21 Oct 2024
5 Ways to Monitor Organic Results and Improve SEO Performance
5 Ways to Monitor Organic Results and Improve SEO Performance
5 Ways to Monitor Organic Results and Improve SEO Performance
5 Ways to Monitor Organic Results and Improve SEO Performance
Monitor organic results with these 5 powerful strategies to boost SEO performance. Track rankings, improve visibility, and more using proven tools and methods.
Monitor organic results with these 5 powerful strategies to boost SEO performance. Track rankings, improve visibility, and more using proven tools and methods.
Monitor organic results with these 5 powerful strategies to boost SEO performance. Track rankings, improve visibility, and more using proven tools and methods.
Monitor organic results with these 5 powerful strategies to boost SEO performance. Track rankings, improve visibility, and more using proven tools and methods.
Finley Cope
Finley Cope
Finley Cope
Finley Cope
Monitoring organic results is essential for understanding the effectiveness of your SEO efforts and how well your website performs in natural search listings. Whether you're a small business owner just starting with SEO or an entry-level digital marketer, learning how to monitor organic search results is key to improving visibility, increasing traffic, and boosting your overall online presence.
This guide provides an in-depth look at how to track, evaluate, and improve your organic search ranking and results. We'll explore practical tools, methodologies, and techniques for monitoring SEO performance, helping you stay ahead of the competition.
What is an Organic Search Rank?
An organic search rank refers to the position your website holds in search engine results for a specific keyword or phrase, without the use of paid ads. The search results are based on search engine algorithms that rank pages based on relevance, content quality, backlinks, and other ranking factors.
Your organic ranking is a crucial indicator of how well your website is optimised for search engines and how effective your SEO strategy is in driving traffic.
Factors That Impact Organic Search Ranks
Content Quality: Search engines prioritise websites that offer valuable, in-depth content that answers users' queries.
Backlinks: The number and quality of backlinks from authoritative websites to your site play a significant role in boosting your organic rankings.
User Experience: Websites that are easy to navigate, mobile-friendly, and load quickly tend to rank higher.
Keywords: Using relevant keywords in your content, titles, and meta descriptions signals to search engines that your page matches search intent.
On-Page SEO: Optimising elements like title tags, header tags, and alt text for images further helps improve organic ranking.
Understanding Organic Search Ranking Algorithms
Search engines like Google use sophisticated algorithms to determine organic rankings. These algorithms consider hundreds of factors when deciding where a website should appear in search results. While the exact formulas are proprietary, common factors include content relevance, backlink profile, site structure, and user engagement metrics such as bounce rate and time spent on a page.
Google’s RankBrain: One key algorithm that contributes to organic ranking is Google’s machine learning system called RankBrain. This AI-based system interprets user search queries and determines which results are the most relevant. RankBrain continuously learns and evolves, making it important for websites to stay updated with best practices in SEO.
Why is Organic Ranking Important?
Understanding why organic rank is important is the first step in monitoring and improving your SEO performance. Organic rankings can bring you a steady stream of traffic without the ongoing cost of paid ads. Here’s why organic ranks are key for businesses big and small:
Visibility: Higher organic rank means your site is more visible to potential customers. Most users don’t scroll past the first page of search results and getting to the top can bring a huge amount of traffic to your site.
Free Traffic: Unlike pay-per-click (PPC) ads, organic traffic is free. Once you’ve optimised your site for SEO you can continue to benefit without the need for ongoing ad spend.
Authority and Trust: Organic rank often carries more weight than paid ads. When users find your site at the top of the search results it means your site is authoritative and trustworthy in your niche.
Long Term Growth: A good SEO strategy can help your site maintain high rank over time. Once you’ve built up your organic presence it gets easier to sustain and improve your rank.
What is Organic Traffic KPI?
Organic traffic refers to visitors who land on your website as a result of unpaid search results. Monitoring organic traffic is crucial because it helps you gauge the effectiveness of your SEO strategy. Organic traffic KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) help you measure how much traffic is coming to your site and whether that traffic is converting.
Some of the most important organic traffic KPIs include:
Total Organic Visits: The total number of visitors arriving on your site via search engines.
Bounce Rate: The percentage of users who leave your site after viewing just one page.
Pages per Session: The average number of pages a user visits during a single session.
Average Session Duration: How long users spend on your site.
Conversion Rate: The percentage of organic visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
By tracking these KPIs, you’ll be able to identify how well your site is performing in organic search and which areas need improvement.
How to Monitor Organic Results with 5 Ways
Let’s dive into five essential tools that can help you effectively monitor and improve your organic rankings.
1. ClimbSEO
ClimbSEO is a comprehensive SEO audit tool that allows you to monitor various aspects of your website's performance, from keyword rankings to technical issues. It offers detailed reports that cover everything from on-page SEO to backlinks, site structure, and page speed.
Why Use ClimbSEO?
It provides a full SEO audit that includes on-page and technical SEO reports.
The platform tracks keyword rankings and provides insights into how your organic results are performing.
ClimbSEO's audit function helps identify technical issues that could be affecting your organic rankings, such as broken links, missing alt tags, or slow page load times.
How It Works: By simply entering your website URL into the tool
ClimbSEO will scan your site and generate detailed insights, offering suggestions on how to fix issues and optimise your site for better organic performance.
2. Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a must-have tool for monitoring your website’s performance in Google’s search results. It allows you to track your site's indexing status, optimize visibility, and identify any issues that might be hindering your performance.
Key Features of Google Search Console:
Track keyword rankings and see which queries lead to the most traffic.
Monitor the number of impressions, clicks, and the average position of your website in search results.
Identify indexing issues, crawl errors, and security problems.
View reports on mobile usability and website performance.
