If something can be measured, it can be improved.
By carefully measuring your SEO with metrics that matter to your business, you can understand where you are currently and what value SEO brings to your marketing.
SEO KPIs connect your marketing objectives to your SEO reporting and should feature prominently in your SEO plan.
In a time of rapid change – when both search engines and users are embracing AI – tracking your SEO and organic performance is more critical than ever.
This article breaks down the key SEO metrics and KPIs you need to keep up with, stay ahead of, and succeed in this new era of AI-driven search.
What are KPIs?
A KPI is a key performance indicator. This is a quantifiable measurement of performance in relation to a specific objective.
KPIs help you define targets and milestones and measure progress toward those goals.
What are SEO KPIs?
SEO KPIs are metrics used to measure SEO performance.
Typically, SEO KPIs track visibility or traffic and how it fares in relation to your SEO goals.
SEO KPIs should help you understand your visibility, traffic, and the real-world performance of your SEO approach (leads and sales).
SEO KPIs in the age of AI search
Search is changing. The integration of AI answers and a full conversational AI Mode will allow users to interact with search engines in ways never before possible.
This sudden and accelerating change will create new challenges for marketers, but also new opportunities.
It is important not to lose sight of the fundamentals when measuring SEO.
AI is moving fast – and it matters. Your job is to stay sharp:
- Watch what’s happening.
- Learn what’s working.
- Use AI where it gives you an edge.
Start by tracking AI metrics wherever you can. This helps you spot problems early and uncover opportunities.
But don’t lose sight of what already works. Proven, reliable data still drives smart decisions.
The SEO KPIs below are your foundation.
Focus on these core metrics, and layer in AI insights as they become available.
This is how you prepare for the next era of search: clear-eyed, informed, and strategically focused on what drives results.
Using SEO KPIs
Careful measurement and tracking act as a control system, helping ensure:
- Your tactics drive real results.
- Your time is focused on what truly moves the needle.
In times of rapid change, it’s just as important to spot what’s not working as it is to track what’s gaining traction. KPIs give you that visibility.
Staying on top of both traditional and AI-driven SEO KPIs is essential if you want to operate as a modern SEO.
This isn’t just about rankings – it’s about integrating SEO into your broader marketing strategy to ensure your website and business thrive in the age of AI-powered search.
It is also important that KPIs can be tiered to provide understandable metrics for all stakeholders.
The marketing team will need more details to ensure time is spent wisely on SEO vs. PPC, but the board may only need to see top-level performance figures (like revenue from search).
Tailoring the KPIs to your situation and the needs of all key stakeholders is essential to creating truly useful SEO KPIs.
Objectives and KPIs
KPIs are a measurement criterion for your objectives.
SEO KPIs track progress toward your goals and show whether your efforts are delivering the real-world results you expected or not.
Good KPIs should challenge you to ask: Is your SEO strategy actually driving performance? And if not, what needs to change?
SEO KPI process
The following is a simple process that you can use to determine your SEO goals and KPIs.
Step 1: Determine your SEO goals
The first job is to identify your SEO objectives. What are the important tasks you need to achieve now, in a month, three months, six months, and a year?
The SEO goals should connect to established organizational goals, and you should clearly articulate how the SEO goals drive the overall business goals.
I suggest three to five goals initially to keep focus.
You should then define your SEO goals using the SMART goals system.
Alternatively, you can use the OKR approach to objectives and key results detailed in “Measure What Matters” by John Doerr.
This simple system was used by Google, Microsoft, and many other huge companies to simplify goal-setting to drive massive growth.
The right approach will depend upon your business, but whatever you choose, your goals should be relevant, measurable, achievable, and time-bound.
Step 2: Define what you will measure
The next step is to define what you will measure.
Your measurement metrics can be thought of as steps, and each should take you closer to the overall goal. As with the goals, you want 3–5 measurement metrics for each goal.
When your goals are achieved, you should be able to measure performance to determine if your strategy here is valid.
Step 3: Decide on the length of your cycle
As a general rule of thumb, SEO metrics are tracked monthly.
There are exceptions to this rule. Keyword rankings may be tracked daily (but reviewed monthly), and you may also want quarterly, bi-yearly, and annual reports.
Remember, with SEO, you may only see tangible results like leads and sales when your keywords rank highly and drive traffic.
Factor progress toward the goal into your overall cycle length.
