How to monitor and track SEO results

It is an undeniable fact that the world is moving online. We have finally realised that, and this is why you will see almost every company and every business becoming digitised. People now know that having an online presence means that you are not just reaching out to the masses, but also reaching out to who could be your potential customers.

It’s easy to understand that if you have a bricks-and-mortar shop people will come and buy your products, but this is limited to those who pass by your shop. On the other hand, being present on the internet means increased visibility, and increased visibility will ultimately get you more customers as more potential customers become aware of your business. In short, what we are trying to tell you is that being on the internet is one of the most crucial things for your business at the moment.

Speaking of being present on the web, if you are someone who has already done their homework on websites and digital marketing, then you will be well aware of the term “SEO”.  SEO is currently the buzzword of the digital world, and it’s one of the most important keys to success for your business. Once you have mastered the art of SEO, you will know that you're giving your business the best chance to thrive on the internet.

For those who don’t know much about SEO, it's also known as search engine optimisation, and includes everything from keyword research to posting relevant content on your website. All of this is done for one and only one purpose - and that is to rank high on search engines.

Discover how you can implement SEO best practices easily for your business' website with the free SEO guide. Download your copy here.

Right now, you can easily find articles, blogs, vlogs (and more) on keyword research, which is the first step in good SEO practice. However, one thing that you might find challenging is competing with other businesses for relevant keywords. There are millions of business websites operating on the internet at any given moment, and all of these websites are fighting hard to make it to the top of the search engine results page (SERP's). The truth is, not everyone can rank high and it actually takes a lot of serious and continuous SEO skills to rank your business on page one of Google.

Now, all of this leads to the one and only question:

How does Google rank a page?

Search engines come with one single goal, and that is to provide the users with the most relevant answer to the information they are seeking. For example, if a person types on Google “best places to visit in the world”, the algorithm of the search engine will bring the most relevant results in front of that person. Those results will be ranked according to page popularity and keyword similarity.  

The more authoritative your website is, the more popular it will be and the higher you will rank on Google. Google is smart enough to check the relevancy between the content of a page and the intent of the search query entered by a person so you cannot use quick fixes to 'outsmart' Google. In the past few years, a lot of people tried to dodge Google just to rank high, but Google learned and became smarter to then “red flag” those sites and decrease search rankings. Even now Google’s algorithm keeps changing so that people can use the right methods to rank high on search engines. 

Why is monitoring SEO important?

Now that you know what SEO is and why it is so important for your business, the next step is to develop an extraordinary SEO strategy that will improve your business' online visibility. We’ve said earlier that the competition online is very tough, and you need to come up with something that is super relevant to your business and audience. From your keywords to your content, you need to understand how this will tie into your SEO strategy. Once you've developed your strategy, you then need to implement it and monitor the results.

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that they don’t need to monitor the results after they’ve applied their SEO strategy. No matter how hard you worked on creating an outstanding strategy for your website, if you aren’t monitoring the results you are making a one big mistake. Monitoring your SEO results and tracking the performance is the most important part, because the results, in the end, let you know if your strategy has worked and will guide your future strategies, give you audience insights, and impact your marketing practices.

Monitoring and tracking your SEO results

Monitoring your SEO efforts and tracking the results can help you improve your overall digital marketing performance. You need to celebrate your wins, and on the other hand, you need to fix what you think is wrong with your SEO plan. Monitoring the results will help you control your successes from the very beginning, and you’ll know the right direction in which you need to take your website.

If you want to know how you can track your SEO results and how you can use them, we've provided some of the best and the most useful tracking techniques below.

1.  Use Google Analytics
You need the ability to track your top metrics, and nothing can help you here than Google Analytics. There are several metrics that you need to focus on, including:

• the number of page visits you get each day
• the specific time when page visits increase
• bounce rate
• how much time people are spending on your site
• click-through rate on pages and posts.

These are just a few of the metrics you need to monitor using Google Analytics, and honestly, there’s many more to note. However, don't monitor everything just for the sake of it. Pick and choose the metrics most relevant to your goals and the activities you are undertaking to support your website.
 
2.  Track your rankings using specific keywords
A tough one but yes, it’s a must! You need to know where your site stands after you’ve put so much effort into it. Now to know where you rank on the search engine, you need to use different keywords and check the results on Google.  

If you see your site ranking high, then congratulations and just stay constant with your efforts. But if your site isn’t ranking high then yes, it’s time to work on a new SEO plan and implement it with new ideas.

Using the right keyword phrases is very important. Once you start searching for your item using the correct phases, there are chances that you will start ranking high which ultimately leads to more potential customers for your business.

Using a tool like Moz can help you gain more insights into your ranked keywords and how relevant they are to your website. While you may have to pay for tools like this, they are invaluable to your SEO efforts (if you have the budget!).

3.  How much traffic are you getting from organic search? 
In Google Analytics check your Acquisition report.  Are you receiving minimal traffic via organic search, or are you gaining organic traffic? Whatever the case is, consider which things are working for you in your strategy and which ones need improvement.

Overall Verdict

These are some of the ways that can help you track your SEO results, but there are still many more ways you can monitor your successes and your failures. For example, you can again use Google Analytics to know the behaviour flow of your audience so you can understand how they're moving through your website.

So, now if you have played your part and if you have done all the SEO planning and implementation, now is the right time to monitor the results and see what works best for you.

Want to discover more ways you can use SEO strategies to rank your website higher in search? Download the free SEO guide for more here.