You spend a lot of time learning all the latest SEO tactics and trends. Afterward, you spend time implementing SEO for your business. Sometimes, to get additional help, you might also involve a professional SEO service or a third-party app. How do you know if you’re receiving enough benefits to warrant your time, money, and effort? Use the following tips for tracking SEO success can help you keep your SEO strategy on the right track.
Set Goals
If you don’t know what you want to achieve, how will you know when you achieve it? By asking such a question, you can find the motivation to set goals for each of your websites. Do your websites exist to inform audiences, collect leads, or sell products?
If you need help clarifying your goals, spend time reviewing the history of your business, the value of each lead, and your most profitable products and services. Also, try following the SMART model for setting goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-sensitive.
Define KPIs
Define key performance indicators, such as conversion rates and engagement rates, that can reveal how well you’re progressing to your goals. Next, before you launch your new SEO campaign, set benchmarks for your KPIs by measuring your website’s current performance. Get as large a sample of data as is possible and practical to help account for performance fluctuations.
Exercise Patience
Avoid the temptation to expect instant results. After all, changes to a site’s SEO may not produce measurable changes for a month or longer. Just imagine if you optimize a site for new keywords and, after a week, choose new keywords. Such behavior would make measuring results almost impossible. So, record every change you make and then allow time for those changes to take effect.
Assess and Revise
Periodically, you should review your website’s performance, especially regarding your chosen KPIs. If you’ve made progress, you can capitalize on your success by continuing your current SEO strategy. If your site’s SEO has worsened, you should carefully examine what went wrong. Do you have valid data? Have you chosen relevant KPIs?
Based on what you learn, revise your SEO strategy. Through a continual optimization, review, and revision cycle, you can ensure that you invest your time and energy into the tactics that deliver the best results.
Ultimately, Google uses more than 200 ranking factors to decide where to place a website on search engine results pages. By monitoring the factors that mean the most to your business, you can ensure that you spend your time and money in ways that help your website achieve its goals. In the end, you’ll create a successful online presence that supports your business’ profitability.