Organic traffic
Let’s start with the obvious one. If organic traffic is going up, you’re doing something right. You can track this in GSC for free. If you don’t have access to GSC, sign up for a free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT) account. Then plug your domain into Site Explorer for an estimate.
Keyword rankings
If rankings are on the rise for your target keywords, that’s another sign that you’re doing something right. You can track average keyword rankings for free in GSC. If you want more accurate tracking, you’ll need a rank tracking tool like Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker.
Did you know?
Organic traffic and keyword rankings are “vanity metrics.” There’s no harm in keeping an eye on them, but they often bear no relationship with marketing or business goals. It’s much better to track metrics that have actual business impact. We cover two of these below.
Visibility
This metric in Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker shows what percentage of all clicks for the tracked keywords land on your website.
For example, let’s say you track one keyword, and all the top positions in Google are occupied by pages on your website. Because your website gets all possible traffic from that keyword, your Visibility is 100%.
Now let’s say your website only occupies one spot in Google, with the rest occupied by competitors. Because some clicks go to other websites, your Visibility is lower than 100%.
If your Visibility is increasing, this is yet another good sign your SEO is on the right track.
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