How do you know if your SEO strategy is working? It’s not always obvious. Search engine optimization takes time, and results often appear months after the work begins.
SEO metrics solve that problem. These measurements show whether your efforts are moving in the right direction.
This list covers the SEO metrics to focus on in 2025 and how to track them in tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
SEO Metrics vs. SEO KPIs
SEO metrics are often confused with key performance indicators (KPIs). They're connected but not the same.
Metrics track activity inside search engines, such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, click-through rate (CTR), and site speed. These numbers reveal how your SEO strategy is performing over time.
KPIs focus on outcomes. They measure whether those SEO efforts lead to signups, purchases, or calls from organic search traffic. In other words, metrics show progress, while KPIs confirm results.
Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console provide the data for both. Metrics capture activity in search engines, while KPIs link that activity to outcomes like new customers or revenue.
The Most Important SEO Metrics to Track in 2025
There are dozens of numbers you can look at when reviewing SEO performance. These are the key SEO metrics to track if you want to refine your SEO strategy.
1. Organic Traffic
Organic traffic measures how many visitors reach your web pages through search results without paid advertising. This is one of the most important SEO metrics to track because it shows if your SEO efforts are driving visibility in relevant areas.
Image source: Support.google.com
You can track organic traffic with SEO tools:
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Google Analytics: Go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition. Filter by Organic Search to see organic sessions compared with other traffic sources.
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Google Search Console: Review search queries, impressions, and organic clicks. This view highlights which landing pages bring in visitors and how search visibility is changing over time.
TapClicks integrates both Analytics and Search Console data into one dashboard, so you can monitor organic sessions, clicks, and impressions without switching tools.
2. Organic Conversions and Key Events
In Google Analytics, you can set up key events such as checkouts, form submissions, or button clicks. Tracking these actions connects organic sessions with specific results.
Google Search Console can complement this by showing which search queries lead visitors to the landing pages where conversions occur. This SEO data highlights which keywords are more likely to bring visitors who complete a signup or a purchase.
If a page draws consistent website traffic but conversions remain low, review the page layout, calls to action, and site content.
Suggested Reading:
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3. Keyword Rankings and Share of Voice
Keyword rankings measure where your web pages appear for specific search queries. This metric shows how well your SEO campaign matches the keywords your target audience uses.
Share of voice expands this view. It compares your visibility in the search engine results page with competitor domains targeting the same keywords.
To monitor rankings:
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Use Google Search Console to see the average position for each query and spot movement over time.
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Add SEO tools that report domain rating, highlight referring domains, and calculate share of voice across multiple competitors.
If keyword rankings slip, review ranking factors such as mobile friendliness, link building quality, and site content relevance. These adjustments can improve search visibility and support better rankings.
4. Click Through Rate
Click-through rate, or CTR, measures the percentage of people who click your listing after seeing it in search results.
It connects keyword rankings with user engagement and helps explain why some pages drive organic traffic while others don't.
You can track average CTR in Google Search Console under the Performance report.
This view shows impressions, organic clicks, and CTR for each query or landing page, giving clear data points to guide SEO reporting metrics.
Image source: Support.google.com
If CTR is low, review the meta description and page title. Both influence whether a searcher chooses your listing.
Testing new phrasing, highlighting unique value, or answering common questions in the title can increase organic clicks.
Suggested Reading:
Google Ads Reporting Tool: 4 Key Features for Agencies
5. Engagement Metrics and Exit Pages
After a visitor lands on your site, engagement metrics show how they interact with the content. These data points reveal whether the experience holds attention or pushes people away.
Key metrics include:
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Bounce rate: The share of visitors who leave after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate can signal content that does not answer the search query or a layout that fails to guide readers forward.
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Pages per session: The average number of pages visited before leaving. Higher numbers suggest visitors find content relevant and want to explore more.
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Average engagement time: How long people remain active on your site. Longer times show interest in the content, while short sessions may point to weak site content or poor page layout.
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Exit pages: The last page a visitor views before leaving. On e-commerce sites, frequent exits on a checkout page may reveal a broken process. On content sites, a blog post with many exits may need stronger internal linking to guide readers toward other pages.
Together, these metrics help you identify where your site delivers value and where user journeys stop. Adjusting page layout, calls to action, or site content can often improve SEO performance.
6. Site Speed and Core Web Vitals
Site speed influences how people interact with your site and how search engines rank it. Visitors abandon pages that load slowly, and search engines use speed signals to rank web pages.
You can measure site speed and related performance metrics in two main places:
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Google Analytics: Offers average load times across web pages and devices. This makes it easier to find which areas perform poorly.
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Google Search Console, which breaks performance into three metrics:
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Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Time for the main content to appear.