Step 4: Review and reflect
The goal is to review each KPI and, ideally, score performance.
- What is working?
- What can you do differently next month?
The purpose of KPIs is to help you review your approach and think critically about what is or is not working.
A highly ranked organic keyword in modern search may not drive the expected traffic numbers.
Think of this as an experiment. Your KPIs are there to test the validity of your hypothesis.
Be flexible, and be ready to adapt and adjust your tactics based on the results.
Example
- Objective: To sell more kitchens.
- KPI 1: Increase rank for kitchen keywords.
- KPI 2: Increase organic traffic on kitchen pages.
- KPI 3: Improve engagement rates.
- KPI 4: Increase organic conversions.
Here we have a simple objective measured with four simple SEO KPIs. This does not have to be complicated!
Following this approach, you will create three to five relevant SEO goals that you can easily measure with three to five SEO KPIs each.
Dig deeper: How to benchmark your SEO performance in 2025
Example SEO KPIs
There is no shortage of SEO metrics for tracking your campaigns.
Data points can be found in free SEO tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics or in the many commercial SEO tools.
Unfortunately, while we have lots of data in its native format, commercial SEO tools and even Google Analytics often do more to confuse than deliver insight.
The purpose of SEO KPIs is to make those metrics useful.
We do that with the four-step model, where we connect SEO metrics to SEO goals connected to the broader business and marketing goals.
The following is a categorized list of SEO metrics to build your SEO KPIs.
Remember, don’t just blindly use the metrics below. Connect them to your SEO goals in groups of three to five to drive insight and understanding.
1. SEO keywords
First up is the old SEO stalwart of keywords.
Tracking keywords for SEO is complicated nowadays as search results have so many elements.
But it is still important to show progress toward your goals and get a sanity check on how much traffic a given keyword will deliver.
Track keywords for progress and verify your strategy.
Modern search results will include:
- Local pack.
- Organic listings.
- Featured snippets.
- Sitelinks.
- Knowledge cards and panels.
- Videos.
- People also ask.
- Video previews.
You may also want to consider:
- By location.
- By country.
- Search Console CTR.
- Search Console Average Rank.
- Search Console Clicks.
- Search Console Impressions.
When tracking keywords, combine multiple factors to give the complete picture.
At the very least, track rankings, organic impressions and clicks (from Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools).
Depending on the SERP layout, a top 5 keyword can still do very little in actual clicks.
As time progresses, with this level of detail in your keyword KPIs, you will learn what works and what does not, which will feed into your strategy and goal setting.
Tip: Remember, rankings are just one factor. When working on your web design and SEO, make sure the content that ranks is a good fit for the intent behind the keyword.
2. SEO metrics
These are the traditional SEO metrics provided by various SEO tools.
Most of these metrics grew out of the hysteria around Google PageRank and aim to provide a general authority score at a site and page level.
These metrics can be helpful, but they mean very little alone, and they need to be compared to competitor values to provide accurate context.
You should measure whether your site’s perceived trust and authority will correlate with an increase in the rank for your main search terms and the amount of organic traffic received.
These metrics are important, but do not talk in the language of the business, so their prioritization in your reports will depend on the stakeholders’ understanding of SEO.
- Majestic Citation Flow.
- Majestic Trust Flow.
- Majestic Trust and Citation Balance.
- Moz Domain Authority.
- Moz Page Authority.
- Moz Spam Score.
Tip: Remember that these specific SEO metrics should be tied to the overarching goals and strategy.
For example, suppose you want to build traffic to your upper-funnel marketing content.
In that case, you may want to improve site authority, but remember to sanity check improvements against real-world metrics (rankings, traffic, etc).
3. Real-world SEO KPIs
While many SEO KPIs relate to perceived authority and keyword rankings, what really matters is whether this is making a difference.
- Are we getting more traffic? Is that generating more leads?
- Is the cost per lead coming down vs. other channels?
- Are we seeing more branded searches due to raised awareness?
This is where the SEO rubber hits the SERP road, folks, so these metrics are essential.
- Increase in organic traffic.
- Increase in the number of pages on the site that generate traffic.
- Increase in non-branded search traffic.
- Percentage increase in traffic from specific geographic regions.
- Organic Impressions (Search Console).
- Organic Click-Through Rate (CTR) (Search Console).
Tip: We would also like to see real-world SEO metrics increase as SEO metrics improve.
