How to Measure the Impact of SEO on Your Business Goals

Intro

You’ve already created an SEO strategy. You’ve analyzed it over and over, tested it, and finally put it into practice.

Now, it’s time to see how it’s helped or hurt your business. Did you gain more search engine rankings? Have you received an increased amount of website visitors?

These are some of the things you’ll be looking at as you measure the impact of SEO on your business goals.

This blog covers important SEO metrics for measuring your results.

SEO for Small Businesses

To understand why it’s so important to measure the impact of SEO, you must clearly understand what an SEO strategy is in the first place.

So, let’s look at an example. Imagine you’re establishing a small business in the travel and tourism industry offering RV rentals in Phoenix.

As you start, you’ll want to decide what type of business you’re forming. For example, an LLC is one of several business structures available when creating a business.

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An LLC may be the best choice for a small RV rental business because it allows you to start small and scale quickly (without risking your personal assets).

In other words, there’s less liability and more room for flexibility to pivot strategies as needed. But one thing’s for certain. As an entrepreneur, having a strong online presence is important for customers to find you.

You’ll want to implement an SEO strategy as soon as possible. Why? SEO is a long game. And your search engine optimization efforts will probably require some ongoing adjustments.

These efforts might involve optimizing on-page and off-page elements and setting the right goals.

You’ve done that. Now what? Get ready to see how well your SEO plan has panned out.

For example, to see how you rank for keywords, you can look at the number of online searches for specific terms related to RV rentals in Phoenix.

This gives you insights into how optimization techniques can directly influence bookings and business success in your designated geographic area.

From there, you can make adjustments for the best possible results.

Determine Your SEO Goals

As we discussed earlier, it’s best to look at your goals first to achieve a proper SEO impact analysis. Otherwise, it can be difficult to measure the impact of SEO without identifying the goal you want to achieve.

It’s best to set your goals before you’ve started your SEO campaign. So, it’s possible you’ve probably done this.

But as a refresher, identify the important tasks you need to achieve. Prioritize those tasks based on urgency. To keep focus, stick to three to five goals at first.

Some examples include:

• Enhance click-through rate (CTR)
• Expand your local SEO presence
• Improve keyword rankings
• Optimize user experience
• Decrease page load time
• Increase organic traffic
• Boost conversions

6 Ways to Measure the Impact of SEO

After setting your SEO goals, it’s time to define what you’ll measure. Below are some useful key performance indicators (KPIs).

1. Monitor Organic Traffic

One of the biggest, if not the biggest, reasons businesses leverage search engine optimization is to increase organic traffic.

Why? The more users you attract to your website, the higher your chances of increasing conversions.

So, the organic traffic you’ve earned since formulating your SEO strategy can be a huge indicator of your SEO success.

But it’s important to note that the website traffic you receive when users click on an ad isn’t the same as organic traffic. Instead, it’s the number of organic visits you receive from search engines.

For instance, it could be someone searching for a keyword you rank for, clicking a relevant search result, or a user directly typing your site URL into the address bar.

To measure your organic traffic, go to Google Search Console. Under Performance, click Search Results. From there, you’ll see the total clicks or total impressions your website has received over a certain period of time.

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You can also use Google Analytics to measure your organic website traffic.

Under Acquisition, go to All Traffic and Channels to see the organic traffic you’ve received within your chosen time period.

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You can even filter your results by landing page and geographic location.

2. Check Your Keyword Rankings

Knowing your customers’ needs and conducting keyword research is crucial to a successful keyword strategy. By doing it you’ll be able to communicate with your target customers better and make them feel understood.

You may see a jump in your keyword rankings by following best practices like conducting keyword research, using long-tail keywords, and understanding user intent.

This, of course, depends on your competitors, the keyword ranking difficulty, and other elements of your overall SEO strategy.

To measure how your site ranks for relevant keywords, do a Google search for those keywords.

Ideally, you want your web page to rank on the first page. But this probably won’t happen for every keyword you want to rank for.

So, check the rankings for the multiple keywords you’ve implemented on your pages and posts using Ranktracker. Get easy overviews of your visibility, organic traffic, and average search engine position.

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If some rank on the first page, that’s great. For ‌others, think of ways you can boost your rankings. For example, maybe the page needs more backlinks, or‌ your keyword density isn’t where it needs to be.

3. Look at Your SERP Visibility

Your SERP visibility shows how often and how prominently your website appears in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords.

Beyond links to web pages, other elements are also included in the SERPs, such as:

• “Also asked” questions
• Google Maps entries
• Knowledge panels
• Featured snippets
• Image packs
• Reviews
• Videos

To track this KPI, conduct a Google search of your relevant keywords. Then, look at how you rank in the SERPs compared to your competitors.

You can also use Ranktracker’s SERP checker to get in-depth search engine results that show you the best website ranking opportunities.

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4. Track Your Backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites that point to yours. Gaining high-quality backlinks plays a big part in helping your site and its pages/posts rank in the SERPs. This shows major search engines that your content is so valuable and engaging that many sites link to it.

But the keyword here is high-quality. For the best results, your backlinks should come from high-authority websites that Google already trusts. And the sites that link to you should be relevant to your site’s content.

RankTracker’s Backlink Monitor allows you to evaluate the quality and quantity of the backlinks pointing to your website from other domains.

This will provide you with a good understanding of how well your website is performing when it comes to building a backlink profile.

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5. Compare Returning vs. New Users

The number of people who return to your site gives you an idea of how valuable your content is and the user experience it offers. You can hire content writers to get personalised, creative and valuable contents for your website.

The user experience (UX) is an important ranking factor because a search engine’s job is to display the best possible results for their search query.

That entails a website that gives users all the information they need, offers easy navigation, and presents content in a clear and engaging way.

If your website has all these properties, then chances are you’ll have returning site visitors.

To see an overview of your returning users, use Google Analytics. Click on Reports. Then, click Retention. Then, you’ll be able to compare new and returning users within a specific time period.

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If you notice that you don’t have many returning users vs. new users, it could indicate that your site has a poor user experience, loads too slowly, or doesn’t have clear call-to-actions (CTAs).

6. Benchmark Your Bounce Rate

The average bounce rate for most websites ranges between 26% and 70%. So, anything higher than those numbers isn’t ideal.

Your bounce rate measures how many people visit your site and don’t interact with your content. Instead, they go to another page or leave your site altogether.

It’s also a measure of user experience (UX). If people leave your site often, it might mean your content needs improvement.

And even if your content is up to par, maybe your visitors just aren’t having the best experience. Your content could be too difficult to read due to a lack of headings or bullet points.

Or, it might not be mobile-friendly. Over 55% of website traffic comes from mobile devices.

A mobile-friendly website should render well on smaller screens, allow easy mobile navigation (i.e., collapsible menus), and feature fast page load times.

Optimizing these elements can play a huge role in reducing your bounce rate.

Use Google Analytics to see your bounce rate. Go to Google Analytics Home, and click Audience Overview. Then, you’ll see your bounce rate below the graph.

Final Words

As long as people continue to use the internet to search for answers to their questions and solutions to their problems, your SEO performance will likely always be a part of your business’s success. Hiring an agency can be a great way to boost performance, create a business proposal to get the conversation started.

Ensure you rank well in Google and other search engines so your site pops up in relevant searches. But always look to measure and improve your rankings because search engines constantly update their algorithms.

So, staying on top of your SEO rankings through constant monitoring and adjustments will help you reach and stay at the top of search results.