What Are SEO KPIs?
SEO KPIs (key performance indicators) are metrics used to measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. Some common SEO KPIs include organic visibility, keyword rankings, organic click-through rate (CTR), and conversions.
Monitoring SEO KPIs can help you:
- Track and evaluate your performance
- Monitor results of ongoing SEO efforts
- Make data-driven decisions
- Demonstrate return on investment (ROI) to stakeholders
The specific KPIs you track will depend on your website and goals.
However, some SEO KPIs are universally important. Let’s take a look.
1. Organic Conversions
Organic conversions occur when visitors from unpaid search results complete a desired action. Like making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a resource.
Your organic conversion rate is the percentage of these visitors who convert.
This is one of the most important SEO KPIs. Because it directly measures the effectiveness of your SEO efforts in driving your desired business results.
How to track organic conversions:
In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), conversions are tracked as events you mark as important. Like "sign_up” or "purchase."
Set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics by clicking the “settings” icon at the bottom left corner of your screen.
Then, go to “Admin” > “Events.”
Mark your desired events as conversions to begin tracking.
Once an event is marked as a conversion, it can take some time (up to 24 hours) for the data to appear in reports.
Further reading:
- How to Set Up GA4: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide
- Google Analytics 4 Events Guide: Event Tracking Explained
2. Search Visibility
Search visibility measures how often your website shows up in search engine results for your target keywords.
It’s a broader metric that tracks your visibility across multiple searches and SERP features (like "People Also Ask" or featured snippets).
Tracking search visibility gives you a bird's-eye view of how prominently your site appears for your target keywords.
And helps you understand if your SEO efforts are paying off across multiple keywords, rather than focusing on individual rankings.
How to track search visibility:
Track your search visibility using Google Search Console (GSC).
Look for “Performance” in the left-hand menu. And click “Search results.”
You’ll see a chart showing website performance data. Click on the “Total impressions” box.
That number indicates how many times your website has appeared on a results page over a specific period.
GSC tracks your impressions for all keywords. Even keywords you weren’t originally targeting or ones you’ve deemed irrelevant.
Track your search visibility for specific target keywords using the Position Tracking tool.
Enter your target keywords as you set up your project. And click “Start Tracking.”
The tool will create a report specifically for your target keywords.
The “Landscape” tab displays your site’s search visibility score. And how that score has changed over time.
And the “Overview” tab shows a trend graph of your site’s visibility.
Further reading: SEO Visibility: What It Is & How to Improve It
3. Organic Traffic
Organic traffic refers to visitors who land on your site from unpaid search engine results. Each visit counts as an organic session.
In other words, organic traffic tracks the number of people who saw your page in SERPs and decided to click on it.
Tracking this KPI helps you understand how well your site draws visitors without paid ads and reveals which pages attract the most interest.
How to track organic traffic:
Measure organic traffic with GSC.
Look for the “Performance” report on the left-hand menu. And click “Search results.”
You’ll see a graph showing your organic traffic over time. Select “Total clicks” to see how many people visited your site from organic search.
Then, scroll down to get more detailed information. Including which keywords drive traffic, which pages they drive traffic to, and more.
You can also use the Organic Research tool to get more in-depth keyword information like ranking position and SERP features.
And identify the main websites competing with you for organic traffic.
Further reading: What Is Organic Traffic? (And How to Increase It)
4. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of users who click on your website after seeing it in organic search results.
It reflects how compelling your listing is in search results. If most users who see your site also click, this is an indicator your content is engaging and relevant.
Calculate it by dividing the number of clicks over the total number of impressions. And multiply it by 100.
Like this:
How to track organic CTR:
Analyze the CTR of your pages and queries in Google Search Console under the “Performance” > “Search results” report.
The tool shows your average CTR, along with a graph showing your average CTR over time:
Scroll down and click on the “Pages” tab to see the CTR of your specific pages.
Further reading: How to Understand, Measure, and Improve Your Organic CTR
5. Keyword Rankings
Keyword rankings are your website’s position in search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific search terms.
This is an important SEO KPI to track because you want your site to rank as highly as possible.
After all, the higher your site ranks in SERPs, the better your visibility and clicks. Which can lead to more organic traffic and more business.
Monitoring your rankings can also help you spot ranking drops, identify high-performing content, and find new ranking opportunities.
How to track keyword rankings:
Automatically track keyword rankings with Position Tracking.
