31 Most Important SEO Metrics You Need to Track

Your ability to show results, whether as a site owner or an SEO expert, makes you valuable.

The only way to convince your clients to kiss your feet and bend down is to do it. Or prove to your friends that you know what you’re doing and keep your bragging rights.

It seems simple enough, but this is where things become a little hazy. You can’t solely gauge your progress by how your rankings change or lay down on your bed and refresh your Google Analytics before falling asleep.

Fortunately, there are many additional ways to assess your SEO effectiveness objectively. And you’re about to learn that.  

But first, there’s a lot of confusion as to what metrics, KPIs, OKRs, vanity metrics, and actionable metrics are, so let’s define these first.

Are KPIs the Same as Metrics?

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are tracked to determine a company’s success. Some people, however, use the terms “KPIs” and “metrics” interchangeably. Are key performance indicators and metrics the same thing?

No, it does not.

KPIs are a type of metric, which means that while all KPIs are metrics, not all metrics are KPIs.

Comparison Table for KPIs and Metrics:

KPI	Metric
Revenue Growth	Revenue
Customer Acquisition Cost	Customer Count
Conversion Rate	Website Traffic

KPIs are specific metrics used to track progress toward specific goals. Conversely, metrics can be any data gathered as part of routine business operations.

So, what is the distinction between KPIs and metrics?

KPIs are chosen primarily because they are important to track and provide insight into how well a company is performing. The distinction is in the word “key.”

That is why it is critical to understand the distinction between a metric and a key performance indicator (KPI).

What are metrics?

A metric is a measure of something. In business, metrics are used to track progress and performance. They can be financial, such as revenue or profit, or non-financial, such as customer satisfaction, employee retention, or in this case, SEO.

Types of metrics

There are four main types of metrics:

Metric Type	Description	Example
Leading Indicators	Predict future performance	SEO score trends
Lagging Indicators	Show past performance	Sales revenue
Inputs	Measure resources used	Number of blog posts
Outputs	Measure results achieved	Organic traffic

Understanding the difference can help you find the right software to provide insight and get your SEO tech stack to provide valuable information instead of just noise.

What Are Vanity Metrics?

A vanity metric is a measure of success that doesn’t necessarily correlate to business growth or profitability. In other words, it’s a number that looks good on paper but doesn’t tell you much about how your business is performing.

There are all sorts of vanity metrics out there, but some common ones include things like website pageviews, social media followers, and email subscribers. The problem with these metrics is that they’re easy to manipulate and don’t give you an accurate picture of whether or not your business is growing.

Problem with using vanity metrics

Vanity metrics make you feel good but don’t necessarily provide any valuable insights into your business. For example, the number of likes on a social media post or the number of visitors to your website. While it’s great to see these numbers going up, they don’t give you any information on whether people are actually engaging with your content or if they’re just scrolling past it.

This can be a problem because you might think you’re doing great when no one is paying attention to what you’re putting out there.

Difference between vanity metrics vs. actionable metrics

There are a lot of metrics out there, and it can be tough to know which ones to pay attention to. Here’s a quick rundown of the difference between vanity metrics and actionable metrics:

• Vanity metric: A metric that looks good on paper but doesn’t give you any insight into how to improve your business. For example, website traffic is a vanity metric because it doesn’t tell you where that traffic is coming from or what they’re doing on your site.
• Actionable metric: A metric that provides insights into how you can improve your business.

Why measuring SEO effectiveness seems impossible

If SEO is new to you, you probably feel a bit unsure. Your eyes suffer after months of work, which you’ve been doing every day. However, you can’t tell if your actions are effective. All of us have been there.

You, therefore, monitor a single metric, most likely keyword rankings. You notice some keyword ranks improving, and resume your work. 

The issue is that using just one SEO metric won’t offer you the full picture. It’s comparable to declaring a puzzle complete after placing only one piece on the board. 

The answer is to monitor several parameters. Your preferred analytics and SEO tools will provide these numbers. 

Why are measuring and tracking SEO results important?

First off, SEO takes a lot of work. So, you need to know whether your efforts are paying off. Unfortunately, few businesses keep track of SEP results. I’ve personally witnessed it. A business invests fully in an SEO effort; they produce a ton of content, create links, and boost title tags. 

They shake their shoulders when you ask them if they perceive a return on investment. Given the enormous time and effort required for SEO, it’s critical to understand whether or not the work was worthwhile. 

Second, the outcomes of your SEO efforts tell you whether you need to adjust your strategy. The absence of results does not imply that SEO is ineffective. It can simply indicate that you need to modify what you’re doing. 

And keeping a careful eye on your outcomes enables you to determine whether you’re on the right track or need to change directions.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) for SEO success

One frequently gets a striking impression of how much data there is to deal with while measuring SEO efforts. It can be challenging to come to clear conclusions and provide management or clients with straightforward reporting. The answer is to be aware of the key performance indicators (KPIs) to employ and link them to the client’s or company’s goals. 

