As with any marketing or business strategy, having some defined goals and objectives can help keep you focused on the right path along your optimization journey.

Along the journey you will often be presented with choices. When presented with any choice, always choose the one that helps inch you towards a goal. 

Website Goals

What is the purpose of the website?

This is a question I usually ask when assessing websites for the first time. For me, it should be obvious. Crystal clear positioning, strong calls to action and well defined content paths (landing page > blog > resource > conversion etc etc). 

Conversion Goals

The overall goal of any website would be to drive business. Typically that process is several steps (see customer journey map) or micro-conversions. 

For e-commerce retailers, the transaction is the ultimate goal. For other websites (B2B, informational, content publishers, SAAS etc) the goals would likely be driving the prospect down the funnel.

Here are some general conversions you likely would track:

Top funnel conversions:

  • Content consumption
  • Asset downloads (infographics)
  • Subscribe to content (newsletter, podcast, video series)

Mid funnel conversions:

  • Resource downloads (whitepapers, ebooks, case study, checklist etc)
  • Quizzes and surveys
  • Webinars
  • Events
  • Catalogue
  • Tripwire offer

Bottom funnel conversions:

  • Product demo or free trial
  • Pricing or spec sheets
  • Product detail pages
  • Contact (speak to a rep/ find a distributor / quote request)

SEO KPIs

Your SEO program goals will always start off being more general. Do not arbitrarily set performance goals like “increase organic traffic by 1000 views per month”. 

For one thing, you need time to establish a solid baseline. That means that your analytics has to be configured correctly and collecting data for a reasonable amount of time.

What are good SEO goals to start with:

  • Increase overall non-branded keyword rankings
  • Increase ranking around a topic (multiple keywords)
  • Remove roadblocks for search engines
  • Decrease website errors (ex: 404)
  • Maximize website performance

Once your site has been optimized, everything configured correctly and your content is in alignment with your keywords, you can start being more specific with your SEO goals.  Once established, here are some other metrics that you can start to work on:

  • Click-through-rate (CTR)
  • Session Duration
  • Bounce & Exit Rate
  • Organic Impressions
  • Organic Conversions
  • Referral Traffic

There are a lot more goals & SEO KPI’s that can be layered in, as well as some that may be event or seasonal. To determine the specific goals and KPIs for your business, it’s best to partner with a digital marketing agency such as Risdall.

Risdall’s Guide to an Effective SEO Strategy explains the main concepts everyone should understand about SEO and the essential components that should be in every SEO plan. Click here to download your copy.