SEO Conversion Explained: Best Practices for Tracking and Improvement

Every digital marketer knows that SEO without conversions is as useless as a pizza without cheese. Still, when it comes to how SEO conversions actually work, things can get a little…mysterious.

What conversion metrics should you track? Why don't most websites convert? And how can you make sure your story is better than the average statistic? We’ve answered all these questions and many more in this guide.

What is the conversion rate in SEO?

An SEO conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors (from organic traffic) who come to your website and then proceed to take the action that you want them to take.

This could be filling out a contact form, signing up for your newsletter, leaving their email, placing an order, downloading your latest free guide on how to wrangle an alligator — you get the drift. The goal is to turn more casual visitors into action-takers.

How to calculate the SEO conversion rate

Okay, now that we’ve figured out that SEO conversion is basically your site’s average batting rate, it’s time to get to the math part (don’t run away; we promise it’s not boring).

In fact, to make sure your eyes don’t glaze over, we will share the easy formula:

(Total number of conversions ÷ total number of visits) × 100 = conversion rate

Example: Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let’s paint one. Let’s say you’re running an online store selling premium bat costumes for cats (we love that there’s a market for everything).

If 100 visitors landed on your site organically in a month and 5 of them made a purchase. When you divide 5 by 100 and multiply by 100%, the result is 5%, which is the conversion rate — 5 ÷ 100 × 100 = 5% (easy, right?).

As it is one of the indicators for tracking the success of your SEO strategy, you want to keep this formula somewhere handy. This brings us to the next point.

What is a good SEO conversion rate?

Defining good SEO conversion rates is a little bit tricky. So, if you were expecting a one-size-fits-all answer, it doesn’t exist yet. Instead, it’s better to think of it as a recipe – many things can influence the final result.

In this case, a lot depends on:

• your niche,
• quality of the traffic (e.g., informational keywords don’t convert as well),
• type of action visitors take (e.g., visitors are more likely to fill out a form for a free guide but less likely to make a purchase).

Yet, in general, a good conversion rate is around 3%, while anything from 5% and above is considered an excellent rate.

At the end of the day, even a 1% conversion rate is a great number when you are in the business of selling luxury mega yachts, for example. So, don’t just focus on the benchmark alone but weigh the other factors to get a clearer picture.

How to use Google Analytics to track conversions from SEO

Google is a very important tool for catching valuable data about your conversion rate in SEO. Best part? It’s free, and you can tweak the settings to suit you just right.

Sure, it takes a little bit of know-how to set up your Google Analytics, but it’s worth the hassle

Note: If you open GA and think that you can’t understand what all those metrics mean, don’t panic – you can always consult Google’s guide on dimensions and metrics. Here, you can find all the basic information, like, for example, with the “engaged sessions” below.

Now, let’s see how you can use Google Analytics to track your SEO conversions.

Track web traffic

Website traffic simply means the volume of users that your site gets to see. Tracking web traffic is what Google Analytics is built for, and it does this perfectly.

To access it, you can just click the Reports tab, and in the Reports snapshot, you can see the gist of what’s going on on your site. Pay attention to these two metrics: Users and New users – these are basically all the people who visited your site (aka your web traffic).

To see traffic from organic search, check the traffic acquisition report. You can access it by going to Life cycle > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.

This gives you the data you need to compare your organic performance in search engines with your other marketing channels.

The results will be very handy if you want to piece together a picture of the number of users, sessions, and engaged sessions you have from different channels (whether it’s organic, direct, referral, social, etc.).

Track engagement metrics

Using Google Analytics to track engagement metrics is like installing a security camera in your store. But instead of catching shoplifters, it tells you what each user is up to – the pages they check out, their scrolls and clicks, etc.

We’ve already seen some engagement metrics (e.g., engaged sessions, avg. engagement time per session, and engaged sessions per user) in the Traffic acquisition section. Still, you can get additional insights when you go to Life cycle > Engagement > Pages and screens.

Here, you can check the average engagement time for particular pages. If the results are high, then congratulations, it’s a sign that your visitors can’t get enough of what you are doing.

If it’s the other way around, no need to cry over your keyboard. Instead, see it as a sign to make some changes and be more helpful to your readers and clients.

Track conversions

Before you can actually monitor your conversions in Google Analytics, you need to set them up. Let’s see how you can do that step by step:

1. Go to the Admin panel.
2. Click Events > Create event.

3. From there, you will need to create an event you want to track. All the parameters you enter next aren’t random – you have to follow Google’s guidelines on event naming. Here is what your event can look like when you monitor clicks (leads) from your newsletter:

4. After you save your event, you’ll be able to see it on your Event page. Just make sure you switch on the “Mark as conversion” toggle.

SEO conversion metrics to monitor

After we’ve seen how to use Google Analytics to track your conversions, you are probably still left with multiple questions on the exact metrics you have to track. If so, this section is for you.