Your KPIs should be linked to clear marketing objectives. Ideally, your business or client has developed a digital marketing strategy outlining good marketing goals. To effectively assess the performance of your SEO activities, you should link your KPIs to these objectives. 

SEO metrics you need to track

Metric	Importance	Why It’s Important	Vanity?	How to Track
Organic Traffic	High	Measures overall success of SEO in attracting visitors.	No	Google Analytics, Google Search Console
Keyword Rankings	High	Indicates visibility for target search terms.	No	Rank tracking tools (SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz), Google Search Console
Click-Through Rate (CTR)	High	Shows how enticing your search results are.	No	Google Search Console
Conversion Rate	High	Measures how effectively SEO traffic turns into valuable actions.	No	Google Analytics, goal tracking, e-commerce tracking
Bounce Rate	Medium	Can signal issues with relevance, engagement, or technical problems.	Sometimes	Google Analytics
Time on Page	Medium	Indicates content engagement and quality.	Sometimes	Google Analytics
Pages per Session	Medium	Shows how well your site encourages exploration.	Sometimes	Google Analytics (custom reports or metrics)
Backlinks	High	Crucial for building authority and trust with search engines.	No	Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz
Domain Authority/Rating	Low	Helpful for benchmarking, but doesn’t directly impact rankings.	Yes	Moz, Ahrefs
Organic Impressions	Low	Measures overall visibility but doesn’t guarantee clicks.	Yes	Google Search Console
Search Traffic by Device	Medium	Understands user behavior to tailor your website.	No	Google Analytics
Top Landing Pages	Medium	Identifies high-traffic pages to focus optimization efforts.	No	Google Analytics
Page Speed	High	Crucial for user experience and a ranking factor.	No	Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix
Mobile-Friendliness	High	Essential for ranking well, especially with mobile-first indexing.	No	Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool
Technical SEO (Crawl Errors, Core Web Vitals)	High	The foundation of a well-optimized website.	No	Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, SEMrush, Ahrefs
New vs. Returning Visitors	Medium	Understands audience engagement and loyalty.	Sometimes	Google Analytics
Social Shares	Medium	Indicates content resonance and amplification on social platforms.	Sometimes	Native analytics, third-party tools, UTM parameters
Top Exit Pages	Medium	Pinpoints potential issues with content or user experience.	No	Google Analytics
Internal Links	Medium	Helps search engines and users navigate your site.	No	Screaming Frog, SEMrush
Branded vs. Non-Branded	Medium	Indicates brand awareness and the effectiveness of marketing.	Sometimes	Google Analytics, Google Search Console
Organic Assisted Conversions	Medium	Shows the influence of organic search on the conversion process.	No	Google Analytics
Keyword Cannibalization	Medium	Identifies competing pages to improve keyword focus.	No	SEMrush, Ahrefs
Indexed Pages	High	Ensures your content is visible to search engines.	No	Google Search Console

1. Organic Traffic

Forget vanity metrics – organic traffic is the lifeblood of any successful SEO campaign. Simply put, it’s the number of visitors who find your website through search engines like Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo. This metric is the pulse of your SEO efforts, revealing how effective your strategy is at attracting people who are actively searching for what you offer.

To track organic traffic, turn to your trusty sidekicks: Google Analytics and Google Search Console. These tools provide detailed reports on your website’s traffic, including where visitors come from, which pages they land on, and how long they stay.

We’ll be using everyone’s favorite tool, Google Analytics, to monitor the shift in organic search traffic. 

With Google Analytics 4, you can go to Reports>>Acquisition>>Traffic Acquisition to see how many organic traffic you get compared to other traffic:

Pay close attention to trends over time. Is your organic traffic steadily increasing? Are there sudden spikes or dips? By analyzing these patterns, you can identify what’s working and what needs improvement.

For example, let’s say you launch a new blog post targeting a specific keyword. If you see a surge in organic traffic shortly after, it’s a good sign that your SEO efforts are paying off. On the other hand, if traffic remains stagnant or declines, it’s time to re-evaluate your approach.

2. Keyword rankings

The most used SEO measure is keyword rankings. I’m not sure if it’s ego-related, but SEOs enjoy boasting about their keyword ranks. Now, it’s a reliable metric, and maintaining the top rank does make you feel.

The keyword rankings will reveal several things to you, including:

• Whether you’re using the appropriate keywords. If your website is not visible for your desired keywords, you should shift your focus to less competitive terms (at least for the time being).
• No matter if your site is genuinely expanding. Your rankings and the overall amount of keywords your site is ranking for ought to improve over time. Increases in these two metrics will indicate that your site is becoming more authoritative and that longtail traffic is beginning to increase for your posts.

Your overall keyword alterations at a glance – how your keyword positions are changing over time – will be the first thing you notice. You can tell right away from this snapshot if your technique is effective. 

You’ll see the ranking changes reported over time as you scroll further down the page. You can create your keyword list where you’ll add the specific keywords you want to track.

It doesn’t matter if you have high keyword rankings (especially if you’re just getting started). However, what matters is that you’re either witnessing an increase in the number of keywords you’re ranking for or that the positioning is getting better.

