How to evaluate the results of SEO promotion: basic tools and metrics for analysis

SEO promotion is the process of optimizing a website to improve its position in search results, increase traffic and attract the target audience. But how to properly evaluate the effectiveness of SEO promotion and understand whether it is working properly?

For most website owners, the main metrics for the effectiveness of SEO promotion are traffic and positions. In this article, we will look at basic methods for analyzing an SEO channel, avoiding complex calculations of ROI, profit or organic conversion.

The simplest and most reliable way: use Yandex.Metrica

Yandex.Metrica is a free tool from Yandex designed to analyze website traffic. It provides detailed information about visitors, their behavior, traffic sources and other important indicators.

Today, Yandex.Metrica is one of the most reliable tools for assessing the effectiveness of SEO website promotion.

If the Yandex.Metrica counter is not connected to your site, install it. If installed, go to the website: https://metrika.yandex.ru/ and make sure that you are authorized in the account to which the counter is linked.

Then select the site whose performance you want to evaluate.

After this, the Yandex.Metrica account for the selected site will open. Go to the left menu and select: Reports > Sources > Search Engines.

Set a period for analysis, for example, from the beginning of independent promotion or cooperation with contractors until today.

It is recommended to install the "Data: no robots" filter to exclude traffic from search robots.

Select granularity by month if you want to assess long-term dynamics, or by week/day for a shorter-term analysis (for example, per month).

Now you can see organic traffic graphs for each search engine.

If the graph is stable or going down, it signals a lack of SEO effectiveness. If the graph is increasing, it means that SEO is bringing positive results.

Also pay attention to the graphs for each search engine separately. Perhaps your position in Google is better than in Yandex. In this case, the challenge is to improve performance in a less successful search engine.

This tool is quite enough to evaluate the effectiveness of organic traffic in different search engines.

Don't forget that SEO is not about instant results. At the initial stages of promotion, there may not be sharp surges in traffic, but the vector of correct actions on the site often turns out to be correct.

How to check SEO effectiveness for a specific page in Yandex.Metrica

If you need to estimate traffic to a specific page or section of your site, follow these steps:

Click on "+" and add a condition for visits. Select "login page".
In the window that appears, enter the URL of the page or section of the site, indicating only the symbolic code, without the domain.
Apply the setting and see the results!

If you have a seasonal product or service, consider this factor

For example, if your site is related to tourism, demand for services may increase in the summer and decrease in the winter. If you do not take into account seasonal fluctuations, you may misinterpret the results of SEO promotion.

Taking into account seasonal fluctuations helps you more accurately evaluate SEO results and adapt your promotion strategy depending on changing demand.

How to check the seasonality of demand?

Go to https://wordstat.yandex.ru/#!/history.
Set the desired region (for example, Moscow).
Enter a key query that reflects your product or service (for example, “buy felt boots”).
Get a graph of the seasonality of the request.

When you hover over the chart, you will see two indicators:

Relative indicator — evaluates the popularity of the request compared to others. The higher the value, the more popular the request.
Absolute value — displays the actual number of requests for a certain period.

To assess seasonality, consider only the absolute value of the graph.

How to compare seasonality data with Yandex.Metrica data

Compare traffic data for two different periods (for example, January and January). This will help assess the dynamics without taking into account seasonal changes.
Estimate the demand for a product or service in different months. For example, if there were 20,000 requests in January and 60,000 in May, demand has tripled. Next, compare site traffic for these months. If traffic has increased by less than 3 times, this signals that the SEO channel is ineffective. If traffic has increased by more than 3 times, it means that organic marketing is working effectively.

And finally: exclude branded traffic

To accurately measure SEO results, exclude traffic associated with your brand. This is important because branded traffic can skew the picture, as users may arrive at a site already aware of the brand rather than through SEO.

To exclude branded traffic, follow these steps:

Click on "+" and add the condition "search phrase".
Enter information about your brand, such as company name, website, e-mail, phone numbers (for example, !brand*, !www.site.ru*).
Apply terms and exclude branded traffic.

Now the data will be more accurate and will not be distorted by branded traffic.

We evaluate site positions through upload systems

One of the key indicators of SEO is the position of the site in search results. To track positions, use specialized tools such as upload systems to track changes in positions for key queries on your site.

In conclusion, to fully evaluate SEO, it is important to use several tools and metrics to get an objective picture of its effectiveness. Regularly analyze your metrics and compare them to your goals to better understand how your SEO channel is performing.

If you have any questions, write to the SEO studio "SEO COMPUTER" at info@seo.computer.

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