How to Track SEO Performance for New Sites

Launching a new website is an exciting milestone. Whether it’s a brand-new business, a personal project, or a long-awaited redesign, there’s a rush in seeing your creation go live. However, what comes next is just as critical: tracking and improving your SEO performance. For new sites, building a foundation of strong SEO is essential if you want to gain visibility, drive traffic, and establish authority. But how exactly do you track SEO performance for a new site?

SEO performance tracking goes beyond just checking rankings; it encompasses monitoring traffic, user behavior, keyword performance, technical SEO health, and more. For new websites, these metrics can help you understand what’s working, what needs to be improved, and how to grow your site’s presence in search engine results pages (SERPs)

In this guide, we’ll explore the common tools available for measuring user behaviour and SEO success. Whether you’re starting from scratch or launching a new version of an existing site, these strategies will help you measure the right metrics, analyze data effectively, and create an action plan to improve your SEO results.

Analytics Tools

Selecting Tools for SEO Performance Tracking

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the best practices for tracking SEO performance on new sites. Whether you’re starting from scratch or launching a new version of an existing site, these strategies will help you measure the right metrics, analyze data effectively, and create an action plan to improve your SEO results.

1. Set Up Key Tools for SEO Performance Tracking

Before diving into the metrics, the first step in tracking SEO performance is to set up the right tools. Having reliable data sources is crucial for making informed decisions.

Here are the must-have tools for tracking SEO performance on new sites:

a. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful free tool that allows you to track website traffic, user behavior, conversions, and much more. It’s essential to understand how visitors are interacting with the website and which traffic sources are driving the most value.

Key Metrics to Track:

Organic traffic: Monitor how many visitors come from search engines.
User behavior: Analyze how users navigate your site, which pages they visit, and how long they stay.
Bounce rate: Track how many visitors leave your site after viewing only one page.
Conversion rate: Measure how many users complete a desired action (e.g., signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase).

b. Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) provides insight into how your site is performing in Google Search. It’s crucial for tracking rankings, indexing issues, and search performance metrics.

Key Metrics to Track:

Search queries: See which keywords are driving traffic to your site.
Impressions and clicks: Track how many times your site appears in search results and how often users click through.
Indexing status: Ensure that your site is properly indexed by Google and fix any issues that may arise (e.g., errors, crawl issues).
Core Web Vitals: Track page performance metrics such as loading time, interactivity, and visual stability.

c. Rank Tracking Tools

Rank tracking tools help you monitor where your site ranks for specific keywords over time. Popular tools include SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz. These tools provide insights into your keyword performance, competitors, and opportunities for growth.

Key Metrics to Track:

Keyword rankings: Monitor your positions in SERPs for target keywords.
SERP features: Track how your site appears in search results (e.g., featured snippets, local pack, or knowledge panels).
Competitor analysis: Compare your rankings against competitors and identify areas where you can outperform them.

d. SEO Auditing Tools

SEO auditing tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, and SEMrush allow you to perform in-depth technical audits of your site. These tools help identify issues that can impact your search performance, such as broken links, duplicate content, and slow page speed.

Key Metrics to Track:

Page speed: Track how quickly your pages load, as this is a critical factor in user experience and search rankings.Google Ads and other platforms now offer automated bidding options powered by machine learning. These systems analyze vast amounts of data in real time and adjust bids based on a variety of factors such as user behavior, device, location, and time of day. The goal is to optimize bids to achieve a specific business outcome—whether it’s maximizing conversions, increasing conversion value, or driving traffic.

Site crawlability: Ensure that search engine bots can easily crawl and index your site.

Technical SEO health: Monitor for errors, warnings, and optimization opportunities.

2. Track Organic Traffic Growth

For new sites, one of the most important indicators of SEO success is organic traffic growth. Organic traffic refers to visitors who find your site through search engines without paid ads. Monitoring this metric gives you a clear picture of how well your SEO efforts are paying off over time.

How to Track Organic Traffic:

Use Google Analytics to filter for traffic that comes from organic search. You can do this by navigating to the “Acquisition” section, then selecting “All Traffic” and “Channels.” Here, you’ll find organic search listed as a traffic source.
In Google Search Console, navigate to the “Performance” report to see which search queries are driving organic clicks and impressions.

Key Considerations:

Growth Over Time: Organic traffic may start slow for new websites, especially if you’re building authority in a competitive niche. Keep track of how your traffic grows month over month and look for steady upward trends.
Seasonality: Be mindful of seasonal trends that can impact traffic. For example, a site selling holiday products may see a spike in traffic during the holiday season, followed by a decline in off-peak months.
Brand vs. Non-Brand Traffic: Track how much of your organic traffic comes from branded keywords (searches that include your business name) versus non-branded keywords (searches for generic terms related to your products or services).

