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The 13 Most Important SEO KPIs To Track

Implementing a successful SEO campaign is half the battle. The other half boils down to how effectively you can track your website’s performance.

This is where SEO KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) come into play.

These measurable metrics allow you to evaluate the performance of your SEO efforts and ensure they deliver based on your goals. From site search visibility to knowing how much traffic you generate, tracking the right SEO KPIs can tell you where you have succeeded, where there is room for improvement, and where there are areas to focus on next.

But beyond fancy metrics and comprehensive data, tracking SEO KPIs helps your business stay active and relevant to industry needs.

1. Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is one of the most telling data of how well your website performs in search engine results.

This KPI measures the number of visitors who find your site naturally through search engines like Google rather than paid advertisements or other marketing channels. It reflects the direct impact of your SEO efforts.
When your organic traffic numbers are substantial, your website ranks well for targeted keywords. Higher rankings lead to more visibility, which increases the chances of attracting potential customers or clients.

Tracking organic traffic also helps you understand trends in user interest. A spike in traffic during certain months might indicate that a particular content or product is resonating with your audience.

On the other hand, a sharp drop could signal that your rankings for important keywords are slipping and that your content needs refreshing to remain competitive.

By monitoring your organic traffic, you can continually refine your SEO strategies for maximum output.

2. Keyword Rankings

Knowing how well your keyword ranks in the almighty search engine’s algorithm helps you reevaluate your keyword usage.

Keyword rankings measure where your website stands in search engine results for specific keywords. Simply put, it shows whether your site appears on the first page of results—or further down—when users search for terms relevant to your business or content.

Higher rankings mean potential visitors are more likely to see your pages, which translates to increased organic traffic. Note that consistency matters more than sudden spikes or fluctuations. If you consistently rank high for targeted keywords, your content is optimised well and aligns with what users are searching for.

Conversely, monitoring rankings also helps you spot the underperforming keywords. Not all terms bring in the expected results, so improving the weaker links is important before rankings take a severe hit.

Tracking these underperforming terms ensures no opportunity is overlooked, making your SEO efforts more effective overall.

3. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

How do you know if your title is eye-catching and engaging enough? Well, you have CTR to tell you.

In short, CTR is the metric that shows how many users click on your website link after seeing it in search engine results. It’s calculated as a percentage of total impressions—how many times your page appears in search results compared to the number of clicks it receives. This KPI gives you a clear idea of how compelling your website is to visitors.

A strong CTR tells you that your titles and meta descriptions are doing their job: catching the user’s attention and persuading them to click. These elements act as the first impression of your content, so making them clear, relevant, and enticing is a must.

Conversely, if your CTR is lower than you expected, it’s a sign that your titles and descriptions don’t gel with what your audience is looking for. Testing different variations—such as rephrasing your headlines, including action-oriented language, or incorporating keywords naturally—can help improve this metric.

Again, there’s no wrong or right when it comes to CTR. See what works and brings better results, and stick to it.

4. Bounce Rate

You have good traffic and even good CTR, but you noticed that sales aren’t coming in, and there’s not a lot of engagement despite your site attracting so much traffic. What’s the issue here?

This situation is a typical sign of a high bounce rate, meaning visitors leave your site without interacting further. Bounce rate measures the percentage of visitors who land on your website and leave without taking any further action, including clicking on other pages or any button.

A high bounce rate means you have potential problems with your site, it might suggest that the content on a particular page isn’t aligned with what users were expecting when they clicked through from a search result.

By monitoring your bounce rate, you can analyse which pages drive actions and which need further refinement.

5. Dwell Time

Do you want to track how long users stay on your website after they click on them? Then Dwell time is a great metric to track. This SEO KPI is often used to gauge how great your landing page is to visitors.

When users spend more time on a page, it means that the information or content is valuable to them and has caught their interest. For example, a well-written blog post or detailed how-to guide can encourage visitors to stay and explore further.

Naturally, long dwell times are good news because these users are more likely to interact with your website, while short dwell times could be a telltale sign of failing to meet user expectations. Now, numerous factors influence this, from slow load times to intrusive pop-ups or irrelevant information that can cause visitors to leave quickly.

Either way, it’s important to track the time site visitors spend per session to understand.

6. Backlink Quality And Quantity

Also known as inbound links, backlinks are perhaps one of the most important factors in determining your website’s credibility and dominance in the eyes of search engines. The more reputable sites link to yours, the more credible your site becomes.

A backlink from a well-established industry titan is always worth more than dozens of links from low-quality or unrelated websites.

So, simply accumulating links without considering their quality and value can be harmful to your rankings.
By tracking your backlinks, you can see which backlink profile strategies are working—whether it’s creating shareable content, building relationships with other websites, or earning links naturally through your expertise.

7. Conversion Rate

While metrics like traffic and click-through rates show the number of people landing on your site, conversion rate tells you how many of those visitors are taking meaningful steps that translate to sales or actions.

A high conversion rate indicates that your website successfully engages and encourages users to act. Your CTA may be clear and persuasive, or your content may be enticing and satisfactory enough to make users want to know more.