You’ll start attracting longtail visitors when you begin to rank for more keywords. Well done!

However, if one of your keywords rises from position #20 to #2, you’re doing very.

3. Click-through rate

You might be ranking high for a particular keyword, but are people actually clicking on your link? That’s where click-through rate (CTR) comes in. This metric measures the percentage of people who see your search result and decide to click on it. Think of it as the curiosity factor – a high CTR means your listing is intriguing enough to pique people’s interest.

Sure, having a high Google position is valuable, but what good is it if no one visits your site because of that rankings? There is a heated argument over whether or not your CTR affects rankings, but that is unimportant.

What matters is that the more visitors your site receives, the better your CTR will be. We’re going to change the tools, but we’ll still be using Google products to determine your CTR. 

Start the Google Search Console program.

Select Search Results

Click the Total Clicks, Total Impressions, Average CTR or Average Position to pull the data.

Based on the sorting options above, you may also see your CTR for a certain page, countries, or device. A recent Ignite Visibility study for each Google position discovered the following average click-through rates. To ascertain whether your CTR is high or low for your present ranking position, look at the ranking statistic below:

• #1 – 20.5%
• #2 – 13.32%
• #3 – 13.14%
• #4 – 8.98%
• #5 – 9.21%
• #6 – 6.73%
• #7 – 7.61%
• #8 – 6.92%
• #9 – 5.52%
• #10 – 7.95%

Your CTR is influenced by several factors, including your title tag, meta description, and the overall relevance of your search result to the user’s query. To track your CTR, head over to Google Search Console. This tool provides detailed reports on your CTR for different keywords and pages, giving you valuable insights into how your search results are performing.

Let’s say your average CTR for the keyword “best dog toys” is 2%. That means 2 out of every 100 people who see your listing in the search results decide to click on it. While this may seem low, it’s important to remember that CTR can vary widely depending on the keyword and the industry. What’s considered a good CTR for one keyword might be considered poor for another.

To improve your CTR, focus on crafting compelling title tags and meta descriptions that accurately reflect the content of your page and entice users to click. You can also experiment with adding structured data to your search results, such as star ratings or product prices, to make your listing more visually appealing.

4. Conversions

Let’s be honest – clicks are great, but they don’t pay the bills. What you really want is for those clicks to turn into paying customers, loyal subscribers, or whatever valuable action you’re trying to drive. That’s where conversion rate comes into play. This metric measures the percentage of website visitors who complete a desired action, whether it’s making a purchase, filling out a contact form, or signing up for your newsletter.

Conversion rate is the ultimate litmus test of your SEO success. It tells you whether your website is effectively guiding visitors through the sales funnel and encouraging them to take that crucial next step. To track your conversion rate, you’ll need to set up goals in Google Analytics or use specialized e-commerce tracking tools. These tools allow you to track specific actions on your website and calculate the percentage of visitors who complete them.

For example, if you have an online store, you might track the conversion rate for product purchases. If 100 people visit your website and 5 of them buy a product, your conversion rate is 5%. Keep in mind that conversion rates can vary significantly depending on the industry, product, and target audience.

To boost your conversion rate, focus on optimizing your landing pages, improving your website’s user experience, and streamlining your checkout process. You can also experiment with different calls to action, offers, and promotions to see what resonates best with your audience.

You can also identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimize your website for maximum conversions and gain valuable insights when you monitor conversion rate.

5. Bounce rate or Engagement Rate

In Google Analytics 4, Bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that were not engaged sessions. In other words, Bounce rate is the inverse of Engagement rate. 

Users that visit your website quickly click the back button are said to have a high bounce rate. It’s not good, I agree. Google wants its users to be satisfied. Therefore, it won’t help your rankings if visitors to your site frequently arrive and then go as quickly as they can, to put it mildly.

You should assess the bounce rate as a separate statistic for each page. This will show you whether you have any weak content or pages that are causing your bounce rate to increase overall. We’ll look at the bounce rate using the same screen from your Google Analytics report from the previous step, so hopefully, you didn’t close it.

So, go to that section and look for the Bounce Rate column. This will show how frequently users arrive at your website and click the back button immediately.

Remember that your topic, the type of information on your website, and the traffic source will all impact your bounce rate. For instance, if your post responds to the query, “How many calories are in a banana?” it is likely that your user will read the response before leaving your website.

Let’s compare your bounce rate to that of other websites in your niche to see if it stinks. CustomMediaLabs have discovered the following industries’ typical bounce rates:

• 20% – 45% for e-commerce and retail-based websites
• 25% – 55% for B2B websites
• 30% – 55% for lead-gen websites
• 35% – 60% for non-e-commerce content sites
• 60% – 90% for landing pages
• 65% – 90% for online portals, blogs, and information sites around news and events.

To reduce your bounce rate, start by evaluating your content. Is it informative, well-written, and relevant to your target audience? Does it load quickly and look good on all devices? You can also improve your website’s navigation and internal linking to make it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for.

