Table of Contents
In the marketing world, everyone emphasizes results and patience — but what marketers often gloss over is how to gather data. When working on SEO, it can be hard to quantitatively track your progress in the SERPs, further emphasizing the importance of using analytics to track your performance.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- What is SEO
- Why are SEO analytics important and why should you track SEO progress
- Free SEO tools for data analysis and tracking
- How often should you review and analyze SEO analytics
- How to use collected data to improve your business
Let’s get started!
What Is SEO?
SEO is a part of digital marketing, and it stands for search engine optimization. Basically, it’s the “opposite” of paid advertising. The end goal is to optimize your website and its pages as much as possible so that it ranks on the first page of the search results.
There are many, many factors that go into this and that’s why many businesses focus on SEO to gain leads “for free”.
Why Must SEO Progress Be Tracked? Why Are SEO Analytics Important For Your Small Business?
Since SERP rankings fluctuate and a sudden search engine algorithm update can decrease your website visibility and leads. But, due to the nature of SEO (and its differences from paid advertising), it’s hard to quantitatively measure SEO.
But, since you’re running a business, skipping gathering analytics is not an option. Fortunately, there are many tools out there that will make this job easier.
Free SEO Tools: Setting Up Data Analysis And Tracking
Here are some free tools you can use to track your SEO progress. The Google business tools: GA4, GSC, and GTM should already be up and tracking on your website. If not, make this your priority.
1. Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics is the main tool businesses use to track their website activity. GA4 emphasizes conversions and events, unlike its predecessor, Universal Analytics. Universal, or GA3, emphasized the amount of users and pageviews.
While these aren’t bad metrics, they don’t reflect what truly matters. In other words, Universal operated on something I call “vanity metrics”.
GA4 deals with parameters and conversions. And I’ll be honest — it can be hard to wrap your head around if you haven’t worked with computer science. But it’s definitely worth figuring out.
Analyzing data is vital for small businesses. You have a very limited budget, and you need to make sure each dollar is spent most effectively.
2. Google Search Console
GSC is the main SEO tool you’ll use. Just like GA4, it’s a primary source of information from your website. Here, you’ll see the keywords your website was found for, each page’s CTR, and so much more.
GSC is also excellent for SEO, as this is where you’ll upload your sitemap file.
It’s easier to get the hang of than GA4, and definitively just as important!
3. Google Tag Manager
GTM is an optional tool, but since you get it through Google, you may as well use it. GTM allows you to implement unique tags to measure how users interact with your website. GTM is where you can easily update the code fragments.
Honestly, this isn’t a big priority, though it can provide useful information. If you’re paying for an SEO service, your agency/freelancer should be able to use GTM and implement more advanced tracking than GA4.
4. SEMRush (Or Other SEO Tool)
For the last 2 tools, I recommend third party SEO tools. You need a comprehensive overview of your website, and this is exactly what these tools provide.
Personally, I use SEMRush, but Moz/Ahrefs is good too. These tools are “freemium”, meaning you can access the free version, but there’s limited features available. As an SEO Specialist at an agency and as a freelancer, I use the paid version, but be sure to only buy the paid version if it makes sense for you and your budget.
I use SEMRush for a comprehensive weekly site audit, keyword research, and competitor research. SEMRush (and Screaming Frog) are incredibly thorough, intuitive to use, and provide helpful links to learn more about a particular SEO issue.
5. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is the second tool I would recommend. I use it mainly for website audits. Unlike SEMRush, SF only crawls your website (site audit). But, since that’s its entire purpose, it does it very, very well. It’s very useful determining broken links, HTML format issues, and more!
It’s free for crawling under 500 pages, but over 500 pages it has an affordable yearly cost. Personally, I never had the need to upgrade. Most websites I audit are under 500 pages.
How Often Should SEO Analytics Be Reviewed And Analyzed?
As an SEO Specialist/Consultant, it’s my job to review SEO analytics daily. I track mainly major changes, not just daily fluctuations.
But what do you do if you don’t have someone do SEO for you? Since you’re a small business owner and you have a limited time and budget, I believe a weekly review is best. Of course, this depends on the size of your business and whether or not you’re doing any other digital marketing.
If sitting down and looking at data for a few hours at once is too much, then you could break it down over several days. Be sure not to put this off though, as data can make or break your business.
How To Organize And Make Inferences From Collected Data
Collected data is wonderful, but it’s useless if you can’t leverage it to make informed business decisions. I’m writing this section as someone who has worked with SEO for several years and who is working on a Masters in Data science.
Here is how you can leverage SEO data in your small business:
- Competitor research: See what keywords your competitors are ranking for and what opportunities you can grab from them.
- Conversions and Events: From GA4, you can see which pages receive the most positive results. You can use this data to improve your site and boost conversions.
- Keywords/phrases: In GSC, you can see what keywords your website was found for and what users are searching for on your website. You can use this information to create content for these queries.
These are just a few of the possibilities in SEO analytics.
The Takeaway
Data analysis may not come intuitively for you, but it’s vital to the health of your small business. Without it, you will waste your limited budget on shots in the dark.
My advice is to learn which tools are at your disposal, learn how to use them proficiently, and then leverage the data they provide. Once you understand the basics, you could then hire someone to save yourself time.
I don’t recommend hiring someone immediately when you don’t understand the possibilities. At best, everything goes as planned. But, in the worst case scenario, you granted access to someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, what you want them to do, and you’ve wasted money on this lesson.
I hope you enjoyed this article! Click here if you’re interested in learning more about my SEO services! I work with small business owners like you to increase your organic traffic and scale your business.