How to Use Google Search Console: GSC offers insights into which keywords your site ranks for, how many impressions and clicks your site receives, and what the click-through rate (CTR) is for each keyword. You can also use the “Performance” tab to track changes in your rankings over time.
Under the queries tab on 'Performance' you can see the list of search queries users are looking for in search engines which are driving visibility and traffic to your website.
3. Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is an upgraded version of the popular Google Analytics platform. It offers enhanced data tracking features and better integration with other Google services like Google Search Console and Google Ads.
How GA4 Helps with SEO:
Track the performance of specific landing pages in organic search.
Monitor user behavior, including time on page, bounce rate, and conversions from organic traffic.
Segment organic traffic by source to understand which search engines are driving the most visitors.
Set up goals and conversions to measure how organic traffic contributes to your overall business objectives.
Using GA4 to Monitor Organic Traffic: GA4 allows you to create custom reports focused specifically on organic traffic. You can also track user journeys, identify patterns, and gain insights into how organic visitors interact with your website.
4. Google My Business (for Local SEO)
For businesses targeting local customers, Google My Business (GMB) is essential for improving visibility in local search results. Monitoring your GMB listing helps ensure that your business information is up to date and optimized for local search queries.
Why GMB Matters for Organic Rankings:
Having an optimised GMB profile improves your chances of appearing in local search results and Google Maps.
You can monitor the number of views, searches, and actions taken from your GMB listing, such as calls, directions, and website clicks.
How to Optimise GMB for Organic Ranking: Make sure that all business information, including your address, phone number, website, and business hours, is accurate and up to date. You can also add photos, respond to reviews, and post regular updates to increase engagement.
5. Matomo
Matomo is an open-source web analytics platform that offers many of the same features as Google Analytics while providing enhanced privacy features. If you’re looking for an alternative to Google’s ecosystem, Matomo offers a robust solution for monitoring organic traffic and ranking performance.
Key Features:
Comprehensive tracking of organic traffic, user behavior, and conversion rates.
Fully customisable reports to track specific SEO goals.
Privacy-focused, making it a good option for websites that need to comply with stricter data privacy regulations.
How to Use Matomo: Similar to Google Analytics, Matomo provides in-depth reports on organic traffic, keyword performance, and user behavior. You can also use Matomo to track the success of SEO campaigns and monitor your website's overall performance in organic search.
How to optimise SEO performance in 5 Steps
To effectively monitor and measure your organic ranking, it’s important to follow a systematic process that allows you to track the right metrics and make data-driven decisions.
Step 1: Identify Keywords to Track
Start by identifying the main keywords you want to monitor. These should include high-volume keywords relevant to your industry, as well as long-tail keywords that are more specific but less competitive.
How to Identify Keywords:
Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or our keyword research tool to find keywords that are already driving traffic to your competitors.
Consider user intent and identify keywords that align with the specific problems or questions your audience is searching for.
To find new keywords, navigate to the 'Find keywords' tab on the left hand menu.
Then enter in a keyword or your website's URL.
For this example we used the topic shoes, then we clicked Similar Keywords and we got a list of keywords similar to the one we entered.
This is a great way to find new keywords that we might not be ranking for.
Step 2: Monitor Keyword Rankings
Once you’ve identified your target keywords, monitoring these rankings will help you understand how well your site is performing for those keywords and whether your SEO efforts are paying off.
On the left hand menu click 'Position Tracking' and enter in the domain you want to track keywords for and in which country.
Click 'Add' and they keywords will be tracked for the domain and updated daily. Also get an overview on average position, traffic, traffic location and more.
Track up to 3,000 keywords daily.
Step 3: Monitor Search Traffic
Track the number of visitors coming to your site from organic search. Use the tool above to monitor traffic trends and identify which keywords or landing pages are driving the most traffic.
What to Watch For:
Traffic spikes that coincide with specific SEO campaigns or content updates.
Drops in organic traffic that could indicate issues like Google penalties, broken links, or algorithm changes.
Step 4: Improve Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate (CTR) measures how many users click on your link in the search results after seeing it. Improving your CTR can boost your rankings, as it signals to search engines that your content is relevant and valuable.
How to Improve CTR:
Optimise your title tags and meta descriptions to make them more compelling and informative.
Use structured data to enhance your listing with rich snippets, which can make your results stand out.
Step 5: Combine the Insights
Once you’ve gathered data on keyword rankings, organic traffic, and CTR, combine these insights to form a complete picture of your SEO performance. Look for patterns and trends, and use this data to make informed decisions about where to focus your SEO efforts.
The Future of Organic Ranking
SEO is constantly evolving, and staying ahead of the curve is crucial for maintaining and improving your organic rankings. Several emerging trends are shaping the future of organic search, and understanding these trends will help you adapt your strategy to remain competitive.
Key Trends Impacting Organic Search
Voice Search Optimisation: As more users rely on voice search through devices like Google Home and Amazon Alexa, optimising your content for voice search queries is becoming essential.
AI Overview: Google’s RankBrain and other AI-driven algorithms are putting more emphasis on user experience, search intent, and engagement metrics. Traditional keyword optimisation is still important, but understanding user intent and delivering valuable content will become increasingly important.
Mobile-First Indexing: Google is prioritising mobile-friendly websites with its mobile-first indexing approach. Ensuring your site is mobile-optimised is critical for both rankings and user experience.
Core Web Vitals: Google’s focus on Core Web Vitals highlights the importance of page speed, interactivity, and visual stability as ranking factors. Websites that offer a fast, smooth, and user-friendly experience will have an advantage in search rankings.
