What are the two most important metrics for measuring SEO success?
The #1 answer is likely organic traffic. When reviewing your month-over-month channel sessions report, it’s essential to see how much of your traffic is organic and how it’s trending compared to other channels.
The #2 answer would closely following #1, would be keyword rankings. Despite the disruption AI has brought (and will continue to bring), ranking on the first page—ideally in the top three positions—of Google and other search engines remains a top priority.
When you combine these two metrics, you get what I believe is the most powerful SEO report: a positioning map.
In the example below, I’ve plotted top SEO vendors with website traffic on the X-axis and keyword rankings on the Y-axis. Normally, I would reverse these axes, but visually, this layout works better.
You’re probably already thinking of ways this report could benefit your business. Here are a few specific examples:
Competitor Benchmarking
Compare one of your products to its top competitors, focusing on your most important keywords. You can do this at different levels—company, solution, or individual product—to get actionable insights.
Branded Performance
Internally, evaluate how your top solutions or products are ranking for branded keywords, alongside the monthly traffic they drive. Ideally, you should own the #1 spot for your branded terms, but depending on the term’s competitiveness or the solution’s newness, that may not yet be the case.
Content Strategy Prioritization
Use this report to spot opportunities in your content strategy. Identify keywords where you’re close to top rankings but not quite there, and prioritize content updates or new creation to boost visibility and traffic.