Looking for a List of Technical SEO KPIs?
Creating Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Technical SEO is critical to understanding the effectiveness of your SEO strategies and identifying areas for improvement. Here’s an extended list of KPIs to consider measuring, each with its purpose and method of calculation. More often than not, if your technical SEO isn’t performing well, it drags down your entire SEO performance. As markets become more competitive, Technical SEO can make or break your SEO efforts.
Core Web Vitals
Purpose: To measure user experience on your website, specifically focusing on loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability.
Method of Calculation: Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse to measure Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
Organic Traffic Growth Rate
Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of your SEO efforts in attracting natural visitors.
Method of Calculation: Use Google Analytics to measure the month-over-month or year-over-year increase in organic traffic.
Crawl Error Rate
Purpose: To identify issues in site crawling that may impact indexation.
Method of Calculation: Check Google Search Console for crawl errors and divide the number of errors by the total number of pages crawled.
Indexed Pages
Purpose: To understand how many of your site’s pages are being indexed by search engines.
Method of Calculation: Use the “site:” search operator in Google or refer to Google Search Console’s Coverage report.
Mobile Usability Score
Purpose: To evaluate how well your website performs on mobile devices.
Method of Calculation: Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Purpose: To measure the effectiveness of your titles and meta descriptions in attracting clicks.
Method of Calculation: Use Google Search Console to find the CTR for specific queries and pages.
Keyword Ranking
Purpose: To track the position of targeted keywords in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Method of Calculation: Use SEO tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to monitor keyword rankings.
Organic Conversion Rate
Purpose: To gauge how well organic traffic is converting into desired actions (sales, sign-ups, etc.)
Method of Calculation: Use Google Analytics to divide the number of organic conversions by the total organic sessions, multiplied by 100.
Bounce Rate
Purpose: To assess the quality of traffic and user engagement on your site.
Method of Calculation: Use Google Analytics to measure the percentage of single-page sessions.
Internal Linking Structure
Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of internal linking in distributing page authority.
Method of Calculation: Use an SEO crawler like Screaming Frog to analyze the internal linking structure.
Site Load Time
Purpose: To understand the impact of site speed on user experience and SEO.
Method of Calculation: Use tools like PageSpeed Insights, LightHouse, GTmetrix, or Pingdom.
Duplicate Content Ratio
Purpose: To ensure that content is unique across your site.
Method of Calculation: Use tools like Siteliner or Copyscape.
Backlink Quality and Quantity
Purpose: To assess the strength and relevance of your backlink profile.
Method of Calculation: Use backlink analysis tools like Ahrefs or Moz.
XML Sitemap Health
Purpose: To confirm that your sitemap is correctly formatted and up to date.
Method of Calculation: Validate your sitemap using Google Search Console.
Anchor Text Distribution
Purpose: To analyze the use of anchor text in both internal and external links.
Method of Calculation: Use SEO tools to review anchor text data.
Each of these KPIs serves a specific function in evaluating your technical SEO efforts. They should be reviewed and analyzed consistently to make data-driven decisions for ongoing optimization. If you’re ready for an extended list, keep reading.
The List of Extended KPIs for Technical SEO
Let’s delve deeper into additional KPIs that are beneficial in your technical SEO strategy.
Robots.txt Effectiveness
Purpose: To ensure that search engine crawlers are accessing the content you want indexed and avoiding the content you wish to keep private.
Method of Calculation: Manual audit and through the logs in server files to ensure that disallowed URLs are not being crawled.
Canonical Tag Usage
Purpose: To avoid duplicate content issues and ensure that search engines index the intended version of a page.
Method of Calculation: Conduct a website audit using SEO audit tools or manually inspect pages to confirm proper canonical tag implementation.
Server Response Codes
Purpose: To identify server issues that might impede crawling or user experience, such as 404 errors or 301 redirects.
Method of Calculation: Use server log analysis tools or crawl your site with SEO audit tools to identify response codes.
Page Depth Levels
Purpose: To analyze how many clicks it takes for a user to reach a particular page, affecting both user experience and crawlability.
Method of Calculation: Crawl your website using tools like Screaming Frog and categorize pages by their click depth from the homepage.
Structured Data Implementation
Purpose: To ensure that your site’s rich snippets are displayed in SERPs, improving CTR and providing better information to users.
Method of Calculation: Use Google’s Rich Results Test or similar tools to assess structured data implementation.
Content Freshness
Purpose: To measure how often content is updated, which can be a ranking factor for some types of queries.
Method of Calculation: Manually track update frequencies or use CMS logs to note when core content is updated.
HTTPS Adoption
Purpose: To ensure the security of your website, which is a minor ranking factor in Google.
Method of Calculation: Manual check or use a site-wide crawl to ensure all pages are HTTPS.
International Targeting
Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of international SEO efforts, including hreflang tag implementation.
Method of Calculation: Use Google Search Console’s International Targeting report or use specialized SEO tools.
Search Visibility Score
Purpose: To get a high-level overview of how well your website is likely to be seen in search engine rankings.
Method of Calculation: This is often a proprietary metric provided by SEO platforms, calculated based on your keyword rankings and their estimated click-through rates.
Social Signals
Purpose: While not a direct ranking factor, social signals (likes, shares, etc.) can indicate content quality and contribute to natural link-building.
Method of Calculation: Use social media analytics tools or integrated data within SEO platforms.
JavaScript Rendering
Purpose: To ensure that content loaded via JavaScript is crawlable and indexable.
Method of Calculation: Use tools like Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider with JavaScript rendering enabled or manual checks using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
Nofollow vs. Dofollow Links
Purpose: To understand the ratio between nofollow and dofollow links, both internally and externally, affecting your site’s link equity.
Method of Calculation: Use backlink analysis tools to determine the type and ratio of links.
With these additional KPIs, you can create a more comprehensive picture of your technical SEO landscape.
Remember that setting benchmarks and tracking these metrics over time will provide you with actionable insights for constant improvement. Keep in mind that the efficacy of specific KPIs can vary depending on your industry, target audience, and business goals, so be prepared to adapt your KPIs as needed.
Your website content shouldn’t have to suffer because you don’t know Technical SEO. Contact us for a Technical SEO Audit, a site review, or if you need help fixing your Technical SEO problems (we’re kind of obsessed about it).
