17 SEO Goals Worth Tracking (And How to Actually Measure Them)

The secret to SEO success (besides hiring Loganix, of course 😉) is all about setting the right SEO goals.

Not just any goals, mind you. Goals that drive real results.

Here are 17 SEO goals you should be tracking 👇

17 SEO Objectives and Goals Your Business Should Target

From keyword rankings through to diversifying traffic sources—lessgo!

1. Keyword Rankings

Let’s start with the basics, the bread and butter of SEO: keyword rankings.

Keyword rankings show a website’s position in search results for a specific keyword or phrase. Let’s say a user searches for “best content marketing services,” and your website (or your client’s website) shows up first. Congrats! You’ve landed the top spot for that keyword.

Why is this important? Keyword rankings directly contribute to visibility, traffic, and, of course, conversions.

This means that the higher a site ranks for relevant keywords, the more likely people are to find the website, click on the link, and go from a tire kicker to a paying customer.

So, how do you measure keyword rankings?

Let’s lean on our old friend Ahrefs for this task:

First, you’ll need to create a project in Ahrefs and add your website. To do this, from the dashboard, click Create.

Then, enter the website’s URL, enter a project name, and then hit Continue.

From there, complete the next few steps and cycle through to the Rank Tracker. Here’s where you’ll list the keywords you’d like to track.

To add the keywords you want to track. You can add them manually or import them from a CSV file. Ahrefs makes this easy for you by listing the keywords the website in question already ranks for at the bottom of the page. To add the desired keywords to the list, simply click the + button next to each keyword.

Next, add the URLs of your competitors so that you can compare the progress of the website against them. Then, click Finish.

Once Ahrefs has done its thing, head to Rank Tracker to see all the keyword ranking insights you could ever need. You can even set up email alerts for this. That way, Ahrefs will email you routinely with any ranking changes.

2. Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is the lifeblood of any successful website. It’s the steady stream of visitors who find your site through search engines, eager to consume content, explore a site’s products, and make purchases.

Just keep in mind that not all traffic is good traffic. Unless you’re all in on ad revenue and any old eyeballs will do, you’ll want to attract high-quality traffic—visitors who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer and are likely to convert into paying customers.

So, how do you track your organic traffic and make sure it’s the good kind?

This time, let’s call on Google Analytics (GA). GA allows you to easily monitor every visitor, analyze their behavior, and report back with valuable insights.

Here’s how to do just that:

If you haven’t already, create a Google Analytics account and add your website. (If you’re not sure how, then head over here 👉 how to use Google Analytics.)

Go to the Acquisition section. Here’s where you’ll find all the juicy details about your website traffic, including the source, medium, and landing page.

Now that you’ve landed, head over to Traffic Acquisition and focus on Organic Search. This will show you the traffic that’s coming from search engines like Google and Bing.

Don’t just look at the overall numbers, though. Instead, head to the User attributes report and segment your traffic by different factors, like country, age, and gender.

Use this information to identify any trends or patterns, see which pages are attracting the most traffic, and figure out why.

3. Bounce Rate

Okay, you’re attracting a healthy flow of organic traffic to your website, but are those visitors sticking around, or are they bouncing and leaving before exploring further?

Bounce rate is a measure of how many visitors leave your website after viewing only one page.

A high bounce rate can be a sign that something’s wrong with your website. Maybe your content is boring, your design is confusing, or your website is too slow for the modern consumer.

Whatever the reason, those bouncing visitors are a missed opportunity for engagement, conversions, and a business’s bottom line.

So, how do you track your bounce rate and make sure your visitors are sticking around? Let’s turn once again to Google Analytics.

Here’s how to use Google Analytics to track your bounce rate:

Like last time, select the Traffic acquisition report from the left-hand sidebar and then hit the pen icon to edit the report. (Note: this time, I’m using a demo account that I just set up, so unfortunately, our data and graphs here are rather bleak. Apologies.)

Next, hit Metrics to add, yup, a new metric. Then, at the bottom of the page, search for bounce rate, select it, and then hit Apply. Once the metric has been added to the report, hit Save to save the modified report as a new report or update the existing report.

Hit Back and you’ll now see that bounce rate has been added to the custom traffic acquisition report.

Once you’ve identified the pages with high bounce rates, it’s time to figure out why people are bouncing and make some changes. Maybe you need to improve your content, redesign your website, or speed up your loading times.

4. Page Speed

We live in the age of instant gratification, baby. People expect everything to be fast… like fast, fast. If a web page takes forever to load, visitors will bounce pronto. And that’s exactly what the page speed metric measures: how fast a page loads.

