Keyword rankings reports are information overload. As a marketer, they’re of interest to me, but presenting them to clients, who are business owners, doesn’t convey the value or success of your SEO efforts. I question the usefulness of keyword rankings. Let’s get clear on the difference between impact and the actual financial gain. So what if you rank 20 different keywords in the top 5? If it doesn’t generate traffic (and therefore new business), why should the business owner care? Just because the data is available, does not mean we need to present it. It is noise to the decision maker. I think of keyword rankings as internal metrics.
Keyword ranking reports can be an encouraging indicator that SEO efforts are headed in the right direction, yet they have no meaning in and of themselves. You might start with a list of keywords that you think will bring you good traffic, and then sometimes the real surprise is when your Analytics stats show that you’re getting great traffic from a keyword that you haven’t even been tracking or specifically targeting in the first place! Here are three simple metrics I present to clients, and that I consider to be a more relevant measure of SEO efforts, and what I call external metrics:
- Total Non-Paid Keywords minus the business name. Go to Traffic Sources > Keywords > non paid results. Then filter to exclude your business name (and owner name). Total number of words here. An increase per month is a strong indicator of performance, and points to the diversity of hits. This report is also great for long tail keyword diving and can drive content strategy.
- Total Clicks from Organic Keywords minus business name. Same filter as above. Number of total clicks.
- Number of Clicks from Referral Traffic. Good indicator that business “thumb print” is getting larger, and that inbound links are of quality.
Every quarter I also present a report on the change in keyword rankings aggregated by: keywords with #1 ranking, keywords in top 5, top 10, and top 20. (And honestly, unless that Top 20 is bringing traffic, who cares?) This is a minor indicator of success, and not as valuable as the above three.
As the website and marketing efforts mature and traffic isn’t an issue anymore, I introduce relevancy metrics. The business owner eventually gets to a stage where she’s now thinking “I’m getting thousands of visitors. So what? Why should I care?” Then it’s about:
- Time on Site + Bounce Rate + Pages Visited: Now I’m concerned about behavior of the visitors from the above traffic, and I’m looking for good trends. Analyzing the keywords using the weighted sort can help you dig into what keywords aren’t working and also parts of the website content or landing page that aren’t motivating visitors to stay or take action.
- Total Actions: Hopefully you and the client have established some Conversion Goals that are useful to track; filled out contact form, looked up directions, downloaded a report. etc.
Now you’re really connecting the value of an investment in SEO efforts to the bottom line of the business. The business owner’s revenue & new client numbers will likely correlate and trend. These seven metrics help me continually prove the value of SEO, and retain clients for the long haul.