Final Thoughts
Monitoring organic results is essential for any successful SEO strategy. By using the right tools and following the outlined steps, you can track your website’s performance, measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts, and make informed decisions to improve your rankings. Whether you’re a beginner in SEO or looking to enhance your current strategy, staying proactive and regularly monitoring your organic rankings will help you stay ahead of the competition.
With search engines constantly evolving, it’s important to adapt your SEO strategy to account for new algorithms, user behavior trends, and industry changes. By focusing on the right KPIs and using effective tools, you’ll be well-positioned to maintain high organic rankings and drive sustained traffic to your site.
Other knowledge you might be interested in
Monitoring organic results is essential for understanding the effectiveness of your SEO efforts and how well your website performs in natural search listings. Whether you're a small business owner just starting with SEO or an entry-level digital marketer, learning how to monitor organic search results is key to improving visibility, increasing traffic, and boosting your overall online presence.
This guide provides an in-depth look at how to track, evaluate, and improve your organic search ranking and results. We'll explore practical tools, methodologies, and techniques for monitoring SEO performance, helping you stay ahead of the competition.
What is an Organic Search Rank?
An organic search rank refers to the position your website holds in search engine results for a specific keyword or phrase, without the use of paid ads. The search results are based on search engine algorithms that rank pages based on relevance, content quality, backlinks, and other ranking factors.
Your organic ranking is a crucial indicator of how well your website is optimised for search engines and how effective your SEO strategy is in driving traffic.
Factors That Impact Organic Search Ranks
Content Quality: Search engines prioritise websites that offer valuable, in-depth content that answers users' queries.
Backlinks: The number and quality of backlinks from authoritative websites to your site play a significant role in boosting your organic rankings.
User Experience: Websites that are easy to navigate, mobile-friendly, and load quickly tend to rank higher.
Keywords: Using relevant keywords in your content, titles, and meta descriptions signals to search engines that your page matches search intent.
On-Page SEO: Optimising elements like title tags, header tags, and alt text for images further helps improve organic ranking.
Understanding Organic Search Ranking Algorithms
Search engines like Google use sophisticated algorithms to determine organic rankings. These algorithms consider hundreds of factors when deciding where a website should appear in search results. While the exact formulas are proprietary, common factors include content relevance, backlink profile, site structure, and user engagement metrics such as bounce rate and time spent on a page.
Google’s RankBrain: One key algorithm that contributes to organic ranking is Google’s machine learning system called RankBrain. This AI-based system interprets user search queries and determines which results are the most relevant. RankBrain continuously learns and evolves, making it important for websites to stay updated with best practices in SEO.
Why is Organic Ranking Important?
Understanding why organic rank is important is the first step in monitoring and improving your SEO performance. Organic rankings can bring you a steady stream of traffic without the ongoing cost of paid ads. Here’s why organic ranks are key for businesses big and small:
Visibility: Higher organic rank means your site is more visible to potential customers. Most users don’t scroll past the first page of search results and getting to the top can bring a huge amount of traffic to your site.
Free Traffic: Unlike pay-per-click (PPC) ads, organic traffic is free. Once you’ve optimised your site for SEO you can continue to benefit without the need for ongoing ad spend.
Authority and Trust: Organic rank often carries more weight than paid ads. When users find your site at the top of the search results it means your site is authoritative and trustworthy in your niche.
Long Term Growth: A good SEO strategy can help your site maintain high rank over time. Once you’ve built up your organic presence it gets easier to sustain and improve your rank.
What is Organic Traffic KPI?
Organic traffic refers to visitors who land on your website as a result of unpaid search results. Monitoring organic traffic is crucial because it helps you gauge the effectiveness of your SEO strategy. Organic traffic KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) help you measure how much traffic is coming to your site and whether that traffic is converting.
Some of the most important organic traffic KPIs include:
Total Organic Visits: The total number of visitors arriving on your site via search engines.
Bounce Rate: The percentage of users who leave your site after viewing just one page.
Pages per Session: The average number of pages a user visits during a single session.
Average Session Duration: How long users spend on your site.
Conversion Rate: The percentage of organic visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
By tracking these KPIs, you’ll be able to identify how well your site is performing in organic search and which areas need improvement.
How to Monitor Organic Results with 5 Ways
Let’s dive into five essential tools that can help you effectively monitor and improve your organic rankings.
1. ClimbSEO
ClimbSEO is a comprehensive SEO audit tool that allows you to monitor various aspects of your website's performance, from keyword rankings to technical issues. It offers detailed reports that cover everything from on-page SEO to backlinks, site structure, and page speed.
Why Use ClimbSEO?
It provides a full SEO audit that includes on-page and technical SEO reports.
The platform tracks keyword rankings and provides insights into how your organic results are performing.
ClimbSEO's audit function helps identify technical issues that could be affecting your organic rankings, such as broken links, missing alt tags, or slow page load times.
How It Works: By simply entering your website URL into the tool
ClimbSEO will scan your site and generate detailed insights, offering suggestions on how to fix issues and optimise your site for better organic performance.
2. Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a must-have tool for monitoring your website’s performance in Google’s search results. It allows you to track your site's indexing status, optimize visibility, and identify any issues that might be hindering your performance.
Key Features of Google Search Console:
Track keyword rankings and see which queries lead to the most traffic.
Monitor the number of impressions, clicks, and the average position of your website in search results.
Identify indexing issues, crawl errors, and security problems.
View reports on mobile usability and website performance.
How to Use Google Search Console: GSC offers insights into which keywords your site ranks for, how many impressions and clicks your site receives, and what the click-through rate (CTR) is for each keyword. You can also use the “Performance” tab to track changes in your rankings over time.
Under the queries tab on 'Performance' you can see the list of search queries users are looking for in search engines which are driving visibility and traffic to your website.
3. Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is an upgraded version of the popular Google Analytics platform. It offers enhanced data tracking features and better integration with other Google services like Google Search Console and Google Ads.
How GA4 Helps with SEO:
Track the performance of specific landing pages in organic search.
Monitor user behavior, including time on page, bounce rate, and conversions from organic traffic.
Segment organic traffic by source to understand which search engines are driving the most visitors.
Set up goals and conversions to measure how organic traffic contributes to your overall business objectives.
Using GA4 to Monitor Organic Traffic: GA4 allows you to create custom reports focused specifically on organic traffic. You can also track user journeys, identify patterns, and gain insights into how organic visitors interact with your website.
4. Google My Business (for Local SEO)
For businesses targeting local customers, Google My Business (GMB) is essential for improving visibility in local search results. Monitoring your GMB listing helps ensure that your business information is up to date and optimized for local search queries.
Why GMB Matters for Organic Rankings:
Having an optimised GMB profile improves your chances of appearing in local search results and Google Maps.
You can monitor the number of views, searches, and actions taken from your GMB listing, such as calls, directions, and website clicks.
How to Optimise GMB for Organic Ranking: Make sure that all business information, including your address, phone number, website, and business hours, is accurate and up to date. You can also add photos, respond to reviews, and post regular updates to increase engagement.
5. Matomo
Matomo is an open-source web analytics platform that offers many of the same features as Google Analytics while providing enhanced privacy features. If you’re looking for an alternative to Google’s ecosystem, Matomo offers a robust solution for monitoring organic traffic and ranking performance.
Key Features:
Comprehensive tracking of organic traffic, user behavior, and conversion rates.
Fully customisable reports to track specific SEO goals.
Privacy-focused, making it a good option for websites that need to comply with stricter data privacy regulations.
How to Use Matomo: Similar to Google Analytics, Matomo provides in-depth reports on organic traffic, keyword performance, and user behavior. You can also use Matomo to track the success of SEO campaigns and monitor your website's overall performance in organic search.
How to optimise SEO performance in 5 Steps
To effectively monitor and measure your organic ranking, it’s important to follow a systematic process that allows you to track the right metrics and make data-driven decisions.
Step 1: Identify Keywords to Track
Start by identifying the main keywords you want to monitor. These should include high-volume keywords relevant to your industry, as well as long-tail keywords that are more specific but less competitive.
How to Identify Keywords:
Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or our keyword research tool to find keywords that are already driving traffic to your competitors.
Consider user intent and identify keywords that align with the specific problems or questions your audience is searching for.
To find new keywords, navigate to the 'Find keywords' tab on the left hand menu.
Then enter in a keyword or your website's URL.
For this example we used the topic shoes, then we clicked Similar Keywords and we got a list of keywords similar to the one we entered.
This is a great way to find new keywords that we might not be ranking for.
Step 2: Monitor Keyword Rankings
Once you’ve identified your target keywords, monitoring these rankings will help you understand how well your site is performing for those keywords and whether your SEO efforts are paying off.
On the left hand menu click 'Position Tracking' and enter in the domain you want to track keywords for and in which country.
Click 'Add' and they keywords will be tracked for the domain and updated daily. Also get an overview on average position, traffic, traffic location and more.
Track up to 3,000 keywords daily.
Step 3: Monitor Search Traffic
Track the number of visitors coming to your site from organic search. Use the tool above to monitor traffic trends and identify which keywords or landing pages are driving the most traffic.
What to Watch For:
Traffic spikes that coincide with specific SEO campaigns or content updates.
Drops in organic traffic that could indicate issues like Google penalties, broken links, or algorithm changes.
Step 4: Improve Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate (CTR) measures how many users click on your link in the search results after seeing it. Improving your CTR can boost your rankings, as it signals to search engines that your content is relevant and valuable.
How to Improve CTR:
Optimise your title tags and meta descriptions to make them more compelling and informative.
Use structured data to enhance your listing with rich snippets, which can make your results stand out.
Step 5: Combine the Insights
Once you’ve gathered data on keyword rankings, organic traffic, and CTR, combine these insights to form a complete picture of your SEO performance. Look for patterns and trends, and use this data to make informed decisions about where to focus your SEO efforts.
The Future of Organic Ranking
SEO is constantly evolving, and staying ahead of the curve is crucial for maintaining and improving your organic rankings. Several emerging trends are shaping the future of organic search, and understanding these trends will help you adapt your strategy to remain competitive.
Key Trends Impacting Organic Search
Voice Search Optimisation: As more users rely on voice search through devices like Google Home and Amazon Alexa, optimising your content for voice search queries is becoming essential.
AI Overview: Google’s RankBrain and other AI-driven algorithms are putting more emphasis on user experience, search intent, and engagement metrics. Traditional keyword optimisation is still important, but understanding user intent and delivering valuable content will become increasingly important.
Mobile-First Indexing: Google is prioritising mobile-friendly websites with its mobile-first indexing approach. Ensuring your site is mobile-optimised is critical for both rankings and user experience.
Core Web Vitals: Google’s focus on Core Web Vitals highlights the importance of page speed, interactivity, and visual stability as ranking factors. Websites that offer a fast, smooth, and user-friendly experience will have an advantage in search rankings.
Final Thoughts
Monitoring organic results is essential for any successful SEO strategy. By using the right tools and following the outlined steps, you can track your website’s performance, measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts, and make informed decisions to improve your rankings. Whether you’re a beginner in SEO or looking to enhance your current strategy, staying proactive and regularly monitoring your organic rankings will help you stay ahead of the competition.
