From keyword rankings to ......... what KPI?

[icanseeu]

Hi Folks,

I have a customer whos keyword rankings for Google have fluctuated rather widly over the past two months which has caused some consternation on their part dispite our reassurance. This is caused in large part due to their lack of understanding of SEO, little effort on their part in implementing changes for SEO and what I belive to be unrealistic expectations (having done no SEO work on their site wanting to see first page ranking for competitive keywords like 'heart attack' within 4-8 weeks).

At the moment we are using just keyword rankings as a KPI and I wish to reframe them by using additional or alternative KPIs so that as rankings fluctuate with future Google seach algorithm tweaks and changes that the customer isn't solely focused on them. I am still in the process of formulating this list but so far I have decided to include the KPIs listed below.

• Month-on-Month / Quarter-On-Quarter Organic search traffic volume (should be rising)
• Top landing pages excluding branding keywords and homepage (should corelate to content created to target specific keywords)
• Number of landing pages on the client site that rank
• List of landing pages and bounce rates (are the 'gateway pages' holding visitors due to meeting their search requirements?)
• Average number of keywords per landing page (possibly integrated with the landig page reports above as a dimension to demonstrate correlation of # of keywords to landing pages)
• Some visibility on top keyword search terms (provided from Adwords where possible and GWT also)
• Top organic keywords (from adwords and GWT)
• Conversions from organic search (will vary from client to client for their own needs but will primarily be implemented using Google Tag Manager event tracking for things like enquiry forms etc)
• Referral traffic
• Delta/Ranking trends over large set of datapoints (will depend on how often you poll/track rankings but for example if you track rankings weekly then assess the trend of the rankings over 3-6months to smooth out the fluctuations)

Your thoughts and feedback on this would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Dave

[TopFloor]

Dave,

I think you're on the right track with the KPI you have listed. We have been making a shift towards removing all keyword data provided by Google Analytics (thanks (not provided)!) and focusing more on landing pages. We still monitor keyword rankings but we try to tie our efforts into the landing pages reports when discussing progress with our clients. As in: "We are targeting X Keyword on Y Landing Page. X keyword's ranking has improved while organic visits to Y landing page have increased". Now it is difficult to get that granular for every keyword/landing page combination, however providing a couple of examples will help show the impact of your efforts and hopefully calm down a client who's seeking #1 rankings for every keyword as soon as they sign a contract!

Hope this helps and good luck!