Powerful SEO Metrics You Need To Start Tracking Immediately

When it comes to growing your trade business online, it’s not just about setting up a website and hoping for the best. To really make an impact, you need to keep an eye on how well your site is performing—and that’s where SEO metrics come into play. 

If you track the right numbers, you can see what’s working, what’s not, and what tweaks will help you climb the search rankings and attract more clients.

In this post, we’ll break down the essential SEO metrics every contractor should keep an eye on. We’ll show you how to monitor your website’s performance, improve user engagement, and ultimately, get more leads coming your way. 

Ready to see how your site stacks up? Let’s dive in!

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is a clear indicator that your SEO efforts are paying off. 

It's the number of visitors who land on your website directly from search engines like Google or Bing without any paid ads involved. For tradespeople, this is one of the best ways to get more eyes on your services and land more clients.

If you're seeing a steady increase in organic traffic, it's a sign that your site is being found for the right search terms and resonating with your audience. 

On the other hand, a drop might mean something's off and needs fixing.

Actionable Tips:

1. Check Your Traffic Regularly: Make it a habit to monitor organic traffic through tools like Google Analytics. Keep an eye on which pages are pulling in the most visitors—this can help you focus your efforts on content that’s working well.
2. Optimise Underperforming Pages: Not every page will be a winner from the start, but that’s okay. Use traffic data to identify the pages that need some love. Whether it's improving content or tweaking your SEO, regular updates can help those pages perform better.
3. Look for Patterns: Notice any seasonal trends? Maybe you get more traffic during certain times of the year when specific jobs are in demand. If so, use that to your advantage by creating content or running promotions around those peak periods.

Keyword Rankings

Monitoring where your site ranks for different keywords gives you valuable insight into how visible your business is online. If you want potential customers to find you easily, you need to know which search terms are working for you—and which aren’t.

Both seed (main) keywords and long-tail phrases play a part. 

While ranking for broader terms like ‘plumber’ or ‘electrician’ is great, more specific keywords, such as ‘emergency plumber in [your area]’ or ‘best electrician for rewiring’, often lead to higher-quality traffic—people who are closer to making a decision and ready to hire.

Actionable Tips:

1. Use Free Tools to Track Rankings: Google Search Console is your go-to for tracking how well your site is performing in search results. It provides data on clicks, impressions, and average position, helping you monitor your rankings for the terms that matter.
2. Optimise for Local Searches: Since most of your business likely comes from your local area, focus on keywords with location-based phrases like ‘roofing contractor in [your town]’ or ‘local HVAC technician’. This is a smart way to attract more relevant traffic.
3. Watch for Long-Tail Opportunities: Long-tail keywords might not get as much traffic, but they often convert better. Keep track of these specific terms and try creating new content that targets them.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate shows you the percentage of visitors who land on your website and then leave without exploring any further. 

A high bounce rate might suggest that people aren’t finding what they need or that your site isn't making the best first impression. For example, slow page load times, irrelevant content, or confusing navigation can all send potential clients elsewhere.

Lowering your bounce rate means more visitors will stick around, explore your services, and hopefully take action.

Actionable Tips:

1. Speed Up Your Site: Visitors won't hang around for long if your site takes too much time to load. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can help you identify what’s slowing things down and provide suggestions to fix it.
2. Make Content Relevant: Ensure the content on each page matches what visitors expect to find. If someone searches for ‘plumber near me’ and lands on a blog post about electrical repairs, they’re going to bounce. Keep your pages aligned with the keywords they’re ranking for.
3. Improve Navigation: Make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for. A clear menu, helpful links, and strong calls to action can encourage people to stay and explore.

Conversion Rate

Good SEO is more than just getting visitors to your site.

You want them to take action. Whether that’s filling out a form, booking a service, or giving you a call. 

Your conversion rate measures the percentage of visitors who do just that. The higher the rate, the more effective your site is at turning visitors into leads or customers.

If you’ve got plenty of traffic but not many conversions, it could be a sign that something needs tweaking. Maybe the calls to action aren’t clear, or perhaps the form is too long. 

Whatever the issue, boosting your conversion rate can make a huge difference to your bottom line.

Actionable Tips:

1. Simplify Your Forms: Keep contact forms short and to the point. If you only need a name, email, and phone number to start a conversation, don’t ask for more. The easier you make it, the more likely people will fill it out.
2. Make Your Calls to Action Clear: Whether it’s a ‘Book Now’ button or ‘Get a Free Quote’ form, your calls to action should stand out. Use action-oriented language and place them where visitors can’t miss them.
3. Test and Tweak: Use A/B testing to see what works best. Try different headlines, button colours, or form layouts to see what gets the best results. Even small changes can lead to big improvements.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rate (CTR) measures how often people click on your website’s link when it appears in search engine results. 

If your CTR is low, it might mean your meta titles and descriptions aren’t compelling enough to get people to click. Improving this metric is essential because more clicks lead to more visitors—and potentially more clients.

A higher CTR means people find your site appealing, even before they visit. It’s one of the quickest ways to boost traffic without making major changes to your site’s content.

Actionable Tips:

1. Write Engaging Meta Titles and Descriptions: Your meta title and description are the first things people see in search results, so make them count. Use clear, action-oriented language that tells people what they’ll get when they visit your site. Think of it as a quick sales pitch.
2. Use Keywords Naturally: Make sure your main keyword appears in both the meta title and description. This helps search engines understand what your page is about and reassures searchers that your page is relevant to their query.
3. Experiment with Structured Data: Adding rich snippets through structured data can make your listing stand out with extras like star ratings or FAQs. This can increase your visibility in the search results and boost your CTR.

Backlinks

Backlinks are like votes of confidence from other websites. 

