55% of consumers say they conduct online research before they make a purchase, so your brand must have a solid digital presence. To do that, most companies invest in search engine optimization or SEO. This is a nuanced practice that caters to search engine algorithms to result in top-ranking positions on search engine results pages (SERPs). Due to the complicated and ever-changing landscape, SEO should be done by experts. And when they do this, they should provide you with a monthly SEO report.
Are you now interested in this service to analyze how your digital marketing is doing? Then keep reading. Here’s what you should expect.
The Top KPIs on an SEO Report
“KPI” stands for “key performance indicator,” and on an SEO report, they’ll tell you if your efforts are successful or not.
The top ones measured are organic traffic, keywords, and backlinks. We’ll go into more detail below.
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is the number of visitors that you get on your website without using paid methods. It’s free traffic that comes when internet users search a related term, and then click on your website on sites like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
If you’ve optimized your site well, then you should get decent organic traffic since your site will appear higher on SERPs.
An SEO report will show you the organic traffic to your site, as well as the amount of change from the previous month and year. This can be measured by users, new users, or sessions.
Keywords
The basis of SEO is choosing the right keywords to use on your site. The goal is to aim for the words that your target audience will use when searching the web, as your website will then pop up to help them.
By getting a monthly SEO report, you can see the number of keywords used and the amount of change in search volume. From there, you can tweak your SEO strategy to both use the right keywords and sprinkle them in the right amounts throughout your content.
Backlinks
Backlinks are when other websites reference pages on your site. This is an essential part of SEO since it tells search engines that your site is reputable, authoritative, and reliable, which will boost your SERP ranking.
Monthly SEO reports should show the number of total backlinks, the number of referring domains, and the amount of change. More importantly, they should tell you if there are any conversions, as this will tell you if your efforts are working. For example, if you’re actively participating in virtual networking, then conversions from links on other blog pages will mean you’re on the right track.
Other Key SEO Metrics
The above three KPIs are the most important ones an SEO agency should measure. However, they shouldn’t be the only ones. Here are a few more key SEO metrics you should look out for.
Engagement Rate
Traffic on your site isn’t automatically a positive sign. If your website is poorly made, then people will quickly click off.
To know if you’re doing things right, you’ll have to look at the engagement rate. The higher the level of interaction users have with your content, the better.
The first thing you’ll want to look for on your SEO report is the dwell time. This shows how much time users spend on a webpage before returning to the search results.
Another thing to look at is social signals. When using social media marketing, check out engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and mentions on platforms.
Domain Ranking or Authority Score
Domain ranking (or domain authority score) is a metric used to measure the authority and credibility of a website in the eyes of search engines. Different search engines have their proprietary algorithms for assessing domain authority (DA), but one of the most well-known is Moz’s DA score.
This score is an aggregation of several factors. They include the number and quality of backlinks, the relevance and quality of the content, the overall trustworthiness of the domain, and other SEO-related factors, such as site speed and mobile-friendliness.
Top Performing Pages
Earlier, we discussed engagement rate and pages users don’t spend a lot of time on. Along those lines, you should also look at the top-performing pages.
These will tell you what you’re doing well so you can carry over those elements to web pages with high bounce rates.
Position Tracking
You may be happy with your current SERP position, but it won’t be static. Position tracking is vital if you want to stay on top.
This metric will show you the average position of keywords. You can then switch them if you aren’t happy with how they’re doing.
Clickthrough Rate
If you’ve taken out online ads (pay-per-click, or PPC), then check for the clickthrough rate. The rate is calculated by dividing impressions by the number of clicks. The ratio should tell you if the campaign’s doing well or not.
What the Agency Should and Shouldn’t Do When Reporting
Coming up with the SEO report is only one part of the equation for an SEO agency; the other is discussing the results with you.
Every month, they should sit down to go over what they’ve found and draw conclusions based on facts. Plus, they should cover the next steps to improve your SEO strategies.
If they don’t cover the report at all, then that’s a red flag. If they’re vague or over-promise on what they can deliver, then those are warning signs, too. You should also give them a pass if they don’t get input on your goals.
Start Analyzing Your SEO Efforts
An SEO report can tell you a lot about how your digital marketing campaigns are going. That means it’s crucial to keep up with monthly ones since you can track your progress, test, and tweak your strategies.
By choosing the right SEO agency, you can do this easily. In addition, you can get many other fantastic services to help your business along, so don’t hesitate to reach out and vet some companies.
If you’d like assistance with SEO reports, then schedule a consultation with us today. We at Synergetic Media can assist with SEO and beyond.