As a marketing leader, how closely you monitor and analyze your KPIs directly relates to the success of your team. SEO reporting is no exception. The best leaders closely work with their SEO team to ensure the KPIs support the brand and produce consistent revenue growth.
Basic truths of SEO reporting
SEO comprises all website activities that lead to more traffic, leads and conversions. There are some basics truths that all marketing leaders (VPs, C-levels, heads and directors, too!) should understand:
- SEO takes time. Search engine optimization is a continuous task. According to Google, between four and 12 months can pass before the first results of SEO measures are visible. It’s also important to factor in conversion optimizations, A/B tests and content refreshes. Keep this in mind: The SEO KPIs you analyze regularly have a lag time. They‘re based off of work completed four to 12 months ago.
- SEO is the foundation for lasting online success. SEO should not be seen as a short-term marketing and sales channel, but as the foundational basis for long-term success in web-based commerce. According to reports, 65% of website traffic and 67% of website revenue results from paid and organic search.
- SEO has a demonstrable ROI. Rankings and traffic is the mechanism for generating a sustainable source of leads and conversions among interested consumers. Above all, continuous SEO reporting allows for closer examinations of the winning tactics and ROI time frames.
SEO Report KPIs
Since SEO is fundamental to online business success, all marketing leaders should receive these metrics on a regular basis. The portion of sales generated online typically dictates the frequency to review metrics. If only a small portion of sales are conducted online, monthly reports suffice. However, if most or all sales are funneled through your site, you should closely review the rises and dips of traffic to determine how those fluctuations impact revenue.
A proper SEO report not only provides a snapshot into rankings and traffic trends, it also includes revenue and ROI data. Here’s a sampling of what’s included in an effective SEO report:
- Rankings: For which keywords does a website currently rank? On which Google search result position are the pages listed?
- SEO visibility: How visible is the website compared to other pages in Google search results? Does the site rank on the first results page for many keywords? Or does the site rank for only a few keywords that have a high search volume?
- Competitors: How have the competitors developed? For which keywords and rankings did the competitors make gains?
- Traffic: How many visitors does the website have and how many of them come to the site via search engines?
- CTR: How many Google users click on the web page in the search results?
- Time spent and bounce rate: How long do visitors stay on the website? How many visitors call up only one page and then leave the website again?
- Conversion rate: How many conversions are there in relation to the number of website visitors? What is the shopping cart value of the users?
These SEO insights should be analyzed in comparison to the previous day or week. In addition, the year-over-year comparisons reveal powerful seasonal search patterns. When your team has the resources, the data can be monitored on various levels to reveal progress toward ROI target achievement. The data layers are:
- SEO data: rankings, visibility and competitors.
- User data: CTRs and bounce rate.
- Business data: conversion rate and shopping cart values.
Essential SEO technologies
Multiple data sources are necessary to craft a comprehensive picture of the efficacy of your team‘s SEO strategy.
- Google Search Console: User data on metrics such as CTR, bounce rate and time on page.
- Google Tag Manager: Business data on conversion rate and shopping carts.
- Enterprise SEO software: SEO data about rankings, SEO visibility, competitive analysis and technical optimization.
If your reports aren’t robust enough or compiling reports is too time-consuming of a process, consider consolidating tools into a centralized enterprise solution.
Searchmetrics offers a complete solution for the SEO process that makes success plannable based on data and enables marketers to achieve their goals. Arrange a consultation with our experts to learn more.
