Contents
SEO and website ranking are a must today. If you want to appear on the internet market with your products or services, you need to implement optimization measures.
Learn how to measure SEO effectiveness and the overall SEO process. What is important! ranking is a process and it consists of several important factors that must be planned, analyzed, measured, and effectively adapted to the user’s needs. Therefore, now not only SEO is important, but also SXO (you can read more about it later in the article).
SEO effectiveness and why is it worth measuring?
Few e-commerce companies or websites offering given services can count on the effects visible in the sales traffic without implemented ranking activities.
ranking for many companies is necessary to stand out from the constantly growing competition that promotes their business online. Website ranking is a series of individual activities, so it is important to measure their effectiveness and efficiency. This allows you to analyze what is working well and what needs to be improved. Ultimately, the goal is to achieve long-term and lasting results, a high position on the searched key phrases in the TOP 10 and an increase in the number of new customers who will complete the purchasing process.
All internet marketing activities can be measured with the help of specialized tools. These data allow to determine whether the expected effect is achieved and whether the strategy is successful for a given client. Here, the concept of key performance indicators (KPIs) is important, thanks to which the most important goals for the client are determined and on which to focus.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) – what are they?
The term Key Performance Indicators (KPI) covers specific goals which are then monitored. KPI allows you to reduce the volume of processed data to only the most important and key for a given company. This facilitates the work on the successive implementation of the strategy, measuring and achieving the set goals and quickly verifying those that require improvement.
The KPI , if properly selected, also allows the activities to be prioritized and grouped accordingly.
How does KPI relate to SEO? We can also determine the key performance indicator in ranking. Here, the most important KPI will be the number of clicks. These important factors in ranking are measured with the help of analytical tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console. There is no one good way to run an SEO campaign, you have to adapt the methods to the specifics of the services of a given industry. That is why it is so important to analyze and measure SEO activities and determine which ones work best and bring significant increases. The most important thing is to find out what is wrong on the page (in terms of ranking) or which results are unsatisfactory (position, traffic. CTR, conversion) and what to do to improve them. Moreover, in SEO, the basic measures of activity are:
- ranking in Google for given keywords
- organic traffic on the website
- user experience (UX)
- conversion rate
Effective tools for measuring SEO effects
Establishing KPIs and measuring the effects of ranking activities related to them can be analyzed using analytical tools. They collect data on key phrases, bounce rates, conversions and overall website traffic. It must be remembered that ranking is a process that is largely based on data analytics and optimization of results.
Google Analytics
This tool measures the behavior of Internet users on a given website and allows to determine, among others:
- conversion rate
- target group
- demographic data
- traffic source
- user behaviour on the website
- page loading time
- basic parameters for mobile traffic (speed and quantity).
Using Google Analytics, you can check the subpages on which the user was navigating within the website and the duration of each session. This tool is an essential element of any SEO campaign, without which it would be difficult to measure the effects of ranking. The implementation of Google Analytics is important above all for e-commerce because it allows you to determine not only user behavior and changes resulting from SEO optimization, but also to monitor sales. The above data allows for the optimization of the website focused on the user of a specific target group – including SXO activities.
In Google Analytics, you can measure the data for each month and compile it, so you can determine how ranking influenced the traffic.
Google Search Console
In Google Search Console, the “Effectiveness” and “Search Analytics” tabs will be helpful in measuring the effects of ranking. This tool also allows you to compare data from previous months. In addition, in Google Search Console you can check:
- the number of views and clicks on Google for given key phrases
- how the website is viewed by Google
- average position for a query on Google
In GSC, you can filter key phrases, which certainly facilitates the analysis. Google Search Console is a tool that shows errors, shows how the website is viewed by Google, so you can verify and correct the shortcomings.
Ahrefs
It is a multifunctional tool that allows for comprehensive website research in terms of the position of individual subpages, checking popularity for specific key phrases, making comparisons with competing websites, as well as testing the correctness of the incoming link profile.
The number and quality of links is taken into account when determining the results. This is an important Google ranking factor. External links, also known as incoming links or backlinks, which are anchored on proven and reliable external websites, are directed to the home page and subpages. Linking affects the position of phrases that generate traffic. At Ahfres, you can measure the trend through estimation.
Ahrefs determines the linking profile, total number of incoming links, but also compiles data on broken links. In this tool you can also check which links are nofollow, dofollow and what their form is – graphic or text. With this program you can also analyze the list of links anchored in texts on external websites (anchor). For a website that receives inbound links, the most important thing is whether they are valuable, i.e. preferably one with increasing organic traffic. Google crawlers try to block spammy links or links obtained by any automatic method.