On the other hand, a low conversion rate may suggest areas that need improvement, such as unclear CTAs or, in most cases, an overly complicated process in the buyer’s journey that frustrates users.

Tracking your conversion rate lets you see how well your website converts browsing visitors into loyal customers or leads. So, If you notice higher conversions on certain pages, you can study what’s working there and replicate it across other areas of your site.

8. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Do you know how much you spent on acquiring a new customer? If not, CPA is the metric for you.

This measure is important to understanding your marketing campaigns’ financial efficiency and ROI. While driving traffic and increasing visibility is SEO’s speciality, the ultimate goal for most businesses is to convert that traffic into paying customers or leads, and CPA helps you quantify that cost.

Tracking CPA ensures you’re not overspending when acquiring new customers. A low CPA means your efforts are cost-effective and your strategy works efficiently, while a high CPA tells you areas where you could streamline or optimise.

This metric also helps you evaluate the profitability of different strategies. Suppose one type of content consistently brings in high-quality leads at a lower cost. In that case, it’s a good indicator that investing more in similar content could yield even better results than spreading different content out.

Similarly, analysing CPA across different customer segments or campaigns can highlight where you’re getting the best ROI. You want to spend the least and get the most out of your SEO effort.

9. Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are a set of key metrics introduced by Google to measure the critical technical aspects of user experience on a website, so a responsive web design is needed. The metric is designed with user experience in mind, and as we discussed earlier, UX is everything when retaining site visitors. There are three vitals to consider.

Loading speed: As attention spans and patience wear thin, visitors expect websites to load almost instantly; even a minor delay can lead to a higher chance of them leaving your site.

Interactivity: A site that feels sluggish or unresponsive can leave users dissatisfied, regardless of how good the content is. Keeping this aspect smooth and efficient ensures visitors can easily engage with your website.

Visual stability: Have you ever tried to click a button only for the content to shift suddenly because of a late-loading image? This metric addresses that. Minimising unexpected layout shifts makes your site feel professional and user-friendly.

Tracking core web vitals has become crucial to SEO because it directly ties user experience to rankings. So, prioritise delivering the best experience you can give to your viewers for a smooth ride for them and a smooth conversion process for your business.

10. Referring Domains

Referring domains track the number of unique websites that link to your site. This is separate from backlinks, which are the number of external links connected to your site.

For example, let’s say your site offers marketing tools. If HubSpot, a leading marketing platform, links to one of your blog articles in three separate posts, that would count as three backlinks. However, since all those links come from the same domain (hubspot.com), it counts as just one referring domain.

Now, imagine Ahref writes an article on marketing strategies and links to your site, and Moz does the same. In this case, you’ve gained two more referring domains, even though the total backlink count is now five.

This distinction is significant. A website with backlinks from multiple authoritative domains, such as Forbes, Moz, and HubSpot, demonstrates broad recognition and credibility in its niche.

On the other hand, if all 30 backlinks to your site are from a single source, search engines may not view your site as widely authoritative, even though the backlink count is high.This SEO KPI is valuable because each referring domain represents an endorsement of your content.

Naturally, just like backlinks, the quality and authority of these domains are more important than quantity. So don’t try to get several different referring domains without considering their relevancy and quality.

11. Index Coverage

Search engines need to have proper access to a page to index them. If search engines don’t index a page, it won’t appear in search results, no matter how valuable or well-optimised the content is. Tracking index coverage helps you identify which pages are successfully indexed and which might be encountering issues.

For example, a cleaning product page on an e-commerce site might not appear in search results if it isn’t indexed. Technical issues like incorrect robots.txt settings, broken links, or duplicate content that can get flagged could cause this.

Monitoring index coverage allows you to quickly spot and resolve such problems, ensuring every important page is available for users to find.

Additionally, index coverage helps you evaluate your website’s overall health. Pages marked as “excluded” or “error” in tools like Google Search Console might indicate underlying issues that need attention. Perhaps there are broken URLs or incorrectly applied canonical tags. You would never know unless you properly conduct index coverage.

After all, there’s nothing worse than putting all the effort into SEO only to realise it’s not indexed correctly.

12. Google Business Profile Metrics

You probably have a Google Business Profile (GBP) if you serve local customers. Analysing GBP metrics is important for tracking the success of your local SEO efforts.

The data can include clicks to your website, calls straight from the listing, and requests for directions to your physical location. These interactions are key indicators of how well your online visibility translates into real-world engagement.

For example, if your listing receives many clicks or direction requests, it suggests that potential customers are actively considering your business. On the other hand, if these metrics are low despite high impressions, your listing needs optimisation. Perhaps the business description isn’t engaging, your photos are outdated, or your contact information isn’t clear.

Other more apparent metrics are reviews. Positive reviews act as an endorsement, while negative feedback shows areas for improvement. Regularly monitoring and managing this data improves your profile’s performance and enhances your reputation.

13. Return On Investment (ROI)

ROI answers the key question for any business: Are your SEO campaigns delivering measurable value for the money, time, and resources you’ve invested?

To calculate ROI, you compare the revenue generated from organic traffic—such as sales, leads, or sign-ups—to the expenses related to your SEO activities. These costs may include content creation, hiring SEO experts, using paid tools, and technical optimisations.