This ensures that your work helps move the dial rather than just satisfying the whim of an SEO tool.
4. Conversion KPIs
In most cases, the most important SEO KPI is conversion. Tracking conversions from organic search should be at the top of your list.
These KPIs need to be customized around your specific goals. Some examples here include:
- Conversions from organic search.
- Percentage increase in conversion rate.
- Organic search conversion rate.
- Sales conversions.
- Lead conversions.
- Downloads.
- Email clicks.
- Phone number clicks.
- Form fills.
- Cost per acquisition (CPA).
Note:
- Calculating and tracking CPA for organic search allows you to compare the return from organic with other channels. This helps determine if you are spending your precious marketing budget wisely.
- Branded search traffic can easily skew these figures, so keep a close eye on branded search traffic in the search console along with user journeys in GA4 and factor that into your conclusions.
Tip: The specifics here really depend on your business and marketing objectives, so ensure you track these in GA4.
5. Engagement KPIs
Google Analytics 4 has three key engagement metrics:
- Average engagement time (over the date range).
- Engaged sessions per user.
- Average engagement time per session.
Tip: Tracking engagement as a general KPI but also for all channels allows you to evaluate the quality of traffic from SEO vs. PPC, social, etc. Again, this helps determine if you are spending your time and efforts on the right tactics.
6. Referral traffic
A solid SEO campaign can impact your business beyond driving more organic traffic.
If content and links are vital to your strategy, this exposure can drive more high-quality referral traffic, so it is prudent to demonstrate the extra value here.
This helps to illustrate how your SEO strategies have multiple marketing benefits.
Often, solid referral traffic can convert at a better rate than organic search traffic, so ignore this at your peril.
- Percentage increase in referral traffic.
- Percentage increase in referral conversions.
- Percentage increase in engagement metrics (bounce, pages, time).
Tip: The links that will build authority will also drive referral traffic, so factor this into your qualitative measurement.
7. Brand impact
Improved search visibility equates to improved overall visibility – advertising by another name.
Look at the increase in branded search traffic and brand mentions and how this correlates to your work.
- Percentage increase in branded search traffic.
- Percentage increase in brand mentions.
- Visibility on third-party sites.
The visibility on third-party sites is another way for your audience to discover you.
For example, more people will discover me and my business by writing and publishing this article here on Search Engine Land.
If you do this kind of marketing, then ensure you measure the impact.
Tracking how many people search for you by name helps you understand and measure overall recognition.
Comparing these values to your main competitors helps you measure relative market awareness.
Note: AI will often provide brand mentions, and this can also drive a spike in branded traffic. This tallies with the uptick we are seeing in homepage traffic vs. the general dip in traffic to informational content.
Dig deeper: The new SEO imperative: Building your brand
8. Link building KPIs
Links are still one of the primary drivers of search engine visibility, and links (plus content) are often the main tangible element of a long-term SEO campaign.
We must still report on the total number of links from authority sites and those from highly relevant sites.
These will generally be pulled from our link wishlist and should be customized around your client’s industry.
- Total links.
- Total links gained this time period.
- Number of links from authority sites.
- Number of links from relevant sites.
- Links lost.
To drive exposure in AI, getting coverage in highly visible sites will only help drive awareness with your target audience and the AI tools that may recommend you.
Tip: To determine the relative value of your link building, compare your link profile with your competitors’ using one of the many SEO tools available.
9. Soft conversion KPIs
Leads are vital to your overall digital marketing, yet the classification of leads and the sales funnel becomes increasingly complex.
As such, we should measure our SEO efforts’ impact on lead generation, whether social signups, newsletter signups, or some other download or lead gen specific to your business.
- Percentage increase in newsletter signups.
- Percentage increase in social followers/likes, and so on.
- Business-specific lead generation goals (data sheets, white papers, and so on).
Tip: Try to understand the customer journey and the steps required, from awareness and a visit to a paying customer and lifetime value.
SEO may drive most of your email signups, and the email campaigns drive sales. Customize this to your situation and measure what matters.
10. Business objective-specific KPIs
It’s a little more challenging to create a generic example for this category. However, it’s important from a reporting perspective.
We must do all we can to connect the business strategy with our SEO strategy via KPIs.
Often, the KPIs detailed above will give you what you want here, so this is more of a case of structuring them to align with your goals and reporting them meaningfully.
Remember, the higher-ups may only want a very low-resolution overview, but the marketing team may need more detail.
