Well-researched and insightful websites amount to nothing if you can’t reach the audience you intend them for. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) indicates the key aspects that can increase your website ranking and traffic. While you might inculcate all the best SEO practices in your website content, you need a way to measure the same.
Having set benchmarks and understanding how to measure your success in terms of SEO is extremely important. Whether you measure the success of your website or clients, this is the most important aspect. Everyone likes seeing tangible results, but due to the nuances and technical nature of SEO, it can get difficult to see the result transparently.
For this reason, you must have a thorough knowledge of key performance indicators and calculators that give insight into your approach. This can even help you tweak your method to suit your website and personalize your approach with SEO. Without further ado, let us discuss some of the most effective ways to measure results.
What is KPI and How Do You Measure Its Success?
When you use search engine optimization techniques, you, your team, and the client are putting in a lot of time, money, and effort into tactics that help the website increase its ranking. KPI stands for Key Performance indicators, which measures the success or failure of these tactics so that you know if you are getting your money’s worth.
Now to measure success, you need to set up a certain benchmark. You can measure the it before you begin your optimization.
Set this as a benchmark from which you can measure progress after a certain period of optimization (for example, three months). This gives you a tangible measure of your practices and allows you to show your client that they’re getting their money’s worth.
Setting up benchmarks, having consistent reports with updates to your approach and set KPI’s can take your practice to the next level. However, this also means that you must know which ones are useful and points to the true measure of growth. Read on to get an insight into the same.
Which KPI’s can you track?
Today, there are multiple approaches that you can use to evaluate the success of your optimization techniques. With more than 100 measures of success, it is difficult to figure out exactly what shows true growth and which KPI you must focus on reporting.
Page-level reporting with a focus on certain KPIs can give you a more in-depth and holistic approach than pinpointing on one measure. Discussing your clients’ needs and including those points in your report is also equally important. Aside from those, here are some of the most important KPIs that help you measure your SEO success and make informed decisions:
Conversion
Most websites focus on lead generation or sales made as to the end goal for success. Conversion is the first step towards succeeding in that goal. You can measure individual page conversion by setting up goals on your dashboard and looking for the conversion rate through certain actions.
For example, signing up for a newsletter or opting in for email updates is an action that is considered a conversion.
Traffic
Measuring the organic traffic directly points to your ranking and site visibility. If you have a relatively larger audience streaming onto your website, it means that your page probably has one of the top rankings. While many individuals prefer to track keywords to measure the site visibility, the traffic received gives a broader perspective for the same.
Impressions
Impressions simply point out the visibility of your brand. If an ad for your website is seen, it counts as an impression regardless of if the viewer interacts with it. Impressions point towards brand awareness and help you keep a check on the ROI for campaigns. However, your conversion rate must grow along with impressions for a successful campaign.
CTR
The click-through rate or CTR measures the success of your impressions. If you see an amazon advertisement and decide to add it to your saved videos, amazon records this as a click-through and adds it to the total percentage. The CTR is a great calculator for audience engagement and interest.
What is ROI?
ROI is an acronym for Return On Investment, that measures the performance of your investments and how profitable they are. In simple words, you can say that this metric is used to check the amount of money you invested in an investment and how much profit you made.
This is important to know whether you are making money and need more money to invest. Digital marketers are often using this method to measure success and share the details with the higher management.
How do I estimate the ROI?
When you look towards SEO and invest in marketing strategies that rank your website higher on search, it is to achieve a certain goal. For some organizations, this may be to simply get the word out about their brand and to increase brand awareness. However, for most websites, spending money on optimization and digital marketing efforts means that you must get some kind of Return on Investment.
Now this ROI can include an increase in conversions or an increase in sales, but the result needs to be tangible. It also needs to justify the money that the clients or you are putting into to fulfil the goals and objectives and get effective results.
Measuring the ROI can help you see that you’ve acquired satisfactory results. This justifies your contract and even attracts quality customers with higher pay. Here are some of the metrics that you must pay attention to when looking to estimate the ROI.