Start by entering your domain into the search bar and clicking “Set up tracking.”
Then, select the search engine and device you want to use to track your rankings. And specify a location and language.
Add the keywords you want to track and click “Add keywords to campaign.”
Then, check “Send me weekly ranking updates via email” to receive an automated summary of your rankings.
And hit “Start Tracking.”
You’ll now be able to see your rankings for each of the keywords you entered. And other meaningful metrics, like estimated traffic, visibility, and share of voice.
Further reading: Keyword Rankings: What They Are & How to Check Yours
6. Backlink Metrics
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your site. They signal to search engines that other websites find your content valuable and trustworthy.
Generally, the more backlinks you have from reputable, authoritative websites, the more authoritative you appear to search engines. Which can lead to higher rankings.
Specifically, you should monitor the following backlink metrics:
- Total number of backlinks
- Total number of referring domains (websites that link to yours)
- Number of backlinks lost
- Number of backlinks earned
That way, you can understand how many backlinks you have. And where those backlinks are coming from.
How to track backlink metrics:
You can track all of these metrics with Backlink Analytics.
Enter your domain and click “Analyze.”
In the “Overview” tab, you’ll see your total number of referring domains, total backlinks, Authority Score (a measure of a domain’s reputability), and more.
Scroll down to see trend graphs for both referring domains and backlinks. And changes in new and lost referring domains and backlinks.
Then, use your competitors to benchmark your backlink performance by adding their domains to the tool.
For example, this chart shows pet brand Chewy’s authority score, referring domains, and number of backlinks in comparison with four of its competitors.
Further reading: What Are Backlinks & Why They Matter in SEO
7. User Engagement Metrics
User engagement metrics reveal how visitors interact with your content.
These metrics include the following:
- Bounce rate: The percentage of visitors who leave after viewing only one page
- Average Engagement Time: The average amount of time users actively interact with your website (e.g., scrolling or clicking)
- Session Duration: The total time a user spends on your site in one visit
- Pages per Session: The average number of pages viewed during a single session
However, the metrics prioritize depend on your content type and business goals. And success looks different based on your content.
For example, a long session duration for a blog post is good. This signals your readers find your content engaging and relevant.
Whereas a long session duration for a checkout page on an ecommerce site suggests there may be issues with your site. Since the process should be quick and smooth.
Let’s explore two of the most important user engagement metrics:
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is the percentage of users who land on a page and leave in less than 10 seconds without taking any action.
A high bounce rate suggests visitors are landing on your site but aren’t engaging further. Possibly because the content isn’t relevant, the page didn’t meet their expectations, or there are technical issues like slow load times.
While bounce rate isn’t a ranking factor, users consistently bouncing from a page they clicked on from search results signals to search engines that the page may not be satisfying user intent. Which may affect rankings over time.
Track bounce rate to identify underperforming pages, gauge content quality, and spot technical issues.
How to track bounce rate:
Track your bounce rate using Google Analytics,
From your Google Analytics dashboard, click on “Reports” > “Engagement” > “Pages and screens.”
Then, click on the pen (customize report button) that appears in the top right corner of the page.
Now, click “Metrics.” And type “Bounce rate” in the “Add metric” field.
Select “Bounce rate” from the dropdown menu that appears. And click “Apply.”
Now you have a table showing your bounce rate for all of the pages on your site.
Further reading: What Is Bounce Rate & What Is a Good Rate?
Average Engagement Time
Average engagement time measures how long users actively interact with your site or app.
It tracks how long your site is in focus (i.e., the active browser tab) and the user is engaged through actions like scrolling or clicking.
Longer engagement times suggest users find your content valuable and relevant, which can signal to search engines that your page offers high-quality, engaging content.
How to track average engagement time:
You can track average engagement time using GA4. Go to “Reports” > “Engagement” > “Overview.”
And take note of the “Average engagement time” metric that appears above the graph.
Further reading: How to Find & Increase Average Time on Page in Google Analytics
8. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a predictive measure of the total revenue expected from a customer throughout their relationship with your business.
In other words, it’s how much money you can expect from a customer throughout their relationship with your brand.
Tracking CLV as an SEO KPI helps businesses understand the long-term value of customers they acquire through organic search.
It also helps you determine the potential long-term return on SEO investments. And assess how well your SEO efforts attract high-value customers.
