When you resolve to organically bring quality traffic to your website or webpage, you can’t rule out the role of SEO—good SEO results in a higher ranking of your web pages on search engines.

This results in an inflow of traffic > leads > sales.

When forming an SEO strategy, it is important to zero down on the important SEO KPIs to measure its performance. If you are unsure of these important SEO KPIs, this article will help you.

You can expect to determine why SEO KPIs should be measured and the top 12 SEO KPIs - their importance and impact.

Why Is It Important to Track KPIs?

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are important metrics that help us track the results of optimization activities, revamp strategies, and identify new opportunities to enhance SEO.

There is no doubt that SEO takes time to deliver, but KPIs reflect the impact of strategies on web pages.

The important bit is to set goals properly and measure their impact. After all, we perform SEO to reach a better audience without spending a fortune.

Top 12 SEO KPIs - Importance and Impact

Let us look at the important SEO KPIs you must include in your SEO strategy for better result tracking and management.

1.Search Engine Visibility

One of the most important metrics to measure SEO performance is the growth in search engine visibility. Search Engine Visibility will often show your domain appears in the search results for your desired keywords. The higher the score, the better the performance of SEO.

You can go to the Google Search Console to measure search engine visibility. You will have a record of impressions of your website on the search engine, clicks it received, average CTR, and average position. You can get the reports for different timelines - a week, a month, three months, six months, or any customized date. You will also be able to do a comparative analysis.

Here are a few suggestions to improve search engine visibility:

• Target long-tail keywords

• Improve meta tags - title and description

• Check the mobile-friendliness of your website

• Build backlinks from the relevant sites

• Work on the pages that are ranking on page 2

2. Keyword Ranking

Although keyword ranking is one of the most underrated KPIs, it is equally essential. If you rank higher, you can drive quality traffic to your product or website.

About 1% of people reach the second page of the search engine, which says a lot about user behavior. So, the higher your rank for the keyword, the better your chances of converting them. To track your keywords rankings, list primary keywords, secondary keywords, long-tail keywords, etc.

You can use the following tools to track your keyword rankings:

• Google Search Console: A handy tool that will give you average rankings for your preferred keywords and dates.

• SEMRush: You can easily set up your project and list keywords you want to track.

• Ahrefs: import your list of keywords on the tool and track rankings hassle-free

• Rankwatch: You can get daily reports on your keywords in your email.

Here are a few suggestions to help you increase keyword rankings:

• Dedicate time to get focus keywords relevant to your page and topic

• Write meta tags, including primary keywords. Ensure that it gives out an idea of what users must expect on the page

• Optimize images and videos used in the webpage

Don’t forget keyword ranking is the initial step to achieving more traffic and sales. So, keep a close eye on it.

3. Backlinks

Links of all types - internal and external backlinks are crucial to your SEO growth. However, it is important to keep a tab on the source of backlinks. Acquiring backlinks doesn’t mean you have to get them in bulk wherever possible. If someone feeds you this idea, upgrading their ancient strategy is time.

Acquiring good quality backlinks will help improve the site's authority. Low-quality backlinks are more harmful. The pages with good backlinks usually rank higher in organic search engine rankings.

You can explore these tools to analyze the sources of your backlinks:

• Majestic: A tool dedicated 100% to backlink analysis

• Moz’s Links Explorer: Just enter the URL for your website and get complete data to measure backlinks, linking domains, anchor texts, and much more.

• Serpstat Backlink Analysis Tool: Track backlink domains, malicious sites, lost backlinks, active backlinks, and much more

• Ahrefs: Get an in-depth analysis of backlinks on your webpage along with a free backlink checker.

To get good quality backlinks, you can reach out to good quality bloggers and pitch in to contribute. You can also promote others and get them to do the same for you. Create helpful content and guides and pitch them to industry leaders. If they post it, you will get a good-quality backlink.

4. Organic Traffic

Another important KPI metric to measure SEO is Organic Traffic. Keep a tab on how many organic (unpaid) visitors come to your website. It is an indicator of your SEO efforts and inbound marketing.

Organic visitors are a hot lead. If you optimize your content for your readers and publish quality content regularly, your conversion rate will improve. To enhance your organic traffic number, you must use long-tail keywords on social media platforms, write SEO-friendly meta tags, and increase internal links.

The best way to track organic traffic is via Google Analytics. You can track your organic traffic, audience, behavior, and more.

5. Organic CTR

The click-through rate is the percentage of clicks on a search engine result. It is influenced by ranking position, meta tags (title and description), URL, quality snippets, etc.

SEO experts have observed that search engines use CTR to determine what searchers prefer to read or see. Again, the higher the CTR, the better the SEO performance. You have doubled the traffic if your CTR increases from 5% to 10%. There is a direct relationship between organic CTR and organic traffic. You can go to Google Search Console to keep track of your organic CTR.