With search engines constantly evolving, it’s important to adapt your SEO strategy to account for new algorithms, user behavior trends, and industry changes. By focusing on the right KPIs and using effective tools, you’ll be well-positioned to maintain high organic rankings and drive sustained traffic to your site.
Other knowledge you might be interested in
Monitoring organic results is essential for understanding the effectiveness of your SEO efforts and how well your website performs in natural search listings. Whether you're a small business owner just starting with SEO or an entry-level digital marketer, learning how to monitor organic search results is key to improving visibility, increasing traffic, and boosting your overall online presence.
This guide provides an in-depth look at how to track, evaluate, and improve your organic search ranking and results. We'll explore practical tools, methodologies, and techniques for monitoring SEO performance, helping you stay ahead of the competition.
What is an Organic Search Rank?
An organic search rank refers to the position your website holds in search engine results for a specific keyword or phrase, without the use of paid ads. The search results are based on search engine algorithms that rank pages based on relevance, content quality, backlinks, and other ranking factors.
Your organic ranking is a crucial indicator of how well your website is optimised for search engines and how effective your SEO strategy is in driving traffic.
Factors That Impact Organic Search Ranks
Content Quality: Search engines prioritise websites that offer valuable, in-depth content that answers users' queries.
Backlinks: The number and quality of backlinks from authoritative websites to your site play a significant role in boosting your organic rankings.
User Experience: Websites that are easy to navigate, mobile-friendly, and load quickly tend to rank higher.
Keywords: Using relevant keywords in your content, titles, and meta descriptions signals to search engines that your page matches search intent.
On-Page SEO: Optimising elements like title tags, header tags, and alt text for images further helps improve organic ranking.
Understanding Organic Search Ranking Algorithms
Search engines like Google use sophisticated algorithms to determine organic rankings. These algorithms consider hundreds of factors when deciding where a website should appear in search results. While the exact formulas are proprietary, common factors include content relevance, backlink profile, site structure, and user engagement metrics such as bounce rate and time spent on a page.
Google’s RankBrain: One key algorithm that contributes to organic ranking is Google’s machine learning system called RankBrain. This AI-based system interprets user search queries and determines which results are the most relevant. RankBrain continuously learns and evolves, making it important for websites to stay updated with best practices in SEO.
Why is Organic Ranking Important?
Understanding why organic rank is important is the first step in monitoring and improving your SEO performance. Organic rankings can bring you a steady stream of traffic without the ongoing cost of paid ads. Here’s why organic ranks are key for businesses big and small:
Visibility: Higher organic rank means your site is more visible to potential customers. Most users don’t scroll past the first page of search results and getting to the top can bring a huge amount of traffic to your site.
Free Traffic: Unlike pay-per-click (PPC) ads, organic traffic is free. Once you’ve optimised your site for SEO you can continue to benefit without the need for ongoing ad spend.
Authority and Trust: Organic rank often carries more weight than paid ads. When users find your site at the top of the search results it means your site is authoritative and trustworthy in your niche.
Long Term Growth: A good SEO strategy can help your site maintain high rank over time. Once you’ve built up your organic presence it gets easier to sustain and improve your rank.
What is Organic Traffic KPI?
Organic traffic refers to visitors who land on your website as a result of unpaid search results. Monitoring organic traffic is crucial because it helps you gauge the effectiveness of your SEO strategy. Organic traffic KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) help you measure how much traffic is coming to your site and whether that traffic is converting.
Some of the most important organic traffic KPIs include:
Total Organic Visits: The total number of visitors arriving on your site via search engines.
Bounce Rate: The percentage of users who leave your site after viewing just one page.
Pages per Session: The average number of pages a user visits during a single session.
Average Session Duration: How long users spend on your site.
Conversion Rate: The percentage of organic visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
By tracking these KPIs, you’ll be able to identify how well your site is performing in organic search and which areas need improvement.
How to Monitor Organic Results with 5 Ways
Let’s dive into five essential tools that can help you effectively monitor and improve your organic rankings.
1. ClimbSEO
ClimbSEO is a comprehensive SEO audit tool that allows you to monitor various aspects of your website's performance, from keyword rankings to technical issues. It offers detailed reports that cover everything from on-page SEO to backlinks, site structure, and page speed.
Why Use ClimbSEO?
It provides a full SEO audit that includes on-page and technical SEO reports.
The platform tracks keyword rankings and provides insights into how your organic results are performing.
ClimbSEO's audit function helps identify technical issues that could be affecting your organic rankings, such as broken links, missing alt tags, or slow page load times.
How It Works: By simply entering your website URL into the tool
ClimbSEO will scan your site and generate detailed insights, offering suggestions on how to fix issues and optimise your site for better organic performance.
2. Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a must-have tool for monitoring your website’s performance in Google’s search results. It allows you to track your site's indexing status, optimize visibility, and identify any issues that might be hindering your performance.
Key Features of Google Search Console:
Track keyword rankings and see which queries lead to the most traffic.
Monitor the number of impressions, clicks, and the average position of your website in search results.
Identify indexing issues, crawl errors, and security problems.
View reports on mobile usability and website performance.
How to Use Google Search Console: GSC offers insights into which keywords your site ranks for, how many impressions and clicks your site receives, and what the click-through rate (CTR) is for each keyword. You can also use the “Performance” tab to track changes in your rankings over time.
Under the queries tab on 'Performance' you can see the list of search queries users are looking for in search engines which are driving visibility and traffic to your website.
3. Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is an upgraded version of the popular Google Analytics platform. It offers enhanced data tracking features and better integration with other Google services like Google Search Console and Google Ads.
How GA4 Helps with SEO:
Track the performance of specific landing pages in organic search.
Monitor user behavior, including time on page, bounce rate, and conversions from organic traffic.
