But is it working?
This is a very common question we get asked about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), how do you know if it is working?
We get it. Sometimes it can feel like you are throwing money out of a very large “marketing” window.
Investing in SEO is a long-term marketing strategy. The results of the work can’t be seen the very next day (like they can in paid advertising). Or even the next month. It take time for the SEO optimizations to take effect and positively impact a business.
How Long Does it Take for SEO to Work
There isn’t one answer for every website. But in our 8 years of experience at Clapping Dog Media, we have seen a positive increase due to SEO optimizations after 3 months. We have seen consistent, high-yield growth after 6 months.
Keep in mind that there are a lot of factors that affect the time it takes for SEO to work, including how long the website has been live, the quality of the content and how competitive the industry is.
In order to measure success, it is crucial for all business owners to consistently track progress.
One of the easiest ways to track progress is with our Insights Report, it is our all-in-one easy to read solution for tracking the metrics that matter to your business.
We have come up with 5 Ways to tell if your SEO Strategy is working
- Increased organic traffic: If your SEO efforts are successful, you should see an increase in the number of organic visitors to your website.
- Higher search engine rankings: As your website’s SEO improves, it should move up in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for targeted keywords.
- Increased engagement: If your website visitors are staying on your site longer, engaging with more pages and content, it’s a sign that your SEO is working and they find your site relevant and valuable.
- Better conversion rates: Improved SEO should lead to more qualified traffic, which can result in higher conversion rates for your business, in other words more paying clients.
- Brand visibility: If your brand is getting more visibility online, it’s a good indication that your SEO strategy is working.
Let’s take these one at a time.
Increased Organic Traffic
Traffic that comes from Search Engines such as Google is called Organic Traffic. Organic traffic is often seen as more valuable than traffic from other channels like social or paid advertising, because it is more likely to convert into leads or sales. SEO Strategies are focused on increasing organic traffic, so one go-to tactic for measuring the success of your SEO is by measuring organic traffic month over month.
Higher Search Rankings
Tracking keywords is another key metric to measure the success of your SEO plan.
As we mentioned in this post, When someone Googles a keyword. Google returns a list of results that are relevant to the query on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The position of a website on the SERP is referred to as its “ranking.”
The more keywords that a site ranks for the more opportunities a site has to be found. If you are consistently posting quality, strategic content on your site, you can expect to see an increase in ranking keywords.
Increased Engagement
Engagement Rate is an indication of how involved your audience is with the content, Google will send more visitors to your site if it has a high engagement rate. In other words, if Google sees that users find value in your content they will send more people over to read it. If more and more users come to the site and are engaged with the content, then that is a clear indication that the SEO strategy is working.
Better Conversion Rates
This may be obvious, but one clear indication of the success of your SEO strategy is if you getting more clients.
A good SEO plan will be optimized to reach the right audience, if more and more paying clients are finding your site, SEO is working.
Brand Visibility
This one is a bit more challenging to measure. But if overall Brand Visibility is increasing that means that traffic from organic search is increasing, that traffic from social channels is increasing, and that referral traffic (traffic from other websites) is also increasing. Brand Visibility is the cumulative effect of all marketing efforts.
SEO is a combination of technical expertise, content planning, keyword research, on-site optimizations and a true understanding of the target audience. Even though SEO can be complicated, measuring the success of the SEO strategy is not.
If you need an easy-to-read, all in one solution for understanding your website data, check out our Insights Report.