Actionable Tip: Set specific organic traffic goals for the first 3, 6, and 12 months of your site’s launch. Regularly review your organic traffic growth to see if your site is gaining visibility in search results.

3. Monitor Keyword Rankings

Keyword rankings are one of the most visible indicators of your SEO performance. Ranking on the first page of Google for your target keywords can drive significant traffic to your site, while lower rankings may mean missed opportunities.

How to Track Keyword Rankings:

Rank Tracking Tools: Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to monitor your keyword rankings. These tools allow you to track the positions of your target keywords over time and alert you to any significant changes in rankings.
Google Search Console: Check the “Performance” report to see which keywords are driving the most clicks and impressions. GSC provides a breakdown of your average position for each query.

Key Considerations:

Target Long-Tail Keywords: For new sites, it’s often easier to rank for long-tail keywords (more specific phrases) than highly competitive short-tail keywords. Focus on building content around long-tail keywords to gain initial traction.
Keyword Intent: Ensure that your pages are optimized for the right intent. For example, a user searching for “how to fix a leaky faucet” is likely looking for informational content, whereas a search for “buy plumbing repair kit” indicates purchase intent.
Monitor SERP Features: It’s not just about ranking in the top 10 anymore. Google’s SERPs often include features like featured snippets, local packs, and knowledge panels. Track how your content appears in these features, as they can dramatically impact click-through rates.

Actionable Tip: Create a list of priority keywords for your new site and track their rankings weekly. Pay special attention to keywords that are close to breaking into the top 10, as small optimizations can push them to the first page.

4. Analyze User Behavior and Engagement

While traffic and rankings are important, it’s equally essential to understand how users are interacting with your site. User behavior metrics help you determine whether your content is engaging, relevant, and valuable to visitors.

Key Metrics to Track:

Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate may indicate that your content is not relevant or engaging enough to keep users on the site.
Average Session Duration: The average amount of time users spend on your site during a single visit. Longer session durations often indicate that visitors are finding your content useful and staying to explore more.
Pages Per Session: The number of pages a user views during their visit. Tracking this metric helps you understand how effectively your internal links and navigation are guiding users to other relevant content.
Conversion Rate: For new sites, it’s important to define what a “conversion” is—whether that’s filling out a contact form, signing up for a newsletter, or making a purchase. Track the percentage of visitors who complete these actions.

How to Track User Behavior:

Google Analytics: Use the “Behavior” section to analyze bounce rate, session duration, and pages per session. You can also set up conversion goals to track specific actions, like form submissions or downloads.
Heatmaps and Session Recordings: Tools like Hotjar or Crazy Egg allow you to see how users are interacting with your pages. Heatmaps show where users are clicking, scrolling, and engaging with your content, while session recordings provide a playback of individual user sessions.

Actionable Tip: If you notice high bounce rates or low session durations on key pages, consider optimizing your content with more engaging elements, like videos, infographics, or stronger calls to action.

5. Evaluate Technical SEO Health

For a new site, technical SEO is critical in ensuring that search engines can crawl, index, and rank your pages. Issues like slow page speed, broken links, and crawl errors can hurt your SEO performance.

Key Areas of Technical SEO to Monitor:

Page Speed: Google considers page speed a ranking factor, and slow-loading pages can lead to higher bounce rates. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix to monitor your site’s loading times and identify areas for improvement.
Mobile-Friendliness: With Google’s mobile-first indexing, it’s essential that your site performs well on mobile devices. Ensure that your pages are responsive and offer a seamless mobile experience.
Crawl Errors: Use Google Search Console to monitor crawl errors. These can include broken links, pages that return a 404 error, or issues with your robots.txt file preventing search engines from accessing certain pages.
Structured Data: Implementing schema markup helps search engines understand your content and can increase your chances of appearing in rich snippets. Tools like Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool can help you verify that your schema is correctly implemented.

How to Monitor Technical SEO:

SEO Auditing Tools: Tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, and SEMrush can perform in-depth audits of your site’s technical health, identifying issues like broken links, missing meta tags, and duplicate content.
Google Search Console: Check the “Coverage” report regularly to ensure that all of your pages are being indexed properly. Fix any errors or warnings that appear.

Actionable Tip: Perform a comprehensive technical SEO audit once your site launches and periodically re-audit to catch any new issues. Make sure that your site is fully optimized for speed, mobile performance, and crawlability.

6. Monitor Backlinks and Domain Authority

For new sites, building backlinks is crucial for establishing authority and improving your rankings in competitive search results. Backlinks are external links from other websites pointing to your content. They act as “votes of confidence” in the eyes of search engines, signaling that your content is valuable and trustworthy.