There are various metrics that can help you understand your performance. So, if you are serious about monitoring your conversion SEO rates, we highly recommend these to be your latest obsession:

Clicks from organic search

Definition:

Clicks from organic search describe those visits that come to your site from search results. Think of them as first dates – they could be the start of something new that leads to lifetime customer-brand relationships.

Where to find:

One of the best places to find and monitor these is in Google Search Console. Go to the Performance tab in your GSC, and you will get a handy display showing your Total clicks.

Source: Google

Pro tip: Analyze which queries (informational, transactional, or commercial) are pulling more clicks. You can also see the keywords that are driving the clicks — and create more content around those. This will help you identify which pages need some TLC to improve conversions.

What is a good rate?

It depends on the niche and your ranking position. We know that “it depends” sounds annoying at this point, but it’s really true. Whether it is a few thousand or millions of clicks, what matters is that some of those clicks actually convert.

Want our advice? If one page brings in loads of clicks but few sales, you might want to focus your efforts on turning those clicks into leads.

Engagement rate

Definition:

Engagement rate is basically how actively visitors are using your site – spending time on your pages, clicking, scrolling, etc.

It is the ratio of engaged sessions to total sessions. Keep in mind that in order to be engaged, a session has to meet ANY of the following requirements:

• be longer than 10 seconds,
• have a key event (you can mark any event as key in GA),
• or have 2+ page views.

Figuring out how effective your SEO conversions are isn’t always that easy. Yet, engagement rates can point you in the right direction. How? They help you get a good understanding of how people actually use your website.

Kind of like letting you secretly watch how people behave at your party — are they having fun and mingling or just standing awkwardly in a corner and then leaving?

Where to find:

Open your Google Analytics and go to Life cycle > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition. Yet, note that Engagement rate isn’t the metric included by default in your report.

So, if it’s your first time, choose Customize report > Report data > Metrics > Engagement rate > Apply.

After this, you can simply go to Traffic acquisition, and you will find your engagement rate there.

What is a good rate?

Like the average SEO conversion rate measurement, your engagement rate will depend on a number of factors, including the industry, but generally, anything between 60% and 75% is considered pretty good, depending on the industry.

Source: First Page Sage

If this metric is high, then it’s a good sign — you have earned that extra glass of champagne.

But if it’s low, consider this to be the right time to find ways to improve your strategy. Start with tweaking your CTR, internal linking, or pop-ups to lead the user to the desired action.

Bounce rate

Definition:

The bounce rate is the equivalent of someone coming inside your store but leaving empty-handed after just a brief look. So, when visitors land on one page and then exit instantly without performing any action, this is what we refer to as a bounce rate.

The bounce rate is the opposite of the engagement rate. If engagement rate is the percentage of engaged sessions, the bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that weren’t engaged.

Where to find:

To access your bounce rate, go to Google Analytics and open Life cycle > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.

Again, if you don’t have this metric already, add it by customizing your report, as we did with the engagement rate.

What is a good rate?

Generally, a bounce rate lower than 40% is normal, but beware, a bounce rate that is higher than 55% is a sign that something is off, especially if it’s above 75%. Still, some sources simply peg the number between 26%-70% as a normal bounce rate.

If you see that there might be some issue, check if your content actually matches what people are looking for (i.e., their search intent). Occasionally, the culprit could also be a design issue, slow loading speed, or too many pop-ups.

Conversion rate of new visitors

Definition:

The conversion rate of new visitors is a quite self-explanatory metric – it shows how well your first-time visitors convert (i.e., perform the desired action).

How good of a first impression are you making? This metric can tell you that straight away. It shows how good you are at turning first-time visitors into customers or leads.

You know, anyone can attend a networking event, but not everyone can successfully pull leads from the contacts they make. That’s how this metric works.

Even more importantly, by keeping an eye on the numbers here, you can tell when you need to quickly change up your approach so you can keep those conversion rates high.

Where to find:

This metric is a bit tricky to measure because you’ll have to use the Segment Builder to set it up.

First, open your GA4 and go to Explore > Create a new exploration > + Segments > User segment.

Next, create a segment for New visitors (first_visit). This will isolate those users who are visiting your site for the first time and make it easier for you to track them.

For this to work, you will also need to set up a conversion event (if you haven’t already). It can be any specific event you want to track, whether that’s purchases, form submissions, etc.

Above, in the ‘Track conversions’ sections, we’ve already explained how you can do this through your Events tab in the Admin panel.

When you set up these two and specify them as a condition, GA4 will automatically calculate the conversion rate by dividing the number of conversions by the total number of sessions or users within the segment.

What is a good rate?

The general rule of thumb is 2-5% or higher, which is pretty much standard for both new and returning users.

Return visitors' conversion rate

Definition:

The conversion rate of return visitors is another self-explanatory term – it shows how well you are converting those visitors that didn’t turn into leads the first time.

Not everyone converts on their first visit (most don’t) – that’s why this metric is important.