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First Input Delay (FID): Time between a user’s action and the page’s response.
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Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How much the layout shifts while loading.
Image source: Core Web Vitals Reports in Google Search Console, YouTube
These Core Web Vitals highlight where visitors may lose patience. Oversized images can slow LCP, heavy scripts extend FID, and unstable elements increase CLS.
Fixing these problems helps pages load faster and improves search visibility. Performance data becomes even more useful when paired with modern data visualization that makes site trends easy to interpret.
7. Backlinks, Referring Domains, and Authority Metrics
Links from other sites influence how search engines judge your content. Backlinks signal trust, and a broad base of referring domains shows that multiple sources find your content valuable.
According to Backlinko, the #1 result in Google has an average of 3.8 times more backlinks than results in positions two through ten. That highlights how backlinks connect directly to visibility in search results.
Keep in mind:
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Links from a wide mix of referring domains carry more weight than repeated links from the same site.
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One backlink from a respected industry website can outweigh dozens from unrelated sources.
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Authority metrics combine backlinks, referring domains, and link quality to show how your site stacks up against competitors.
Tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush can track backlinks, measure referring domains, and monitor domain authority.
This data helps you see whether your link building improves search visibility and whether your backlinks come from credible, high-value websites.
8. Mobile Traffic and Mobile Friendliness
Mobile traffic affects SEO success, as search engines reward websites that perform well on smaller screens. A site that lacks mobile friendliness risks losing visibility and organic traffic.
Google Analytics measures this by comparing traffic from mobile devices against desktop. A large share of mobile sessions highlights the need to optimize for that audience.
Google now includes mobile usability factors in the Page Experience report, and tools like Lighthouse highlight common problems such as:
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Text too small to read on a phone
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Buttons or links placed too close together
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Pages that fail to adjust to smaller screen sizes
These reports provide valuable insights into how visitors interact with particular pages on mobile devices. When you review them alongside omnichannel reporting, you see how mobile behavior compares with other traffic sources.
For example, if a page attracts organic traffic but shows high bounce rates, layout issues, or slow load speed, it may be the reason.
9. Indexed Pages and Crawl Errors
Indexed pages show how many pages Google includes in search results. If key content is missing from the index, it cannot rank or attract organic traffic.
The Pages report in Google Search Console shows which pages appear in the index and which remain excluded.
Exclusions may result from duplicate content, blocked resources, or structural issues in the site. Reviewing this report provides clear insight into where indexing fails.
Image source: Support.google.com
Crawl errors occur when search engines attempt to access a page but fail. Common causes include broken links, server problems, and incorrect redirects.
These errors prevent search engines from displaying the affected pages in search results.
Fixing broken links, correcting redirects, and addressing server issues improve indexing and extend visibility across more pages.
Track All Your SEO Metrics in One Place With TapClicks
Tracking SEO metrics is only useful if you can connect the dots. Pulling numbers separately from Google Analytics, Search Console, and SEO tools makes it harder to see patterns.
TapClicks solves this by bringing everything into one platform.
With TapSEO, you can run audits to spot technical issues, track keyword rankings, and review backlink quality. Scheduled crawls keep your reports current, and keyword research helps uncover search terms with potential.
TapAnalytics lets you see SEO alongside paid campaigns and CRM data. This view highlights how organic traffic contributes compared with other channels. You can also apply margin and markup rules to tie SEO activity to profit.
TapInsights adds context with AI-written summaries, alerts for unusual changes, and progress tracking for traffic and conversion goals.
FAQs About SEO Metrics
What are SEO KPIs?
SEO KPIs are key performance indicators that connect your SEO work with outcomes. While metrics track activity such as traffic or rankings, KPIs show whether those efforts lead to conversions, signups, or sales. They tie SEO activity back to results that affect the success of your site.
What are the four pillars of SEO?
The four pillars are on-page SEO, off-page SEO, technical SEO, and content. On-page SEO covers keywords, internal links, and content structure. Off-page SEO measures backlinks and how other sites reference your pages.
Technical SEO addresses crawlability, indexing, and site speed. Content supports these areas by matching search intent and providing value to visitors.
How do you measure SEO performance?
You measure SEO performance with tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Organic traffic shows how many visitors arrive through search. Keyword rankings reveal visibility, and conversion data connects visits to signups or purchases. Backlink quality and site performance also indicate how SEO contributes to results.
What are the four types of SEO?
The four types of SEO are on-page, off-page, technical, and local.
On-page SEO adjusts elements within a page, while off-page SEO improves authority through backlinks.
Technical SEO enhances indexing, crawl health, and site speed. Local SEO increases visibility in geographic searches through business listings and customer reviews.