Segment organic traffic by source to understand which search engines are driving the most visitors.
Set up goals and conversions to measure how organic traffic contributes to your overall business objectives.
Using GA4 to Monitor Organic Traffic: GA4 allows you to create custom reports focused specifically on organic traffic. You can also track user journeys, identify patterns, and gain insights into how organic visitors interact with your website.
4. Google My Business (for Local SEO)
For businesses targeting local customers, Google My Business (GMB) is essential for improving visibility in local search results. Monitoring your GMB listing helps ensure that your business information is up to date and optimized for local search queries.
Why GMB Matters for Organic Rankings:
Having an optimised GMB profile improves your chances of appearing in local search results and Google Maps.
You can monitor the number of views, searches, and actions taken from your GMB listing, such as calls, directions, and website clicks.
How to Optimise GMB for Organic Ranking: Make sure that all business information, including your address, phone number, website, and business hours, is accurate and up to date. You can also add photos, respond to reviews, and post regular updates to increase engagement.
5. Matomo
Matomo is an open-source web analytics platform that offers many of the same features as Google Analytics while providing enhanced privacy features. If you’re looking for an alternative to Google’s ecosystem, Matomo offers a robust solution for monitoring organic traffic and ranking performance.
Key Features:
Comprehensive tracking of organic traffic, user behavior, and conversion rates.
Fully customisable reports to track specific SEO goals.
Privacy-focused, making it a good option for websites that need to comply with stricter data privacy regulations.
How to Use Matomo: Similar to Google Analytics, Matomo provides in-depth reports on organic traffic, keyword performance, and user behavior. You can also use Matomo to track the success of SEO campaigns and monitor your website's overall performance in organic search.
How to optimise SEO performance in 5 Steps
To effectively monitor and measure your organic ranking, it’s important to follow a systematic process that allows you to track the right metrics and make data-driven decisions.
Step 1: Identify Keywords to Track
Start by identifying the main keywords you want to monitor. These should include high-volume keywords relevant to your industry, as well as long-tail keywords that are more specific but less competitive.
How to Identify Keywords:
Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or our keyword research tool to find keywords that are already driving traffic to your competitors.
Consider user intent and identify keywords that align with the specific problems or questions your audience is searching for.
To find new keywords, navigate to the 'Find keywords' tab on the left hand menu.
Then enter in a keyword or your website's URL.
For this example we used the topic shoes, then we clicked Similar Keywords and we got a list of keywords similar to the one we entered.
This is a great way to find new keywords that we might not be ranking for.
Step 2: Monitor Keyword Rankings
Once you’ve identified your target keywords, monitoring these rankings will help you understand how well your site is performing for those keywords and whether your SEO efforts are paying off.
On the left hand menu click 'Position Tracking' and enter in the domain you want to track keywords for and in which country.
Click 'Add' and they keywords will be tracked for the domain and updated daily. Also get an overview on average position, traffic, traffic location and more.
Track up to 3,000 keywords daily.
Step 3: Monitor Search Traffic
Track the number of visitors coming to your site from organic search. Use the tool above to monitor traffic trends and identify which keywords or landing pages are driving the most traffic.
What to Watch For:
Traffic spikes that coincide with specific SEO campaigns or content updates.
Drops in organic traffic that could indicate issues like Google penalties, broken links, or algorithm changes.
Step 4: Improve Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate (CTR) measures how many users click on your link in the search results after seeing it. Improving your CTR can boost your rankings, as it signals to search engines that your content is relevant and valuable.
How to Improve CTR:
Optimise your title tags and meta descriptions to make them more compelling and informative.
Use structured data to enhance your listing with rich snippets, which can make your results stand out.
Step 5: Combine the Insights
Once you’ve gathered data on keyword rankings, organic traffic, and CTR, combine these insights to form a complete picture of your SEO performance. Look for patterns and trends, and use this data to make informed decisions about where to focus your SEO efforts.
The Future of Organic Ranking
SEO is constantly evolving, and staying ahead of the curve is crucial for maintaining and improving your organic rankings. Several emerging trends are shaping the future of organic search, and understanding these trends will help you adapt your strategy to remain competitive.
Key Trends Impacting Organic Search
Voice Search Optimisation: As more users rely on voice search through devices like Google Home and Amazon Alexa, optimising your content for voice search queries is becoming essential.
AI Overview: Google’s RankBrain and other AI-driven algorithms are putting more emphasis on user experience, search intent, and engagement metrics. Traditional keyword optimisation is still important, but understanding user intent and delivering valuable content will become increasingly important.
Mobile-First Indexing: Google is prioritising mobile-friendly websites with its mobile-first indexing approach. Ensuring your site is mobile-optimised is critical for both rankings and user experience.
Core Web Vitals: Google’s focus on Core Web Vitals highlights the importance of page speed, interactivity, and visual stability as ranking factors. Websites that offer a fast, smooth, and user-friendly experience will have an advantage in search rankings.
Final Thoughts
Monitoring organic results is essential for any successful SEO strategy. By using the right tools and following the outlined steps, you can track your website’s performance, measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts, and make informed decisions to improve your rankings. Whether you’re a beginner in SEO or looking to enhance your current strategy, staying proactive and regularly monitoring your organic rankings will help you stay ahead of the competition.
With search engines constantly evolving, it’s important to adapt your SEO strategy to account for new algorithms, user behavior trends, and industry changes. By focusing on the right KPIs and using effective tools, you’ll be well-positioned to maintain high organic rankings and drive sustained traffic to your site.
Other knowledge you might be interested in
Monitoring organic results is essential for understanding the effectiveness of your SEO efforts and how well your website performs in natural search listings. Whether you're a small business owner just starting with SEO or an entry-level digital marketer, learning how to monitor organic search results is key to improving visibility, increasing traffic, and boosting your overall online presence.
