Are you struggling to tell if your SEO strategy is working? Then you need to learn how to measure SEO success. By tracking the right metrics you can monitor your SEO performance and identify areas for improvement.

 

How to track SEO success: A summary

Measuring the results of your business’s SEO strategy can be done by using free tools such as Google Search Console and Google Analytics. You can use these tools to track SEO metrics such as organic clicks or new website users, allowing you to gauge the performance of your SEO over time.

In this blog we will cover:

 

SEO is an ongoing, time-consuming process. Its primary goal is increasing organic traffic to your website, which ultimately, should lead to an increase in conversions.

Tracking SEO performance is crucial for businesses looking to show ROI on their search marketing strategy. It’s also equally as vital for determining what is working and what isn’t.

For instance, you may have optimised some of your pages with relevant, high-volume keywords, but may be failing to rank for these. By monitoring your performance, you’ll be able to see over time if your content is appearing in searches for those high-volume keywords. If your pages aren’t appearing, you’ll know to optimise your content further.

Tracking your SEO performance can also help you determine what type of content resonates with your audience, allowing you to focus your efforts on creating similar types of content.

Let’s take a look at how to measure SEO success in more detail.

 

Setting goals not only gives you something to work towards, but it also helps you review your performance over a set time period.

When setting goals, it’s best to follow the “SMART” goals format. SMART goals allow you to take a structured approach to setting and achieving your objectives. The acronym SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. These five criteria ensure that goals are clear, realistic, and aligned with broader business strategies.

Breakdown of SMART Goals:

  1. Specific: Clearly define your goal and outline the steps required to achieve it. Avoid vague objectives to minimise confusion and enhance focus.
  2. Measurable: Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and tools to track progress. Define the criteria you’ll to assess results effectively.
  3. Attainable: Set realistic yet challenging goals. Ensure they are achievable with your available resources.
  4. Relevant: Align your goals with your organisation’s broader strategies and objectives. Confirm their significance in contributing to businesses overall growth.
  5. Timely: Set a clear deadline to create urgency and maintain progress. Consider all necessary steps, such as market research and data analysis, when determining the timeframe.

Using the SMART framework helps you ensure that your SEO goals are aligned with your overall business goals. For instance, if your business is looking to increase brand awareness, a potential SMART goal you could set for SEO would be:

Increase organic traffic to the website by 20% within six months.

This is a SMART goal because it’s:

  • Specific: Increasing organic traffic is a clear, singular objective.
  • Measurable: You will be able to monitor website traffic using Google Analytics
  • Achievable: If your weekly website traffic is currently averaging 500, you would need to increase it by 100 a week (approximately 15 clicks per day). With the right content and SEO strategy, this is a much more realistic goal than if you were to set it at 80% (which would require an additional 400 clicks per week).
  • Relevant: It’s a relevant goal due to the business’s need to increase brand awareness, an increase in traffic reflects an increase in web users organically finding your website.
  • Time-bound: Giving yourself a six month window to achieve the goal allows you to build up your content catalogue, optimise your existing content and improve your overall SEO strategy. It’s important to remember that it can take time for search engines to crawl and recrawl your website pages, meaning that the results of your optimisations might not be immediately noticeable. It’s better to give yourself a larger window of time to work with than review your efforts before the changes have been reflected.

 

An infographic breaking down the acronym of SMART goals

 

Here are some more SEO-focused SMART goals:

  • Increase organic traffic by 25% in six months by optimising existing content, improving keyword targeting, and building high-quality backlinks.
  • Improve keyword rankings for 10 target keywords to reach the top 5 positions on Google within four months by refining on-page SEO and enhancing internal linking.
  • Increase organic click-through rate (CTR) by 15% in three months by optimising title tags, meta descriptions, and structured data.
  • Achieve a page load speed of under 2.5 seconds for all key landing pages within three months by optimising images, reducing server response time, and enabling browser caching.
  • Increase the number of indexed pages in Google by 15% in three months by fixing crawl errors, updating old content, and optimising site architecture.

