Small businesses benefit from search engine optimization (SEO) because it can provide long-term, sustainable growth without a major financial investment. That said, compared to advertising, SEO benefits and performance can be difficult to measure. For example, there is no exact calculation for organic brand visibility or image. Nevertheless, key metrics related to organic visibility, website performance, and lead growth can help you measure SEO success for your small business.
AI Brand Visibility: how often does my small business appear in AI search?
AI search is important for small businesses, but measuring AI performance can be complicated. Why? For one thing, AI answers are personalized, so two people can search the same query and see different results. This makes it nearly impossible to track day-to-day performance for your small business in AI. What you can do is measure brand mentions and website citations in LLMs.
AI Brand Mentions
An AI brand mention means that your small business’s brand name appeared in an AI result. An increase in brand mentions leads to an increase in brand visibility and performance. It is important to note that brand mentions do not always include links to your website.
AI Cited Pages
An AI cited page means that one of your website pages appeared in an AI result. Think of this like your website appearing in a traditional Google search result. An increase in cited pages often leads to an increase in website traffic – although click-through rates in LLMs like ChatGPT are lower than Google. Cited pages do not necessarily include a brand mention.
Keyword Rankings: how many keywords does my small business website rank for?
Every online search, whether it takes place in a search engine or LLM, starts with a keyword or query. As such, you must review your small business website keyword rankings in Google, Bing, and other search engines. Pay close attention to the following keyword metrics:
- Top 3 position keywords: how many keywords does your website rank for in the top 3 positions? These rankings receive most of the organic clicks.
- Total keywords: how many keywords does your website rank for in Google? Keyword tools will usually include keywords ranked in the top 100 of search results.
Organic impressions: how many times does my small business website appear in Google?
Although ChatGPT and other LLMs continue to take search market share, Google remains the dominant search engine for small businesses. Therefore, you must measure how often your website appears in Google search results. The easiest way to do this is to track Google organic impressions. Your website receives an organic impression every time it shows up in a search result – whether the user clicks or not. Impressions factor in traditional organic listings, as well as Google search features like AI Overviews and People Also Ask.
Website Sessions and Users: how much traffic does my small business website receive?
What happens when you receive an organic impression and then a user clicks on your listing? You can credit for an organic user and session.
- User: unique individual who visits and interacts with your website
- Session: period of continuous activity by a user on your website
- View: any page view
How do these all relate? Let us say that one of your potential customers visits your website twice. The first time, the customer views two pages and then leaves. The customer then returns and views three pages. In this example, you can credit for one user, two sessions, and five views.
What Website Traffic Channels Are Most Important for Small Businesses
There are a few website traffic channels that matter most to small businesses:
- Organic: organic traffic comes from nonpaid links in Google, Bing, and other search engine results. It is earned primarily through SEO.
- Direct: direct traffic comes from users who type your URL into a browser or use a bookmark. More brand visibility in AI search often leads to increased direct traffic.
- Referral: referral traffic comes from nonpaid links on other websites, including LLM search results. If a user visits your website by clicking in a ChatGPT result, that is considered a referral from ChatGPT/
- Social: social traffic comes from nonpaid links on social media platforms. These mainly come from post, share, and profile links.
In addition to these nonpaid website traffic channels, there are paid channels like Paid Search. However, paid channels do not relate to SEO performance.
Website Engagement: what do people do on my small business website?
Measuring how many people visit your small business website is not enough. You also need to know how these people interact with your website. You can do this by tracking the following website engagement metrics:
- Views per session: average number of pages viewed in a session
- Engagement rate: percentage of sessions that are engaged (last longer than 10 seconds, 2+ page views, or key event)
- Engaged sessions: number of sessions that are engaged
- Average engagement time: how long users are actively focused on your website (only counts when tab is active)
- Events per session: average number of interactions (clicks, scrolls, video plays, form submissions, etc.) per session
To get the most of our website engagement tracking, break these metrics down by traffic channel and source. If you find that social traffic is more engaged, then you can consider increasing your organic social media work.
Online Conversions: how many leads do I get from my small business website?
Does your small business website have a form to capture user information? If so, then you should add one (or something similar) as soon as you can. Any form submission is a conversion or lead that goes directly into your system. Leads generally come from potential customers who are interested in your small business’s products or services. Any successful SEO strategy results in an increase in website leads.
Google Business Profile Visibility: how often does my small business GBP profile appear?
So far, all these SEO metrics measure website visibility and performance. However, if your small business has a local audience, then you need to track Google Business Profile (GBP) performance. Your GBP has the following built-in metrics:
- Interactions: how many people called, messaged, booked an appointment, asked for directions on your profile
- Views: how many people views your profile (Google Search and Maps)
- Calls: how many people clicked on your phone number link
- Bookings: how many people booked an appointment
- Website clicks: how many people clicked on your website link
Beyond that Google Business metrics, you can add tracking to your website link to see exactly how many people visited and engaged with your website from Google Business.
Google Business Profile Visibility: how often does my small business GBP profile appear?
Once you identify the SEO metrics that are most relevant to your small business, it is time to choose the right tools. Here are some tools that small businesses can use to measure SEO performance:
- Google Analytics 4 is the most common free tool for tracking website traffic and engagements. You can easily add your website to Google Analytics with a tracking code.
- Google Search Console is a free tool that includes organic impressions and clicks by page and search query. Creating a Search Console property is a straightforward process.
- Heatmapping tools like Microsoft Clarity monitor website engagement and provide more details than Google Analytics. Clarity is recommended for small businesses because it is free.
- Keyword tools like SEMrush offer a wide range of services like keyword research, content planning, and AI tracking. These tools can be pricey ($2000+ per year) but they are worth it for most small businesses.
Choose CORE Search for Small Business SEO
Do you need help with small business SEO? Partner with CORE Search and take advantage of our expertise. Our SEO services include technical SEO, on-page SEO, and local SEO.