Semrush SEO Crash Course | Lesson 5 | Track and Monitor Your SEO Results

Summary

In this final lesson of the SEO crash course, Brian Dean emphasizes the importance of measuring and tracking SEO results to ensure the effectiveness of one's efforts. He outlines key metrics to monitor, including organic traffic, keyword rankings, clicks and impressions, traffic costs, search engine visibility, and conversions. Dean stresses the necessity of adjusting strategies based on these insights to maximize SEO's impact on driving traffic and increasing conversions.

Takeaways

• 🔍 SEO requires significant effort and it's crucial to track results to determine if the work is paying off.
• 📈 Tracking SEO results helps identify if adjustments are needed in your SEO strategy.
• 📊 Organic traffic is the primary metric to monitor, as it reflects the effectiveness of SEO in driving traffic from search engines.
• 🔍 Rank tracking is important but should be considered alongside organic traffic to get a full picture of SEO performance.
• 🚀 Improvements in keyword rankings can indicate that SEO efforts are working, even if organic traffic hasn't increased significantly.
• 👀 Clicks and impressions from the Google Search Console provide insights into the overall SEO performance and user engagement with your site.
• 💰 Traffic costs, as estimated by tools like Semrush, can help understand the value of organic traffic compared to what it would cost via paid ads.
• 📊 Search engine visibility gives a high-level overview of how visible your site is in search results, indicating overall SEO health.
• 🛒 Ultimately, SEO is about conversions, so tracking conversions from organic traffic is key to measuring the success of SEO efforts.
• 📝 It's possible for organic traffic to increase while conversions decrease, which could be due to targeting non-commercial keywords or issues with conversion tracking or website changes.
• 🎓 Completing an SEO course and understanding these metrics empowers you with the tools to start implementing SEO strategies effectively.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the final lesson in the SEO crash course presented by Brian Dean?

The main focus of the final lesson is on measuring and tracking SEO results, which is often overlooked but crucial for understanding the effectiveness of SEO efforts.

Why is it important to track and measure SEO results according to the script?

Tracking and measuring SEO results is important because it helps to determine if the work put into SEO is paying off and if there's a need to change or modify the approach for better results.

What is the first SEO metric that Brian Dean recommends to track?

Organic traffic is the first SEO metric that Brian Dean recommends to track, as it directly relates to the ultimate goal of SEO, which is to increase traffic from search engines.

Why might an improvement in keyword rankings not necessarily correlate with an increase in organic traffic?

An improvement in keyword rankings might not correlate with an increase in organic traffic because a small change in ranking, such as moving from position seven to five, may not significantly impact the visibility and click-through rate of a website.

What tool does Brian Dean mention for tracking organic traffic and keyword rankings?

Brian Dean mentions using Google Analytics for tracking organic traffic and the organic research tool inside Semrush for tracking keyword rankings.

What is the significance of tracking individual keyword rankings in SEO?

Tracking individual keyword rankings is significant because it helps determine if the site is trending in the right direction and can indicate the effectiveness of SEO strategies like link building.

How can Google Search Console help in measuring SEO results?

Google Search Console provides information on a site's overall SEO performance, including clicks and impressions, which are crucial for understanding how users interact with the site in search results.

What does the Semrush traffic cost estimate measure and why is it valuable?

The Semrush traffic cost estimate measures the value of a site's SEO traffic by estimating how much it would cost to achieve the same traffic through Google Ads. It is valuable because it considers both the quantity and quality of traffic.

What is search engine visibility and why might it be less important to track compared to other metrics?

Search engine visibility measures how many people see a site in the search results. It might be less important to track because it focuses on visibility rather than actual clicks and conversions, which are more directly related to the success of SEO efforts.

Why is tracking conversions considered the ultimate goal of SEO in the script?

Tracking conversions is considered the ultimate goal of SEO because the primary purpose of SEO is to increase sales or achieve other desired actions from visitors, and conversions directly measure the success of these efforts.

What advice does Brian Dean give regarding taking action after completing the SEO crash course?

