Measuring SEO Success

Basing SEO Success on Factors That Matter

Many small business owners question how they should measure the success of their search engine optimization, and unfortunately all too often these business owners are steered down a path to measure success based upon “keyword rankings” instead of better measurements of results achieved. As and end all metric, determining SEO success based upon keyword rankings is a dead indicator of performance.  This is thanks largely due to Google changing the way results are presented to end users.

Keyword rankings are affected by Google based upon:

• End user personalization
• Area search is being performed (localization)
• Device type conducting the search

This is not to say that using keyword rankings as an SEO indicator is not useful, because overall keyword rankings when taken as aggregates can point to overall wins or losses when it comes to a larger SEO strategy.

SEO & Internet Marketing – Measure What Matters

When thinking about SEO and internet marketing as a whole, what really is the end goal for most businesses? Most businesses looking to invest money into SEO and internet marketing are looking to grow revenues, so it makes sense that measuring the actions that produce revenue growth should be the Key Performance Indicators for success.

Internet marketing and SEO agencies at a fundamental core, can only do so much to affect a businesses growth online; grow relevant traffic and/or increase conversions.

City Ranked focuses on these key metrics to help their clients grow.

Growing Traffic as a Measurement of SEO Success

This seems pretty simple and straightforward when it comes to developing a solid online marketing strategy, but many times clients and SEO agencies get tunnel vision and focus on attaining rankings for only a few keywords to drive traffic. This strategy caps a clients online presence to these keywords only, and ultimately the client loses out on additional exposure from keywords that are related to their business, but has no exposure.

Good SEO and Internet Marketing Agencies will help a business continually expand exposure and traffic online by targeting new and relevant keywords and keyword variations regularly.

Increased Conversions as a Measurement of Internet Marketing Success

What good is a SEO campaign, or any campaign for that matter if it’s not bringing in measurable conversions? City Ranked focuses on using data to drive decisions when it comes to Conversion Rate Optimization, or CRO for short. Common examples of conversions are:

• Phone Calls
• Form Submissions
• Download links
• Shopping cart checkout completions
• Newsletter signups
• App downloads

Transparent Reporting of Results Achieved

At the core of City Ranked’s model of SEO and Internet Marketing Success Measurement is our transparency. City Ranked has invested thousands of dollars and years of experience to develop a client centered robust reporting model that continually proves the value of the services delivered.

Following are just a few areas City Ranked reports on:

• Live, detailed, real-time reporting on all work completed on your account as it happens. 
• Live interactive online reporting portal. Detailed reporting on conversions, clicks, cost per acquisition and much more.
• Weekly, or monthly detailed reports measuring every available aspect of your internet marketing campaign.
• Detailed project status updates available online and via email for all projects.
• Live review monitoring dashboard
• Real-time reporting on website conversions, including conversions from SEO.

Visit our Agency Reporting page to see samples of reports available to our clients.