SEO: The One Metric To Rule Them All

Search Engine Optimization is perhaps the most elusive creature on the internet. It’s constantly changing and growing, unfolding and unpredictable.

And with the ever-changing landscape, I get this a lot:

When It Comes to SEO, What Do I Need To Be Looking For?

Great question. And you’re not going to like the answer.

SEO: more allusive than the Loch Ness Monster herself.

But before I let you in on something, let me explain something about SEO.

SEO, in the past, was easily manipulated. It wouldn’t take long to do some simple code, pay a specific amount, and then run the Google rankings show.

In fact, I was just asked a few weeks ago why it’s no longer like this.

Google is smart. And super innovative.

In fact, their algorithm to rank sites in a search query is far more intelligent than Yahoo and Bing’s combined… Even with the fancy Bing commercials touting a great algorithm (that’s what those commercials were all about when they had people choosing between “Bing and the Other Guy”).

But back in the days of easy rankings, the thought soon became this: just because a website ranks highly doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what I want.

And businesses, likewise, could see themselves as number one on Google but without a product or service to back up the reasoning for being number one, their conversion rate was null.

That’s right.

Just because a business was once number one didn’t immediate constitute for higher sales or leads.

Sure, you think, but what does that have to do with SEO?

Everything.

Think of Google’s SEO algorithm like this: it’s a whole lot like Burger’s King’s slogan, “Have it your way.”
Except this time it’s, “Have it the Audience’s way.

SEO’s most recent algorithms have turned more and more toward what consumers want. They have made it increasingly more difficult to rank higher and thus sales is difficult as well.

So, with so many different metrics to measure from length of time on the site, bounce rate, entry way, exit site, etc, what is the most important metric that we should be looking at on our website?

It’s a kinda’ trick question.

What’s your return on investment?

If the goal of your website is to have leads, the most important metric to look at will be how many leads you are receiving. When your site is no longer boosting in sales, then perhaps you should look at your other metrics like bounce rate to see if there is something turning visitors away from the get-go.

If your goal is more sales, it should be important to your business to include information for your audience who are in any stage of the buyers/prospective journey. This means blogs and articles, engagement.

Then you should look at your visitor metric with the most important metric you have as a business with online sales goals: how many sales is your website providing?

The Trick to SEO is this…

SEO isn’t a game but a method of providing the audience or potential client with the most valuable and trustworthy source as an answer to their question. This is why as you grow, so should too your passion to serve your audience with great customer service and even better information.

If you’re doing those things consistently, the metrics will all prove incredible.

Now, it’s your turn.

What SEO metrics did you have the hardest time understanding? Or, which metric do you look for to get an overall best understanding for how well your website is doing?

Let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!