How to Track Backlinks:

Backlink Monitoring Tools: Use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz to monitor your backlink profile. These tools will show you who is linking to your site, the quality of those links, and how your backlink profile changes over time.
Google Search Console: Navigate to the “Links” report in GSC to see which sites are linking to your content.

Key Considerations:

Quality Over Quantity: Not all backlinks are created equal. High-quality backlinks from authoritative sites carry more weight than a large number of low-quality links. Focus on earning links from reputable, relevant websites.
Anchor Text: Pay attention to the anchor text used in your backlinks. Descriptive, keyword-rich anchor text can help improve your rankings for those keywords.
Competitor Analysis: Use backlink analysis tools to monitor your competitors’ backlinks. Identify opportunities to earn links from the same or similar sources.

Actionable Tip: Develop a backlink-building strategy that includes guest posting, creating shareable content (like infographics or research reports), and reaching out to relevant websites in your industry for link opportunities.

7. Set Up Regular SEO Reporting and Benchmarks

Tracking SEO performance is an ongoing process. To stay on top of your progress, it’s important to set up regular reporting and benchmarks for key metrics. This allows you to measure how your new site is performing over time and make data-driven decisions to improve your SEO strategy.

Key Metrics to Include in SEO Reports:

Organic traffic growth
Keyword rankings for target keywords
Backlink profile updates
Technical SEO health (page speed, crawl errors, mobile-friendliness)
User behavior metrics (bounce rate, session duration, conversion rate)

How to Set Up SEO Reports:

Google Analytics Dashboards: Create custom dashboards in Google Analytics to track the most important SEO metrics in one place. You can also set up automated email reports to keep your team informed of progress.
SEO Tools: Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz offer SEO reporting features that allow you to track rankings, backlinks, and other key metrics over time. Set up automated reports to receive regular updates.
Google Data Studio: For more advanced reporting, use Google Data Studio to create custom SEO reports that pull data from Google Analytics, Search Console, and other tools.

Actionable Tip: Set realistic benchmarks for your new site’s SEO performance. For example, aim for a certain percentage of organic traffic growth each month or target specific rankings for priority keywords. Use these benchmarks to guide your ongoing SEO efforts.

Comparing Strategies, Metrics, Costs and Benefits

This table provides a quick reference to the cost and benefits of each key area when tracking SEO performance for new sites. It highlights what you can expect in terms of effort and benefits for optimizing these factors.

Strategy/Metric	Cost	Benefit
Setting Up Key Tools (Google Analytics, GSC, Rank Tracking Tools)	– Requires time to set up and configure properly – Learning curve for beginners	– Provides comprehensive data on traffic, user behavior, and keyword performance – Free or low-cost tools
Tracking Organic Traffic Growth	– Time-intensive to monitor regularly – May take longer to see meaningful results on new sites	– Clear indicator of SEO success – Helps track visibility and progress over time
Monitoring Keyword Rankings	– Paid rank-tracking tools can be costly – Requires regular tracking and adjustments	– Shows which keywords are driving traffic – Helps prioritize SEO efforts on specific, high-value keywords
Analyzing User Behavior (Bounce Rate, Session Duration, Conversion Rate)	– May require investment in user behavior tools (heatmaps, session recordings) – Requires regular analysis	– Provides insights into site usability and content engagement – Helps improve conversion and engagement
Evaluating Technical SEO Health	– Tools like Screaming Frog or SEMrush can be expensive – May require technical expertise to fix issues	– Improves crawlability and site performance – Ensures optimal page speed and mobile responsiveness
Monitoring Backlinks and Domain Authority	– Requires outreach efforts for building quality backlinks – Backlink tools may be costly	– Helps establish authority and trustworthiness – Boosts rankings with high-quality, authoritative links
Setting Up Regular SEO Reporting and Benchmarks	– Time-consuming to set up custom reports and benchmarks – Requires ongoing tracking	– Keeps track of all critical SEO metrics in one place – Provides clarity on growth, progress, and key areas for improvement

Tracking SEO performance for a new website requires a mix of monitoring organic traffic growth, keyword rankings, user behavior, technical SEO health, and backlinks. By setting up the right tools, consistently analyzing data, and making informed decisions, you can steadily improve your new site’s visibility, rankings, and overall success in search engine results.

SEO is a long-term investment, and tracking performance over time is key to identifying opportunities for growth and staying competitive in your industry. Whether you’re a small business owner launching a new site or an SEO professional managing multiple websites, these strategies will help you track and optimize your SEO efforts effectively.

As your new site grows, remember that SEO is an evolving landscape. Stay flexible, experiment with new techniques, and continually refine your approach based on performance data. In time, your new site will climb the ranks, attract more traffic, and become a valuable asset in your digital marketing strategy.

Avoid common analytics and measurement mistakes. Contact our team for affordable help getting SEM optimized.