How to Track SEO Results

Tracking SEO Results can get Complicated Fast

However, you don’t have to be an Einstein to figure it out and find areas where you can improve or track your progress.  

When looking at the results of your SEO efforts there are two traps that you can fall into. One just looking at simple metrics like the number of clicks you are getting and some of your rankings. The other is getting lost in the weeds of overly complicated metrics and data. Focusing on the trees and ignoring the forest in front of you.

This guide aims to help you nail down some measurable statistics that will help you to track your progress as you work on your SEO. 

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Let's Start with the Tools - Google Search Console

Fortunately for us, Google offers some incredibly powerful tools to help you understand your website’s traffic, rankings, and other metrics. 

To put it simply, if you don’t understand what is going on with your website now, you can miss opportunities to improve or fix issues. Costing you visitors and money.

These two tools are, free, thankfully. 

First is Google Search Console

From the Google Search Console, you can see information on:

  • Visitor counts
  • Ranking search terms 
  • View indexed pages
  • See indexing issues
  • Submit site maps for crawling
  • Request pages be removed from Google
  • Verify user experience with real world data 
  • See manual actions and security issues 
  • See identified backlinks to your website
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Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of their analytics suite and is an incredibly powerful tool that lets you track how users are moving around your website and the actions that they are taking. 

Without tracking and analyzing your website’s performance, you’re flying blind. Understanding your data is key to continuous improvement.

Here are some of the key metrics that you should be tracking with Google Analytics to help you track your SEO results.

  • Number of users
    • This should be growing over time as you gain more traction with your SEO 
  • Sessions
    • What a user is doing on your website when they arrive
    • Do they leave or keep browsing
    • Where do they go and what actions do they take on your website?
  • New users
    • Are people coming back to your website?
    • Repeat visits often means someone finds your website useful
    • Are you attracting new users?
    • New users means you are growing in awareness about your brand or website
  • Average engagement time
    • How long do visitors stay on your website 
    • The longer the better 
  • Bounce rate
    • If people are just leaving, there’s likely a problem
  • Conversion rate
    • How often do visitors make a purchase or do another action that you want them to do, such as sign up for a newsletter or request more information from you about your services?
  • Entrances
    • Where people start on your website 
    • Is it on the home page or another page?
  • Exits
    • Where are visitors leaving your website?
  • Views per user
    • How many pages does the average visitor look at?
    • Do they look at multiple pages or just one?
  • Engaged sessions
    • How many people visit for more than 10 seconds and views at least two pages, or makes a conversion?
  •  Engagement Rate
    •  How many people engaged vs. visited?
  • Returning Users 
    • How many people have come back to your website?

A Quick Setup Guide to Tracking Your SEO Results

If you are using WordPress Google has a dedicated Site Kit plug-in that will help with the process of setting up these tools for you. 

But regardless of the content management system that you are using you can go to Googles Search Console and set up a domain property in Google to track your website’s metrics. Or if you are concerned with a sub-domain or specific section of your website you can create an HTTPS property. 

You can see the process detailed by Google here, but you will need to verify you own the website with a verification method before you can start getting data.

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With your website verified in Google Search Console you can then start submitting site maps to Google for crawling and indexing of your pages. 

Setting Up Important Reports in Google Analytics 4

First if you don’t have it set up already, you’ll want to go and set up your Google Analytics account and make sure it is linked to your website.

For some of these reports, Google will have already created them, for others you will have to create them yourself. 

First let’s make sure that you have the “Life Cycle” reports available to you. 

You can add these reports by clicking on the Library folder in the bottom left of the home page. 

With that done, you’ll click on create new collection and then, “life cycle” from the templates. 

 

Google Analytics 4 - Library

With the life cycle reports loaded up, you’ll need to set up event tracking next. 

This will require that you set up Google Tag manager, however it’s another process that Google documents in the link below.