Consider this: a high bounce rate on a blog post could mean the content is misleading or irrelevant to the search query that brought the visitor there. You might need to revisit your keyword targeting or revise the content to better match user intent. On the other hand, a high bounce rate on a landing page could signal a poor user experience or a lack of compelling calls to action.

6. Time spent on page or Average engagement time per session

Engagement metrics are becoming more and more significant in the post-Panda era. One of these measures is the time visitors spend on your website. 

How long are visitors sticking around once they land on your page? That’s what time on page measures, and it’s a key indicator of how engaging and valuable your content is. Think of it as the “Netflix effect” – if people are binge-watching your content, you’re doing something right.

Time on page is directly linked to user experience. If your content is well-written, informative, and easy to consume, people are more likely to stay on your page longer. On the other hand, if your content is boring, confusing, or irrelevant, they’ll quickly bounce.

To track time on page, you can use Google Analytics. This tool provides detailed reports on average time on page for different pages and sections of your website. Look for pages with unusually low or high time on page and investigate the reasons behind those numbers.

How to Track Pages per Session in GA4:

1. Exploration Report:

• Navigate to the “Explore” section in GA4.
• Create a new exploration.
• Add the “Event name” dimension and filter it to include only “page_view” events.
• Add the “Session ID” dimension.
• Add the “Count” metric.
• In the tab settings, change the visualization type to “Table.”
• This report will show you the number of pageviews for each session ID, essentially giving you pages per session.

2. Custom Metric:

• Create a custom metric in GA4 called “Pages per Session.”
• Set the scope to “Session.”
• Use the formula: COUNT(Event name), where Event name is “page_view.”

3. Custom Report (Using Explorations):

• Create a new exploration report.
• Add “Session ID” as a row.
• Add a metric that counts the number of pageviews per session. This can be either:
  • The “Count” metric filtered to “page_view” events, or
  • Your custom “Pages per Session” metric.
• Adjust the visualization as needed (e.g., scatter plot to see distribution, table for detailed data).

For example, if a blog post has a high time on page, it could mean that people are finding the content valuable and engaging. This is a good sign that you’re on the right track with your content strategy. However, if a product page has a very low time on page, it could indicate that the information is unclear or the page is difficult to navigate.

To improve time on page, focus on creating high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience. Break up long blocks of text with images, videos, and subheadings to make it easier to read. Use internal links to encourage visitors to explore other pages on your website. And ensure your website loads quickly and is mobile-friendly, as these factors can significantly impact user experience.

7. Pages per Session

Pages per session measures the average number of pages a visitor views during a single visit to your website. This metric provides insights into how well your website’s internal linking and overall structure encourage visitors to explore multiple pages.

A high pages per session indicates that people are finding your website interesting and engaging enough to click around and discover more content. This is a good sign that your website is well-organized, easy to navigate, and offers a variety of valuable information.

Conversely, a low pages per session could mean that your website is difficult to navigate, lacks internal links, or doesn’t offer enough relevant content to keep visitors engaged. It’s like visiting a library with only one book – you’re likely to leave quickly.

To track pages per session, you can use Google Analytics. This tool provides detailed reports on this metric, including average pages per session for different traffic sources and landing pages.

If you find that your pages per session is low, focus on improving your website’s internal linking. Add relevant links within your content to guide visitors to other pages on your site. Make sure your navigation menu is clear and easy to use. And consider creating a “related posts” section at the end of each article to encourage further exploration.

8. Backlink quantity and quality

More than 200 different variables influence your rankings. Nearly tough to keep up with them all. However, you need not worry about that because backlinks continue to be a key ranking factor.

Improve both the quantity and quality of your backlinks, and Google will reward you greatly. It’s necessary to make a course correction if you aren’t gaining any new backlinks or if your backlinks are of low quality.

Tracking your backlinks will provide you with crucial details like:

• How successful are your link-building techniques? When you conduct broken link building, for instance, and you receive 10 links out of 100 emails sent, you’re getting a really good response rate. 
• Sources that might be used for future link building. Not all of the links leading to your website were likely created by you. You can find possible chances for incoming links by tracking your current links.
• How economically effective is your plan? If you spent $500 to get a single link but didn’t move your rankings, it’s time to change your plan to a more affordable link-building method. 

Numerous low-quality links won’t have any impact on your rankings. But if you obtain a few links from reliable sources, you’ll undoubtedly see an improvement. How can you tell if the backlinks you have are of excellent quality?

Get a thorough analysis of your entire link profile using Monitor Backlinks. Both quality and quantity will be what you’ll look for.

You should check for a few key criteria to determine whether the websites linked to you are of excellent quality:

1. Trust Flow: A high Trust Flow indicates that the site connecting to you is well-regarded by Google and has many backlinks pointing to the domain.
2. Citation Flow: This statistic, comparable to Trust Flow, will inform you of a website’s quality based on the quantity and caliber of links it has. To evaluate the overall quality of a website linked to you, use these two indicators. The higher, the better.
3. MozRank and Domain Authority (DA): Additional crucial quality indicators. The quality of the site increases as MozRank and DA increase. 

