SEO can sometimes feel like a guessing game. You make changes to your website, publish new content and optimise your pages, but how do you know whether any of it is working?
The best way to measure SEO performance is to track a combination of search visibility, organic traffic, website performance and conversions. Many of the most useful SEO metrics can be checked for free using Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
Here are important SEO metrics, what they can tell you, and how you can track them.
Clicks
Clicks show how many times people have clicked through to your website from Google’s organic search results. Clicks are one of the simplest ways to measure whether your search visibility is generating traffic.
How to check them: Go to Google Search Console > Performance
Look at your clicks over time and use the Pages and Queries reports to see which pages and searches are driving your traffic.
Additionally, Google Analytics allows you to look beyond organic visits and see how that traffic behaves once it reaches your site, including engagement metrics such as bounce rate, engagement time and pages per session.
Impressions
An impression is recorded when your website appears in Google’s search results. For example, if your website receives 1,000 impressions, it means your pages have appeared in search results 1,000 times.
How to check them: Go to Google Search Console > Performance
High impressions combined with relatively few clicks can indicate that your page is appearing for relevant searches but isn’t attracting enough attention. Improving the page title and meta description to make them more appealing and better aligned with search intent can help increase clicks.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate is the percentage of search impressions that result in a click.
The calculation is: Clicks / Impressions × 100 = CTR.
For example, 100 clicks from 2,000 impressions gives a CTR of 5%.
How to check it: Go to Google Search Console > Performance
There isn’t one CTR that counts as “good” for every website. CTR varies depending on the search term, ranking position, search intent and type of search result. Additionally, average CTRs can vary significantly between industries.
Average Position and Keyword Rankings
Average position indicates where your website’s pages are appearing in Google.
Google Search Console shows the average position for all your terms within the Performance report. The Queries tab can then show the average position for individual terms.
How to check it: Go to Google Search Console > Performance > Enable the “Average Position” column and view data in the table below.
For more detailed tracking of specific target keywords that you want to monitor, SEO tools such as Semrush can be useful.
Conversions
A conversion is an action that has value to your business. Depending on your website, conversions could include:
- Contact form submissions
- Phone calls
- Online purchases
- Bookings
- Quote requests
- Newsletter sign-ups
How to check them: Conversions can be tracked in Google Analytics or other analytics tools when the relevant events and conversions have been correctly configured.
Conversions are one of the most important metrics to monitor because traffic isn’t usually the end goal. The aim is to turn relevant search visibility into enquiries, sales, bookings or other valuable actions.
If your website is getting traffic but visitors aren’t converting, conversion rate optimisation (CRO) can help identify and improve areas of the site that may be preventing users from taking action.
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals measure important aspects of a website’s user experience. The three Core Web Vitals are:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): how quickly the main content loads.
- INP (Interaction to Next Paint): how responsive the page is when users interact with it.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): how much the page layout moves unexpectedly while loading.
How to check them: Use Google PageSpeed Insights to test individual URLs, or Google Search Console for website-wide Core Web Vitals data.
Core Web Vitals should be monitored alongside other technical SEO factors rather than treated as a standalone measure of SEO success.
Indexed and Non-Indexed Pages
An indexed page is a page that Google has processed and considers eligible to appear in its search results. A non-indexed page isn’t currently included in Google’s index.
How to check them: Go to Google Search Console > Indexing > Pages.
A high number of non-indexed pages isn’t automatically a problem. Websites often intentionally exclude duplicate pages, filtered URLs or pages with little useful content.
Likewise, having a high number of indexed pages isn’t necessarily positive. Large numbers of low-value or automatically generated pages can create SEO problems.
It’s also worth checking that your XML sitemap is correctly configured and submitted through Google Search Console.
Branded vs Non-Branded Traffic
Branded searches include your business or brand name, while non-branded searches are more generic searches that don’t specifically mention your business.
For example:
- Branded: “Swindon Web Creations”
- Non-branded: “Swindon web design company”
Branded searches show that people already know about your business. Non-branded searches can be particularly valuable because they show whether your website is reaching potential customers who weren’t specifically looking for you.
How to check them: Google Search Console provides a branded and non-branded queries filter for eligible sites. Alternatively, setting up a query containing your brand name will filter results to your brand name, but won’t account for typos.
Search Volume
Search volume is an estimate of how often a keyword or search phrase is searched. Tools such as Semrush provide estimated search volumes for keywords.
Search volume can help you understand potential demand, but it shouldn’t be the only factor when choosing SEO targets.
A lower-volume keyword can be more valuable if it has stronger buying intent and is closely related to your products or services.
Consider search volume, search intent, competition and commercial relevance when deciding which keywords to target.
Backlinks
A backlink is a link from another website to your website. Relevant links from reputable websites can help search engines understand the authority and relevance of your website. They can also generate referral traffic.
How to check them: Use the Links report in Google Search Console. SEO tools such as Semrush can provide additional backlink data and competitor analysis.
Don’t focus purely on the number of backlinks. Relevant, high-quality links are generally more useful than large numbers of low-quality links.
AI Search Visibility
AI search visibility measures how often your business or content appears in AI-generated search experiences.
People increasingly use AI-powered search alongside traditional search engines, so SEO reporting is beginning to look beyond conventional rankings and organic clicks.
AI visibility can include:
- Brand mentions in AI-generated answers
- Citations linking back to your website
- Visibility for relevant questions and topics
- Comparisons with competitors
Tools such as Semrush provide AI visibility and related metrics. Google Search Console also launched search generative AI performance reports in 2026.
AI visibility should be monitored alongside traditional SEO rather than replacing metrics such as clicks, traffic and conversions.
Need Help Understanding Your SEO Data?
By monitoring visibility, traffic, conversions and technical performance, you can build a much clearer picture of how your website is performing in search.
If you’re looking to improve your rankings, traffic and overall online visibility, our managed SEO service provides ongoing optimisation, regular performance monitoring and clear monthly reports, so you can see the work being done and the progress your website is making.
