Now that you have used the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies in this article, it’s time to track your progress. We will use the same three platforms we introduced earlier, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Semrush, to analyze these efforts.
Google Analytics
Remember, Google Analytics specifically focuses on the performance of your website itself. This tool helps you analyze website traffic, track user behavior, and assess the effectiveness of your content.
By monitoring metrics like average session duration, bounce rate, and views, you can determine if users are engaging with your content and navigating your website as intended. If you’ve optimized your content effectively, you should observe improvements in these key metrics over time.
- Is my organic traffic improving?
Analyze Organic Traffic If you were optimizing your website to increase traffic from search engines, compare the total users from the organic search traffic channel before and after implementing your SEO changes.
If you see a significant increase in organic traffic after optimizing your website for a specific keyword, it suggests that your SEO efforts are effectively driving more visitors from search engines. - What web pages on my website were visited the most?
- Track Changes in Views: Compare the number of Views for your website before and after implementing your SEO changes. An increase in Views for these key web pages may suggest that users are finding and engaging with your website more effectively.
Note that an increase in the number of Views can also indicate that users are struggling to find an answer to their search query or are having a hard time navigating the website. Also, look at your engagement and bounce rates to see if users are truly engaging more with the content of your website. - Analyze Engagement Rate: Monitor the Engagement rate for your website and specific web pages. An increase in engagement rate indicates that users are finding your content more valuable and staying on your website longer.
Example: If you optimized a specific landing web page with improved content and a clearer call to action, you might see an increase in both Views and Engagement rate for that web page, indicating that users are finding the information they need and interacting with the web page more effectively.
You can also look at any conversions you may have set up in Google Analytics to see if your efforts in guiding users to do specific tasks (click a button, fill out a form, etc.) are working. If not, then you may need to adjust your content further.
- Track Changes in Views: Compare the number of Views for your website before and after implementing your SEO changes. An increase in Views for these key web pages may suggest that users are finding and engaging with your website more effectively.
Google Search Console
While Google Analytics focuses on website performance within your own website, Google Search Console provides insights into how your website performs in Google Search results.
By re-analyzing the data in Search Console, you can understand how users are finding your website and track your optimized web pages’ performance to assess the impact of your on-page SEO efforts.
- What search terms are leading users to my website?
- Analyze Click-Through Rate (CTR): Compare the CTR for your target keywords before and after implementing your SEO changes. An increase in CTR indicates that your website is more appealing to users in search results for that specific search term, leading to more clicks.
Example: If you optimized your title tags and meta descriptions for a specific keyword and see an increase in CTR for that keyword in Search Console, or if your web page has increased in search rankings, it may indicate that your website is more appealing to users in search results, leading to more clicks. - Identify New Keywords: Analyze the “Queries” report in Search Console to identify any new keywords that are driving traffic to your website. This report can identify new opportunities for keyword targeting.
- Analyze Click-Through Rate (CTR): Compare the CTR for your target keywords before and after implementing your SEO changes. An increase in CTR indicates that your website is more appealing to users in search results for that specific search term, leading to more clicks.
- How are my different webpages performing on Google Search?
- Track Page-Level Impressions and Clicks: Monitor the number of impressions and clicks for your most important webpages in Search Console. An increase in clicks and a stable or improving CTR indicates your website is gaining more visibility and attracting more users from search results.
Semrush
Semrush is a paid platform that has a wide range of tools that will allow you to get a comprehensive view of your website’s performance online.
Semrush provides a broader perspective on your website’s online performance, allowing you to reassess the effectiveness of your content optimization. By re-analyzing your data in Semrush, you can find recommendations for further improving your content’s SEO-friendliness, address ongoing technical issues, and identify any new backlinks and their potential impact on your search engine rankings.
- How optimized is my content?
- Re-run On-Page SEO Checker: Re-run the On-Page SEO Checker in Semrush after making changes to your website’s content. Analyze the tool’s recommendations and track your progress in addressing any identified issues.
Example: If Semrush initially identified issues with your use of header tags, re-run the checker after optimizing your header tags and see if the tool now indicates that these issues have been resolved.
- Re-run On-Page SEO Checker: Re-run the On-Page SEO Checker in Semrush after making changes to your website’s content. Analyze the tool’s recommendations and track your progress in addressing any identified issues.
- Are there issues with my website that I am unaware of which are causing a poor user experience?
- Re-run Site Audit: Re-run the Site Audit in Semrush after addressing any identified issues. Track the number of errors, warnings, and notices over time to ensure that your website’s technical health is improving.
- Are there any new backlinks I should be aware of?
- Monitor Backlink Profile: Regularly monitor your backlink profile in Semrush to identify any new backlinks. Analyze the quality of these backlinks and identify any potential issues that may require further investigation.
By regularly monitoring these metrics and analyzing the data provided by Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Semrush, you can gain a better understanding of your website’s performance and make data-driven decisions to continue improving the SEO of your website.
It’s important to note that significant improvements may not be immediate. You may need to refine your content strategy and make adjustments based on the data you gather after optimizing your website.