Not all links pointing at your website will be of the highest caliber. However, the correlation becomes increasingly valuable as these indicators increase. 

9. Domain authority

Domain Authority (DA) and Domain Rating (DR) are scores developed by Moz and Ahrefs, respectively, to predict how well a website will rank in search engine results. These scores are based on a variety of factors, including the number and quality of backlinks, the overall age and trustworthiness of the domain, and the website’s overall SEO health.

Your industry will determine whether or not you have a strong DA. To help you compare your site to others, Smart insights have provided some benchmark data as examples:

• Media and Publishing: 86.23
• Higher Education: 78.67
• Sports and Entertainment: 75.55
• Accommodation and Food Services: 71.27
• Software and Applications: 67.52
• Healthcare: 67.51
• Business Services: 67.04
• Retail: 64.62
• Consumer Goods: 64.07
• Construction Products: 63.18
• Real Estate: 61.52
• Finance and Insurance: 60.09
• Wellness: 58.35

While DA and DR aren’t official Google metrics, they’re widely used in the SEO community as a way to gauge a website’s overall authority and competitiveness. A high DA or DR indicates that your website is well-established, has a strong backlink profile, and is likely to rank well for competitive keywords.

To check your website’s DA or DR, you can use the free tools provided by Moz or Ahrefs. These tools will give you a score between 1 and 100, with higher scores indicating greater authority.

Keep in mind that DA and DR are relative metrics. A DA of 50 might be considered good for a small local business, but it would be considered low for a large national brand. Therefore, it’s important to compare your DA or DR to other websites in your industry to get a better understanding of where you stand.

10. Impression

Organic impressions refer to the number of times your website appears in search engine results pages (SERPs) for a given keyword or query. It’s a measure of your website’s visibility and potential reach. Even if you don’t rank in the top positions, every impression is an opportunity for someone to discover your website.

To track your organic impressions, you can use Google Search Console. This tool provides data on how often your website appears in search results, which keywords trigger those impressions, and the average position of your website for those keywords.

For example, if your website appears in search results 100 times for the keyword “best hiking boots,” that means you have 100 organic impressions for that keyword. If you rank in position #5 for that keyword, it means that your website appears on average in the fifth position when someone searches for “best hiking boots.”

Organic impressions are a valuable metric for understanding the overall visibility of your website in search results. By tracking this metric, you can identify which keywords are driving the most impressions and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly. For example, if you notice that a particular keyword is generating a lot of impressions but few clicks, you might want to optimize your title tag and meta description to improve your CTR for that keyword.

11. Organic CTR

Organic CTR, as mentioned earlier, is the percentage of people who click on your website’s link in the search results after seeing it. A high organic CTR indicates that your search snippet—the combination of your title tag, meta description, and URL—is compelling and relevant to the user’s search query.

You can track your organic CTR in Google Search Console, where it’s often displayed alongside your organic impressions. A good organic CTR can vary depending on the industry and search query, but generally, a CTR above the average for your industry is considered good.

To improve your organic CTR, focus on creating clear, concise, and compelling title tags and meta descriptions that accurately reflect the content of your page and entice users to click. You can also use structured data to enhance your search snippets with additional information, such as star ratings, product prices, or FAQs, which can make your listing more visually appealing and informative.

12. Scroll Depth

Scroll depth measures how far down a page users scroll before leaving. This metric can provide valuable insights into how engaging and interesting your content is. If users are consistently scrolling to the bottom of your pages, it’s a good sign that they’re finding your content valuable and are willing to invest time in reading it.

Several tools can track scroll depth, including Google Tag Manager and Hotjar. These tools allow you to set up triggers that track when users reach certain points on your page, such as 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%. You can then analyze this data to see which sections of your content are most engaging and which ones might need improvement.

For example, if you notice that users are consistently scrolling to the bottom of your blog posts, but not your product pages, it could mean that your blog posts are more engaging than your product descriptions. This information can help you make informed decisions about how to improve your content and overall website design.

13. Page Speed

In the age of instant gratification, no one wants to wait for a slow website to load. Page speed, the time it takes for a web page to fully display, is a critical factor for both user experience and SEO. If your pages take too long to load, visitors are likely to bounce, leading to higher bounce rates and lower time on page.

Google has also made it clear that page speed is a ranking factor. Faster websites tend to rank higher in search results, as they provide a better user experience. This means that optimizing your page speed can not only improve user engagement but also boost your website’s visibility in search engines.

Several tools can measure your page speed, including Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix. These tools analyze your website’s performance and provide suggestions for improvement. Common issues that can slow down your website include large image files, unoptimized code, and excessive use of plugins or scripts.

To improve your page speed, focus on optimizing your images, minifying your code, and leveraging browser caching. You can also consider using a content delivery network (CDN) to distribute your website’s content across multiple servers, reducing the load time for users in different locations.

14. Mobile traffic

Mobile search is more popular than desktop search among users. 

Mobile is king, according to Google. A surge in mobile traffic indicates that Google thinks you’re operating correctly. It indicates that your website has strong interaction metrics, is responsive, and loads rapidly. You wouldn’t rank in mobile search if these weren’t in place. 

