How to Know if Your SEO Strategy is Working

Introducing our brand new series all about SEO! You'll learn foundational things that you can easily implement in your business even if you're a complete beginner. We brought in SEO expert, Mariah, to break things down for you.

Once you’ve started dabbling in SEO a bit, how can you tell if things are working?

In short: by looking at the data.

When your SEO is improving, you’ll start being found for more keywords, and you’ll start getting more traffic organically from search engines. If you’ve been customizing SEO titles & meta descriptions, you should also start to see an improved CTR (click-through rate)! – CTR numbers can be found in Search Console. Or if you’ve been focusing on gaining backlinks, you should see your Domain Authority score improve.

And then hopefully you’ll also start to get more leads & conversions too!

(The easiest way to track conversions & leads from Google without going through the tech headache of setting up Google Tag Manager, or even without setting up analytics, is to add a question to your project/client intake form: “How did you find me?” and then add “Google Search” as an option!)

Check-in using Google Analytics: 

• Reports >> Acquisition (OR “Generate Leads”) >> Traffic Acquisition
• Then scroll down and see how your “Organic Search” numbers are doing
• Feel free to compare data too using the date range option in the top right-hand corner

Check-in using Google Search Console:

• Search Results (under performance tab) >> Click on “Average CTR” and “Average Position” box in the top graph >> Scroll down & look at table >> “Queries” = keywords you’re being found for.
• Feel free to compare data too using the date range option in the top right-hand corner

Check-in using the free versions of these tools:

You won’t be able to see CTR or engagement numbers when you use these tools. That’s internal-only data that would be found using Google Analytics or Google Search Console. But these can help you see your monthly website traffic, keywords from search, and domain authority score.

• Ubersuggest: https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/ (create a free account)
  
  
• Semrush: https://www.semrush.com/ (create a free account)
  
  
• Moz: https://moz.com/domain-analysis (I don’t think this one requires an account – use this one and/or Semrush to find your domain authority score. Just know they both calculate them differently, so if you use one now and you want to check in again in 60 days, use the SAME TOOL to check so it’s consistent)

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Love this? Continue with the rest of the SEO Series below!

What is SEO and Why It's Important for Your Business

Glossary of Common SEO Terms

Your Foundational SEO Checklist

How MemberVault Stacks Up with SEO

Ways to Continue to Optimize Your SEO

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This SEO article series is written by SEO expert, Mariah. Want to learn more? Check out the additional resources below!

⚡️ Mariah's YouTube channel has a ton of free tutorials: https://youtube.com/@MariahMagazine 

⚡️ Free SEO Tools Masterlist: https://mariahmagazine.com/seo-tools (If you want an inside look at the SEO tools that I use on the regular)

⚡️ Free Blog post SEO checklist: https://www.mariahmagazine.com/seo-checklist-for-blog-posts/ (If you’re creating blog posts for SEO)

⚡️ DIY SEO Course (Use code MEMBERVAULT for 20% off!): https://www.mariahmagazine.com/diy-seo-course/