SEO benchmarking allows you to measure the SEO performance of a website. As this is a competitive field where you are always looking to beat competitors on search engines, comparing your efforts, and subsequently SEO results, to those of competitors makes a lot of sense. This helps to discover the strengths and weaknesses of a website’s SEO, in order to reformulate the necessary recommendations to improve its performance.
The main SEO KPIs
In SEO, as in the different disciplines of digital marketing, performance indicators or KPIs are elements to look at closely. In natural referencing, KPIs allow SEO specialists to measure the impact of their work and quantify the results.
The 5 main types of indicators SEO performance are :
- Traffic (visits)
- Clicks
- Bounce rate
- Conversions
- Positionings
You can measure and monitor the evolution of these indicators with free tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console or paid tools (Moz, Semrush, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, Myposeo, etc.).
SEO audit vs. SEO benchmark
An SEO audit is a process of verifying the website SEO to find out if it complies with Google guidelines. A benchmark, on the other hand, is a process of comparing your website with competitors to see how you fare.
The difference between an audit and a benchmark is that audits are carried out at regular intervals while benchmarks are carried out when there is a need for comparison. You should make a SEO audit every six months or so and benchmark your site every year or two.
The comparison is made with the sites of your competitors in SEO. It allows you to know to what extent you are ahead of competitors in terms of optimizations.
Measure the effectiveness of your SEO campaign
Judging the effectiveness or failure of your SEO campaign depends above all on the objectives you have defined beforehand.
If your main goal is to drive traffic, you should focus on driving organic traffic to your site. You can do this through Google Analytics or Search Console. An increase in the click-through rate on the latter means that you have achieved your objective.
If, on the other hand, you have set an objective such as generating qualified traffic, you will need to monitor the conversion rate, the time spent on the pages and the bounce rate. An upward curve means that you have succeeded in attracting people interested in your content and your offer.
There are many examples, but you understand, you must monitor the performance indicators which provide data in relation to your objective.
You can thus compare your results over a past period and your current results to determine the direction of your evolution.
Conclusion
SEO benchmarking allows you to determine if your SEO strategy is on the right track. You can measure your results against those of your competitors. This measurement can focus on certain SEO KPIs depending on your objectives. The main thing is to always have a positive slope!
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