This is especially true if you recently had a content or design change to meet mobile requirements.

Additionally, increasing mobile traffic will let you know whether you rank for any mobile-specific keywords. You can also get traffic from voice-only mobile searches because mobile device rankings differ from desktop rankings. 

We’ll return to Google Analytics to view your mobile traffic statistics. Go to Tech details>>Platform / device category

When you do this, a screen will appear with information on your mobile site’s performance and the percentage of traffic it receives from mobile devices.

Your specialty will determine exactly how much traffic you can expect from mobile. Still, if you’re in any of the following niches, you should anticipate that more than 60% of your traffic will originate from mobile visitors:

• Beauty and Fitness
• People and Society
• Pets and Animals
• Home and Garden
• Health

To check your website’s mobile-friendliness, you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. This tool analyzes your website and tells you whether it meets Google’s mobile-friendly criteria. Common issues that can affect mobile-friendliness include small font sizes, touch elements that are too close together, and content that doesn’t fit on a mobile screen.

To make your website mobile-friendly, use a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes. Ensure your font sizes are large enough to read on a small screen, and make sure your touch elements are easy to tap with a finger. You can also use Google’s AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) framework to create fast-loading mobile pages.

15. Technical SEO Issues

Technical SEO refers to the behind-the-scenes elements of your website that can impact your search engine rankings. These elements include your website’s structure, code, and overall health. While technical SEO might not be as glamorous as creating content or building backlinks, it’s an essential part of any successful SEO strategy.

Common technical SEO issues include:

• Broken links: Links that lead to non-existent pages or resources.
• Duplicate content: Content that appears on multiple pages of your website.
• Missing or incorrect meta tags: Title tags, meta descriptions, and other meta tags that are missing or not optimized for SEO.
• Crawl errors: Issues that prevent search engine bots from crawling and indexing your website properly.

To identify and fix technical SEO issues, you can use tools like Screaming Frog, SEMrush, or Ahrefs. These tools crawl your website and identify potential issues that need to be addressed. You can also use Google Search Console to check for crawl errors and other technical problems.

Fixing technical SEO issues can be a bit more complex than optimizing content or building backlinks, but it’s worth the effort. A technically sound website provides a better user experience, is easier for search engines to crawl and index, and is more likely to rank well in search results.

16. Crawl Errors

Search engines use bots, also known as spiders or crawlers, to discover and index web pages. However, sometimes these bots encounter errors that prevent them from accessing or understanding certain pages. These errors are known as crawl errors, and they can significantly impact your website’s visibility in search results.

Common crawl errors include:

• Server errors (5xx errors): These indicate problems with your website’s server, such as a server overload or a misconfiguration.
• Not found errors (404 errors): These occur when a requested page doesn’t exist or has been moved without proper redirection.
• Robots.txt errors: These occur when your robots.txt file (a file that tells search engines which pages to crawl and index) is configured incorrectly and blocks access to important pages.

You can track crawl errors in Google Search Console. This tool provides a report on crawl errors encountered by Googlebot, along with details about the affected pages and the types of errors. Fixing crawl errors is crucial for ensuring that search engines can properly crawl and index your website, which is essential for good SEO performance.

If you find crawl errors on your website, investigate the cause and take steps to fix them. For server errors, you might need to contact your hosting provider. For 404 errors, you can create redirects to point users to the correct pages. And for robots.txt errors, you’ll need to update your robots.txt file to allow access to the necessary pages.

17. Core Web Vitals

Google’s Core Web Vitals comprise a set of metrics that assess the user experience on your website. These metrics focus on four key aspects: loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability. Google considers Core Web Vitals as ranking signals, meaning that websites with good Core Web Vitals scores are more likely to rank higher in search results.

The four Core Web Vitals metrics are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This measures how long it takes for the largest content element on a page to become visible.
• First Input Delay (FID): While previously a core metric, it has been replaced by INP.
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP): This metric measures the responsiveness of a page to user interactions. It considers the latency of all click, tap, and keyboard interactions that occur during a page visit and reports the worst of these latencies.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This measures the visual stability of a page, meaning how much the layout of the page shifts as it loads.

You can measure your Core Web Vitals using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, or Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report. These tools provide a score for each metric, along with suggestions for improvement.

Optimizing your Core Web Vitals can lead to a better user experience, lower bounce rates, and higher engagement. This, in turn, can improve your website’s visibility in search results, leading to more organic traffic and conversions. To improve your Core Web Vitals, consider optimizing your images, reducing the size of your JavaScript files, and prioritizing content that loads quickly. Additionally, minimizing the number of third-party scripts and optimizing your server response time can improve your INP score.

18. Indexed Pages

For your website to appear in search results, its pages need to be indexed by search engines. Indexing is the process of storing and organizing web pages in a search engine’s database, so they can be retrieved and displayed to users when they search for relevant queries.

If your pages aren’t indexed, they won’t show up in search results, no matter how well-optimized they are. This means you’re missing out on potential traffic and visibility.

