
SEO and online growth can be overwhelming. There are so many moving parts that it can be hard to keep track of everything. However, by carefully monitoring a few important metrics, you can simplify your processes and yield better results.
In this blog post, we list five important SEO metrics that you must be monitoring for sustainable success.
1. Top exit pages for organic traffic
Sometimes, having your web pages ranked on Google’s 1st page isn’t enough.
What if your website visitors leave the web page as soon as they land on it? What if they never click on any other page and follow the sales funnel you’ve created?
By identifying top exit pages for organic traffic, you can fix that problem.
Exit pages are the last pages that your website visitors visit before they leave your site.
Are these pages making them lose interest in your site? Is there no proper call-to-action to lead them elsewhere on your website? Is there a broken link on the top exit pages?
By fixing these issues, you will be able to increase user retention, build loyalty, and probably increase sales as well.
2. Click-through rate
When it comes to SEO and organic growth, most SEO professionals only focus on keywords, backlinks, loading speed, and other major factors. Unfortunately, they mostly ignore click-through rate (CTR).
Sometimes, even though you are ranked on Google’s 1st page, you may not get the bulk of clicks and, therefore, organic traffic visitors. By improving click-through rate, you can dramatically increase your organic traffic with minimal efforts.
You can find information about the CTR in Google Search Console. The Search Analytics report shows the average percentage of people who click on one of your links after seeing them in the SERPs.
Try the following two techniques to improve the click-through rate:
- Make the title of the blog post more engaging and powerful
- Write compelling, engaging, unique, and keyword-rich meta descriptions for each web page. Meta descriptions may help improve the click-through rate.
3. New backlinks and referring domains
Backlinks are considered among the top 3 search engine ranking factors. The quality and quantity of your site’s backlinks can have a major impact on its ranking in the search engine results pages. That’s why you must monitor backlinks and the number of referring domains on a regular basis.
Search engines consider these backlinks as a vote of confidence that your website and content are useful. The higher the number of referring domains, the more votes you have got.
A recent study by Backlinko also confirmed a strong correlation between a website’s search engine rankings and the backlinks.
When monitoring backlinks, it is important to remember that the quality matters more than quantity. Also, the backlinks your site must also come from relevant websites. Too many backlinks from irrelevant websites may cause suspicion and lead to a search engine penalty.
4. Returning vs. New visitors
Open your Google Analytics Dashboard, and you will see that you receive two types of visitors: returning and new.
This is an important metric that you must regularly monitor because it tells you how much the visitors like your website and the content that you’re publishing.
To access this information, click on Audience > Behavior > New vs Returning.
If very few website visitors actually return, you should revamp your content strategy, create more high-quality blog posts, and use images, infographics, and videos to achieve a better retention rate.
5. Conversion rate
In the end, it all boils down to this: conversion rate.
No matter how high your website ranks or how well it is designed if it doesn’t help you sell your products or services, it does not matter.
Check your aggregate conversion rate. That will give you a basic idea and a reference point. Having said that, don’t forget to take things a step further.
Apart from monitoring the aggregate conversion rate, also analyse the conversion rate by landing page, location, device, and browsers to see what exactly is impacting the organic conversion rate on your website.
This small technique of isolating conversion rates and analysing it from different perspectives can lead to valuable information and insights.
Conclusion
Without monitoring these important SEO metrics, you’d be unsure of your SEO success. By keeping an eye on these metrics, however, you’d be able to fix important issues, gain better control of your website, and increase traffic and sales.