Even more importantly, you get a glimpse into how good your content is at getting prospects to come back for more.

Where to find:

Here, we’ll have to follow the same procedure as for tracking the first-time visitors' conversion rate:

1. Create a user segment for Returning visitors.
2. Set up the conversion event you want to track.
3. And voilà!

What is a good rate?

There is no special magic number, but it’s generally better to have this number as high as possible — even higher than your first-time visitor's conversion rates. The same 2-5% from new user conversion can apply here as well.

How to improve SEO conversion rate

It’s one thing to be able to answer the question, what is a conversion on a website? But it’s a whole new level to understand how to improve your results so they get better over time. And since we wouldn’t hoard our best secrets from you, here are some of our favorite tips:

The faster, the better

As far as page speed is concerned, speed wins every time. The longer a website takes to load, the worse the user experience, which leads to high bounce rates. You already know how this can affect your SEO performance.

Page Speed Insights is a great place to start.

Source: Page Speed Insights

Keywords are your friends

You can’t talk about improving SEO conversions without mentioning the importance of using relevant keywords. In the end, this increases the odds of your target customers finding your website in search results.

Even better for your business is making sure that your content matches what users need — that’s the key to good SEO conversion content.

So, if you want your homepage to be a high-converting blog homepage, make sure you are strategic about your keywords.

It is also important to be realistic about your chances to rank. If the query has a KD of 100 while your DA is 12, no matter how good your content is, ranking high will be impossible. That’s why choose keywords that aren’t that competitive but still have some search volume.

Source: Semrush

More link juice, more ranking

Adding more backlinks can do a whole world of good for your optimization efforts, especially if they come from relevant websites in your niche with tons of traffic.

Since getting some can be a whole job on its own, many marketers simply hire a link-building agency to take care of this for them.

Source: Ahrefs

But don’t put all your focus on backlinks and forget the internal links. Having an internal linking strategy can be just as important as it helps nudge your visitors to other related pages.

Leverage social media for the win

Social media can make your brand and website a star overnight, so don’t sleep on it. Repurpose some of your fun content for social media channels and encourage your audience to share so it can go viral.

It won’t happen in a day (most likely), but eventually, this will do wonders for your brand image, social credibility, and visibility.

Source: TikTok

Big changes should be mainly driven by real data

“Follow your gut” is generally good advice for most things. But know what’s even better for business decisions? That’s right! Follow the data – specifically quality data. This way, you get to reduce risks, make the right call, and increase your profits.

Source: JP Morgan

Learn from your competitors

You can learn so much just from watching your competitors — both what to do and what to avoid. By taking a closer look at their site, you can find opportunities to improve your own strategy.

Keep in mind that the idea is not to blindly copy them till you become their clone. Instead, you want to get a feel for what is working in your niche and brainstorm on how to do better than them.

Source: MOZ

Test everything (then do it again)

Doing A/B testing is so important, and this goes for your headlines, forms, CTAs, etc. This lets you quickly get data on what your users actually connect to so you can make more of the right thing.

Pro tip: Try to use different types of testing (A/B and multivariate) for the best results.

Source: Hubspot

Always prioritize your users

At the heart and end of all conversion optimization SEO strategies are your customers. You want to make sure that you are not just going by your own idea of what your customers want. That’s why you have to take the time to get to know your users better.

Build buyer personas from what you learn and keep working on learning more about their needs, pain points, desires, uses for your product, etc.

Source: OptinMonster

Benefits of SEO conversion tracking for your business

If you have taken the time to finally learn website conversion definition, it’s only fair that you also find out about the many perks that come from tracking your conversions carefully, such as:

Higher ROI

Tracking your search engine optimization conversions helps you accurately track and monitor the ROI of your SEO investments and efforts. This way, you can tell what is working, what needs improvement, and what to dump completely.

Better SEO performance

Being able to do accurate keyword conversion tracking is important if you want to rank higher and increase your online presence. You get to know which keywords rank better, what your customers are looking for, what their needs are, and how your products and services fit into their lives.

More authority & credibility

The more online presence your website has, the higher your social proof (aka credibility). This explains why most marketers use a guest post service to get their blogs published on relevant websites and get some backlinks.

By focusing your efforts on SEO tactics that increase your visibility (like link building), you get to build your image as a trustworthy, authoritative site.

Enhanced customer insights

The best thing about tracking your SEO conversion rates is that it gives you solid insights into what your customers prefer and their behavior patterns. This comes in handy for helping you create personalized marketing campaigns that your users will be more likely to respond to.

Conclusion

You have come so far! Now, you know that when you track the right metrics, you get just the data you need to make successful moves. All that’s left is to rinse and repeat.

Yet, keep in mind that even though every metric is important, no metric is an island – they are all connected. And only by assessing all of them can you paint a clearer picture of your SEO performance.

At the end of the day, your conversion rate tells the story of how good you are at connecting with your target market — make sure it’s a bestseller by focusing on the right stuff. Good luck!