You can check the number of indexed pages for your website in Google Search Console. This tool provides a report on the total number of indexed pages, along with any errors that might prevent pages from being indexed.

If you notice that some of your pages aren’t indexed, you’ll need to investigate the cause and take steps to fix it. Common reasons for pages not being indexed include:

• Noindex tags: Meta tags that tell search engines not to index a page.
• Robots.txt blocking: Rules in your robots.txt file that prevent search engines from accessing certain pages.
• Crawl errors: Technical issues that prevent search engines from crawling and indexing your pages.

Ensure all your important pages are accessible to search engine bots and don’t have any directives preventing indexing. This maximizes the chances of your content being discovered and ranked in search results.

19. Returning visitors and direct visitors

If visitors dislike your site, it will be much harder to raise your rankings. Don’t you wish you could track anything more besides the above indicators (bounce rate and time on site)?

A high percentage of repeat customers indicates that people can’t get enough of you. The same is true of direct visits. Visitors won’t return to your website if it has poor content. Consider these two measurements as value markers.

Although these stats aren’t necessary, having a healthy amount of direct and repeat visitors tells Google that your site is memorable and exudes the quality signals that will improve your rankings.

These figures are available via Google Analytics. Navigate to Retention on your dashboard.

Users that visit your website or app for the first time are considered new users. Analytics defines a new user as anyone who does not have a Google Analytics cookie and a Client ID from your site or an App Instance ID from your app. Returning users are those who already have these.

There is no perfect split between new traffic and direct visitors. Your industry and the kind of site you run will determine this. An e-commerce website, for instance, will have a far larger percentage of repeat visitors than an instructional website that primarily receives traffic from search engines. 

However, if your percentage of returning visitors is lower than 25%, your content most likely has to be improved. People visit your website, but they seldom ever come back; anything above 30% suggests that you are keeping a third of visitors to your website, which is a good number.

20. Social shares

Social shares are when users of social media share your materials. Social shares are still crucial to your SEO efforts, even if it is often believed that Google does not consider social signals and shares when ranking SERP results. 

The likelihood that more people will watch your material and eventually visit your website increases as more people share it with their followers. A rise in your website’s organic search ranking results from more visitors.

In Google Analytics, select Acquisition>>Traffic Acquisition before clicking Channels. You will now see a glimpse of a website’s traffic sources, which are arranged by channel. The sources of Search, Social, Direct, Referral, Email, Paid search, and “Other” will be visible to you.

Adding social sharing buttons to your website can help you track social media shares, which is another useful feature of Yoast. 

Keep an eye out for any erroneous geography or business information on your accounts while tracking this KPI. Incorrect phone numbers, websites, or other information could hurt your SERPs rating.

21. Top Exit Pages

Top exit pages are the pages where visitors most frequently leave your website. Identifying these pages can help pinpoint potential issues with your content, user experience, or internal linking.

Google Analytics allows you to see your top exit pages, along with the percentage of visitors who exit from each page. Analyzing this data can help you understand why visitors are leaving and take steps to improve those pages. For example, if a particular blog post has a high exit rate, you might want to add more internal links to other relevant content or create a stronger call to actionat the end of the post.

If a product page has a high exit rate, it could indicate that the product description is unclear or the checkout process is too complicated. By identifying and addressing the issues on your top exit pages, you can improve your website’s overall user experience and encourage visitors to stay longer and explore more of your content.

22. Internal Links

Internal links connect pages within your website. They play a crucial role in SEO by helping search engines discover and understand your content, as well as guiding users to relevant pages on your site.

A well-structured internal linking strategy can improve your website’s crawlability and indexability, making it easier for search engines to find and rank your pages. It can also enhance the user experience by making it easier for visitors to navigate your website and find the information they’re looking for.

To analyze your internal links, use tools like Linkilo, Screaming Frog or Ahref. These tools can crawl your website and identify issues like broken internal links, orphan pages (pages with no internal links pointing to them), and pages with too many or too few internal links.

Ensure your internal links are relevant, descriptive, and strategically placed throughout your content. This helps both users and search engines understand the relationship between different pages on your website and discover more of your content.

23. Branded vs. Non-Branded Search Traffic

The ratio of branded to non-branded search traffic can reveal how well-known your brand is and how effective your overall marketing efforts are. Branded search traffic refers to searches that include your brand name or specific products, while non-branded traffic comes from broader, more generic search terms.

A high percentage of branded search traffic indicates strong brand awareness, as people are actively searching for your company or products by name. However, a healthy balance of branded and non-branded traffic is ideal, as it shows that you’re attracting both existing customers and new audiences who might not be familiar with your brand.

Google Analytics and Google Search Console can help you track your branded vs. non-branded search traffic. This data can help you understand how people discover your website and adjust your marketing strategies accordingly. For example, if you see a low percentage of branded traffic, you might need to invest in brand awareness campaigns to increase your visibility and recognition.

24. Top Landing Pages

Top landing pages are the pages that receive the most traffic from organic search. These pages are often the first point of contact for many visitors and play a crucial role in shaping their first impression of your website.