So, how do you measure your page speed? With Google PageSpeed Insights, of course.

Here’s how to use it:

Head over to the PageSpeed Insights website and enter the URL of the page you want to analyze.

Hit Analyse and PageSpeed Insights will do its thing, assessing a website’s performance and giving you a score for both mobile and desktop.

Scroll down the page and check the Diagnostics section. This is where you’ll find specific recommendations for improving your page speed.

Don’t just ignore those recommendations; put them into action! Optimize your images, minify your code, and leverage browser caching. Oh, and don’t slack. Regularly check your PageSpeed Insights score to see how your website is improving.

5. Improve User Experience

Page speed is just one piece of the user experience (UX) pie, but what about the other eight or so slices?

I mean, are your visitors actually enjoying their stay? Or are they seething over a hot mess of broken links, outdated content, and frustrating design elements?

If visitors are frustrated, confused, or bored, they’ll simply go somewhere else. UX focuses on fixing these potential frustrations, making a website a delightful place to be. If visitors are engaged, informed, and entertained, they’re more likely to stick around, explore a site’s content, and maybe splash some cash.

So, how do you improve a website’s UX and increase conversions?

Let’s break it down:

1. News flash, boomer: smartphones and tablets are here to stay, so your website needs to be accessible and enjoyable on all devices.
2. Don’t make visitors hunt for what they need. Create a clear and intuitive navigation menu that makes it easy for them to find the information they’re looking for.
3. Don’t just throw a bunch of text on a page and call it a day. Make sure a site’s content is well-written, engaging, and easy to read. Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and visuals to break up the text and make it more digestible. 
4. We’ve already talked about page speed, but FOR THOSE IN THE BACK, nobody wants to wait for a website to load. Optimize your images, minify your code, and use browser caching to make a website load seamlessly fast.
5. Don’t just assume a website is user-friendly. A/B test different page variants, use heatmaps, and make adjustments as needed.

6. Improving Website Engagement

Website engagement creates a connection with visitors, making them feel valued and giving them a reason to stick around.

“Engagement” is rather qualitative, though. How can we put some hard numbers on something that’s so subjective and individual?

Thankfully, there are some quantitative metrics we can lean on here.

Let’s fire up Google Analytics again:

First, select Reports from the left-hand sidebar and then Engagement and Overview. This report is packed with metrics that reveal how engaged your visitors are.

If you’d like to uncover more insights, under the Overview report, you’ll find Events, Pages and Screens, and Landing page reports. Each of these reports offers a ton of data that’ll help you understand user behavior, identify engagement hotspots, and pinpoint areas for improvement.

And like we did before when we added the bounce rate metric to one of our custom reports, you can click the edit tool in the top right-hand corner and add just about any other engagement metric your heart desires.

7. Increase CTR

Click-through rate (CTR) is the measure of how many people click on your website in the search results compared to how many people see it. A high CTR means your website is irresistible. A low CTR means your website is blending into the background. That’s not good.

So, how do you improve a site’s CTR?

This time, let’s use Google Search Console:

Head over to your Google Search Console account and select the website you want to analyze (see how to use Google Search Console here). Then, go to the Performance report in the left-hand sidebar. Next, click Average CTR. This metric shows you the overall click-through rate for a website in the search results.

Don’t just stop at the overall CTR, though. See which search queries are driving the most (or least) clicks by scrolling down the page. Under the Queries report, you can see the average CTR for each query that the site is ranking for. And if you’d like to see the average CTR for each page, simply click on the Pages report.

Don’t be afraid to try different approaches to see which increases click-through rate. A/B test different title tags and meta descriptions and track your CTR to see which ones are performing best.

8. Capture More Featured Snippets

Okay, you’re ranking high for target keywords, CTR is through the roof, and your website’s traffic is flowing like a river of gold. But don’t rest on your laurels just yet. Now, it’s time to aim for the ultimate prize: featured snippets.

Featured snippets are the spots at the top of the SERPs, the little box above the ten blue links where Google showcases the most relevant and informative answers to a user’s query.

Capturing a featured snippet boosts a site’s visibility and brand authority.

How do you secure featured snippets?