How to calculate CLV:
Use the following formula to calculate CLV for SEO:
CLV = (Average purchase value) x (Average purchase frequency) x (Average customer lifespan)
To illustrate, if your average customer from organic search spends $100 per order, makes three purchases per year, and remains a customer for five years, then the calculation would look like this:
CLV = $100 x 3 x 5 = $1500
In this example, your average CLV from organic search is $1500 per customer.
Meaning each organic visitor who turns into a customer will probably spend $1500 throughout their interactions with your brand.
9. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
Cost per acquisition (CPA) is a metric that measures the cost of acquiring one converting user.
In the context of SEO, it’s the cost of gaining a customer through organic search.
These costs can include team salaries, agency fees, SEO tools expenses, content production costs, and link-building investments.
Tracking CPA is critical because it can reveal if your SEO strategy is cost-effective.
A decreasing CPA indicates improving efficiency, while an increasing CPA signals potential issues in your approach.
How to calculate CPA:
Calculate CPA in the context of SEO using the following formula:
CPA = Total SEO costs (agency fees, content production costs, SEO tool expenses, etc.) / Total number of conversions
Let’s say you spent $4000 on team salaries and $1000 on agency fees to get 100 customers. The calculation would look like this:
CPA = ($4000 + $1000) / 100 = $50
10. Non-Branded Traffic
There are two types of traffic you can get from organic search: branded traffic and non-branded traffic.
For SEO, we usually focus on tracking non-branded traffic.
Here’s why.
Branded traffic comes from searches that include your company name, branded product names, or brand variations (including spelling errors).
Branded searches show how well-known your brand is. And rising branded traffic means your marketing's working.
But this isn’t a direct indication of SEO success. It indicates increased brand awareness that can be driven by efforts outside of SEO, such as social media marketing campaigns or customer referrals.
Non-branded traffic, on the other hand, comes from searches related to your products, services, or industry that don’t include your brand name.
It’s a crucial SEO KPI because it reflects your ability to attract new visitors unfamiliar with your brand before they found you on Google.
Rising non-branded traffic typically indicates success in capturing search interest from broader, competitive queries.
How to track non-branded traffic:
Track non-branded traffic with Organic Research.
Add your domain to the tool and click “Search.”
The “Overview” tab will show both branded and non-branded traffic right at the top.
11. Return on Investment (ROI)
Return on investment (ROI) measures the amount of money you get back from the money you invest.
In the context of SEO, it’s how much revenue your SEO activities generate compared to how much they cost.
A positive ROI is the ultimate goal of every SEO strategy.
It confirms that the time and resources spent on content, site maintenance, outreach campaigns, and all your other SEO-related activities have been worth it.
How to calculate SEO ROI:
Calculate SEO ROI using the following formula:
ROI = (Revenue from SEO - Cost of SEO) / Cost of SEO x 100
For example, you spend $9000 on SEO and generate $16000 in revenue:
ROI = ($16000 - $9000) / $9000 x 100 = 77.8%
Further reading: The ROI of SEO: How to Measure SEO ROI (with Formulas)
12. Google Business Profile Metrics
Google Business Profile (GBP, formerly known as Google My Business) is a free Google tool that lets you manage your business’s presence across search results.
If you’re a local business, leveraging your GBP effectively can boost your local SEO and help attract more customers.
And tracking your GBP metrics can give you valuable insights into how potential customers engage with your profile.
How to track Google Business Profile metrics:
Once you’ve set up your Google Business Profile, you’ll see several metrics tracked by default within the platform.
Including number of searches, profile views, clicks, direction requests, and calls.
These metrics help you understand how visible your business is and how users interact with it in search.
Easily Track and Report on Your SEO KPIs
Regardless of the KPIs you decide to track, it’s important to start doing so as soon as possible.
The sooner you start collecting and analyzing data, the better informed you will be about your current performance and benchmarks.
Using tools to track your SEO KPIs can help you gather all this data effectively and accurately.
They can streamline the process of data collection, presentation, and aggregation. And make it easier to uncover insights.
For example, Organic Traffic Insights merges data from Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Semrush in a single dashboard.
And, if you need a report to prove your SEO efforts are working, create PDF reports from scratch with My Reports.
Semrush’s SEO report templates include:
- Monthly SEO report
- Full site audit report
- Monthly competitor analysis
- Full backlinks report
- Google Business Profile insights
And many more.
Sign up for a free Semrush account (no credit card required) and get access to these two tools and over 50 others.