While it can be challenging to determine the full impact of one\u2019s SEO efforts, there are multiple KPIs and productive methods of tracking the effect of optimizations.<\/p>\n
The most useful method of creating meaningful goals is applying the SMART framework to your KPIs.<\/p>\n
You can apply the SMART framework to any goal, company, or business. But for SEO, there are particular considerations to include in your goal-building process.<\/p>\n
And by layering SEO throughout this process, you\u2019ll find goals that accurately reflect the impact of your SEO efforts and demonstrate you can deliver what you promised.<\/p>\n
What Is A SMART Goal?<\/h2>\n
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic (or Relevant), and Timely (or Time-bound).<\/p>\n
When creating any goal, ensure that those five dimensions apply to your goal.<\/p>\n
As part of the goal-setting process, ask yourself each of these questions:<\/p>\n
- \n
- What specifically<\/strong> is it that you plan to measure?<\/li>\n
- Do you have a way to measure<\/strong> the KPI?<\/li>\n
- Can you make an actionable<\/strong> impact on this KPI?<\/li>\n
- Is the specific item you\u2019re aiming to improve realistically changing based on your actions? Is it relevant<\/strong> to your company objectives?<\/li>\n
- In what timeframe<\/strong> do you estimate showing your efforts\u2019 impact on the KPI?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Go through these and only proceed to the next question if you can determine a reasonable answer to each.<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019ve answered each question, transform your findings into a definitive statement. And there you have it.<\/p>\n
Applying The SMART Goals Process To SEO<\/h2>\n
The five principles of SMART can be applied to any business, company, or client.<\/p>\n
But when creating SMART goals specifically for SEO, here\u2019s how you should think about applying each to your goal-building process.<\/p>\n
Specific<\/h3>\n
The purpose of SMART goals is to demonstrate the impact of specific marketing efforts, or in this case, your search and site optimizations.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, you want to prove that your optimizations<\/a> increased your business\u2019 or client\u2019s objectives and goals<\/p>\n
Therefore, start the set-up of each SMART goal by choosing one particular KPI.<\/p>\n
Limiting each goal to one KPI helps ensure the accuracy of the remaining four qualifications of SMART.<\/p>\n
When picking a KPI for SEO, start by checking if you can tie your SEO KPIs<\/a> into broader business goals and objectives.<\/p>\n
That way, you can demonstrate how your search optimizations support your company or client\u2019s marketing conversion funnel<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Within the funnel, these KPIs often start with total impressions on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page)and end with sales, purchases, or other financial transactions.<\/p>\n
SEO KPIs Across The Marketing Funnel<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Top Of Marketing Funnel (Awareness)<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Total impressions.<\/li>\n
- Page 1 search volume.<\/li>\n
- Clicks from search engines.<\/li>\n
- CTR from search engines.<\/li>\n
- Users from search.<\/li>\n
- Pageviews from search.<\/li>\n
- On-page conversions from search traffic.<\/li>\n
- Earnings from search traffic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Bottom Of Marketing Funnel (Conversion)<\/strong><\/p>\n
You may be inclined to rely on other SEO metrics such as specific results types, including Answer Boxes (also known as Featured Snippets), or People Also Ask placements.<\/p>\n
However, there are two reasons to avoid those types of metrics.<\/p>\n
They can drastically fluctuate in unrelated ways to your efforts, and more importantly, they don\u2019t directly tie to the bigger picture business goals of traffic and conversions.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Page 1 placements represent the number of times your content shows up on Page 1 of the SERP. There\u2019s less than a 2.5%<\/a> chance of a click if your content is not on Page 1.<\/p>\n
So your presence on Page 1 is a huge indicator of the organic traffic you may be able to drive.<\/p>\n
Similarly, conversions and earnings<\/a> from search are particularly powerful KPIs to include in your goals as they help prove SEO and Content Marketing ROI, both critical determinants of marketing success.<\/p>\n
Overall, it\u2019s essential to ensure that our goals are crystal-clear and connected to our business objectives so everyone from the boardroom to the marketing department understands what success looks like.<\/p>\n
Measurable<\/h3>\n
Fortunately, most SEO metrics are easy enough to track, as long as you have the right platforms, tools, and\/or software set up to ingest your data:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Website analytics, traffic, and acquisition sources can be tracked through tools such as Google Analytics<\/a>, Adobe Analytics<\/a>, or other tracking software.<\/li>\n
- Search engines let you track your visibility, rank, and clicks of keywords that show your website through tools such as Google Search Console<\/a> and Bing Webmaster Tools<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- Platforms such as BridgeEdge<\/a>, Conductor<\/a>, and Semrush<\/a> capture your keyword rankings, rank changes, keyword MSV, result types, and so on for keywords you\u2019ve tracked and those you research. Some have integrations that allow you to ingest your website\u2019s data and crawl it.<\/li>\n
- Site crawling can also happen with separate tools like ContentKing<\/a> and DeepCrawl<\/a> that track technical SEO components, such as title tags, meta descriptions, and alt tags, flag site errors, monitor Core Web Vitals like site speed, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Before adding any of the metrics from these sources, you\u2019ll need to establish a benchmark<\/a> for it.<\/p>\n
Timing and reporting will be discussed in greater detail when we get to the T in SMART, but essentially, your goal needs a comparison between two different points in time.<\/p>\n
To compare data effectively, you\u2019ll have to establish the baseline for the previous month, if not the year.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, it can be especially difficult to prove certain changes resulted in specific measurable metrics for SEO. And that needs to be expressed clearly when constructing and explaining your goals.<\/p>\n
However, using segments to track specific pages you\u2019ve updated and keywords for which you\u2019re trying to optimize will help demonstrate whether results improved after your optimizations.<\/p>\n
And by trying to ensure that you (or your content or web team) make your optimizations as close together as possible, you\u2019ll have an easier time tracking changes over time.<\/p>\n
Attainable And Achievable<\/h3>\n
There are many achievable and actionable ways to impact organic search performance.<\/p>\n
- Search engines let you track your visibility, rank, and clicks of keywords that show your website through tools such as Google Search Console<\/a> and Bing Webmaster Tools<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- Website analytics, traffic, and acquisition sources can be tracked through tools such as Google Analytics<\/a>, Adobe Analytics<\/a>, or other tracking software.<\/li>\n
- Do you have a way to measure<\/strong> the KPI?<\/li>\n
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