In the ever-evolving, dynamic landscape of SEO metrics, not all measurements are made equally; and it’s crucial to distinguish between the figures that reflect performance, and those that offer a mere superficial sense of accomplishment… we had you for a moment there, didn’t we.
Jokes aside, we’re here to talk about vanity metrics. In SEO, we’re constantly evaluating and looking for ways to grow the metrics that accompany our efforts. However, some of the measurements we focus on can be slightly deceptive. We’re about to shed some light on these ego-boosting KPIs, dishing out some cold hard truths on why they don’t quite tell us the full story.
What are SEO vanity metrics?
Vanity metrics are figures that lull us into a false sense of security. We might see them as ‘+’ signs next to MoM comparisons, or as graphs with hockey stick growth curves; on the surface, they look good, but their reality is less satisfying.
We’ve given you the lowdown on 5 different measurements that can all easily slip into the ‘vanity’ category.
Website traffic
Since the dawn of time, SEOs (like us!) have been setting out to increase website traffic, or specifically, organic traffic; the number of visitors that land on a website from unpaid search engine results pages.
This is certainly a valid objective, and we’re sure your clients will be impressed with the ‘ol increasing line on the graphs you sweated over in Looker Studio – but take a moment and think about what you’re REALLY showing them. Why are we telling you to do this? Because high traffic figures don’t equal conversions or relevance – there, we said it!
There are a few reasons why this metric doesn’t give you the complete picture; you could have content that is targeted to perfection, but your site structure might be difficult to navigate, sending these visitors elsewhere as soon as they land from SERPs (page exit metrics will help you to determine whether this is the case). On the flip side, your content might not actually be targeted enough, so visitors aren’t finding relevance in the information you’re presenting them with. Your website traffic is also susceptible to a few uncontrollable factors – from Google core updates, to seasonality.
So, what’s the gist here, and how do we add value to traffic metrics? Always look for context on your monthly figures; this could involve pairing it with other metrics such as engagement rate, or by conducting some path analysis. This way, you’ll have a clearer understanding of the value that users are really finding on your site.
Impressions
In the simplest of terms, organic impressions are the step before organic traffic. This figure represents the number of times your website appears in search engine results, and over time, it can tell you how your overall visibility has improved. The most common encounter many of us have with organic impressions is in Google Search Console, and from here, we’re able to understand impressions based on individual keywords and for specific pages.
So, why are we classifying impressions as a vanity metric? In the same vein as website traffic, impressions give us a bit of a one-dimensional understanding of your strategy efforts. This is because impressions don’t equal action – users might see your website in search engines for a specific keyword, but they might not be inclined to click through to your content.
Impressions are crumbs, but the advantage of using Google Search Console is that it’ll give you the whole damn cake – you can see click through rate and average position for pages and for keywords. Export all ranking queries for a page and look at terms with high impressions and a lower than average CTR – is the content on your page satisfying what users want to know for these searches? Is the keyword that generates the most impressions included in the meta content for the page? If not, can you optimise accordingly, and use impressions data in a more productive way?
It’s worth adding that you can also scope out some more value by focusing on non-branded impressions – use the page filter or REGEX to exclude branded search terms, et voila – you’ve just found insights on how your website is being found by discovery users!
Page views
There’s a bit of a theme here, but page views is another measurement that just isn’t quite doing enough on its own, if your aim is growing meaningful, quantifiable user behaviour.
Page views measure how many times a particular page on your website has been viewed (makes sense, huh). While it’s nice to see high numbers here, especially if you’ve spent some time improving the content on a particular page, or if it’s part of your latest content marketing campaign, it doesn’t necessarily mean that visitors are engaging in the way you’d hope they would be. Take a high page view count with a pinch of salt, and review exit data carefully.
If you want to add value to your high view counts, then start by assessing the type of page you’re dealing with. If it’s a money page, pull some UX insights and find out how users are engaging with the content – is the CTA button a grey area in your heatmaps? Could it be better placed on the page to encourage more clicks? If the homepage on your website has a high view count but other metrics have nosedived, reassess the content that you’re prioritising – is it serving as the type of initial touchpoint that it ought to? Making these kinds of tweaks will give you a lot more to talk about in those monthly meetings!
Increase in referring domains
If your marketing budget has been focused on digital PR, you’ll likely be watching your backlink report like a hawk. Seeing new referring domains spring up (the term used to describe securing backlinks from other websites) might feel like a victory, but in reality, they could be as helpful for your domain as a chocolate teapot.
If the bulk of your links are from questionable, spammy domains, then you might want to revise your outreach approach. High-value, authoritative backlinks serve as SEO signals, helping you to generate more credibility for your domain. While we don’t follow the ‘toxic’ rating that many third-party tools use, we definitely know a ‘good’ link when we see one – it’ll be within your niche, or from a reputable publication.
The takeaway for this one is simple yet effective; quality over quantity.
Keyword rankings
Rankings are the crux for almost every SEO strategy. Clients ask us about them, we monitor them… but here, we’re telling you why they are in fact, a vanity metric . This one feels like a hard bubble to burst, so prepare yourselves!
Rankings refer to where your website appears in search engine results for specific keywords. Seeing your site rank highly for certain keywords might make you feel a bit like ‘SEO? completed it mate’, but this would make you a fool if (once again) you’re not investigating the context. For starters, high rankings don’t mean high CTR or key event count, in the exact same way that chasing irrelevant phrases just for the sake of ranking won’t get you where you want to be.
It’s also vital to evaluate your ranking keywords based on the intent they represent, whether it’s informational, commercial, navigational or transactional. Securing a top 10 ranking for a commercial keyword when the SERP is dominated by informational content won’t entice the right kind of customer onto your site.
Rankings are also a terrible fragile fixation to have, given the volatility of search engines and particularly in light of the gradual SGE rollout. Our best advice here would be to streamline your ‘search engine real estate’ – where should your rankings be focused, if they’re going to generate traction for your domain, from your target audiences? Be strict, and avoid chasing keywords ‘just because’.
You should also see rankings as an opportunity to flex your expertise, rather than relying solely on optimisation to slide into position 1; no one wants to land on a ‘ladies mini dress’ page where ‘ladies mini dress’ is in every seventh sentence.
If we filled our monthly client reports with vanity metrics, life would be easy and we’d have lots of happy customers. Instead, we dig into the value behind the figures tracked, outlining why they matter, what they represent, and how they’re contributing to our wider strategy effort. We do all of this without overloading our reports with jargon; it’s an art, but we’ve mastered it! If you’d like our help on the SEO reporting front, or if you’re interested in a SEO strategy that is tailored to help you to hit your business objectives, contact us for a chat!