As a small to medium-sized enterprise (SME), you likely know how important search engine optimisation (SEO) is in gaining visibility and credibility and achieving your online business goals.
However, what separates successful SMEs from not-so-successful ones is understanding SEO and knowing how to measure and report on it effectively.
Fortunately, with the right approach, your SEO strategy can be optimised and adjusted for long-term growth and success. In this blog, we’ll discuss key metrics that every SME should track and how to interpret the data to refine your SEO strategy.
Keyword Rankings
Organic keyword ranking used to be foundational for SEO. Keyword ranking refers to how your website is ranking for specific keywords that you’re targeting, such as “best Italian restaurant in Sydney” or “bookkeeping services for small business”.
While straight keyword rankings aren’t as important as they once were, it’s still important to track your position in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for your targeted keywords. What’s changed is the importance of tracking keyword bands (e.g., positions 1-5, 6-10) or even keyword variations or long tail phrases.
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is the sum of all clicks, page views, and sessions that come from organic search traffic to your website. Organic traffic is a crucial metric that allows you to see the direct impact of SEO on your website.
By looking at the keyword rankings in conjunction with organic traffic data, you can get a better understanding of the overall health of your SEO strategy.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is defined as the percentage of single-page sessions immediately after landing on a website. If a potential customer visits your website and then immediately leaves without navigating to any other pages, it is considered a bounce.
High bounce rates are typically a sign of poor user experience or a mismatch in expectations. A high bounce rate can lower the stay and engagement metrics, decreasing your website’s rank.
Conversion Rate
Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website who actually engage in meaningful actions like filling out forms, making a purchase, downloading a document, etc.; it’s a key factor that measures if your SEO strategies are effective. A high conversion rate will not only indicate your content is effective and engaging, but it also means that your website design and development is successfully working to turn visitors into customers.
Analytics Reporting
Lastly, it’s essential to ensure that your data is correctly interpreted. Proper interpretation and insightful analysis allow you to make strategic data-driven decisions. It’s crucial to understand and set goals based on the data you see.
It’s advisable to use analytics reporting to track your progress over time and make decisions based on meaningful insights. On a weekly and monthly basis, review your site metrics to understand if your traffic, pages, and user engagement are headed in the right direction.
Conclusion:
Search engines change their algorithms regularly, presenting new opportunities and challenges for SMEs. As a result, it’s essential to analyse the performance of your SEO strategy regularly. Small to medium businesses need to track an array of SEO metrics before knowing the success of their strategy, including keyword rankings, organic traffic, bounce rates, and conversion rates.
By focusing on the right metrics, you are taking the first step in optimising your SEO strategy. Keep track of your data and use the insights to refine and adjust your strategy to meet your business goals. It takes time to build a reliable SEO strategy, but with the appropriate tracking and measurement, you can ensure it’s worth the investment.