The 9 SEO KPIs You Need to Know to Track Your Organic Growth in 2025

We understand. 

In this guide, we’ll show you the 9 SEO KPIs we track when measuring the performance of the SEO content we create for our clients.

Visibility Metrics

Visibility metrics determine whether your content appears in search results and how easily potential customers can find your website. Focus on improving these foundational KPIs before expecting gains in user engagement or business outcomes.

1. Search Impressions

Search impressions is the measure of how many times your website appears in search results, regardless of whether users click on your listing. This metric shows your overall visibility in search engine results pages.

Why it matters: Impressions represent your total potential audience reach. Growing impressions indicates your content is appearing for more queries or ranking for existing queries more consistently. Impressions serve as an early indicator of SEO progress, often improving before clicks or rankings show significant change. When monitored alongside click-through rate, impressions help you identify opportunities where you have visibility but need to improve click attraction.

How to measure it: Track impressions through Google Search Console's Performance report, which displays impression data by page, query, country, and device. For more detailed analysis, export this data and combine it with ranking information to understand the relationship between position and visibility.

How to improve it:

• Expand your content to target related keywords and questions.
• Create dedicated pages for topics currently addressed only briefly.
• Update existing content with additional subtopics that capture more query variations.
• Build internal links to important pages to strengthen their relevance signals.

What success looks like: Compare current impressions to previous periods (month-over-month and year-over-year) to establish baseline performance for your content type and industry. 

Focus on consistent growth trends rather than specific numbers. For example, a blog post that increases from 100 to 250 monthly impressions after optimization demonstrates stronger performance, even if the absolute numbers seem modest. 

Search impressions also work hand-in-hand with click-through rates to show a more complete picture of how effective your content is.

2. Keyword Rankings

Keyword rankings is the measure of a webpage’s position in organic (unpaid) search engine results pages for a given query. This positioning directly impacts your visibility to potential visitors.

Why it matters: Your position in search results dramatically affects traffic volume. Top positions directly correlate with traffic increases, and the first page of results captures the vast majority of clicks. 

How to measure it: Monitor rankings through Google Search Console's Performance report, which shows average positions for queries your site appears for. For more comprehensive tracking, tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Moz provide historical ranking data, competitor comparisons, and rank tracking for specific keyword sets.

How to improve it:

• Place target keywords near the beginning of title tags for stronger relevance signals.
• Add comprehensive coverage of related questions and subtopics.
• Strengthen internal linking to priority pages you want to rank higher.
• Create separate pages for different search intents instead of trying to rank one page for multiple purposes.

What success looks like: Aim to reach the first page (positions 1-10) for your target keywords, as rankings beyond page one receive minimal traffic. For competitive terms, even moving from position 5 to position 3 can significantly increase visibility. 

3. Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is the measure of all non-paid visits to your website from search engines. It represents the total audience you're reaching through SEO efforts rather than through paid advertising.

Why it matters: Organic traffic creates a sustainable audience without ongoing ad spend. Each visitor represents potential for conversion, and growth in this metric indicates your overall SEO strategy is working. Organic traffic delivers value long-term where paid traffic stops immediately when campaigns end.

How to measure it: Track organic traffic in Google Analytics 4. Navigate to Acquisition → Traffic Acquisition, then filter for "Organic Search" as the session source. For more detailed analysis, segment this traffic by landing page, device type, or geographic location to identify specific patterns and opportunities.

How to improve it:

• Create content for keywords your competitors don’t rank for.
• Update content ranking in 11th position and later for your most important keywords.
• Build topic clusters around core subjects with strong internal linking.
• Add relevant schema markup to earn rich snippets in search results.
• Maintain a consistent publishing calendar focused on high-demand topics.

What success looks like: Growth trends matter more than absolute numbers. Monitor month-over-month and year-over-year changes to establish baseline performance for your specific industry and content type. Consistent upward trends indicate successful SEO efforts, while sudden drops may signal technical issues or algorithm updates requiring attention.

Authority Metrics

Authority metrics measure how search engines evaluate your site's trustworthiness and expertise. These indicators help predict future ranking potential and reveal the strength of your domain's reputation in the digital ecosystem.

