Three SEO Metrics You Should Be Focusing On
In the world of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), there are a fair few metrics you can track, but it can be bloody daunting at first, especially if you don't completely understand each of them. You might have seen a lot of numbers with names that you don’t really understand what they mean, or if they’re even important.
Three Common SEO Metrics You Need to Stop Prioritising
Before we get stuck into discussing the metrics you should be focusing on, let’s chat about the three metrics that are most commonly used and why they’re not telling you what you think they are. You might have heard about clicks, click-through rate, impressions and position. These are common metrics that people often seem to focus on when it comes to analysing their own website’s SEO performance.
Let’s break them down:
Clicks are the number of times people click on a link from Google to your site. This sounds great, right? And it is if you’re also comparing this against a metric that provides insights into what people did when they got to your website.
Without looking at clicks alongside leads, sales or phone calls you only know that you’re getting traffic.
Impressions are the number of times a link to your site is seen in search engines. Again, this is only important if you’re getting clicks and you’re driving business goals. Sure, it’s nice to be seen on Google, but you ultimately want people to visit your website, right?
Click-Through Rate (CTR) is another way of looking at clicks and impressions. It is the percentage of people who click on your website out of the total number of impressions. While it’s great to keep an eye on these metrics, when it comes to tracking our SEO efforts, we want to see what’s actually working and making a difference for your business.
There are three crucial metrics we reckon every business should focus on when working on their website’s SEO: keyword rankings, backlink profiles and user engagement.
So, What exactly are these three crucial metrics you should start focusing on?
We’ve talked about the metrics that you need to stop prioritising so highly, so let's now look at the measurements that provide a more detailed insight into your website’s performance.
Keyword ranking
Shows the position of your web pages on Google search results for a relevant search query. The closer to number one, the better. Position ranking is often broken down by the average position your page sits for a particular search query.
Your keyword position is absolutely important provided people are clicking on your website and it’s a keyword that is relevant to your biz.
If no one is clicking it doesn’t matter if you’re number one or number fifty-one.
A Backlink profile
Shows the total number of links pointing to your site from other websites, which can help you improve your website's domain authority.
Engagement rate
Measures how your target audience engages with your website. Are your users happy and engaging with the experience you're offering?
Instead of simply focusing on the number of clicks your site receives in a month, it’s far more important to make sure your users are actively engaged with your site and not just clicking and leaving immediately.
Keyword Rankings
Keyword rankings are all about the position of your keywords or keyphrases on a search engine results page (SERP). The higher you rank, the more likely you are to get more traffic.
Here is a rough approximation of statistics on the click-through rates (CTRs) for the top 5 SERPs:
First Result (Position 1): This typically receives the highest CTR, often around 30-35%.
Second Result (Position 2): CTR is generally lower than the first position, around 15-20%.
Third Result (Position 3): The CTR further drops, usually around 10-15%.
Fourth Result (Position 4): CTR is lower still, often in the range of 5-10%.
Fifth Result (Position 5): The CTR continues to decrease, by approximately 3-5%.
Note that these numbers can vary depending on factors such as the user's intent, the specific search query and the type of content displayed in the search results. Changes in search engine algorithms and user behaviour can also influence these numbers over time.
While tracking your overall site position (an average of every single keyword your website appears for) is not a bad move, it’s actually more important to track the keywords you want to be showing for.
Tracking the Positions of Your Target Keywords
Tracking your target keywords is an effective way to track the quality of traffic coming to and measure your SEO efforts.
The two ways to track your keyword position are with SEO tools (there are many to choose from) or manually by analysing the SERPs yourself.
Tracking your keyword position manually can be time-consuming as you have to scroll through search results and search keywords individually. The results will also be slightly skewed to your Google algorithm so we recommend using an incognito or private window to ensure that your personal search history will not be taken into account by Google. Although time-consuming, this can be a good method for identifying your competitors.
Different SEO tools to track keyword position include Google Search Console (GSC), Semrush, Moz, Ubersuggest and a lot more. If you want to dive deeper into keyword tracking, we suggest an easy-reading article from Backlinko, where they go through explaining the manual tracking method as well as how to use some of the tools mentioned before.
