Getting More from SEO: How to Set Goals and Consistently Improve your SEO Campaigns

In my journey from transitioning from an SEO intern to an SEO Consultant, one of the questions that frequently went through my mind was “how do I know I have achieved success with an SEO campaign?” Is it a site’s rankings in SERPs, or the number of goal conversions per month? What is it that I should be watching and measuring to make sure that my strategies and tactics are guiding my campaign to a point of success?

What I have found is that there really is no single, right answer, as each and every SEO campaign is going to be specific to the individual business and goals of the website. However, if you’re ready to learn how define your SEO KPI’s, set goals and consistently improve your SEO campaigns, keep reading! Here are three important factors to keep in mind in order to more effectively track, measure and define SEO campaign success.

What am I Trying to Achieve?

Prior to developing an SEO campaign, it’s crucial to think to yourself, “What is the purpose of this site?” and “What am I trying to achieve through this campaign?” Will success be measured in sales, leads and/or conversions? Increasing awareness of your business? Or simply just increasing organic traffic to your website?

In order for you to develop an accurate and appropriate strategy for SEO efforts, it’s important to set these goals prior to the launch of your campaign. When choosing goals, always remember to do a few simple things:

• Think from the perspective of your audience: think of the person you are targeting, their behaviors, and how they will be searching for your product or service online. This will help you identify ways you can better reach them. For example, what questions or phrases would they use when searching for a business like yours?


• Be specific – the more specific you are in defining your goals, the easier it will be for you to develop tactics to achieve them


• Focus on goals that are realistic: this one is pretty cut and dry – if your goals aren’t realistic, you will most likely never achieve success

How Will I Measure My Goals?

After deciding on your primary goals, the next step is to determine the KPIs, or key performance indicators, that go along with your objectives. These key performance indicators will help you benchmark how well your campaign is performing, as well as its progression towards achieving your aforementioned goals. These benchmarks are going to be the foundation of your SEO campaign.

Be sure that your KPIs are measurable because you will need to monitor and track them to constantly adjust and improve your strategy based on current performance, as well as use them to identify what is and is not working. Setting benchmarks and goals is a crucial part of not only developing, but also executing and measuring the performance of any SEO campaign.

Patience is Key

Lastly, and most importantly, I have learned to always remember that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. You can’t expect to achieve these goals overnight, but if you track them properly, focus on what you know you can improve and adjust your strategy accordingly, you can expect success!

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