Brian Dean advises taking action on what was learned in the course, emphasizing that even though the course is complete, the real work begins with applying the knowledge to improve SEO efforts.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Importance of Tracking SEO Results

In the final lesson of the SEO crash course, Brian Dean emphasizes the critical role of measuring and tracking SEO results. He explains that SEO requires significant time and effort, and it's essential to determine if these efforts are yielding a return on investment. Most companies, unfortunately, fail to closely monitor their SEO outcomes. Dean suggests that tracking SEO results not only helps in assessing the effectiveness of SEO strategies but also guides adjustments when necessary. He highlights the importance of organic traffic as the primary SEO metric, as it directly relates to the goal of increasing search engine traffic. Additionally, he advises on the significance of tracking keyword rankings and how they can indicate the success of SEO efforts, even if they don't immediately translate into higher traffic. Dean also touches on the need to monitor changes in SEO approaches over a period of three to four months to see tangible improvements.

05:02

🔍 Key SEO Metrics to Track

Continuing from the previous lesson, Brian Dean delves into the specific SEO metrics that should be monitored to evaluate the success of SEO efforts. He starts with the importance of tracking individual keyword rankings, which can indicate whether a site is moving in the right direction. Dean also discusses the value of clicks and impressions, which can be measured through the Google Search Console, as they provide insights into a site's overall SEO performance. He further explains the concept of traffic costs, using Semrush to estimate the value of SEO traffic and how it compares to the cost of acquiring the same traffic through Google Ads. Dean then touches on search engine visibility, which measures how many people see a site in search results, though he notes that this metric is less critical than others. Finally, he stresses the ultimate goal of SEO: conversions. He recommends tracking site-wide conversions, such as email list sign-ups, to truly measure the effectiveness of SEO in driving sales and achieving business objectives. Dean concludes the lesson by congratulating the audience for completing the course and encouraging them to apply the knowledge gained to take action and improve their SEO strategies.

Keywords

💡SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of improving the visibility of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs) through organic search results. In the video, SEO is the central theme, focusing on strategies to increase traffic and rankings. The script discusses various metrics and tools used to measure the effectiveness of SEO efforts.

💡Link Building

Link building is a strategy in SEO where you acquire hyperlinks from other websites to your own. This is crucial for increasing a website's credibility and search engine rankings. The script mentions link building as a beginner-friendly strategy in the previous lesson, emphasizing its importance in SEO.

💡Organic Traffic

Organic traffic refers to users who visit a website through search engine results without any paid advertising. It is a key metric in SEO, as it indicates how well a site is performing in attracting visitors from search engines. The script highlights organic traffic as the primary SEO metric to track, as it directly relates to the goal of SEO.

💡Google Rankings

Google Rankings refer to the position a website holds in Google's search results for a particular keyword. Higher rankings typically lead to more visibility and traffic. The script discusses the importance of tracking keyword rankings alongside organic traffic to get a comprehensive view of SEO performance.

💡SEMrush

SEMrush is a digital marketing tool used for SEO, PPC, and competitive analysis. It provides features like keyword research, rank tracking, and analytics. The script mentions SEMrush as a tool for tracking SEO metrics such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, and traffic costs.

💡Traffic Costs

Traffic costs in the context of SEO refer to the estimated amount it would cost to generate the same amount of organic traffic through paid advertising channels like Google Ads. The script explains that SEMrush traffic costs help measure the value of SEO traffic and its quality.

💡Search Engine Visibility

Search engine visibility measures how prominently a website appears in search engine results. It is an indicator of how many users see a site in the SERPs. The script suggests that while this metric is not as crucial as others, it can provide a high-level overview of a site's SEO health.

💡Conversions

Conversions in SEO refer to the number of users who complete a desired action on a website, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase. The script emphasizes that conversions are the ultimate goal of SEO, as they indicate the effectiveness of organic traffic in generating leads and sales.

💡Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic. It is used to understand how users interact with a website and to measure the success of SEO efforts. The script mentions Google Analytics as a tool for tracking organic traffic and conversions.

💡ROI

ROI stands for Return on Investment. It is a measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the profitability of different investments. In the context of the script, ROI is used to assess whether the time and effort put into SEO are yielding tangible results.

💡Keyword Rankings

Keyword rankings are the positions that a website holds for specific keywords in search engine results. Tracking these rankings helps understand how well SEO efforts are performing. The script explains that while rank tracking is important, it should be combined with organic traffic data for a complete picture.