Let’s take a look:

1. Start by identifying keywords where you’re already ranking on the first page of Google. These are prime keywords to target for featured snippets.
2. If there’s already a featured snippet for your target keyword, take a close look at it. What type of content is it? How is it formatted? What questions does it answer? Answer these questions and write your version accordingly.
3. Don’t just rehash the same old information. You need to craft content that answers a user search query succinctly and directly. No fluff, just a straight-shooting answer.
4. Featured snippets come in different formats, such as paragraphs and bullet point lists. Make sure your content is optimized for the specific snippet type you’re targeting.
5. Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to track your featured snippet rankings. See which keywords are generating snippets and analyze your success rate.

Once you find a winning formula, rewrite, refine, and earn that extra bit of visibility and SERP real estate.

9. Content Quality

Content quality is the heart and soul of SEO. It’s the foundation upon which all your other efforts are built. Why? High-quality content attracts backlinks, social shares, and organic traffic. All metrics that Google places significant weight on.

You see, despite what Google might have you believe, its algorithms aren’t so good at assessing “helpful” content. Google knows this, so its development teams have tweaked their algorithms to place a lot of emphasis on engagement metrics. The more visitors engage with a piece of content, the more Google assumes that users are enjoying it, and the higher it’ll rank the page.

Is your content likely to satisfy search intent?

If you’re not sure, ask yourself these five questions:

1. Is your content actually relevant to your target audience?
2. Is your content accurate and up-to-date?
3. Is your content engaging and interesting?
4. Is your content clear and easy to understand?
5. Does your content provide real value to your audience?

Once you’ve assessed your content quality, it’s time to make some improvements. Rewrite those boring blog posts, update that outdated information, and add some personality to your writing.

10. Optimize Internal Linking

Internal links guide visitors and search engine crawlers to different pages on a website. Simple enough.

From an SEO perspective, though, internal linking isn’t just about creating a web of connections. Oh, no, it’s about optimizing the flow of link juice—authority passed on from one high-performing page to another. Done right, one high-performing page can improve the performance of another, which can then improve the performance of another, and so on.

So, how do you optimize your internal linking?

Here’s how:

• Organize your website into a logical hierarchy, with your most important pages at the top and supporting pages branching out below. This approach helps search engines understand the structure of a website and prioritize the most important pages.
• Anchor text is the clickable text that links to another page. Make sure your anchor text is relevant to the page you’re linking to. Don’t just use generic phrases like “click here” or “read more.” Instead, use keywords that accurately describe the content of the linked page.
• Don’t just link to any random page on your website. Make sure your internal links are relevant to the context of the page you’re linking from.

It might seem simple, but strategic internal linking can take one or two well-performing pages to 10-20 well-performing pages.

11. Backlinks

A backlink is simply a link from one website to another. It might appear menial, but in SEO, backlinks are the complete opposite. They’re massively important.

Why? Despite what certain Google spokespeople would have you believe, backlinks are regularly placed by SEO experts in the top three ranking factors—signals to search engines that a website and its content are worth ranking on the SERPs.

This study found that almost all websites (96.3%) that achieve a top 10 search ranking have accumulated more than 1,000 backlinks from unique domains. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, John Mueller!

Moving right along. Here’s something you’ve probably heard before, but it is still worth mentioning: not all backlinks are created equal. You want high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites—sites that search engines respect and favor in search results—that are, ideally, relevant to your niche.

A link from an authoritative website signals to search engines that your words are to be trusted, you’ve added value to your niche, and it’s worth ranking your content because users will likely find it helpful.

So, how do you build high-quality backlinks?

Observe:

First, you need to create great content. Content that’s helpful, easy to follow, and, where possible, offers unique takes, not recycled info. This is the foundation of any successful link-building strategy. If your content is boring, irrelevant, or just plain bad, nobody will link to it.

You see, linking to content that sucks reflects badly on the website linking to it, so they’re not going to risk their reputation by associating with anything subpar.

Next comes the hardest part: getting websites, particularly relevant high-quality websites, to link to you.

What’s the play here? Well, you can reach out to other websites in your niche and let them know about your awesome content. If you think outreach is your thing, please, for the love of my poor, oversaturated inbox, personalize your outreach, highlight the value you offer, and make it clear why a third party should link to you.

Another strategy? Guest posting. Yup, guest posting is still alive and very much kicking (and just an FYI: we offer guest posting and blog outreach services. Do with that information what you will).

The best approach to guest posting? Outreach to relevant publishers, write, publish, backlink, repeat again… and again… and again.

Another tactic is broken link building. Find broken links on relevant websites and offer your content as a replacement. This tactic is pretty solid. Why? Well, you’ve highlighted a problem (the broken link), offered a solution (your relevant content), and made the whole process super easy by writing a no-BS email that cuts straight to the chase.