When reputable sites link to your content, it signals to search engines that your site is trustworthy and valuable. This can significantly boost your rankings. 

However, not all backlinks are created equal—quality matters far more than quantity.

For tradesmen and women, earning backlinks from local businesses, industry sites, or relevant blogs can go a long way toward improving your site’s authority and, in turn, its search engine performance.

Actionable Tips:

1. Build Relationships Locally: Partner with local businesses, suppliers, or even satisfied clients. Ask if they’d be willing to link to your website from theirs. You can also offer to link back to them in return, creating a mutually beneficial relationship.
2. Guest Blogging: Write guest posts for industry-related blogs or local business websites. In exchange, you can include a link back to your site. This not only helps with backlinks but also puts your name in front of a new audience.
3. Keep Track of Your Backlinks: Tools like Ahrefs or Moz can help you see which sites are linking to yours. You can also monitor the quality of those links to ensure they’re helping, not hurting, your SEO efforts.

Pages per Session

Pages per session measures how many different pages a visitor views during a single visit to your site. 

The more pages someone visits, the more likely they’re finding value in your content and exploring what you have to offer. This metric is especially important for tradespeople because it signals that potential clients are engaging with your services and digging deeper to learn more.

If visitors are only viewing one page before leaving, it could mean they’re not finding what they need—or your site isn’t encouraging them to explore further.

Actionable Tips:

1. Use Internal Links Wisely: Add internal links throughout your site to guide visitors from one page to another. For example, if someone is reading about plumbing services, link them to a blog post about common plumbing issues or a case study showcasing your work.
2. Create Related Content: At the end of each page or blog post, suggest other articles or services that may be relevant. This keeps visitors on your site longer and encourages them to explore.
3. Improve Navigation: Make sure your menu is clear and easy to navigate. If people can’t find what they’re looking for quickly, they’ll leave. A simple and well-organised site structure can keep visitors engaged.

Average Session Duration

Average session duration measures how long visitors spend on your site. 

The longer they stay, the more engaged they are with your content. When it comes to trade businesses, this is crucial. If potential clients are sticking around, they will likely find valuable information about your services and will be more inclined to get in touch.

A short session duration, on the other hand, might suggest that visitors aren’t finding what they need quickly enough, or that the content isn’t engaging enough to hold their attention. Improving this metric means creating content that keeps people reading, watching, or exploring.

Actionable Tips:

1. Make Content Easy to Digest: Break up long paragraphs with headers, bullet points, and images to make your content more readable. If people can quickly scan the page and find the information they need, they’re more likely to stay.
2. Add Videos or Interactive Content: Videos can be a powerful way to engage visitors. A quick introduction to your services or a how-to guide can encourage people to spend more time on your site. Interactive content, like quizzes or calculators, can also boost engagement.
3. Create Long-Form Content: Well-written, long-form content—such as in-depth blog posts or guides—can keep visitors on your site for longer. If you provide comprehensive answers to their questions, they’ll be more inclined to stay and read through.

Crawl Errors

Crawl errors occur when search engines, like Google, have trouble accessing or indexing certain pages on your website. 

If search engines can't properly crawl your site, it could mean your pages aren’t being shown in search results, no matter how good your content is. For plumbers, landscapers, roofers, and other tradies, this could mean lost business if potential clients can’t find you online.

Regularly check and fix crawl errors, and you’ll ensure that search engines can easily access and rank all the important pages on your site.

Actionable Tips:

1. Use Google Search Console: This free tool alerts you to any crawl errors on your site. Simply head to the ‘Coverage’ section to see if any of your pages are being blocked or missed by Google’s crawlers.
2. Fix Broken Links: Broken links can cause crawl errors and frustrate visitors. Use tools like Screaming Frog or Google Search Console to identify broken links on your site and update or remove them to ensure smooth navigation for both visitors and search engines.
3. Submit a Sitemap: A sitemap helps search engines understand the structure of your website and ensures they can find and crawl all of your pages. If you haven’t already, create and submit a sitemap to Google through Search Console.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are a set of performance metrics that Google uses to assess your website’s user experience. 

These metrics—Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)—focus on page load speed, interactivity, and visual stability. As contractors, having a site that loads quickly and performs well isn’t just good for rankings; it creates a smoother, more professional experience for potential clients.

A website that performs poorly on Core Web Vitals can frustrate visitors, causing them to leave before they even get a chance to see your services. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to track your Core Web Vitals performance and get recommendations for improvements.

Improving these metrics can enhance user experience and boost your SEO rankings.

Actionable Tips:

1. Improve Page Load Speed (LCP): LCP measures how quickly the main content of your page loads. To improve it, compress images, use a reliable hosting service, and consider reducing the amount of large files like videos on your homepage.
2. Reduce Delays in Interactivity (FID): FID looks at how fast your site responds to user actions, like clicking a button. Minimise delays by optimising your JavaScript code and removing unnecessary scripts that could slow things down.
3. Ensure Visual Stability (CLS): CLS measures how often elements on your page shift unexpectedly while loading (e.g., buttons moving just as someone is about to click). Fix this by specifying size attributes for images and videos, so they don’t cause sudden shifts during loading.

Final Thought On Tracking Your Site’s Success

Tracking SEO metrics goes beyond mere numbers—it’s about understanding how well your site is performing and finding out what you can do to improve. 

Whether it’s monitoring organic traffic, improving your conversion rate, or fixing crawl errors, staying on top of these key metrics helps ensure your website is working as hard as you are. By taking a proactive approach to measuring your SEO success, you’ll be able to make smarter decisions that bring in more leads, build trust with potential clients, and ultimately grow your trade business.

All this sound like too much hassle? We’ll handle it for you.

Get in touch with our team today, and we’ll take care of everything—from tracking the metrics to improving your SEO, so you can focus on doing what you do best: running your business.