B2B SEO Metrics – Key Areas to Focus On

Today's post is an excerpt from The MFS Guide to B2B SEO: How to Integrate SEO into a Broader B2B Marketing Strategy.

B2B SEO requires regular improvements, iteration, and even occasional adaptations - as new business priorities emerge. Additionally, the SEO landscape - as we have laid out - continues to change and change rapidly. To stay on top of your SEO game it is important to track some key metrics and KPIs - but to do so in a way that does not get lost in the sea of available data points. In this section we will outline some of the most important SEO metrics and KPIs to track.

ACCESS THE MFS GUIDE TO B2B SEO HERE →

B2B SEO Metrics - Principles

Before selecting which SEO metrics to focus on, we would recommend that you consider how you would like to approach the question of SEO metrics. There are, in our experience, some key principles to keep in mind before any SEO reports or dashboards are put together:

➜ The important thing is the important thing - You can very quickly get weighed down in a sea of available metrics. Don’t forget your priorities here and - in general - do not waste your time on low level metrics that you can not link back to revenue. If there are breakdowns in your traffic or lead funnel, then you can start to explore some of the more in-depth metrics, but in a position as a marketing leader, it is important that you stay focused on the primary goal of growing revenue and, in particular, how your SEO activities are contributing to revenue growth.

➜ Don’t put too much importance on vanity metrics - Even something as seemingly important as traffic growth might not be worth over-celebrating if there is no correlative growth in leads or revenue. As a marketing leader, everything you do must show an ROI. SEO - possibly more than any other area in business - is awash with metrics that could be considered vanity metrics.

4 Key B2B SEO Metrics

The following metrics are the most important metrics to focus on in B2B SEO.

1. SEO Revenue Contribution

Depending on how you attribute revenue sources in your company, there may be different ways to track the contribution of SEO to revenue. If you operate within a single-touch attribution framework, then you will be able to track which closed won leads came via organic traffic. If you are working with multi-touch attribution, then you will need to run a different formula that applies weights to the various activities involved from web visits to email marketing and PPC ads. At any rate, the key metric you will be looking to identify here is the contribution to revenue of your SEO activities. This figure and this figure alone is the most important metric to focus on.

2. SEO ROI

Following on from your identification of SEO revenue contribution, you can run a relatively straightforward SEO ROI analysis. This metric will help you demonstrate ROI to other executives. If you are not seeing a positive ROI after a period of 6 months or so, then you will need to seriously consider reallocating your resources elsewhere.

3. SEO Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

To identify this metric, you need to calculate your monthly SEO spend and the number of customers acquired as a result of your SEO efforts during the month. (Monthly SEO Cost / Number of Customers Acquired per month = SEO CPA).

4. SEO Average Deal Size

Calculate the average closed won deal size that came in as a result of your SEO efforts. Once you have this figure, you can compare it to your average deal size in general and your average deal size from your other marketing activities. Again, this metric will help you figure out the best way to allocate your marketing resources and give you key insights into the success of your SEO program.

5 Key B2B SEO KPIs

The terms KPIs and metrics are often used interchangeably, but there are some key differences. SEO metrics are all those measurements used to track the performance of the SEO program as a whole, while KPIs are a subset of metrics and are the specified activities deemed by the organization to be most critical to performance and success. KPIs are tracked over time to analyze progress. In this situation, there are some key SEO KPIs to keep in mind as you track the progress of your SEO program.

1. Impressions - In the early stages of your SEO program, it might be worth tracking the number of impressions. Impressions are how many times a user sees your website on the search results page. Remember, SEO takes a bit of time to build, so impressions can give you an early indication of the progress you are making.

2. Total Clicks - Tracking how many clicks you get from organic traffic will give you an indication of how your SEO efforts are progressing. Increasing organic visitors is the first step. You then need to think about how to convert these visitors into leads and closed won deals.

3. Referring Domains - Backlinking is still an important part of SEO. By tracking the number of referring domains each month, you will have an important KPI on the success of the backlinking aspect of your SEO program.

4. Website Performance - It is best practice to track the performance of your website - especially if you are adding a lot of SEO content to your site. You can monitor the performance of your site with the Core Web Vitals report on Google Search Console and also with Google Page Speed tool. Similarly, there are other paid tools available that will give you more in-depth information on site performance.

5. Domain Authority - Domain authority is a score out of 100 given by many of the leading SEO tools available. Tracking your authority ranking will help you see how your site is progressing over time and will give you some insights into whether you should focus on-site or off-site with the different SEO activities.

There are any number of other metrics you can track, but, in general, none of them will matter unless you can link the activities to revenue growth. Hone in on the KPIs that will give you the insights you need to adapt and tweak your activities - but, do not get lost in unimportant data points.

This post is an excerpt from the MFS Guide to B2B SEO: How to Integrate SEO into a Broader B2B Marketing Strategy. If you would like to read more you can access the guide in full here. If you have a marketing challenge you are looking for support with, you are welcome to set up a no obligation initial strategy consultation with our team.