Ranking is not the only yardstick that measures your SEO performance. Webmasters often wonder if there is a single indicator can manifest their performance. While rankings are a key metric to assess your working, they pose certain limitations that make it necessary to take into consideration the bigger picture in Web Analytics.

Why it is not all about high rankings?

Keywords with not many searches have higher chances of ranking while they may not be capable of indicating the site‘s growth. Besides, the search results might change from person to person depending upon the person’s searches i.e. web history, bookmark history, geographic locations, etc. High Google rankings can also be of no use if they do not pull in enquiries. In addition, when you have a limited set of keywords, there are high chances of your traffic remaining low.

Metrics you must consider:

Non branded traffic- When you detach the traffic from the keywords that cater to your company, product name, you will be availed of the juncture of real keyword based traffic from the time you have started.

Search engine propelled traffic percentage: You need to ascertain your search engine based traffic by excluding the cost involved in advertising including Google Adwords. Keeping a track of this will enable you to have a grip over the total cost. When your search engine based traffic percentage increases over time, there are reasons for you to cheer as you can cut down on your advertising cost over time.

User engagement and bounce rates: What many may not know is that high user interactions will have a   direct impact on one’s ranking. Hence, one must also acknowledge the level of engagement in the website. High bounce rate is clearly a bad sign and has to be taken into consideration regularly with the objective of reducing them.

Goal Conversions: Fix some business goals. It is obvious the success of every business is directly related to the company’s profits. Hence, it is necessary to compare your revenues and set a target. Incase you are not achieving the same; it is time to modify your strategies.

It is necessary for every business to set up a Google Analytics account in order to have a clear idea about your performance in every aspect. Website analytics will also highlight your strength and weakness giving more scope for improvisation. The embedded javascript on all the pages of your site will give you an overview of visitors, traffic sources, goal conversions, and content quality.

Summary:  Webmasters must not merely reckon on ranks and have a broad approach towards Google Analytics. They must consider other metrics in web analytics including non-branded traffic, traffic propelled by search engines, user engagement level in the site, goal conversions, etc.