4. Domain Strength

Each of the most commonly used third-party SEO tools has its own measure of domain strength. Moz has Domain Authority, Ahrefs has Domain Rating, and Semrush has Authority Score.

Each of these KPIs — Domain Authority, Domain Rating, and Authority Score — is the measure of your website's overall authority and the likelihood you’ll rank for any particular query. And one of the most important elements these metrics use to determine domain strength is backlink quality, or the measure of how authoritative, relevant, and trustworthy the websites linking to your content are. These related metrics work together to indicate how search engines might evaluate your site's credibility.

Why it matters: While these scores aren't official Google metrics, they provide useful approximations of your site's competitive position. Search engines use links as votes of confidence for your content. Strong domain metrics correlate with better ranking ability, especially for competitive keywords. Sites with robust authority can rank more easily for new content and recover faster from algorithm updates. More importantly, focusing on improving these metrics builds genuine trust signals that support long-term organic growth.

How to measure it: You can do it the old fashioned way — by searching your term and seeing where it is on the page — but most content marketers track domain metrics at scale through their chosen third-party SEO tool. 

How to improve it:

The most valuable way to improve domain strength is by building a diverse portfolio of links from authoritative sites within your industry or related fields.

• Publish original research or data that naturally attracts citations.
• Develop relationships with publications in your industry for guest content opportunities.

What success looks like: Success for these metrics won’t be an absolute number but rather a relative improvement compared to your current measure and to direct competitors in your niche. For backlinks, prioritize steady increases in referring domains from relevant industries over raw link counts. 

User Experience Metrics

User experience metrics reveal how people interact with your site after finding it in search results. These engagement signals help determine whether your content meets visitor expectations and influence both rankings and conversion potential.

5. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rate is the measure of how many people click on your link after seeing it in search results. It's calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions and multiplying by 100 to get a percentage.

(# of clicks / # of impressions) x 100 = CTR%

Why it matters: CTR directly impacts traffic volume. Content that ranks well but has a low CTR is underperforming, and though “underperforming” depends on a lot of factors, you should always benchmark it against prior measurements. 

Search engines may use CTR as a ranking signal, potentially boosting positions for results that attract more clicks than expected for their position. More importantly, improvements in CTR can drive significant traffic increases without changing rankings, making it one of the most efficient optimization opportunities.

How to measure it: Access CTR data in Google Search Console's Performance report, which shows impressions, clicks, and CTR for individual pages and queries. Filter by specific pages or search terms to identify particular opportunities for improvement. Compare your CTR against your average performance for similar positions to identify underperforming pages.

How to improve it:

• Change meta titles of poor-performing content.
• Include current years, numbers, or results in titles to signal relevance.

What success looks like: Average CTRs vary significantly by position and industry. Rather than targeting absolute numbers, compare performance against your historical baseline for similar positions.

6. Time on Page

Time on page is the measure of how long visitors spend actively engaging with your content before navigating away. It generally indicates content quality and relevance to the user's search intent.

Why it matters: Longer engagement suggests users find your content valuable enough to consume thoroughly. When visitors spend more time with your content, they're more likely to absorb your message, build trust in your expertise, and convert. Search engines may use engagement metrics like time on page as quality indicators when determining rankings. For informational content especially, longer session duration often correlates with delivering comprehensive answers to users' questions.

How to measure it: Track time on page in Google Analytics 4 using the "Average engagement time" metric, which measures active engagement rather than simple time elapsed (so all our open tabs don’t count toward time on page). Create segments to analyze engagement by traffic source, focusing specifically on organic visitors. Compare performance across similar content types to establish meaningful benchmarks, as ideal engagement times vary significantly based on content purpose and format.

How to improve it:

• Structure content with clear headings and subheadings to improve scannability.
• Break up text with relevant images, charts, and other visual elements.
• Include embedded videos where appropriate to increase engagement.
• Add interactive elements like calculators or quizzes for applicable topics.
• Place internal links strategically to guide readers to related content.
• Update old or outdated content with new information to keep it current and comprehensive.

