It can get bogged down by the enormity of the task at hand. It’s hard to prioritise and focus on what will move the needle.
You might feel like you’re spinning your wheels because you don’t have a specific goal to work towards. Without a target, it’s challenging to measure success.
We’ve created this article to share some common SEO goals that you can set yourself and your SEO strategy.
How to Set Goals
To reach your goals, it’s essential to have a plan.
This starts with knowing what you want, and then, create an actionable list of tasks that will guide you towards achieving those goals.
One way that we can set goals and expectations would be through a service level agreement (SLA). Having a documented process of what you will provide your client and what your client can expect is a fantastic way to improve your customer experience and set manageable goals for your team.
Another way to set goals, strategically, is by using the SMART goals criteria. Read on to find out how you can use SMART goals effectively.
SMART Goals
A SMART goal sets the criteria for successful goal setting.
This is a great way to make sure you’re moving in the right direction and setting yourself up for success.
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely.
Below we will break each aspect down.
Specific: Clear and concise goals make it easier to achieve goals. This is because you know exactly what it is you plan to accomplish.
This question specifies WHAT the goal is.
For example, You want to make money through your eCommerce store.
Measurable: Applying a metric to your goal allows you to assess its progress. This helps you answer the question: How do I know I’ve achieved the goal?
This question indicates WHEN the goal has been achieved.
For example, You want to make $1000 through your eCommerce store.
Achievable: Ensuring that the goal is realistic and capable of being achieved.
This question answered HOW likely it is to be accomplished.
For example, by spending more time on marketing and lead generation.
Relevant: The goal must be aligned with the business’s objectives. It’s also worthy to note how much of a priority it is.
This question answers WHY this goal has been chosen.
For example, the 1# objective of business is to make a profit. Spending time on the right activities like marketing and lead generation will bring in opportunities to make an income.
Timely: Setting a timeframe for completion of the goal ensures that an appropriate deadline will be met.
This question identifies WHEN the goal needs to be completed.
For example, within the next 2 months [DD/MM/YYYY].
Bringing all of these aspects together we get the goal of:
I want to achieve $1000 in sales through my eCommerce store within 2 months of YYYY.
SMART goals are a great way to identify what you really want and make sure that all resources go towards it.
What are KPIs?
The most important measure for success in any business is how well you meet your goals.
A key performance indicator (KPI) helps gauge this.
A key performance indicator (KPI) measures the progress towards achieving the objectives of a business.
The most common KPIs for SEO are:
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is when a user visits your site based on the results that showed up on a search engine.
Organic traffic is an excellent indicator of your site’s performance in search engine rankings.
If you are ranking high on SERPs (search engine results pages):
- Organic traffic is likely to increase since you are shown higher on SERPs.
Search engines find your content relevant, giving you more authority. This can be a result of following SEO best practices.
- An increase in traffic from ideal prospects is resulting in an increase in sales.
If you are ranking low on SERPs :
- Organic traffic is likely to decrease since you are shown lower on SERPs.
- Search engines don’t find your content relevant or authoritative. This can be a result of not following SEO best practices, i.e. not submitting a sitemap.
- A decrease in traffic is resulting in a decline in sales.
Backlinking
Backlinking is when other websites link to your website.
The main thing search engines look at when determining your website’s authority is the quality of its links.
Search engines look at the number and diversity of links pointing towards your website when determining how much weight they should give a site in their database.
Therefore the more quality links you have, the greater your chance of increasing your ranking and authority.
A common strategy used is to increase backlinks is guest posting on other reputable websites.
Internal Linking
Internal linking is when you link to other pages on your website.
Internal linking increases authority because Google can index the content by distributing good SEO from one page to another and making it easier to share relevant resources with your audience.
Internal linking is a great way to steer your users and Google to the most relevant content on your website.
Page Speed/Page Load Time
Page speed is one of the most important factors in determining how fast your site loads and its ranking potential.
A slow-loading page will make visitors leave with no desire to return to the excruciating pain of slow load time (we all know the feeling), thus hurting Page Rank!
Google’s PageSpeed Insights can help you identify how fast your page speed is and what aspects can be improved.
We used Backlinko’s article on Backlinks as an example of a comprehensive assessment of site speed.
Visitors are more likely to stick around if the site loads quickly.
You can have a great product or service, but users have low attention spans and slow site speed will make them run for the hills.
Bounce Rate
The bounce rate is when a user visits a single page on your site.
Google Analytics states, “A bounce is a single-page session on your site.” They continue to say that “A bounce is calculated specifically as a session that triggers only a single request to the Analytics server.”
A high bounce rate is something sure to drive down your ranking potential over time. If lots of visitors are leaving your site, then it tells the algorithm that this content isn’t valuable enough to remain at its ranking.
To get your website’s bounce rate, you divide the total single-page sessions by the total sites sessions.
For example, let’s say 500 people visited your site and 200 had a single-page session.
200/500 = 40% bounce rate.
Now that we know how to calculate the bounce rate, how do we know whether it’s good or bad?
Excellent: 26% – 40%
Average: 41% – 55%
Excessive: 56% – 70%
Conversion Rate
The conversion rate is when a user who visits your site completes the desired action on your website.
Conversions can range from signing up for your webinar or making a purchase.
To get your website’s conversion rate, you divide the total of site visitors by the total of website visitors.
For example, let’s say 500 people visited your site, and 30 made a purchase.
30/500 X 100 = 6% conversion rate.
These are just a handful of common SEO goals and by no means an exhaustive list.
As you can see, there are many different ways to approach SEO in order to achieve your desired results.
What’s important is that you take the time to figure out what those goals are and put together a plan that will help you reach them.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or lost when it comes to developing an SEO strategy, our team at KAMG can help.
We have years of experience helping businesses achieve their online marketing goals. We would be happy to work with you.
Contact us today for more information on how we can help!