Highlights

Welcome to the fifth and final lesson of the SEO crash course.

Importance of tracking and measuring SEO results emphasized.

SEO is a significant investment of time and energy; tracking results is crucial.

Lack of results may indicate a need to change or modify SEO approach.

Organic traffic is the primary SEO metric to monitor.

Ranking improvements do not always correlate with traffic increases.

It's essential to look at organic traffic and keyword rankings together.

Google Analytics and Semrush can be used to track organic traffic.

SEO results should start showing improvement within three to four months.

Individual keyword rankings are an important part of measuring SEO results.

Ranking improvements can indicate the effectiveness of SEO strategies.

Google Search Console provides information on clicks and impressions.

Clicks and impressions are useful for measuring SEO efforts but are supplementary to other metrics.

Semrush traffic cost estimates help understand the value of SEO traffic.

Traffic cost can indicate the quality and potential value of SEO traffic.

Search engine visibility measures how many people see your site in search results.

Search engine visibility is a high-level overview metric for SEO health.

Conversions are the ultimate goal of SEO and should be tracked.

Organic traffic can increase while conversions decrease, indicating a need to target more commercial keywords.

Completion of the SEO crash course signifies readiness to apply learned strategies.

Transcripts

Hey, what's up everybody. Brian Dean here and

welcome to the fifth and final lesson

of this SEO crash course.

In the last lesson, you sort of get a primer on link building.

Including a handful of beginner friendly strategy.

To get started on.

And in this lesson, we're going to switch over to an

aspect of SEO that a lot of people sleep on.

Measuring and tracking SEO results.

So why is tracking and measuring your SEO results important?

First off, SEO is a lot of work.

So you need to know if all that work is actually paying off.

Unfortunately, most companies don't track SEO results very closely.

I've seen it firsthand.

A company goes all in with SEO.

So they create tons of content,

build links, optimize title tags.

And if you ask them, if they actually saw an ROI and all that stuff

They just shrug their shoulders.

Considering the SEO is a huge

investment of time and energy

It's important to know whether or not the effort made a debt.

And of course, I'll show you exactly how to do that in this lesson.

Second tracking your SEO results.

Lets you know, if you need to change

or modify your approach.

Now to be clear, a lack of results

doesn't necessarily mean that SEO doesn't work.

It could simply mean that you need to change

or tweak something that you are doing.

And closely monitoring results

lets you know whether or not you're on the right track

or need to change course completely.

With that here are the exact

SEO metrics that you want to keep an eye on

and how to track them.

First up we've got organic traffic.

Organic traffic is my number on go-to SEO metric.

Why? Because the ultimate goal of SEO

is to get more traffic from search engines.

So if your organic traffic looks like this

it's clear that SEO isn't working for you.

Yes. You should also track you Google rankings for your main keywords

more on that later,

but the thing is rank tracking isn't always enough on its own.

For example, moving up from number seven to number five in Google

may not make any difference in your traffic,

even though your rankings technically improved.

Plus looking at rankings alone

doesn't really tell you that much.

Website rankings move up and down all the time.

And if you track thousands of keywords,

it's hard to make sense of all that movement.

That's why you want to look at organic traffic

and keyword rankings together.

You could see your site's organic traffic in Google analytics

and in the organic research tool

inside of Semrush, if things are moving up great.

If not, it could be that your SEO approach

needs a tweak or a major overhaul.

Now, one thing to note here is that yes,

SEO does take time to fully kick in.

But if you're spending a ton of time on SEO,

you should start to see some improvement

within three to four months.

The next thing you want to track is individual keyword rankings.

Like I mentioned earlier, tracking your sites,

Google rankings alone

won't always paint a full

picture of how your SEO efforts are paying off.

That said rankings are still an important part

of measuring SEO results.

In fact, I track hundreds of

keywords in Semrush.

So why are rankings helpful to track?

What your rankings tell you whether or not

your site is trending in the right direction.

For example, listen to the rank number 10

for your target keyword.

and using the strategies from the last lesson,

you built four new links to that page.

These links moved your page from number ten

to the number six.

Now those improves Rockies probably won't make a huge dent

in your organic traffic,

but that doesn't mean that your link-building campaign didn't work.

In fact, it showed that your link building did work

and you should double down on it.

