What metrics should be focused to check SEO performance and evaluate all my hard work correctly?

That’s the right question, I should admit. When it comes to tracking your website’s hard-earned ranking progress, you will certainly need to know exactly what web metrics should be emphasized, in line with understanding which figures are actually not that critical – and therefore can be skipped when you check SEO performance of your website achieved so far. In other words, given that far not every number provided with an in-depth website analysis will actually matter, you should remember to track always with the right purpose. And it means that the main online metrics you’re using to check SEO performance at scale must be tailored at least according to your specific needs and current goals. Considering that now it’s time for you to evaluate all that hard work in a maximum correct and realistic way, here are the key metrics which would be relevant specifically to the Search Engine Optimization. Make sure to focus on the following areas of your website performance to check its SEO sufficiency the right way.

How to Track Your Progress and Check SEO Setting the Right Focus

Keyword Rankings

Given that there is nothing special about checking your overall keyword rankings, just make sure you’re inspecting only the most valuable keyword assets – otherwise, you would be simply overwhelmed with too much information getting you lost in the minutia. I personally recommend splitting everything into two main categories – the whole keyword glossary you’re using taken as one, and a more specific part that pulls together all your search terms precisely, which are targeted at a given website section, blog topic or, say, custom landing page, etc.

Search Traffic

This can be quickly measured directly via your Google Analytics profile, so there is actually no need to apply for any specifically-tailored online tools or professionally tuned analytical platforms. Of course, if you want to quickly track your organic search traffic – just with two or three clicks – you might as well try something more advanced (for example, online toolkits like Semalt Analyzer, SEMRush, Moz, Ahrefs, or SEO Spider by Screaming Frog).

Page Visits

Let’s face it – the number of unique page visits coming from organic search is arguably the most important figure of all, particularly in case you’re running a website with a clear element of commerciality. And I recommend you to check this SEO metrics focusing mainly on your best converting website pages, apart from the home page itself and the rest of your top performing landings. Should you have one of the following, consider checking related pages too – comparison lists, infographics, video guides/tutorials, in-depth articles/posts, as well as every short web copy embedded with eye-catching on-page images.

Time on Page

Make sure to check the average time per user visit (otherwise, dwelling time) to measure the effectiveness of your content engagement. Of course, the actual user clicks calculated to your page are also very important, but evaluating time on page with GA can give you a deeper look into the general quality of your SEO performance – taken exactly in the eyes of the live user you’re actually targeting with your online optimization effort, right?