How businesses can track that SEO is definitely working - Insider Media

With evidence showing how effective the implementation of SEO marketing can be in raising online visibility, it's no surprise that more businesses are opting to invest in such strategies. Michael Knowles, the Managing Director of ROAR Digital Marketing, discusses five ways people can actually check how their SEO activity is working for their business.

When you consider that close to 70% of online experiences begin with a search engine, such as Google or Bing, it is little surprise to see that more businesses are investing in their SEO marketing.

SEO is a search engine marketing strategy that aims to increase a website's organic online visibility, and a successful strategy involves keyword research, link building, content creation, optimising existing website copy and improving page experience to secure a higher placement on search engine results pages (SERPs).

You may have been told you need to invest in SEO for one reason or the other (you really should), and I'm going to list ways that you can actually track how effective search engine marketing is.

Improved visibility on search engines

SEO is all about improving your visibility on search engines like Google and Bing, so a powerful indicator of whether your SEO is working is an improvement in something called keyword rankings. A keyword is a word or phrase that you optimise a single webpage on your website for. 

For example, if you were writing a blog called 'How to Maintain Hygiene in the Workplace,' the focus keyword of this piece could be 'hygiene in the workplace'. 

To track your keyword rankings, you will need a good SEO platform that allows you to track and monitor what position your web pages are ranking on search engine results pages.

By implementing an effective keyword search campaign, you will be able to watch your ranking on search engines boost as you move up the pages.

Increased website traffic from search engines

Successful SEO campaigns can take time and, admittedly, can leave business owners sceptical if they expect results immediately. But you are able to track your organic traffic through platforms like Google Analytics 4 (GA4), where you can see which channels your website traffic is coming from. This allows you to pinpoint the traffic you're receiving from search engines and other channels like social media or referral sites and will help you see the benefit of your SEO strategy in clear data.

Follow these steps to find your organic traffic in Google Analytics 4: 

1. Log into Google Analytics 4, 

2. Choose your website's Google Analytics 4 property, 

3. Click 'Acquisition' and then 'Traffic Acquisition'

In the table, look for 'Organic Search' in the first column, and you start to see how you're performing on search engines. All traffic labelled 'organic search' comes from search engines like Google on GA4. 

Analyse the increased time people are spending on your website

If a user visits your website and leaves quickly, they've 'bounced' from your site. The metric commonly used to calculate people leaving your website immediately is called 'Bounce Rate'. This metric is formatted as a percentage - a high percentage of bounce rates indicates that your pages are not providing any value to a user or convincing them to hang around. A low percentage means a user is staying on your page, most likely because it meets their needs and expectations. 

What an effective SEO strategy guarantees is that organic search users stop leaving your site so quickly, and this will lead them to engaging with the content on your website for longer periods of time. 

This is a signal that your SEO is working well; SEO is all about making your website more relevant to your target audience, search trends and habits. If your website copy is genuinely helpful and satisfies the users needs, then you can expect an increase in time spent on your website. 

Increased leads, enquiries and sales

The main purpose of your business' website should be to generate conversions such as leads, enquiries, phone conversations and sales. When your website receives more conversions from organic searches, this is a strong signal that your SEO is improving. 

You can use analytics platforms to track your website conversions and which marketing channel they've come from. For example, if you're tracking leads with an analytics platform like GA4, you can distinguish whether they have come from organic search or an alternative digital channel such as Facebook, Paid Ads, or third-party referral sites.

Analyse the geography of your service users

An important aspect of an SEO strategy is the local side of your search engine visibility. In recent years search engines have put a lot more emphasis on local searches, increasing the features they offer to help drive local organic traffic. 

Reviewing your local SEO performance is another feature of most SEO platforms, allowing you to see where your organic traffic is coming from based on their location. Increased traffic and enquiries from your service area indicates that your Local SEO is doing well. 

Think about the last time you wanted to go out to eat; you probably used Google to search for something along the lines of 'restaurants nearby'. When searches like these are made, Google uses a map accompanied by a list of closely matching options available locally to you based on location, search relativity and reviews.

A world of SEO is waiting for you so give it a go and see the benefits for yourself.