Real Search Volume
The real search volume is essentially the impressions divided by the impression share. The best way to calculate the same is to check the keywords in Google AdWords and get an exact number for your query.
If you do not have access to AdWords for any reason, you can use an alternate solution. This includes doing a broad search for your term that gives you keyword suggestions. These suggestions are your secondary keyword cluster and can give you general sensing of your search volume.
CTR by Rank Position
The CTR or Click Through Rate for a particular position is determined from data gathered from Google Search Console and Industry Averages. This helps you get an idea of the CTR you receive if you are at a certain ranking or position on the search.
If you take both the CTR and the search volume, it helps you get an idea of what course of action will give you the estimated returns you require.
Conversion Rate and Lifetime Value
The conversion rate and lifetime value are estimates that you can get from the client. The conversion rate is generally set against a certain benchmark goal that every website can get if they are using Google Console. The lifetime value of a customer is the amount that the customer has contributed to the website. This contribution occurs through their interaction with the brand.
If you or your client doesn’t have access to either or haven’t set it up, it’s important to do so before moving forward. Lifetime value is lower for goods that are precious or other luxury services. So, you must measure this metric in your ROI only if it matches the website goal for its customers.
Calculating all these metrics together by multiplying them gives you a very realistic estimate of the value your optimization practices bring to the website. This is a great way to gain trust and make client acquisition easier.
Difference Between KPI and ROI Metrics
Whether online or offline, these play a crucial role in seeing how well the business is performing and working on future budget allocation. The differences between marketing metrics are evident as they are used differently and concentrate on different business needs. However, both determine a business’s success and ultimately contribute to revenue growth.
What They Do?
ROI is a financial metric used to check the benefits and value one gets back from one’s investment. KPIs are forward-looking predictors with pre-set measurable metrics to determine how they are performing and whether or not they are aligning with the business objectives.
What Do They Measure?
KPIs are leading indicators that assess the short-term impact on a business in different areas, such as costs incurred, customer satisfaction, marketing campaigns, total revenue, customer acquisition cost, sales growth, etc. Whereas ROI is a long-term game that helps gauge profit, businesses make from their marketing costs and investment and check areas of improvement.
How Are They Measured?
KPI vs ROI have different formulas to measure business goals and objectives. To measure ROI, the benefit is divided by the total investment made. On the other hand, KPI metrics are calculated by tracking the indicators on Google Analytics or other reporting tools.
Endnotes
On-page search engine optimization has a unique purpose in today’s rapidly growing digital background. It’s important that your website not only stands out but also appears to have all the right data that reaches the target audience. However, when you are working as an SEO professional, putting in time and money for a project needs outcome.
The outcome is something tangible and measurable of a projects lifecycle, whether that’s through KPIs and Reports. Having a good return on investment and learning how to check for it is as much a part of SEO used to optimize.
Hence, you must understand the use of the best SEO practices. At the same time, you should also identify the changes and growth that it reaps for your website.
If you or your client doesn’t have access to either or haven’t set it up, it’s important to do so before moving forward for employee satisfaction. Lifetime value is lower for goods that are precious or other luxury services. To have its true impact, you must measure this metric in your ROI only if it matches the website goal for its customers.
Calculating all these metrics together by multiplying them gives you a very realistic and accurate measurement of the value your optimization practices bring to the website. This is a great way to gain trust and make client acquisition easier.
FAQ
Are KPIs and ROI the same?
No, both the metrics are not the same. In fact, ROI is a category that falls under KPI that marketers use to gauge ROI. ROI calculations assess the financial aspect and performance of a marketing campaign or a project. However, KPIs can include different metrics to help in project management and reach organizational goals.
What are ROI and KPI in digital marketing?
These two metrics determine the performance and effectiveness of marketing campaigns for successful businesses. KPIs are set indicators used to measure success, considering different parameters. ROI looks at the financial aspect of how much money is spent and whether or not a business has benefitted from the investment.
How do marketers use KPI metrics to reach their business objectives?
Through cost per acquisition, marketing managers can build successful marketing funnels. A company can have a high profit margin if the cost per acquisition is low.
