Understanding SEO Performance — The Difference between KPI and Metrics

One common misinterpretation in measuring and monitoring SEO performance is mixing up KPIs and metrics. While they might feel strikingly similar, KPIs and metrics are not interchangeable.

What is a SEO Metric?

A SEO metric is the actual parameter or data point that is used by marketing or SEO teams to track, monitor and compare particular processes related to search engine optimization.

What is a SEO KPI?

A SEO KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a measurable indicator that highlights SEO effectiveness and shows whether a particular objective was reached.

All KPIs are metrics, but not all metrics are KPIs. KPIs are usually tied in with business goals and have specific time-frames. If you are tracking a SEO metric, for example number of keywords that your website ranks for in search engines. It’s hard to track your SEO progress only using this metric, as you won’t know whether having many keywords is beneficial unless you look at the traffic they bring to your site.

Your site might get a lot of organic untargeted traffic that does not get converted into leads. For this reason, it’s wise not to track single metrics, but to measure them in relation to each other while mapping them to your business objectives.

Connecting Business Goals and SEO

Tracking the right metrics must start from your business goals. There is no list of universal KPIs that can be applied to every business. SEO goals will vary from one business to another depending on the website type, objectives and resources.

Another thing to keep in mind is that not every website needs to track all SEO metrics simultaneously right from the start. SEO KPIs that are relevant change along with the evolution of your website, online presence on search engines as well as your business.

In order to highlight how goals can vary for different businesses, below are five types of websites and several examples of business goals and SEO metrics that help evaluate SEO performance.

Ecommerce

• Increase sales

— Organic search traffic on target pages

— Conversion rate

— Number of leads

— Transactions

— Search rank for product keywords

Business website

• Increase brand awareness

— Traffic to the main page

— Number of branded keywords

— Direct traffic

— Natural backlinks

Blog (personal website)

• Get subscribers

— Search rank for keywords

— Organic traffic

— Quality backlinks

— CTR (click-through rate)

— Bounce rate

Website review (affiliate)

• Get more visits

— Search rank for high-volume keywords

— Traffic

— Number of pages per session

— Number of pages that get organic traffic

— Referral traffic

News websites

• Get more readers

— Organic traffic

— Number of pages that get organic traffic

— Bounce rate

— Exit pages

— New vs returning visitors

— Average session duration