With Ahrefs, it is possible to determine which fraction of these links passes the dofollow value to the SEO domain.
Linking is especially important for measuring the effects of ranking, so it is important to ensure the best possible quality of link building .
In addition, in Ahrefs you can easily check the estimated website traffic, its potential value, and also audit the site for possible irregularities.
How can you measure the effectiveness of SEO?
Measuring the effectiveness of SEO makes sense only after some time from the moment of starting cooperation (usually it is about 3 months) – this applies to new websites optimized from scratch. Some industries record seasonal increases, which depends on the profile of their activities, so you should not worry about the declines visible, for example, in Google Analytics, which occur in the off-season.
In measuring SEO effectiveness, you should focus on a few basic activities, such as:
keywords – you should analyze whether the selected phrases generate traffic. It is especially important to choose the main phrases in such a way that they are appropriate for the industry and subpages. Perhaps the initial keyword analysis was carried out incorrectly, and the selected phrases (even if they are popular) do not answer the user’s question that redirected them to a given page, subpage, or blog content. Remember that a user who is misled because the keyword does not match the content of the site and the products located there will quickly leave the site or online store.
number of visits to the website – activity on the website is related to well-chosen phrases (also long tail ) and queries that generate organic traffic. Moreover, effective link building is another aspect that influences the fact that new users come to the store or website.
conversion– Conversion optimization is also an important element in measuring SEO effectiveness. What influences the fact that the user enters the website, but there is no further action from him. For example, with tools that show heatmaps among other things, you can see in real time what elements on the page are converting and which are not. What needs to be improved to turn a user into a customer who will complete the purchasing process. Conversion is an important part of the activities that need to be measured. The number of clicks on important elements made available on the website and banners, the time spent by the user on the website, subpages, articles, and products that interested him most is important. Conversion also occurs when the user completes the form, subscribes to the newsletter, or creates a user account. There are elements that need to be measured.
bounce rate – bounce rate is recorded when the user has entered the website but did not click through to other subpages and products, but left the website. Here it is particularly important to investigate and track the Google Analytic bounce rate. This information will indicate if it is caused by poor optimization.
UX + SEO = SXO – the bounce rate can also be seen in the individual user experience (UX), who may find the website small, intuitive, and non-functional. The appearance of the website, the readability of the elements, the simplified interface and the category tree are the elements that make the user more likely to stay on the website. Therefore, an SXO audit is carried out more and more often, which is a combination of SEO activities with UX. Its goal is to optimize the website not for Google ranking factors, but for the expectations of the user who is in the target group.
What is SXO and how does it relate to SEO effectiveness?
Conversion and SEO effectiveness are influenced not only by Google’s position, but also by user experience. Therefore, there was a need to create an SXO audit.
SXO, or Search Experience Optimization, aims to examine the impressions and feelings of the user who comes to the page from organic results. SXO is an abbreviation that was created from the combination of User Experience and Search Engine Optimization, as it assumes improving SEO optimization and usability of the website, its transparency and intuitive navigation, and these factors are to improve the conversion rate .
Users are more likely to use websites that are, above all, easy to use and intuitive. Services that load quickly and are adapted to mobile devices are also valuable. These factors encourage you to create an account in the store, place an order or subscribe to the list of subscribers.
SXO is important because it may happen that the page is high in Google search results for certain keywords, but the user who comes to the page from organic results does not take the next steps on it, because the page is unattractive and of little use for him. We are then dealing with the so-called ineffective rankings – SEO goal has been achieved, but user engagement on the page that leads to conversion is low. The KPIs should include an SXO audit and focus not only on ranking, but also on user experience.
Measuring SEO effectiveness is the basis in ranking
It is important to identify and then analyze the conducted activities and measure SEO effectiveness, change what needs improvement and further add elements that affect the visibility of the website on the web. Measuring the effectiveness of SEO will allow us to better understand and understand the behavior of the user who visits the website, to consider which elements cause a decrease and which contribute to an increase in traffic.
Ranking of online stores or websites, taking into account SXO, cannot be carried out without a defined plan, strategy or a specific target group to which we target content and products. When implementing changes, you cannot forget about the user’s experience and building the website according to his preferences.
You do not know how to go about it? We will help! We will create a website for you according to the most important UX trends and position it so that it is visible as high as possible in organic Google search results.
