Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to how well your company website ranks on Google and other search engine results pages (SERPs). When someone types keywords related to your business into Google’s search bar, you want to make sure your site shows up among the first few results of organic search.
Since 53.3% of all website traffic comes from organic search, it’s important for your company to be highly visible on Google’s first few pages for that keyword search, if not the very first page.
But how do you know how well you’re doing with SEO performance? The internet offers several ways to gauge your website’s SEO performance. Start with these key performance indicators to measure your SEO performance.
Check Your Rankings on Google and Other Search Engines
Recent statistics show that 88.14 percent of internet users search Google first to find what they need. Another 6.18 percent use the second-place search engine, Bing, while 0.59 percent rely on the Chinese search engine Baidu. A growing number of search engines that protect users’ privacy are growing in popularity, including DuckDuckGo and StartPage.
You can get a good idea of how well you are ranking on SERPs by typing in the keywords you are trying to rank for to see where your site lands. Make sure to clear your cookies first or switch to a private browser. Google remembers the sites you visit frequently and also factors in your current region to share sites in your area, so your results may be skewed if you don’t clear your cache or open a private browser that doesn’t retain your history.
Aim for Answer Boxes
While you’re searching, see if you show up in answer boxes or in Google’s “People also ask” listing, also called “featured snippets.” These listings represent SEO gold because they increase your click-through rate (CTR) when people find your site on Google.
Ahrefs says that 8.6% of clicks go to featured snippets, while 19.6% go to the first organic search result.
Check Your Page Rankings
Searching for your keywords on Google is a good way to get a feel for where you rank and what others find. But there are other metrics to measure your SEO performance, too.
First, Ahrefs ranks every website on the internet based on the quantity and quality of its backlinks. It’s a good idea to pursue backlinks from websites that rank higher than yours on Ahrefs’ list, as they can improve your rankings.
Similarly, Alexa rankings rate every website based on its estimated average daily unique visitors and page views over the past three months. The lower the ranking, the better your site’s SEO performance, with a #1 site being top-ranked. Alexa rankings can give you a good idea of where your website’s SEO performance stands.
Use Google Analytics to Measure Your Conversions
Aiming for first-page results on SERPs is one thing, but to increase traffic and make money with your website, you also need to increase your click-through rate and conversions.
Google Analytics is a handy tool that allows you to understand the sources of traffic to your site and analyze important metrics, such as bounce rate, which is the number of people who only visit a single page of your site and then “bounce”; the number of pages people visit; and how long people spend on individual pages or on your website as a whole.
If people are seeing your site on Google but not clicking, you may need to adjust your snippets or meta descriptions to entice people to visit your site. It could also be that your keywords may not be a good match for your customers. Internet users might be finding your website, but they soon realize it’s not a good fit for what they need. In that case, you may want to revisit your SEO strategy.
Enlist the Help of Experts to Improve Your SEO Performance
SEO experts have many tools at their disposal to see exactly where your website ranks for specific keywords. They can share steps you can take to improve your SEO performance and show you how to increase conversions.
You may not think of your premier business wifi service provider as experts in search engine optimization, but Consolidated Communications delivers much more than the best small business internet plans and business broadband you can find. Reach out today to find out how we can help you improve your company’s SEO performance.