SEO metrics allow you to track your site’s performance in terms of search engine optimization and compare current results with previous results. This is how the promotion specialist knows that the site is healthy and optimized. That is, the site creates value for the business.
Depending on the needs of the business
SEO goals should be established first. They will determine which metrics measure the site’s progress in search engine promotion. What are the exact performance indicators of the site that we at ITForce monitor are given in our SEO promotion cases .
Today, we will look at the most popular metrics for monitoring SEO performance, which help you better understand your SEO efforts, adjust and improve them in time. Let’s consider the metrics that can be viewed in free services, these are Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console. We will also touch on Ahrefs and SE Ranking.
1. Organic site traffic
Organic traffic is traffic that the site received from regular search. The number means how many times users clicked on your link in search results for their query. Organic traffic takes into account all search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc.).
Organic traffic shows how well
the site is able to attract visitors. The better the site is optimized for search engines, the higher the number of visitors from normal search results should be. Organic traffic also provides additional information about users: their geography, the devices they use, or other trends.
Where to see organic traffic? Go to Google Analytics 4 – Reports – Traffic sources – User engagement and look at the Organic search line .
Organic traffic in Google Analytics 4
Rice. 1 – Organic traffic in Google Analytics 4
Tracking the amount of organic traffic will help you identify sudden drops in traffic and determine the reasons that may have caused them: a technical problem on the site, another Google update or the promotion efforts of competitors.
Regarding Google Search Console: the service has an indicator Total number of clicks . Organic traffic and Total clicks are essentially measuring the same thing. But in a different way. The total number of clicks only takes into account traffic from Google. Organic traffic, on the other hand, takes into account all search engines.
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Google Analytics and Google Search
Console measure traffic in their own way, so the numbers from each source are sometimes different.
2. The total number of clicks on the site
In Google Search Console, we go to the Performance report — Data on the effectiveness of content in search results and look at the Total number of clicks indicator .
Total number of clicks in Google Search Console
Rice. 2 – Total number of clicks in Google Search Console
The Search Content Performance Data report shows how many users clicked on your site in regular Google search results. Normally, this indicator should have an upward trend – then this indicates that the SEO specialist’s strategy for optimizing the site for search engines is working. If not, think about how to increase the number of conversions. Perhaps the site has certain technical problems, or the content does not fully meet the user’s intent.
The report also contains a lot of other useful information. For example, the number of impressions and the average CTR, which we will consider a little further.
3. Site impressions in search
Impressions is a number that shows how many times a page has appeared in search engine results (SERP).
We monitor the Impressions metric through Google Search Console.
Display in Google Search Console
Rice. 3 – Number of impressions in Google Search Console
Impressions do not directly drive traffic
Conversions. The metric depicts the site’s potential to attract organic traffic.
The better a page ranks and the more keywords it shows for, the more impressions it gets. And if the page does not receive any impressions, it may mean that it is not accessible to the search bot. So you should check if her work has been scanned and indexed.
4. Keyword ranking
Keyword ranking shows where a site ranks in searches for a specific keyword. The ranking also helps evaluate the effectiveness of your current SEO strategy.
We use Google Search Console to monitor the ranking of keywords.
Average position of queries in Google Search Console
Rice. 4 – Average position of queries in Google Search Console
For example, it is more convenient for us to track the position of client site requests in SE Ranking:
Increasing query positions
Rice. 5 – Request positions in SE Ranking
But in general, you can also use Google Search Console.
If the site’s other metrics are improving, but there is no progress in ranking for the target keywords, it may mean that the site has poor keyword selection, so less competitive keywords should be selected. However, there may be many other reasons.
5. Average CTR
Average CTR shows how many users clicked on a page after seeing it in search results.
CTR = Clicks / Impressions * 100
For example, if 100 users saw a page in search results and 10 people clicked on it, the CTR would be 10%.
Average CTR shows how relevant a page is in search results for users. The indicator is tracked in Google Search Console.
Average CTR in Google Search Console
Rice. 6 – Average CTR in Google Search Console
For example, if the page ranks high in search results, but the CTR is low, then you should pay attention to the Title and Description tags or check whether the page is even relevant to search queries.
6. Tracking positions
The higher a site is in the rankings, the more traffic it receives. In the TOP, there is already a struggle to make an attractive snippet and raise the site to the highest possible positions.
And this is influenced by a large number of factors. The goal of SEO is to increase the volume of organic (search) traffic to the site. This is directly affected by the visibility of the resource in the search — that is, how well the site ranks for certain key queries on those pages that are promoted.
You can see the position in Google Search Console in the Performance report . The report shows the overall average position of the site in search for all queries.
Google Search Console Performance Search Results
Rice. 7 – Average site position in Google Search Console
Or you can select an individual page, enter its URL and look in the Query section for keyword positions.
7. New referring domains
New referring domains are the number of new and unique domains that have linked to the target site. Tracking this metric allows you to make sure that your link building and SEO efforts are aligned.
Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors for search engines. To ensure a stable growth of organic traffic, the number of domains linking to the site must constantly increase.
It should also be remembered that Google gives less weight each time to a backlink from the same site. That is, the first link will have the most weight, the last – the least.
Backlinks from trusted domains are a year of triumphs challenges and new developments more likely to improve your site’s search rankings. On the other hand, backlinks from untrusted domains can even be harmful to the site, and such links should be disavowed using the Disavow Tool .
How to find bad links? For alb directory example, use Ahrefs. The service makes a comprehensive review of the portfolio of backlinks:
a complete list of domains referring to the site and backlinks;
domain trust rating;
ratio between backlinks;
anchor page etc.