 

 

So now you understand how to effectively set SEO goals, you’ll want to determine what goals to set for your own business. Here are some key metrics that will help you measure the performance of your SEO strategy:

Organic Traffic
The number of visitors who land on your website from unpaid (organic) search engine results. This metric indicates how well your site ranks for relevant keywords and how effective your SEO strategy is in driving traffic.

Keyword Rankings
The positions your website holds in search engine results for specific keywords. Higher rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) typically lead to more organic traffic and better visibility.

Domain Authority (DA)
A score (developed by Moz) that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engines. It is based on factors such as the quality and quantity of backlinks. A higher DA suggests stronger authority and credibility in your industry.

Backlink Profile (Quantity and Quality)
The number and quality of external websites linking to your site. High-quality backlinks from authoritative sources boost your SEO, while low-quality or spammy links can harm rankings.

Engagement Rate
A key metric in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) that replaces bounce rate. It measures the percentage of engaged sessions, where a visitor spends at least 10 seconds on your site, views two or more pages, or completes a conversion event. A higher engagement rate indicates that users find your content valuable and are actively interacting with your website.

Bounce Rate and Dwell Time
Bounce Rate (GA4 now defines this as the inverse of engagement rate): The percentage of sessions that do not meet GA4’s engagement criteria (less than 10 seconds, no additional page views, or no conversion).
Dwell Time: The amount of time a user spends on your site before returning to search results. Longer dwell times suggest engaging and valuable content.

Pages Per Session
The average number of pages a visitor views during a single session on your website. A higher number suggests good internal linking, engaging content, and strong user interest.

Conversion Rate
The percentage of website visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a contact form. A high conversion rate indicates that your site effectively turns visitors into customers or leads.

 

There are several key tools that will simplify the process of tracking and measuring SEO performance. Whilst some of the more premium tools have associated costs, there are a lot of free tools that will allow you to benchmark your performance efficiently.

Here’s a selection of the best tools to track and review SEO performance:

 

 

LOCALiQ’s SEO Audit Tool:
A free tool that scans your web pages and provides you with a report that scores your current SEO performance with actionable suggestions related to SEO metrics such as backlinks, key word rankings and organic traffic.

Click here to get your free SEO audit.


Google Analytics:

A powerful tool for tracking website traffic, user behaviour, and engagement metrics. In GA4, key insights include organic traffic, engagement rate, conversion tracking, and audience demographics, helping businesses refine their SEO and marketing strategies.

If you’d like to learn more about key GA4 reports you can use to track your SEO performance then watch our on-demand webinar below:

 

Google Search Console:
A free tool from Google that provides data on website performance in search results, including keyword rankings, indexing issues, search impressions, and click-through rates (CTR). It helps identify technical SEO issues and optimise search visibility.


SEMrush:

A comprehensive SEO and digital marketing tool that offers keyword research, site audits, competitor analysis, backlink tracking, and content optimisation. It’s widely used for monitoring rankings and discovering new SEO opportunities.


Ahrefs:

Known for its powerful backlink analysis, Ahrefs provides detailed insights into link-building strategies, keyword rankings, site audits, and competitor analysis. It’s particularly useful for understanding a website’s authority and identifying growth opportunities.


Moz:

An SEO software suite that includes tools for keyword research, domain authority (DA) tracking, link analysis, and site audits. Moz’s Domain Authority score is commonly used to evaluate a website’s ranking potential.

 

 

Tracking SEO metrics is essential, but the real value comes from interpreting the data and using it to improve performance. We recommend tracking your chosen metrics in a spreadsheet so you can review the data in one place.

Here’s how to turn the data into meaningful actions:

 

1. Identify SEO trends over time

Rather than looking at metrics in isolation, track changes over weeks or months. Ask yourself:

  • Is organic traffic steadily increasing or declining?
  • Are keyword rankings improving, or are you losing positions to competitors?
  • Has engagement rate (in GA4) improved, or are visitors bouncing quickly?