Rankings are also helpful to

diagnose a sudden increase or decrease

inorganic traffic.

For example, let's say that your Google analytics shows

that your organic traffic went up by 10%.

Your keyword rankings can help you figure out which

page and specific keywords

were behind that boost.

The next metric to keep an eye on

is clicks and impressions.

The Google search console gives you

a ton of useful information

on your site's overall SEO performance.

and you can use it to measure results

from your SEO efforts.

Specifically, you want to look at your sites

overall clicks and impressions.

Clicks are the total amount of Google users that

click on your site in the search results.

It's basically the equivalent of organic traffic

in Google analytics.

Impressions are the total number of users

that saw your site in the search result.

Now you can go nuts and look at how a page's

clicks and impressions and average organic click through rate

have changed over time which is smart.

If you have a high priority page

or a keyword that you're really focusing on.

But otherwise this is more of a nice

compliment to the other metrics that we've talked about to this point.

Our next SEO metric to track is traffic costs.

Semrush traffic cost estimates,

the value of a site's SEO traffic.

In other words, the metric answers the question

"How much would it cost to get this same exact

traffic using Google ads?

I actually find myself using Semrush traffic

costs more and more.

That's because it doesn't just look at traffic

quantity like organic traffic to us.

It also measures traffic quality.

I'll explain with an example.

A while back this page on my site about YouTube

started to rank on the first page

of Google for my target keyword,

which led to a big spike in traffic

to that page. Amazing, right.

Well sort of.

The average cost per click from my target keyword

is only a few cents.

So every 10 visitors to that page

is only worth a few dollars.

No, it's not horrible or anything, but it's not the type of keyword

that's going to bring in lots of leads and paying customers.

Around the same time that my YouTube posts hit the first page,

this post about SEO cracked the top five

and my organic traffic also went up.

But here's where things get interesting.

The average cost per click for the keyword

that my SEO article is targeting

is over $10.

which means that every 10 visitors to that page is worth

over a hundred bucks. So even though both

pages got more organic traffic,

the traffic increased from my SEO page

is worth 31 times more.

Next up we've got search engine visibility.

Search engine visibility measures how many

people see your site in the search results.

In my opinion, this metric isn't

as important to track as some of the others.

After all, It's about how many people see your result,

not how many people actually click

and convert. That said, search engine visibility

can give you a high level overview

of your overall SEO health.

In general, if search

engine visibility is going up, that's a good sign.

You can measure your site's visibility percentage

in the Semrush rank tracking tool.

So, yeah, there's a place for search engine visibility.

But I wouldn't focus that much on it. Instead,

just use it as a high level overview

of how your site's SEO is doing.

Our last metric to track is conversions.

At the end of the day, the point of SEO

is to sell more stuff.

And that's why I recommend that people track

everything that I outlined so far

and total site-wide conversions.

For example, in my case,

the number one goal of my site is to build my email list.

So I track the number of visitor that sign up to my

email list using Google analytics.

And if you really want to zero in on how well SEO is working

you can track how many conversions came from Google users?

One thing I should point out here.

it's possible for organic traffic to go up

and conversions to go down.

Or for conversions to be flat,

even though your organic traffic increased significantly.

Why does this happen? Well, it could be that you're not

targeting keywords with a strong commercial.

Also known as keywords with a low traffic value.

So more people are visiting your site,

but they're not really interested in what you sell,

or it could be that conversion tracking isn't set up correctly.

Or maybe you made a change to your website

that hurt your conversion rate

or overall user experience.

But in 95% of cases,

as long as you're targeting the right keywords,

Your a total conversions will increase

along with organic search engine traffic.

And with that, this lesson is complete.

In this lesson, you learn the SEO tracking

is important to find out if your SEO efforts are working.

And if so, it helps to identify the

specific strategies that are getting the best results for you.

And actually that wraps up the Semrush SEO crash course.

Congratulations.

The truth is most people don't

complete the online courses that they enroll in.

And that's usually because they're not really willing

to put in the work required to get results.

That's clearly not the case with you.

You set aside time, put in the work

and made it to the end of the course, which is great.

No, it doesn't matter where you are with your site today.

You now have all the tools to get started with SEO.

So now it's time to take action on what you learned.

And again, congratulations.