How to Know If SEO Is Working

As an SEO specialist, it's important for me to educate clients on how we measure SEO efforts over time, so we can work together to monitor and improve results over time.

If you're wondering how to know if your search engine optimization efforts are working, read on to learn more about how to tell if your SEO efforts are working.

There are some ways to monitor results throughout your SEO campaign:

Monitor Keyword Rankings

Make sure to keep track of your website's rankings for target keywords in search engine results pages (SERPs). For this, it's important to note how many keywords your site is already ranking for and for what position (prior to starting any SEO work) and aim to grow the number of new keywords and improve keyword rankings over time.

You can use a variety of free and paid SEO tools like Google Search Console, SEMrush, or Moz to monitor keyword positions over time.

An increase in rankings for relevant keywords over time indicates that your SEO efforts are effective.

For clients, a monthly progress report is a great way to showcase any keyword changes over time.

Monitor Impressions on Google Search Console

One of my favourite tips for monitoring SEO efforts is through Google Search Console. Google Search Console allows you to monitor impressions, which is the number of times any URL from your site appeared in search results viewed by a user, not including paid Google Ads search impressions.

If your impressions are increasing over time, this will eventually also lead to more website visits.

Track Organic Traffic

Make sure to combine Google Analytics with your website to track organic visitors to your site.

In Google Analytics, you can see differences in organic traffic visits to your site. Organic traffic in Google Analytics shows the number of people who have visited your website through a web search, which is directly related to your SEO efforts.

Make sure to compare this to a longer term period (like current 6 months vs previous 6 months) to showcase the differences and account for seasonality as well.

Ask on Your Contact Page

Another great way to figure out if visitors to your website are finding you through Google is simply asking people once they get in touch with you.

Leaving a space or dropdown option for 'Google' as an option lets you know that people found your site via Google. This is a really easy option for business owners to implement!

How Long Does It Take to See SEO Results?

SEO is an ongoing process, and it can take several months to start seeing solid results from SEO.

The key here is to be patient! SEO results don't happen overnight - but those who invest in ongoing SEO find it a worthwhile long-term investment.

If you're looking for help with SEO, reach out about your SEO project.

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