SEO tools produce hundreds of numbers. A KPI is one you pick deliberately because it tells you whether SEO is doing its job for the business. Good KPIs are few, tied to goals, and hard to game.
Outcome KPIs: what the business feels
These matter most, because they connect directly to revenue:
- Conversions from organic search: calls, form fills, bookings, sales
- Revenue from organic search, for ecommerce
- Conversion rate of organic visitors
Leading KPIs: signs the outcome will follow
These move earlier and explain the outcomes:
- Non-branded organic clicks from Search Console
- Organic traffic to money pages (services, products, locations)
- Rankings for priority keywords, tracked consistently
- Share of voice against named competitors
- Local pack visibility across the service area, for local businesses
- AI visibility: mentions and citations in AI assistants for key questions
Diagnostic metrics: useful, but not KPIs
Impressions, average position, number of indexed pages, backlink counts, third-party authority scores and site audit scores all help explain what’s happening. They make poor KPIs because they can go up while the business sees no benefit.
Choosing KPIs by business
| Business | Main KPI | Supporting KPIs |
|---|---|---|
| Coastline Plumbing | Calls and quote requests from organic and map listings | Map pack rankings across Austin, non-brand clicks to service pages |
| Brightside Dental | New-patient appointment requests | Rankings for treatment keywords per location, review count |
| Bean & Barrel Coffee | Organic revenue | Non-brand clicks to product and category pages, conversion rate |
Why it matters
Without agreed KPIs, SEO gets judged on whatever number happens to be on screen. A month where impressions fall but calls rise looks like failure to someone watching the wrong chart. Agreeing two or three KPIs at the start makes reporting honest and keeps work focused on what pays.
Common mistakes
- Too many KPIs. If everything is key, nothing is.
- Vanity KPIs, like total keywords ranked or Domain Authority.
- Branded traffic counted as SEO wins. Filter it out or report it separately.
- Unfair comparisons: different month lengths, ignoring seasonality.
- No baseline. Record starting figures before work begins.
How to report them
RankThat’s Reports feature drafts monthly reports in plain English covering clicks, calls, rankings and work completed, with per-day, month-on-month and year-on-year comparisons. You review and approve every report before it goes out, and for agencies they can be sent as white-label reports.