Google Search Console is a free tool open to all, so let’s take a closer look at how it works -
Google Search Console (GSC) provides an easy-to-understand interface for tracking your keyword positions. For example, one of our clients is currently ranking in the first position for keywords such as 'septic pumping Kingston', 'septic inspection' and 'septic maintenance.' This information can be seen in GSC like in the screenshot below:
Backlink Profile
A backlink profile shows all the links on other websites pointing to your site. It includes information like the webpage and anchor text where the link sits, what webpage on your website to which they’re linking and the domain authority of that website.
Why is Your Backlink Profile Important?
Generally, backlinks are great, but the crucial question is whether they come from authoritative sites. We don't want spammy websites linking to ours, as Google might see us as spammy too.
Your backlink profile is like a popularity contest for your website. It's important because the more high-quality websites that link to you, the more authoritative and trustworthy Google sees you, and the higher you're likely to rank in search results.
Tracking your backlink profile is essential to monitor your link-building efforts and to stay aware of any unwanted links that may appear.
Tracking Your Backlinks
There are different ways you can track your site’s backlinks. Here are some of the tools you can use:
Google Search Console (GSC): GSC is a free tool from Google that shows you your website's backlinks, as well as other important info like your search ranking and organic traffic. This is how you can see your external links on GSC:
Ahrefs: Ahrefs is a paid tool, but it's one of the most powerful SEO tools on the market. It gives you a deep dive into your backlink profile, including which websites are linking to you, the anchor text used and the authority of those links.
Moz: Moz is another popular SEO tool with backlink tracking features. It shows you the number of backlinks, referring domains and the spam score of your backlinks.
SEMrush: SEMrush is a versatile SEO tool that also includes backlink tracking. It gives you data on backlink quantity, quality and the domains linking to your site. This is how your backlinks look like in SEMrush:
Majestic: Majestic is a link intelligence tool that gives you detailed info about your backlink profile, including the number of backlinks, referring domains and the trustworthiness of those links.
Which tool you choose will depend on your budget and needs. If you're just starting out, we recommend using GSC. It's free and provides a good overview of your backlink profile. If you need more detailed information or want to track your backlinks over time, then you may want to consider a paid tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush.
User Engagement
User engagement refers to how customers interact with your website. This can include:
The amount of time users spend on your pages
How users scroll down the page
How users engage with your website, whether on a computer or mobile
Where and what users click
Where and when users drop off the page and leave the site
Remember that with SEO, we’re not focusing on increasing all traffic; we only want to increase what’s called valuable traffic. This is traffic that is most likely to drive business goals. After all, what’s the point in putting in all this effort if there is no return?
Why is User Engagement Important?
Measuring user engagement is important because it can help you understand how users are interacting with your website and what you can do to improve their experience, which, at the end of the day, will potentially help you get more customers. For example, if you notice that a lot of users are dropping off on a particular page, you may need to redesign the page or make it easier to navigate.
Measuring and Tracking User Engagement
User engagement can be measured by tracking users' behaviour on your website. There are a few metrics Google and other search engines consider when monitoring user engagement, including the following:
Mobile optimisation, which means having a responsive design that adapts to different devices, such as laptops, mobiles, tablets, etc.
Semantic search, which involves not just the use of keywords but the way you use those keywords in your text, so the overall content sounds natural.
Average engagement time or the amount of time a user spends on a single page before going back to a search engine. This metric judges the relevance of a page to a user’s search query.
When tracking user engagement, there are tools you can use, such as Google Analytics, which provides insights about user behaviour, traffic sources and more. Below is a screenshot showing engagement metrics provided by Google Analytics:
You can also use heatmaps, and session recording tools like Mouseflow, Crazy Egg and Hotjar. Semrush is also another great tool that provides insights into website traffic and user behaviour.
Depending on your specific needs and goals, you may want to choose one tool over the others, as well as the level of detail you require for your analytics. It’s important to note that some of these tools offer free plans with basic features, while others may require a paid subscription for premium features.
Conclusion
SEO is a complex and ever-evolving field, but by focusing on the three core metrics mentioned in this article, keyword rankings, backlink profile and user engagement, you’re measuring what really makes a difference to your SEO and business.
Unlike other SEO metrics, these focus on more than just search engine clicks and rankings. They focus on bringing in high-quality traffic and turning that traffic into customers. By creating engaging content, building relationships with other high-quality websites and optimising your website for user experience, you can achieve all of these goals.