Improve CTR by focusing on quality keyword inclusion in your content, meta tags, and URLs. You must also provide snippets like bullet points, tables, and videos.

6. Branded and Non-branded Traffic

What has branded traffic got to do with SEO KPIs? Well, it is important to keep track of branded vs. Non-branded traffic. You must keep track of the shift from branded to non-branded keywords and traffic. When you witness a spike in traffic from non-branded keywords, it strongly indicates that your SEO efforts are going in the right direction.

Using the tools below, you can track both, and it will help you make strategies for brand activities and SEO efforts.

Google Search Console: Your go-to tool to identify all-natural keywords, their rankings, and much more.

• SEMRush: A tool that will give you an in-depth analysis of the performance of branded and non-branded keywords in a few clicks

• Ahrefs: Get a detailed analysis of performing and non-performing keywords on your website quickly.

7. Page Load Time

Page load time has a great impact on your page’s performance. If your page loads slowly, it will negatively affect your search ranking. It will result in lower traffic and conversion.

There are a lot of factors that impact the speed of your page. Sometimes, large file sizes may affect the page speed. It may be the server that is not performing well. You need to check and fix them ASAP.

You can do so with the help of tools such as:

• Uptrends: Put in your URL and see how long it takes to load fully with a visual timeline.

• Sematext: Test your page load speed and get alerts on dips in the performance of your website.

• GTMetrics: Monitor your page performance and get actionable measures to boost your website.

8. Average Session Duration

If you have engaging and user-friendly content, then it is likely that the average session duration will increase. But why is it important to keep it higher, and how does it play a key role in defining SEO KPIs? The answer is that the average session duration tells visitors' time spent on your website. Hence, it reflects the quality of the content and how much it can engage your visitors on your website.

If you see a drop in average session duration, you must brainstorm what has changed to cause this drop and what needs to be done to plug in the holes.

You can track this KPI on Google Analytics to help you capture your visitors and convert them into leads.

A few tips to help you improve your average session duration are:

• Include infographics and videos

• Make your interface user-friendly

• Include engagement factors such as polls, quizzes, surveys, etc.

• Segregate your content and structure it well

9. Bounce Rate

We have observed that the higher the number, the better the performance (except keyword ranking) and bounce rate. It is an important factor to consider while listing SEO KPIs. The bounce rate tells how many visitors bounced off your website without taking any action.

A higher bounce rate means your page fails to grab the visitors' attention, and something needs to be corrected. If a potential consumer bounces off, you may miss out on leads and sales.

Even a small change sometimes brings a remarkable improvement. So, different approaches can be tried to bring the bounce rate down. Overview reports on Google Analytics can help you monitor your pages' bounce rate.

Here are a few tips to help you out:

• Decrease page load time, preferably to 2 seconds or less

• Make your content accessible and readable

• Remove irrelevant content and components (action cards, ads, etc.)

• Include a clear CTA

• Focus on mobile-friendliness

10. Coverage Issue or Crawl Error

When a search engine counters a problem loading a page, it is a coverage issue or crawl error. If your page counters crawl errors, Googlebot will not index your content.

Crawl errors usually occur at the server level, which results in request time-outs or website crashes. If the page has a chain of redirects, it can be a URL error. These errors can adversely affect the overall website performance. Immediate action is recommended in such a situation.

“It is important to focus on the technical errors that your webpage encounters. You can get detailed reports on Google Search Console about site errors,” says Simon from Ace Blogger Outreach Agency.

You can fix the errors based on the report, significantly improving the SEO and site performance.

11. Return on Investment

The ultimate goal of any SEO strategy is to generate business and return on investment. This investment can include the in-house team, agency, marketing campaigns, or other resources. The only purpose of this investment is to get higher returns than expenditures.

At the initial stage, returns can be low or negative, but using a successful strategy, positive results will be just a few months away.

You can check the ROI of SEO by:

• Tracking Search Engine Rankings

• Analyzing boost in organic traffic

• Going over goal completion reports on Google Analytics

12. Core Web Vitals

Core web vitals are metrics used by Google to analyze how people experience your webpage. This is an important SEO KPI for analyzing the website's speed, page responsiveness, and visual stability. Core web vitals will guide you towards improvement in the user experience. You can go to the Core Web Vitals report on Google Search Console and get a detailed report.

• LCP is for Loading: It should be less than 2.5 seconds

• FID is for First Input Delay: It should be less than 100ms

• CLS is Cumulative Layout Shift: It should be less than 0.1 points

The top 12 SEO KPIs will contribute significantly to tracking, regulating, and forming SEO strategies. Set your goals and maintain upward growth :)