But building backlinks is only half… no 9/10ths of the battle. What about tracking?

You’re spoiled for choice in this department. Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz make it super easy to monitor your backlink profile and see where your links are coming from, what anchor text they’re using, and how they’re impacting your rankings.

12. Improve Domain Authority

Domain authority or domain rating, whichever you’d like to call it, is a score used by tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz to predict how well a website will likely perform in search results.

Why is this important? Websites with high domain authority are widely recognized and trusted and tend to attract backlinks from other reputable sites. Conversely, websites with low domain authority are not as widely recognized and are less likely to attract backlinks.

Now, why should you even care about domain authority?

Well, for starters, Google cares about it. Actually, let me clear that up. They don’t care for Ahrefs and Semrush’s in-house metrics, domain authority and domain rating, that’s for sure. But they do have a domain authority score called “siteAuthority” that they use themselves. It was something they’d denied having for a long time but was exposed in 2024’s Google search documentation leaks.

Is knowing that Google has a domain authority metric helpful? Not really, because we can’t measure it.

But we can endeavor to increase a website’s authority, period. How?

Here’s how:

A lot of it comes down to backlinks. High-quality backlinks.

But, as we just explored, building high-quality backlinks takes work. It’s not like you can just snap your fingers and have them magically appear. You need to create amazing content, build relationships with other website owners, and promote your website. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely worth it.

Host age also comes into it. Google views websites that have been around a long time as more likely to be trustworthy.

Topic authority is something you could consider. The more you publish content on a topic, the more Google is likely to view you as a voice worthy of ranking for topic-specific keywords.

And then there are engagement metrics like time-on-page, bounce rates, etc. The longer you can hold users’s attention, the more Google will trust that your content is helpful, and the higher it will rank the content in search results.

13. Conversions

Forget those percentages and abstract metrics. Let’s look at the actual cold, hard numbers: conversions.

To state the obvious, conversions make or break an online business. They’re the tangible results of your marketing efforts, the proof that a website is actually doing its job.

So, how do we go about tracking conversions? It all starts with setting up conversion goals in Google Analytics.

Here’s a step-by-step:

1. First things first, make sure you have the right permissions. You’ll need administrator, editor, or marketer access to create those custom events. (If you don’t have those permissions, it’s time to sweet-talk your GA4 gatekeeper.)
2. From the bottom left-hand side, navigate to the Admin. Then select Data display and then Events.
3. Click on Create event and give your new event a name.
4. Now, here’s the fun part. You get to define the conditions for when this event should be triggered. For example, you might want to track a “generate lead” event whenever someone views a specific thank-you page after submitting a form.
5. Make sure to copy parameters from the source event (like “page view”) so you have all the juicy details associated with the conversion.
6. Once you’ve created your custom event, under Reports, head over to the Conversions section and enable it as a conversion. This tells Google Analytics to treat this event as a valuable conversion action.

But here’s where things get interesting: you can also track conversions from different sources. This means you can see how many conversions are coming from organic search, paid advertising, social media, or email marketing.

And don’t forget about attribution. This is where you can see which specific marketing efforts are leading to conversions. For example, you might find that a particular blog post is driving a lot of organic traffic that’s converting into leads. Or maybe a social media campaign is generating a ton of sales.

Experiment and have fun!

14. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the ultimate measure of a website’s effectiveness. It’s the percentage of visitors who take a desired action, whether it’s making a purchase, filling out a form, or signing up for a weekly email newsletter.

Now, why should you even care about conversion rate? Well, for starters, it’s directly tied to  a business’s bottom line. The higher your conversion rate, the more revenue a site is generating.

But it’s not just about the money; it’s about understanding what works and what doesn’t. By tracking conversion rate, you can identify which pages, campaigns, or strategies are driving the most conversions and which ones are falling flat.

So, how do you track your conversion rate and make sure your website is a conversion machine? Well, it all starts with setting up conversion goals in Google Analytics.

Here’s how to do it:

In your Google Analytics account, navigate to Reports, and then under Acquisition, select Traffic acquisition.

Scroll down the page, then scroll across until you find Session key event rate (this is the conversion rate of whichever event you have selected). Next, click on All events.

Now, select the event you’d like to display the conversion rate for. For this example, I’ll select purchase. You can choose from the default list or create a custom event in Admin.

And voilà. The conversion rates display right there where you need them.

Hot tip: compare the conversion rates for different goals and channels. This will help you understand which goals are most effective and which channels are driving the most valuable conversions.