Setting Up Events in Google Analytics with Tag Manager 

Now were ready to start looking at reports and tracking their changes over time. 

You’ll want to look at both month over month changes as well as every quarter. This gives you a decent idea of how each metric is changing over time and if things are moving in the right direction. 

 

The Reports to Track in GA4

  • Users: Reports -> Acquistion -> Overview
    • A premade report from the “Life Cycle” reports template.
    • Tracks the number of visitors during a given time frame.
    • Shows you the size of your audience and how it is growing.
  • Sessions: Reports -> Life Cycle -> Acquisition -> Traffic Acquisition
    • Another premade report
    • Shows you the individual browsing sessions that happened during a
      given time frame.
    • An individual person may have multiple sessions in a given time
      frame.
    • High sessions mean high engagement.
  • New users: Reports -> Life Cycle -> Acquisition -> Acquisition overview
    • This premade report shows you when a brand-new visitor comes to
      your website.
    • If this is increasing you are reaching new people, if it is declining
      you need to change your marketing efforts.
  • Average engagement time: Reports -> Life Cycle -> Engagement -> Overview
    • This premade report shows how long people are staying on your
      website.
    • Low times means you may need to add value to your website’s
      pages, or you have issues with the useability of your website.
  • Bounce Rate: Reports -> Life Cycle -> Engagement -> Pages and Screens -> Customize -> Add Metric -> Bounce Rate
    • Shows when someone quickly leaves after clicking on your website.
    • High bounce rates often mean that the visitor didn’t find what they
      were looking for.
  • Conversion Rate: Reports -> Life Cycle -> Acquisition -> Traffic Acquisition -> Customize -> Add Metric -> Session Conversion Rate
    • Event tracking needs to be set up first
    • This shows you how often someone is doing something on your
      website that you want them to do.
    • Click on a page, book an appointment, purchase a product, etc.
  • Enterances
    • A custom report that notes what pages most people start out with
      on your website.
    • These pages should be the most engaging and clear for users.
  • Exits:
    • A custom report, like Enterances, but for where people are leaving
      your website.
    • Look at these pages and see if there is anything wrong with either
      their content or design.
  • Views per user: Reports -> Life Cycle -> Engagement -> Pages and Screens
    • The more pages that a visitor is looking at the easier time they are
      having finding more pages on your website that they want to visit.
  • Engaged Sessions: Reports -> Life Cycle -> Acquisition -> Traffic Acquisition
    • Engaged sessions last longer than 10 seconds.
    • This shows you where traffic is coming from.
    • Search, Direct, Ads, Social Media, Etc.
    • Let’s you know how effective each channel is currently and make
      decisions about how to prioritize resources.
  • Engagement Rate: Reports -> Life Cycle -> Acquisition -> Traffic Acquisition
    • Compares engaged sessions, compared to all sessions, broken
      down by source.
    • Also gives you insight into how effective various aspects of your
      marketing efforts are.
  • Returning Users: Reports -> Life Cycle -> Acquisition -> User Acquisition -> Add Metric -> Returning Users
    • This lets you know when people are coming back to you again.
    • Returning visitors have found enough value in your website to want
      to come back again.
    • If this is low, then you’ll want to change your strategies.
  • Monitor and regularly look at your reports for any changes that indicate a drop in
    traffic, conversions, or other important metrics.
    • Attempt to identify the reason why you are experiencing these issues if they
      happen.
    • Is something broken?
    • Did you change something about the website?
    • There are many possible reasons why your traffic and other metrics are
      going up or down, however with proper tracking and reporting you have the
      necessary tools to help identify the issues.

Finally Document Your Changes

With these metrics tracked you have much of what you need to get started tracking your SEO results. 

Of course, you want to be keeping track of the other things that you are changing about your website. Did you change your layout and design, are you doing something different with your content creation? Document your changes as well as regularly pull the reports that we talked about to get a more comprehensive picture of your SEO efforts. 

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