To provide some direction, if your goal is to build awareness of a new product, you should focus on awareness metrics:
- Impressions.
- Average position.
- Keywords.
- Clicks.
- And so forth.
If you want to drive more signups, we want to track the number of people looking at the signup and pricing pages.
If we look at more traditional conversions, we must look at the total number of sales/leads/inquiries.
The point here is that you already have the SEO KPIs, but remember to:
- Frame them around your business objectives.
- Clearly highlight that you are helping move the business forward and not just providing a set of esoteric SEO tracking metrics.
Your SEO work has much more value than simply moving a keyword ranking. It adds real value to the business, reduces marketing costs, builds the brand, and more.
Just remember to let the right people know in a way they can understand.
Tip: If you are struggling with how to categorize your SEO KPIs, there are two approaches that we have found helpful over the years.
The first is to group your KPIs along the marketing funnel:
- Awareness.
- Engagement.
- Conversion.
An alternative approach is to use the VQVC model, which stands for:
- Volume.
- Quality.
- Value.
- Cost.
If you are struggling, investigate these options to ensure you build truly insightful SEO KPI reports.
11. AI SEO KPIs
Yes, I made you wait until the very end for the hot topic.
Measuring visibility in AI results is important, and contrasting this with the performance (and losses) of traditional SEO metrics can help you understand what is really happening and what matters to you.
The best advice: focus on the metrics that matter most from the list below.
Tracking too many can overwhelm your reporting – and make it hard to see the AI landscape through the SEO noise.
Your goal here is to understand the impact AI search features have on your marketing performance (good and bad).
Additionally, if one area drops, does another rise? This will help you determine where to best focus your efforts.
As such, I think we can do something a little different here and track both positive and negative impacts.
Positive AI SEO KPIs
The following are all good potentials to track.
- Branded search volume: A general KPI but one also impacted by mentions in AI (with homepage traffic up for many sites).
- Increasing impressions in Google Search Console: Shows your pages are still being surfaced in AI-enhanced search results.
- Traffic from Discover, Perspectives, or similar AI surfaces: Indicates your content is featured in newer, AI-powered visibility channels.
- Inclusion in Perspectives, Discussions, or Q&A boxes: Confirms your brand is being surfaced as a trusted or relevant source.
- Rising branded search volume or direct traffic: Suggests AI exposure is increasing awareness and downstream interest.
- Structured data indexed and active (FAQ, How-To, etc.): Means your site is eligible for enhanced display and AI summary inclusion.
- High engagement on informational pages (scroll depth, time on page): Shows users are interacting with the content that AI may be using or surfacing.
Negative KPIs (Warning signs of AI interference)
The other side of the AI coin – negative impact.
This is as useful to know so you can ensure that any losses or weaknesses are addressed.
- CTR dropping while impressions remain steady or rise: Suggests users are getting answers from AI without clicking through.
- Clicks dropping despite strong or rising impressions: Indicates visibility is there but not converting to traffic, likely due to AI.
- Loss of rankings for question-style or informational queries: May show that AI Overviews or other features are replacing traditional listings.
Note: Remember, this is the Wild West to some extent. Our goal here is to understand how the tectonic plates of AI and SEO are shifting – and to use the insights to guide our path forward into a new era.
Dig deeper: 12 new KPIs for the generative AI search era
The winds of AI change are blowing
The only constant in search marketing is change. Historically, it’s been a gradual evolution, occasionally punctuated by sudden leaps forward (or backward).
Now, with the integration of generative AI, we’re likely witnessing the single biggest change in search since Day 1.
Bigger than mobile.
Bigger than RankBrain.
Bigger than BERT.
These changes are already showing up in the form of new page features and increasingly dynamic search results – directly impacting visibility and traffic.
Organic clicks are undeniably down, even as overall search volume continues to rise.
The truth is, no one knows exactly how this will unfold. There are no definitive answers.
AI SEO for LLMs and generative technologies won’t replace traditional SEO – but it will continue to reshape it, building on the trajectory we’ve already been following.
SEO KPIs help you:
- Understand what’s working.
- Spot changes – both good and bad.
- Identify which tactics drive results.
- Build a strategic view of marketing across the business.
SEO reporting, now more than ever, should be a strategic process.
It’s a chance to build critical thinking, encourage problem-solving, and apply creativity to your SEO approach – so you can thrive in this fast-moving, exciting environment.