And look for trends and patterns in your conversion rate data. Are there certain pages or campaigns that consistently have high conversion rates? Are there any factors that seem to be influencing conversions, such as time of day or device type?

Answer these questions, and you’ll be raking in conversions left, right, and center.

15. Increase Local Visibility

Local visibility is just as it sounds: it’s how easily people can find a business online when they’re searching for products or services in a local area. The higher the local visibility, the more likely a business is to attract customers who are ready to buy.

So, how do you increase visibility to a local market?

First things first, ditch that outdated “if you build it, they will come” mentality. It’s post-2020, people! Nobody’s stumbling upon an online business by accident anymore.

You need to be proactive, strategic, and maybe even a little bit ruthless. The competition’s fierce, and competitor’s will happily snatch up your customers if you’re not careful.

Here’s the battle plan:

1. Google Business Profile is your online fortress, your digital storefront, your virtual battleground. Make sure it’s complete, accurate, and appealing by adding photos, videos, and customer reviews. And don’t forget to respond to those reviews, even the negative ones. (Remember, every interaction is a chance to show off your customer service skills and build your brand reputation.)
2. Local Citations are your online reinforcements. Build them like you’re building a medieval fortress, brick by digital brick. Get listed on every relevant directory, review site, and social media platform you can find. The more places your business appears online, the stronger your fortress will be (and the harder it will be for your competitors to breach your defenses).
3. Content Marketing. Don’t just sit there waiting for customers to find you. Instead, create content that draws them in. Write blog posts about local events, create videos showcasing your products or services, and share insider tips that only a local expert would know.
4. Social Media. Don’t just post boring updates about your business. Engage with your community, instead. Share local news, participate in online discussions, and show that you’re a valuable member of the neighborhood (both online and offline).
5. On-Page Optimization. Don’t forget about the basics! Optimize your website for local keywords, make sure your contact information is prominent, and use schema markup to help search engines understand your business and its location.

16. Boost Brand Awareness

Brand awareness involves getting a business’s name, logo, and message in front of as many eyeballs as possible.

It’s about building trust, credibility, and customer loyalty. When people recognize a brand, they’re more likely to trust your products, engage with your content, and become your loyal customers.

So, how do you boost your brand awareness? Well, SEO can play a surprisingly big role.

Here’s how:

• Create high-quality content that’s relevant, informative, and shareable. Think blog posts, infographics, videos, and even memes. The more people who see a site’s content, the more they’ll become familiar with your brand.
• Don’t just post boring updates about your business. Instead, engage with your audience, share valuable content, and participate in relevant conversations.
• Get your brand featured in publications, land interviews, and build relationships with journalists and influencers.
• Build high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites. This not only improves your SEO but also increases your brand visibility and credibility.
• Make sure your website is user-friendly, visually appealing, and easy to navigate. Include the brand’s logo and messaging prominently, and make sure your content is consistent with your brand voice and values.

17. Diversify Traffic Sources

Now, here’s the million-dollar question: are you relying solely on Google for all your traffic? If so, you might as well be playing Russian roulette.

Google’s algorithms are fickle beasts. The recent Helpful Content Update is a great example of this. One minute, they’re showering you with organic traffic love, and the next minute, they’ve turned the tap off, leaving you high and dry.

So, how do you diversify your traffic sources and protect your website from Google’s unpredictable mood swings?

Here’s how to diversify:

• Use social media to drive traffic to your website. Share your content, engage with your audience, and run targeted ads to reach new customers.
• Build an email list and nurture those subscribers like they’re your precious little seedlings. Send them valuable content, exclusive offers, and personalized messages that make them feel like they’re part of an exclusive club (because they are).
• Don’t be afraid to invest in paid advertising, whether it’s Google Ads, social media ads, or other platforms. Paid advertising can be a powerful way to reach new audiences, drive targeted traffic, and complement your organic SEO efforts.
• Republish your content on other websites and platforms to reach a wider audience and attract backlinks.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Phew! That was a LOT. We covered everything from keyword rankings and organic traffic to bounce rates, page speed, and even those elusive featured snippets.

You’re now officially equipped to track your progress and achieve SEO success. Kudos!

But let’s be real: SEO isn’t a walk in the park. And if you’re not careful, you might just end up lost, exhausted, and questioning your career choices.

Thankfully, our team of seasoned SEOs will take care of the heavy lifting so you can focus on what you do best—running your business or agency.

🚀 Check out our SEO services page and see how we will help you reach your goals. 🚀