This guide provides an in-depth look at how to track, evaluate, and improve your organic search ranking and results. We'll explore practical tools, methodologies, and techniques for monitoring SEO performance, helping you stay ahead of the competition.
What is an Organic Search Rank?
An organic search rank refers to the position your website holds in search engine results for a specific keyword or phrase, without the use of paid ads. The search results are based on search engine algorithms that rank pages based on relevance, content quality, backlinks, and other ranking factors.
Your organic ranking is a crucial indicator of how well your website is optimised for search engines and how effective your SEO strategy is in driving traffic.
Factors That Impact Organic Search Ranks
Content Quality: Search engines prioritise websites that offer valuable, in-depth content that answers users' queries.
Backlinks: The number and quality of backlinks from authoritative websites to your site play a significant role in boosting your organic rankings.
User Experience: Websites that are easy to navigate, mobile-friendly, and load quickly tend to rank higher.
Keywords: Using relevant keywords in your content, titles, and meta descriptions signals to search engines that your page matches search intent.
On-Page SEO: Optimising elements like title tags, header tags, and alt text for images further helps improve organic ranking.
Understanding Organic Search Ranking Algorithms
Search engines like Google use sophisticated algorithms to determine organic rankings. These algorithms consider hundreds of factors when deciding where a website should appear in search results. While the exact formulas are proprietary, common factors include content relevance, backlink profile, site structure, and user engagement metrics such as bounce rate and time spent on a page.
Google’s RankBrain: One key algorithm that contributes to organic ranking is Google’s machine learning system called RankBrain. This AI-based system interprets user search queries and determines which results are the most relevant. RankBrain continuously learns and evolves, making it important for websites to stay updated with best practices in SEO.
Why is Organic Ranking Important?
Understanding why organic rank is important is the first step in monitoring and improving your SEO performance. Organic rankings can bring you a steady stream of traffic without the ongoing cost of paid ads. Here’s why organic ranks are key for businesses big and small:
Visibility: Higher organic rank means your site is more visible to potential customers. Most users don’t scroll past the first page of search results and getting to the top can bring a huge amount of traffic to your site.
Free Traffic: Unlike pay-per-click (PPC) ads, organic traffic is free. Once you’ve optimised your site for SEO you can continue to benefit without the need for ongoing ad spend.
Authority and Trust: Organic rank often carries more weight than paid ads. When users find your site at the top of the search results it means your site is authoritative and trustworthy in your niche.
Long Term Growth: A good SEO strategy can help your site maintain high rank over time. Once you’ve built up your organic presence it gets easier to sustain and improve your rank.
What is Organic Traffic KPI?
Organic traffic refers to visitors who land on your website as a result of unpaid search results. Monitoring organic traffic is crucial because it helps you gauge the effectiveness of your SEO strategy. Organic traffic KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) help you measure how much traffic is coming to your site and whether that traffic is converting.
Some of the most important organic traffic KPIs include:
Total Organic Visits: The total number of visitors arriving on your site via search engines.
Bounce Rate: The percentage of users who leave your site after viewing just one page.
Pages per Session: The average number of pages a user visits during a single session.
Average Session Duration: How long users spend on your site.
Conversion Rate: The percentage of organic visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
By tracking these KPIs, you’ll be able to identify how well your site is performing in organic search and which areas need improvement.
How to Monitor Organic Results with 5 Ways
Let’s dive into five essential tools that can help you effectively monitor and improve your organic rankings.
1. ClimbSEO
ClimbSEO is a comprehensive SEO audit tool that allows you to monitor various aspects of your website's performance, from keyword rankings to technical issues. It offers detailed reports that cover everything from on-page SEO to backlinks, site structure, and page speed.
Why Use ClimbSEO?
It provides a full SEO audit that includes on-page and technical SEO reports.
The platform tracks keyword rankings and provides insights into how your organic results are performing.
ClimbSEO's audit function helps identify technical issues that could be affecting your organic rankings, such as broken links, missing alt tags, or slow page load times.
How It Works: By simply entering your website URL into the tool
ClimbSEO will scan your site and generate detailed insights, offering suggestions on how to fix issues and optimise your site for better organic performance.
2. Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a must-have tool for monitoring your website’s performance in Google’s search results. It allows you to track your site's indexing status, optimize visibility, and identify any issues that might be hindering your performance.
Key Features of Google Search Console:
Track keyword rankings and see which queries lead to the most traffic.
Monitor the number of impressions, clicks, and the average position of your website in search results.
Identify indexing issues, crawl errors, and security problems.
View reports on mobile usability and website performance.
How to Use Google Search Console: GSC offers insights into which keywords your site ranks for, how many impressions and clicks your site receives, and what the click-through rate (CTR) is for each keyword. You can also use the “Performance” tab to track changes in your rankings over time.
Under the queries tab on 'Performance' you can see the list of search queries users are looking for in search engines which are driving visibility and traffic to your website.
3. Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is an upgraded version of the popular Google Analytics platform. It offers enhanced data tracking features and better integration with other Google services like Google Search Console and Google Ads.
How GA4 Helps with SEO:
Track the performance of specific landing pages in organic search.
Monitor user behavior, including time on page, bounce rate, and conversions from organic traffic.
Segment organic traffic by source to understand which search engines are driving the most visitors.
Set up goals and conversions to measure how organic traffic contributes to your overall business objectives.
Using GA4 to Monitor Organic Traffic: GA4 allows you to create custom reports focused specifically on organic traffic. You can also track user journeys, identify patterns, and gain insights into how organic visitors interact with your website.
