SEO is a lengthy undertaking. Although you may experience some short-term triumphs, such as enhancing your technical SEO and seeing your website speed performance rankings take off, actually appearing higher on Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Result Page) takes a bit of time. To stay motivated and reach all of your SEO objectives, you will need frequent encouragement along the way.
Without understanding, if your SEO endeavours are producing results, it won’t be possible to identify which areas require more effort, when to pivot tactics or diagnose major issues.
Before we dive into how to check if your SEO is working, let’s cover a few basics so we’re all on the same page about when to check in on your SEO progress.
How Long Does SEO Take?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is not an overnight success; it takes time to see results. On average, SEO can take anywhere from 6-12 months to start seeing an increase in rankings, depending on the competitiveness of your keywords and how well your SEO works.
It’s important to continuously monitor your SEO results and make necessary changes for optimal performance. When done correctly, you’ll begin to see improvements in search engine rankings over time, with more traffic and engagement coming to your website. Although SEO may take some time to show results, it is a long-term marketing strategy that will provide lasting benefits for your business.
How To Measure SEO Performance?
Measuring SEO performance is essential in order to know if your SEO efforts are successful. There are many tools out there to help you with tracking the performance of your SEO including paid and free versions and in the below i’ll be diving into what i recommend.
As much as Google’s algorithm is easier to understand then trying to post on social media they do keep quiet on how you should measure your SEO performance. But there are ways you can look and the key tool I will be talking about today is Google Search Console.
Data Like Traffic From Organic Searches
Now looking at this kind of data can actually be found in Google Analytics. I’d say it’s one that’s not gonna give you a mass amount of insight but it’s one you want to look at because if it’s increasing then your SEO is working.
Now Google has recently been rolling out the new GA4 so to find this data you need to go to: Reports>Acquisition>User or Traffic Acquisition. Now you may be thinking what’s the difference between the two reports and basically, in the new GA4 they have broken it down to be:
- User acquisition comprises users’ engagement with your site; it explicitly shows data on the new users.
- Traffic acquisition includes data on both new and returning users.
It helps you identify the source through which users interact with your site, including organic search, paid campaigns, and social media ads. In contrast, traffic acquisition includes the engagement of users based on sessions.
How Many Impressions Does Your Website Get?
When it comes to understanding how many impressions your website gets, the best place to start is Google Search Console.
To find this information, head to the Performance tab in Google Search Console, and you will see a diagram that displays your website’s impression rate over a given period of time (look out for something like the below image). Impressions are basically how many times someone has seen your website in Google search results, so having access to this data is an invaluable way of monitoring your website’s performance and improving its visibility on search engine result pages. With the help of Google Search Console and its impressive range of features, you can easily track your website’s impression rate and make more informed decisions about how to increase it.
Additionally to this another great thing with Google Search Console it has a graph so we all know if these stats rise up on the graph, you are doing something right! Another thing you can also do is compare data, so this is great to see how your sites made improvements since starting your SEO work, or alternatively, when you post a blog you can compare and look to see if impressions are on the rise.
Track Keyword Rankings And See What Keywords Your Websites Ranking For
If you want to make sure that your organic search traffic is going to convert, it’s important to track the keywords your website is ranking for.
This can be done through Google Search Console, Semrush or Ahrefs. The paid tools like Semrush and Ahrefs offer more detailed information on keyword rankings, such as how many searches they get per month, the competition and your position in SERPs. But if you don’t want to pay for a tool, then Google Search Console is a great free option to get started with tracking keyword rankings.
Under the “Performance” page you will find a “queries” tab that shows all of the search terms you’ve come up for in the selected date range. Here is where you should start to see a mix of keywords relevant to your business and what you are trying to target but if after six months of SEO work you find that only your business name appears on the list then it’s time to review your SEO strategy and start taking steps to improve it.
What Is Your Click-Through Rate?