For example: If you suddenly see a considerable drop in organic traffic, check Google Search Console for indexing errors or a Google algorithm update that may have impacted rankings. And if engagement rate is low on only a small number of pages, review the content on those pages to ensure it aligns with the user’s search intent.

 

2. Assess what’s working

Look at high-performing pages to understand why they’re successful.

  • Which blog posts bring the most organic traffic?
  • What keywords are driving conversions?
  • Are certain content formats (videos, infographics) performing better?

If a particular landing page has a high conversion rate, analyse its structure; does it have a strong CTA, fast loading speed, and engaging content? Apply those elements to underperforming pages.

 

3. Diagnose what’s not working

Low engagement, high bounce rates, or declining rankings indicate areas for improvement.

  • Are pages with high bounce rates delivering the right content?
  • Do slow page speeds affect rankings?
  • Are you targeting keywords with low search intent?

You may have a blog that is ranking on page 1 of Google but might have a low CTR. If this is the case, your meta title and description might not be compelling enough for readers to click through and read the blog. These are simple optimisations you can make that can contribute to an increase in your organic traffic.

 

4. Use the data to prioritise areas for optimisation

Once you’ve identified patterns in the data, you’ll be able to determine what areas of your website need the most work.

  • Improve on-page SEO: Update content, add internal links, and optimise images.
  • Fix technical SEO issues: Resolve broken links, improve mobile-friendliness, and enhance site speed.
  • Adjust your keyword strategy: Focus on high-intent, high-conversion keywords.

 

 

How to continue tracking and measuring SEO performance over time:

To ensure your SEO strategy remains effective, it’s important that you continue to regularly monitor your SEO performance in relation to the SMART goals you have set. What happens if you achieve your original goals? You set new, more ambitious ones! This is the best way to be able to scale your SEO success over time.

If you’ve been accurately tracking and recording the results, you’ll be able to attribute the growth to the optimisations you’ve been carrying out. Regular SEO audits can also help you ensure your strategy is working efficiently. We have a free tool to help you audit your website and identify any areas that need more work. You can also create a spreadsheet to help you track your SEO performance.

How to set up a spreadsheet to track SEO metrics

You can set up a spreadsheet to help you track your SEO performance over time. Below is a potential template you might want to utilise.

Tabs for the spread sheet:

  • Dashboard – To pull in a summary of key SEO metrics taken from other tabs.
  • Traffic & Engagement
  • Keyword Rankings
  • Backlinks
  • Technical SEO

Columns to be included on each tab:

Traffic & engagement tab:

Date Organic Sessions New Users Bounce Rate Avg. Time on Page Pages per Session Conversion Rate

 

Keyword rankings tab:

Date Target Keyword Search Volume Current Rank Rank Change URL CTR

 

Backlinks tab:

Date Referring Domain DA/DR New or Lost? Anchor Text Link Type (Dofollow/Nofollow)

 

Technical SEO tab:

Date Issue Found Page URL Priority (High/Medium/Low) Status (Fixed/Pending) Notes

 

Conclusion: How to track SEO success

Now that you’ve read the information provided above, you should feel confident in which SEO metrics to track and how to measure your SEO performance.

Remember SEO is an ongoing process and search engines can provide unexpected challenges in the form of algorithm updates. As long as you’re regularly reviewing and optimising your web pages you’ll be able to navigate these challenges and continue to rank well on the search engine results pages.

If you’re still struggling to see any growth from your SEO strategy, then why not get in touch with us here at LOCALiQ? We recently won SEO Agency of The Year at the UK Agency Awards, and our team of experts are already helping businesses like yours reach the top of Google.

Contact us today to see how we can help your business.

Alternatively, you can use our free SEO audit tool to find out exactly how your current SEO strategy is performing, just click the button below to get started.

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