4. Google My Business (for Local SEO)
For businesses targeting local customers, Google My Business (GMB) is essential for improving visibility in local search results. Monitoring your GMB listing helps ensure that your business information is up to date and optimized for local search queries.
Why GMB Matters for Organic Rankings:
Having an optimised GMB profile improves your chances of appearing in local search results and Google Maps.
You can monitor the number of views, searches, and actions taken from your GMB listing, such as calls, directions, and website clicks.
How to Optimise GMB for Organic Ranking: Make sure that all business information, including your address, phone number, website, and business hours, is accurate and up to date. You can also add photos, respond to reviews, and post regular updates to increase engagement.
5. Matomo
Matomo is an open-source web analytics platform that offers many of the same features as Google Analytics while providing enhanced privacy features. If you’re looking for an alternative to Google’s ecosystem, Matomo offers a robust solution for monitoring organic traffic and ranking performance.
Key Features:
Comprehensive tracking of organic traffic, user behavior, and conversion rates.
Fully customisable reports to track specific SEO goals.
Privacy-focused, making it a good option for websites that need to comply with stricter data privacy regulations.
How to Use Matomo: Similar to Google Analytics, Matomo provides in-depth reports on organic traffic, keyword performance, and user behavior. You can also use Matomo to track the success of SEO campaigns and monitor your website's overall performance in organic search.
How to optimise SEO performance in 5 Steps
To effectively monitor and measure your organic ranking, it’s important to follow a systematic process that allows you to track the right metrics and make data-driven decisions.
Step 1: Identify Keywords to Track
Start by identifying the main keywords you want to monitor. These should include high-volume keywords relevant to your industry, as well as long-tail keywords that are more specific but less competitive.
How to Identify Keywords:
Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or our keyword research tool to find keywords that are already driving traffic to your competitors.
Consider user intent and identify keywords that align with the specific problems or questions your audience is searching for.
To find new keywords, navigate to the 'Find keywords' tab on the left hand menu.
Then enter in a keyword or your website's URL.
For this example we used the topic shoes, then we clicked Similar Keywords and we got a list of keywords similar to the one we entered.
This is a great way to find new keywords that we might not be ranking for.
Step 2: Monitor Keyword Rankings
Once you’ve identified your target keywords, monitoring these rankings will help you understand how well your site is performing for those keywords and whether your SEO efforts are paying off.
On the left hand menu click 'Position Tracking' and enter in the domain you want to track keywords for and in which country.
Click 'Add' and they keywords will be tracked for the domain and updated daily. Also get an overview on average position, traffic, traffic location and more.
Track up to 3,000 keywords daily.
Step 3: Monitor Search Traffic
Track the number of visitors coming to your site from organic search. Use the tool above to monitor traffic trends and identify which keywords or landing pages are driving the most traffic.
What to Watch For:
Traffic spikes that coincide with specific SEO campaigns or content updates.
Drops in organic traffic that could indicate issues like Google penalties, broken links, or algorithm changes.
Step 4: Improve Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate (CTR) measures how many users click on your link in the search results after seeing it. Improving your CTR can boost your rankings, as it signals to search engines that your content is relevant and valuable.
How to Improve CTR:
Optimise your title tags and meta descriptions to make them more compelling and informative.
Use structured data to enhance your listing with rich snippets, which can make your results stand out.
Step 5: Combine the Insights
Once you’ve gathered data on keyword rankings, organic traffic, and CTR, combine these insights to form a complete picture of your SEO performance. Look for patterns and trends, and use this data to make informed decisions about where to focus your SEO efforts.
The Future of Organic Ranking
SEO is constantly evolving, and staying ahead of the curve is crucial for maintaining and improving your organic rankings. Several emerging trends are shaping the future of organic search, and understanding these trends will help you adapt your strategy to remain competitive.
Key Trends Impacting Organic Search
Voice Search Optimisation: As more users rely on voice search through devices like Google Home and Amazon Alexa, optimising your content for voice search queries is becoming essential.
AI Overview: Google’s RankBrain and other AI-driven algorithms are putting more emphasis on user experience, search intent, and engagement metrics. Traditional keyword optimisation is still important, but understanding user intent and delivering valuable content will become increasingly important.
Mobile-First Indexing: Google is prioritising mobile-friendly websites with its mobile-first indexing approach. Ensuring your site is mobile-optimised is critical for both rankings and user experience.
Core Web Vitals: Google’s focus on Core Web Vitals highlights the importance of page speed, interactivity, and visual stability as ranking factors. Websites that offer a fast, smooth, and user-friendly experience will have an advantage in search rankings.
Final Thoughts
Monitoring organic results is essential for any successful SEO strategy. By using the right tools and following the outlined steps, you can track your website’s performance, measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts, and make informed decisions to improve your rankings. Whether you’re a beginner in SEO or looking to enhance your current strategy, staying proactive and regularly monitoring your organic rankings will help you stay ahead of the competition.
With search engines constantly evolving, it’s important to adapt your SEO strategy to account for new algorithms, user behavior trends, and industry changes. By focusing on the right KPIs and using effective tools, you’ll be well-positioned to maintain high organic rankings and drive sustained traffic to your site.
Other knowledge you might be interested in
Read more articles
Join Global Businesses and Unlock Your SEO Potential!
Join Global Businesses and Unlock Your SEO Potential!
Join Global Businesses and Unlock Your SEO Potential!
Join Global Businesses and Unlock Your SEO Potential!
© Copyright 2024, All Rights Reserved by ClimbSEO
© Copyright 2024, All Rights Reserved by ClimbSEO
© Copyright 2024, All Rights Reserved by ClimbSEO
© Copyright 2024, All Rights Reserved by ClimbSEO