So we’ve spoken on impressions and how many people have seen your website but really the goal is to get them to click onto your website and this is where we can look at your click-through rate.
Within Google Search Console next to your impressions you will see how many people have clicked onto your website (image below again for reference).
Usually, your click-through rate will be lower than your impressions and is the stat that usually takes time to improve. An example of why this is, is because usually when you post, say a blog, Google recognises this and then slowly moves you up the rankings. Now over time your goal would be to be on page one within the top 3 (the place that gets the clicks).
If from this you do have pages that are on page one of Google that have high impressions but low click-through rates then my tip would be to check in with your SEO titles and meta descriptions. These are what you see on Google and the thing that are going to make you click on the website.
What Is Your Domain And Page Authority?
Domain and page authority are two terms often used to measure the performance of a website. Domain authority is a metric that measures the strength of your entire domain, while page authority focuses more on the individual pages within it. It is important to measure your domain authority in order to check how well your website is performing compared to other websites.
You can use various tools such as Moz, Semrush or Ahrefs to check what your domain authority score is. Knowing what your domain authority is can help you adjust and improve your SEO strategy accordingly, so it’s definitely worth checking regularly.
The Number Of Backlinks Will Help Your SEO
Backlinks are an integral part of SEO, as they help to build authority in Google’s eyes. The more credible websites that link to your content, the more valuable Google sees it and is likely to promote it in their search engine results pages.
Building a solid backlink profile is one of the best ways to prove your website’s authority with Google. Generally, older websites with decent authority tend to be the ones that Google trusts most, so if you can get those sites to link back to your content, it will go a long way towards helping your SEO efforts.
It’s important not just to have any old links pointing at your website – they need to be from reputable sources and relevant to your niche or industry. The number of backlinks will certainly help your SEO, but it’s also crucial that they come from quality sources for maximum impact.
To measure how many you have and also who may be linking to you, I suggest investing in utilities tools such as Semrush or Ahrefs to get a complete picture of all the sites that are linking to yours. Additionally, these platforms offer important insight about each of these websites so you can assess their credibility and how it may affect your own.
What Is The Most Important SEO Metric?
The most important SEO metric is the number of visits to your website. This is because the more people who visit your website, the higher your ranking will be. It also helps to measure how successful your SEO efforts are and whether or not you need to make changes. The number of visits can also indicate how relevant your content is, as well as how well it is performing in terms of engagement. Additionally, tracking this metric can help you adjust strategies and target keywords to reach a larger audience. By monitoring your site’s traffic, you can make sure that visitors are having a positive experience with your site and will hopefully become customers or followers in the future.
A key addition to measuring the traffic to the website is bounce rate. The reason for this is because if someone lands on your website and then goes straight off it means what you are providing isn’t relevant to their search, maybe a poor customer journey and so forth meaning your rankings will drop. So it’s important to look at the pages that get the highest bounce rate and see why. Check your page speed performance, check your sites layout and design on desktop and mobile, check you have CTA’s, check your contact forms work and check the content is relevant. Now these are just a few examples but will be sure to help you in the right direction.
Tracking SEO Results in the Beginning Stages
Tracking SEO results in the beginning stages can be difficult as it takes time to see any real progress. It is important to track a variety of metrics as we have mentioned and within the data you should see an incline even if it’s slow. This will help identify what strategies are working and which need more optimisation or attention. Additionally, tracking progress will allow you to understand where you started so that you can measure your success and make adjustments as necessary. It’s important to remember that SEO is not a one-time effort but rather an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring and attention to ensure that your website’s visibility continues to improve over time. With patience and dedication, tracking SEO results in the beginning stages will ultimately lead to long-term success for any website.
Wanna Learn More?
Now we have come to the end and I hope this helps you with your success on SEO. My key tip would be patience. As mentioned SEO is not an overnight success but when it works you’ll be thankful for it! If you are keen to learn more then you can also follow me on socials to gain further tips and tricks.