A positive ROI means your strategies are paying off, while a negative ROI suggests adjustments are needed to improve the effectiveness of your efforts.

For instance, your ROI is strong if your business invests $5,000 in SEO over six months, and the organic traffic generated from those efforts will lead to $15,000 in sales. However, if the revenue from SEO doesn’t cover your costs, you need to rethink your strategy.

Tracking ROI is not just about measuring profit; it’s about understanding what works and where improvements can be made. This KPI ties together all the metrics you’re monitoring, like organic traffic, keyword rankings, and conversions, to show their overall impact on your business goals.

Why It’s Important To Track SEO KPIs

SEO KPIs act as your digital compass, guiding your efforts and ensuring you’re on the right path. These metrics are not just numbers; they tell a story about how your website is performing and whether your efforts are paying off.

Without tracking SEO KPIs, it’s like driving without a map—you might be moving, but you have no way of knowing if you’re heading in the right direction.

Tracking SEO KPIs allows you to measure the impact of your campaigns and pinpoint what’s working and what isn’t. For example, if your organic traffic steadily increases, it’s a sign that your strategies are driving results. On the other hand, if specific metrics are underwhelming, it’s an opportunity to reevaluate and make adjustments.

Instead of relying on guesswork, these metrics provide a data-driven foundation for decision-making, allowing you to focus on what truly impacts your business growth.

Which SEO KPIs to Use for Your Business

Not all SEO KPIs carry the same weight for every business. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to SEO. The metrics that matter most to you depend primarily on your goals, target audience, and industry. Here’s a closer look at how different businesses can prioritise these metrics:

E-commerce Websites

E-commerce sites aim to drive sales, so metrics that directly relate to revenue are key.

Organic traffic: This helps ensure you’re attracting visitors who are interested in your products.

Keyword rankings: Monitor your visibility for high-intent search terms like your products.

Conversion rates: Reveals how effective your site turns visitors into paying customers.

Cost Per Acquisition: This helps you evaluate whether your investment in SEO leads to affordable customer acquisition.

Local Service Providers

If you operate a local business, your focus will likely be on attracting customers in your immediate area.

Google Business Profile metrics: This is a must-have KPI for restaurants or retail stores that rely on foot traffic. It is invaluable for tracking actions like direction requests, calls, and clicks from your listing.

Local keyword rankings: To track how visible you are in local search results. Don’t overlook reviews, as they influence customer trust and affect local SEO rankings.

SaaS Companies

For SaaS businesses, the emphasis is often on user engagement and long-term subscriptions.

Conversion rates: A crucial metric to track how many site visitors sign up for free trials or paid plans.

Dwell time: Provides insight into how well your content engages users and whether they find your content and offers appealing.

ROI: Your efforts tie back to revenue, ensuring your SEO strategy supports sustainable growth.

Content Publishers

For publishers, the main goal is often to maximise audience engagement and ad revenue.

Click-Through Rate (CTR): This is a must-track metric to understand how effectively your headlines, meta descriptions, or featured snippets attract clicks from search engine results.

Organic traffic: Shows how well your site is reaching its target audience.

Bounce rate: This helps identify areas where users might be losing interest so that you can refine your content strategy.

B2B Organisations

B2B businesses rely heavily on generating leads and building authority in their niche.

Keyword rankings: This metric allows you to monitor your visibility for industry-relevant terms and see if they are relevant.

Backlinks: help establish your site as a trusted resource, boosting rankings and credibility.

Conclusion On SEO KPIs To Track

SEO KPIs are more than just numbers; they’re insights into how your website performs and how well it aligns with your objectives. By understanding and tracking the 13 most important SEO KPIs, you can refine your strategies, make informed decisions, and drive meaningful growth.

Tracking all the SEO KPIs can take a lot of work, as it is an ongoing process that demands time and effort from businesses. Best SEO is an expert in helping our clients get the most out of their SEO campaigns through our proven SEO strategies.

Give us 90 days, and we guarantee your website will land on the first page of Google. If we don’t meet the promise, you will pay nothing.

Frequently Asked Questions About SEO KPIs To Track

How Can SEO KPIs Inform Content Strategy?

By analysing metrics like CTR, dwell time, and content performance, you can identify what resonates with your audience and refine future content.

What SEO KPIs Are Useful For Monitoring Competitors?

Metrics like keyword rankings, backlink profiles, and search visibility help assess how your site compares to competitors.

When Should You Add Or Remove SEO KPIs?

Add or remove KPIs when your business goals change or when a particular metric no longer provides actionable insights.

Should You Track Both Mobile And Desktop SEO KPIs Separately?

Yes. Track mobile and desktop KPIs separately. User behaviour and search engine performance can vary significantly across devices.

How Does Tracking Indexed Pages Help Content-Heavy Websites?

Tracking indexed pages ensures that search engines can discover all valuable content, helping large sites avoid missed traffic opportunities.

What Is A Good CTR For Blog Content In SEO?

A good Click-Through Rate (CTR) for blog content typically falls between 3% and 5%, but it varies by industry and search intent.

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