What success looks like: Appropriate time on page varies significantly by content format and purpose. Blog posts might aim for 2-3 minutes, while in-depth guides might target 5+ minutes of engagement. Pages with consistently higher engagement than your site average often indicate content formats and approaches worth replicating.

Time on page works together with bounce rate to provide a more complete picture of content quality, showing not just if visitors stay but how meaningfully they engage with your material.

7. Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the measure of visitors who leave your site after viewing just one page without any interaction. This metric indicates whether your content meets the expectations set by your search listing.

Why it matters: High bounce rates often signal a mismatch between user intent and your content. While some bounces are normal (especially for content that fully answers a query on a single page), patterns of high bounces across multiple pages may indicate issues with content quality, page experience, or targeting. 

How to measure it: Track bounce rate in Google Analytics 4 by creating a custom report that includes the "Engaged sessions" metric (GA4's replacement for traditional bounce rate). Focus on landing pages with significant organic traffic and segment by device type and traffic source to identify specific problem areas.

How to improve it:

• Align page content with the expectations set by your title and meta description.
• Optimize images and code to improve loading speed, especially on mobile.
• Place relevant internal links within the first two paragraphs.
• Include specific calls to action that match the reader's likely next step.
• Break up content with useful visuals, tables, and formatting.

What success looks like: Appropriate bounce rates vary by page type, intent, and industry, but the average bounce rate is around 55%, according to research by BusinessDasher. 

Business Impact Metrics

Business impact metrics connect your SEO efforts directly to revenue and business outcomes. These KPIs demonstrate the actual value of your organic traffic and justify continued investment in search optimization.

8. Organic Conversions

Organic conversions is the measure of how many visitors from search engines complete specific actions on your website, such as making a purchase, submitting a form, or signing up for a newsletter.

Why it matters: Conversion metrics help indicate how much business value your content drives. 

How to measure it: Set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics 4 by defining specific events as conversions in the "Events" section. Create segments for organic traffic to isolate search-driven conversions from other channels. For most businesses, track both micro-conversions (email signups, PDF downloads) and macro-conversions (purchases, demo requests) to understand the full customer journey.

How to improve it:

• Map content to specific stages in the buyer's journey.
• Place CTAs where they align naturally with content and user intent.
• Test different offers and landing page layouts for high-traffic pages.
• Create bottom-funnel content specifically designed to convert.
• Add relevant social proof elements near conversion points.

What success looks like: Target conversion rates vary widely by industry, content type, and conversion action. Focus on establishing your own baseline rates for different types of pages and work to improve incrementally. The most valuable pages often aren't those with the highest traffic but those with the best combination of traffic and conversion rate. Track both total conversion volume and conversion rate to get a complete picture of performance.

9. Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI is the measure of how much value your SEO investment generates compared to what you spend. It connects SEO activities directly to revenue outcomes.

Why it matters: ROI calculations transform SEO from a cost center to a profit center. They help justify budgets, resource allocation, and continued investment in organic search strategies. Understanding the return on specific SEO initiatives also helps prioritize future efforts and demonstrate the value of SEO to leadership and stakeholders who may not understand technical metrics.

How to measure it: ROI is famously one of the hardest metrics to track in SEO because, generally, in B2B SAAS, SEO doesn’t directly generate revenue. SEO generates leads, which marketing hands off to sales. So, while there are additional variables (like how well sales closed the deal), you should calculate any deals that started with a lead from search.

The most simple formula to calculate ROI is: 

(Revenue from organic search - Cost of SEO) ÷ Cost of SEO × 100%

How to improve it:

• Focus keyword research on terms with clearer purchase intent.
• Create more conversion points throughout (i.e., places to download an ebook, whitepaper, etc).

What success looks like: SEO typically delivers higher ROI than paid channels over time, especially when factoring in lifetime customer value. Rather than comparing against industry benchmarks, measure improvements against your historical performance and other marketing channels. 

Make Your SEO Efforts Count

Track these SEO KPIs to help guide your content strategy toward real business impact. 

Also, remember that SEO benefits compound over time. Analyze these metrics across different timeframes — quarterly, annually, and multi-year — to capture both immediate gains and long-term value. What might seem like modest improvements in individual metrics can translate to significant business growth when measured across quarters and years. 

Team Animalz