SEO analytics play a crucial role in understanding the overall performance of your SEO campaign and website success.
Implementing an SEO strategy requires data and performance analysis, and one of the best ways of doing so is by leveraging tools like Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is a great free tool offered by Google which offers crucial information that will enable you to understand the overall performance of your SEO campaign and help you determine if you need to take any actions or modify the existing strategy.
As we always say to our clients, one thing is to collect data but another one is to actually interpret and leverage that data to make informed decisions.
In this article, we will include 6 key metrics all businesses should be tracking on a regular basis.
#1 Organic Search Traffic
One of the easiest ways to see the performance of an SEO campaign is to verify the increase in organic search traffic. The easiest way to track this is by using Google Analytics.
To check this just head to ‘Acquisition’ in your Google Analytics, then select ‘All Traffic’ and head to ‘Channels’. You can always compare past performance to see the latest trend (a good rule of thumb is to analyse the past 3/6 months’ performance).
#2 Conversions (Leads or Sales)
Ok, so now that you are driving sufficient traffic to your site, what’s next?
A key metric you want to start tracking ASAP is how many leads or sales your website and marketing efforts are generating for your business. You will need to check if the organic traffic is converting or not.
In order to do this, you will need to set up Conversion Goals in Google Analytics to measure the number of enquiries submitted and phone calls received.
At eWebsites, we use call-tracking softwares to ensure we measure all the calls being received from all your digital marketing efforts (such as organic traffic, GMB, paid ads, etc.), which then enables us to showcase our clients their actual ROI on their marketing campaigns.
Conversion rates can be affected by numerous factors, such as the intention and awareness of the user. If your traffic is coming from ‘informational’ keywords as opposed to ‘commercial/transactional’ keywords, then it may be that your user is still in research mode and wants to find out more information before engaging your business.
However, this does not mean it’s not working, so always try to analyse your organic performance with other traffic channels to boost your conversion rates.
You can start by exploring the “Multi-Channel Funnels”, “Assisted Conversion”, and “Model Comparison Tool” to know how you can use the organic traffic to increase conversions that usually show up as coming from other channels.
#3 Bounce Rate
The bounce rate is the measurement shown in Google Analytics that measures the percentage of sessions in which a user loads your page but exits immediately without taking action.
Having a bounce rate higher than 80% typically means that your content is not engaging or is not addressing the search intent of the user. Hence, this can affect your rankings, as Google looks into this when determining which website should rank higher in the SERPS.
So if you are finding that your website and specific individual pages are having a high bounce rate, try implementing some of the following tips to reduce it:
- Improve your overall content readability
- Avoid pop-ups (Google hates them)
- Add compelling Call to actions (CTAs)
- Write more engaging title tags and meta descriptions focusing on the user first
- Ensure your website is mobile-friendly
- Speed up your website
- Break down the content into short sentences so users can easily scan your content
- Add more images to make the content more interactive
Need help with this? Hire an SEO Agency to help!
#4 Page Speed
Having a website that loads fast is a crucial factor when ranking on Google. This improves the overall user experience (UI) and also affects your overall conversions, as people online typically will bounce off your site if it takes more than 5 seconds to load.
Then you should monitor this and ensure your website is loading in less than 2 seconds (ideally). You can easily monitor this by using Google Page Speed Insights. This falls under the arena of ‘Technical SEO’.
The tool will tell you exactly the key areas that need to be improved to ensure you are meeting all of Google’s standards. I will warn you as many of them will be quite technical and overwhelming. This requires technical support, so you can consider hiring an SEO Agency in Melbourne.
#5 Time On Page (Organic Traffic)
Time on the page is also a crucial factor to track, as it will show you straight away if your visitors like your content and engage with what you offer.
You can easily monitor this by checking the “Average Time on Page” and “Average Session Duration” reports on the Google Analytics page. You can check the total organic traffic for all pages or check for individual pages.
It also plays a key factor in SEO, as the more engaged your visitors are with your content, the more Google will reward you with the rankings.
A good rule of thumb is to ensure they are at least spending a minimum of 1 minute per page. If the metric is lower, then you are having an issue which needs to be tackled immediately.
It may be that your visitors are not finding what they are after or that your website is too slow to load or hard to navigate. To improve this metric, always include engaging content, and add relevant images and CTAs.
#6 Branded vs Non-Branded Traffic
Branded keywords refer to keywords that include your brand or product/service name. For instance, apple phones, apple smartphones, are all branded keywords for Apple.
On the other hand, keywords that are not related to a particular brand are ‘non-branded’ keywords. If your content is ranking well, you want to make sure you are ranking for both branded and non-branded keywords.
To check this, you will need to leverage Google Search Console, as Google Analytics doesn’t provide this information. Go to the “Performance” page and then click on “Queries” to check all the keyword queries that generated impressions and clicks for your website.
Conclusion
Now whether you are a brand new business or have been running it for some years, tracking these SEO metrics are crucial. These SEO metrics will give you a clear understanding of your overall SEO campaign performance and determine if you are on the right track or not.
At eWebsites, we pride ourselves in delivering exceptional results using SEO best practices for our clients. We are passionate about helping small businesses grow their online presence, contact us today to find out more.