Identifying your top landing pages allows you to focus your optimization efforts on the pages that matter most. Google Analytics can show you which pages are attracting the most organic traffic, along with other important metrics like bounce rate, time on page, and conversion rate.

Identify opportunities to improve the user experience on your top landing pages, such as optimizing the layout, adding more relevant content, or improving the call to action. This can help you create a more positive first impression, increase engagement, and drive more conversions.

25. Sitelinks

Sitelinks are additional links that appear under your website’s main listing in search results. These links typically point to popular or important pages on your site, such as your homepage, about page, or product categories.

Sitelinks are a sign of authority and trust, as Google only displays them for websites that it considers to be high-quality and relevant to the user’s search query. They can also improve your CTR by making your listing more prominent and informative in the search results.

While you can’t directly control whether or not Google displays sitelinks for your website, you can increase your chances of getting them by creating a clear and well-organized website structure, using descriptive anchor text for your internal links, and building a strong backlink profile.

26. Featured Snippets

Featured snippets are the short excerpts of text that appear at the top of some search results. They’re designed to provide quick answers to user queries without the need to click on any links. While featured snippets can drive a lot of visibility to your website, they can also reduce clicks, as users get the information they need directly from the search results.

However, even if you don’t get any clicks from a featured snippet, it’s still a valuable achievement. It signals to Google that your content is high-quality and relevant, which can boost your overall SEO performance.

To optimize for featured snippets, focus on creating concise, informative content that directly answers common questions related to your target keywords. Use clear headings and bullet points to make your content easy to scan, and consider adding a FAQ section to your pages.

27. Search Visibility

Search visibility is a broader metric that measures the overall visibility of your website in search results across a variety of keywords. It takes into account both your rankings and the search volume of the keywords you’re targeting.

A higher search visibility score means your website is more likely to be seen by users searching for relevant terms, regardless of whether they click on your listings or not. This metric provides a comprehensive overview of your SEO performance and helps you understand how well your website is performing in the overall search landscape.

Several tools can measure search visibility, including SEMrush and Ahrefs. These tools track your keyword rankings and estimate the search volume for each keyword to calculate a search visibility score. This score can be used to benchmark your performance against competitors and track your progress over time.

28. Organic Search Traffic by Device

With the increasing use of mobile devices, it’s crucial to understand how your website performs on different devices. Organic search traffic by device metrics tells you the percentage of organic traffic that comes from desktop computers, mobile phones, and tablets.

This information can help you tailor your website design and content to better cater to the devices your audience uses most frequently. For example, if most of your organic traffic comes from mobile devices, you’ll want to ensure your website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly on mobile networks.

Google Analytics provides detailed reports on organic search traffic by device. Analyze this data to identify any discrepancies in performance across different devices and optimize your website accordingly to provide a seamless experience for all users.

29. Top Pages by Organic Landing Page Value

Top pages by organic landing page value identify the pages that generate the most revenue from organic search traffic. This metric can be incredibly valuable for e-commerce websites and businesses that rely on organic search to drive sales.

By understanding which pages are most effective at converting organic visitors into customers, you can prioritize optimization efforts for those pages. You can also use this information to inform your content strategy and create more content that is likely to resonate with your target audience and drive sales.

Google Analytics, when integrated with your e-commerce platform or goal tracking, can help you track organic landing page value. Look for pages with high organic landing page value and identify common characteristics, such as the type of content, layout, or calls to action. This information can help you replicate those characteristics on other pages to improve your overall conversion rate.

30. Organic Assisted Conversions

Organic assisted conversions refer to conversions that occur after a user has interacted with your website through organic search, but not directly from the organic search click itself. For example, a user might click on your website from organic search, leave, and then return later through a different channel (such as email or social media) to complete a purchase.

While the final conversion might be attributed to the other channel, the organic search click played a crucial role in initiating the user’s journey towards conversion.

Google Analytics can track organic assisted conversions, giving you a more complete picture of the impact of your SEO efforts. This data can help you understand the role that organic search plays in your overall marketing funnel and make informed decisions about how to allocate your resources.

31. Keyword Cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pages on your website target the same or very similar keywords. This can confuse search engines, as they don’t know which page to prioritize in search results. As a result, your pages might compete against each other, potentially hurting your rankings for those keywords.

To identify keyword cannibalization, use tools like Linkilo, SEMrush or Ahrefs to see which pages on your website are ranking for the same keywords. If you find multiple pages targeting the same keyword, consolidate the content or optimize the pages to target different variations of the keyword. This can help improve your overall search visibility and prevent your pages from competing against each other.

Conclusion – Time to track those results

Now that you have the necessary skills and equipment, you may proudly display the outcomes of your labor-intensive SEO efforts. 

Pick a few to start with and add more later if all of the metrics above seem excessive. Instead of wasting time on SEO tasks that aren’t truly improving your rankings, you can adjust your plan using factual data by periodically evaluating your SEO results. Continue reading our “How to find the right SEO metrics that matter” if you need help.