media platforms. Many social shares could indicate that your content has reached an audience interested in your offering. If so, you can continue your current content marketing strategies to reach more potential customers.
On the other hand, if there aren’t many social shares on your blog posts, you might want to rethink your current strategy. You may wish to run audience research to determine your readers’ preferences so you can write topics that resonate with them.
Or, you may want to assess the peak hours when they frequently spend the most time on social media. This way, you’ll encourage your web visitors to click through your blogs and share them with their colleagues to boost brand awareness.
Key Takeaway
Using SEO to your company’s advantage will help you boost the reach of your e-commerce business. In other words, you’ll be able to generate more traffic to your website and increase your conversion rates. However, you must be able to measure the effectiveness of your SEO campaigns on your website and social media platforms to ensure they’re working.
With this in mind, it’s vital to use the right SEO-centric metrics to show you the performance of your digital marketing efforts. The most relevant indicators you can track include average time spent on a page, conversion rate, and search and local visibility. You may also monitor search crawl errors, bounce rates, domain authority, and social shares to gauge your rankings.
Tracking these metrics can help you determine which strategies work best for your online business. From there, you can optimize them to ensure that they all resonate with your audience and provide them with a better user experience.
