Which SEO Benchmark is Most Useful?

Intro

With the evolution of the internet, businesses and startups utilize the power of the internet to grab people’s attention and offer a custom experience. Considering people’s interests, Google has opted for SEO.

Today, startups and established businesses create optimized content for SEO to gain organic traffic. But this is only possible if the SEO benchmark is followed properly. But, there are multiple aspects to SEO benchmarking, and keeping track of all of those can be tricky.

So, read this guide to know in depth about SEO benchmarking!

II. Organic Traffic Growth

Any SEO-optimized content’s main purpose is to gain as much organic traffic (the number of visitors checking the website who come from unpaid Search Engine results) as possible. You can increase any website’s organic traffic by getting a high organic ranking in recognized Search Engine sites like Yahoo, Google, etc. You can follow some well-recognized metrics for increasing organic traffic:

• By optimizing the technical aspects of SEO content, for example, bringing the required changes in the meta tags, descriptions, title, URL, etc., the organic ranking can be increased.
• Although Google denies it, keyword research is considered one of the most crucial aspects of getting a high ranking. Most importantly, Proper keyword analysis can help a website gain more traffic.
• Link building is another essential aspect of organic traffic growth. So, focus on backlink generation to improve your website’s authority and visibility among other websites.

III. Keyword Ranking and Visibility

Keyword refers to the word or sentence users enter to find content relevant to their queries. Even though Google does not consider keywords one of the noticeable SEO benchmarks, according to a report, 14.1% of keyword search is directly linked to asking questions, making it as important an aspect as anything else.

• Depending on the services and audience’s requirements, you can search for content ideas.
• Once the topic research is done, consider using Ubersuggest, a tool providing the most relevant keywords for the researched topics.
• You can now find out the chosen keywords’ volume, difficulty, CPC, etc. Based on that, you can select suitable keywords.

But regarding ranking and visibility, featured snippets have become common for any question-depended keyword. So, choose at least one long-tail keyword for the query.

Also, keyword optimization is only useful when the keyword use is done strategically. We suggest you use the primary keyword in the page title to let Google bring the content to the search list whenever required.

You can also use searched keywords in the heading tags to help Google make the keywords visible when a user searches for content.

IV. Click-Through Rates (CTR)

Click-through rate or CTR refers to the percentage that can be found by dividing the number of clicks on an ad and the number of times an ad has been displayed. For example, if an ad gets 7 clicks and 100 impressions, the CTR rate would be 7%. But how do we increase the CTR rate?

Of course, the first and foremost thing is to provide the best-written titles that seem relatable to the audience. You also need to write a good description, offer a clear and crisp URL (part of technical SEO), improve the page load time, know how to use the title case, etc.

V. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

CRO, or Conversion Rate Optimization, is the practice dedicated to enhancing the percentage of users doing multiple desired activities on a website. It can be anything from adding a product to a wishlist or buying a specific product.

CRO also has a user-friendly definition, which implies that it refers to the measures taken to get more users to opt for your services or products. Simply put, providing a better user experience is directly linked to CRO. It is another SEO benchmarking that can enhance sales.

VI. Bounce Rate and Dwell Time

According to Google, bounce refers to a single-page session of a website. Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing one page. The less the bounce rate is, the better. While a 70% bounce rate is considered bad, 26% to 40% is optimal.

The high bounce rate depends on various aspects. For example, if your website’s loading time is slow, it can affect the ranking directly as the site speed is linked to Google’s ranking algorithm.

While getting a low bounce rate is one of the benchmarks of SEO, focusing on dwell time is also equally crucial. It is loosely connected to the bounce rate.

The dwell time means when users click on a page from the SERP, stay or navigate for a while, and then exit or go back to the SERP. You can calculate dwell time by observing the average session duration, indicating the visitors' staying time on average.

VII. Mobile-Friendly and Page Speed Metrics

People's tendency to use mobile phones to search for products and buy them has increased over the past few years. It is only possible when a mobile-friendly website is built. As a result, the navigation process becomes simple, making people repeatedly return to the website.

Despite not being a widely discussed topic, page speed is regarded as a fundamental element of SEO services offered to the United States audience and everywhere else. Page speed can do wonders for your website. Using an index to optimize a database helps it look for information fast, directly affecting the page load speed.

Also, tracking codes to analyze users’ behavior is another page speed metric. However, we suggest you review every analytics program when you track codes. It would help if you also decreased the tendency to use video embeds as they use iFrames for displaying.

VIII. Local SEO Metrics

SEO metrics are different aspects of creating the best SEO-optimized content. While there are several local SEO metrics, with the changing Google algorithm and the emergence of competition in the market, focusing on only the most vital SEO metrics is the smartest thing to do.

• Backlinks are considered one of the most crucial parts of SEO. While this can give a website authority, keeping up with any newly created backlink is important. The requirement of backlink generation can be understood from the fact that Google confirms good content and backlinks are two essential aspects of improving a website’s position.
• Leads refer to the clicks, positions, impressions, etc. Though they are not directly linked to creating SEO-friendly content, a small change in the leads can bring a huge difference in SEO strategy, making it a crucial benchmark for SEO.

IX. Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis is not attached to content creation. However, it impacts which type of SEO-based content you will share. So, identify your competitors based on your niche, community, organic, and paid search.

One of the best practices of competitor analysis is to search for local keywords to compare how much your business matches with the other sites' ranking for using the keywords. You can optimize your site depending on that.

You can also analyze how your competitors sell the products to the customers, what price they offer, which are the best places to provide the services and products, and, of course, the marketing or promotional method.

X. ROI and Revenue Growth

ROI or Return on Investment means the profitability ratio implying the performance level of the investment. It confirms if the invested money is coming back for your aid as revenue.

Both ROI and revenue are two important parts of a business, and SEO content is a deciding factor determining the revenue of a business to some extent.

XI. Customized Benchmarks

SEO is considered the most crucial aspect of product and service marketing. Since customized benchmarks are designed to meet clients’ requirements and objectives, SEO-friendly content should also meet the needs of the same. That is why they should be designed by keeping the vital SEO metrics in mind, making them a benchmark of your SEO.

XII. Conclusion

SEO content can only be fruitful if they follow the specially designed and calibrated benchmark. While multiple SEO benchmarks are already available, and there will be more in the future, finding the best ones and working on them are the only possible things to do.