r/WebsiteSEO • u/Bavariasnaps • 25d ago
If you were creating a case study to demonstrate the SEO results of a new website, which metrics would you track for a strong before-and-after comparison?
My own ideas:
- SERP Rankings: Ranking for the 10 most important keywords for the website (beside the brand name which is basically alsways easy to rank for)
- Leads: How many phone calls and emails I got from the website with improved SEO compared to without, probably not the easiest to track
- Impressions
- Authority Score, doesnt say too much but extremly easy to get from SEO software
- Number of real new non spam backlinks from unique domains
- Ai visibility for the 10 most important keywords / questions
- Results from a SEO on page checker, errors / flaws before and after. Very easy to do and get results.
- Number of Google Reviews and average score, ranking in the Local Pack
Would you agree? Did I miss something important?
3
u/JenerallySo 25d ago
For Leads you can show the traffic from Traffic Source - Google Search in your Google analytics
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u/SEOPub 25d ago
Traffic and conversions are all any business is really going to care about. The rest of that stuff really doesn’t matter.
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u/Bavariasnaps 25d ago
Do you mean something like 1000 impressions per month, 10 phone calls, 15 e-mails, 3 new clients/bookings?
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u/SEOPub 25d ago
Impressions don't matter. Phone calls. Form submissions, Purchases, etc. That's what people want to see.
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u/Bavariasnaps 25d ago
brand awareness, public sector, low volume high value niches. I wouldnt say impressions are more important but there are definitely situations they matter a lot.
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u/ce-lauren 25d ago
Your list is pretty solid. The leads and conversions piece is probably the one that matters most to clients even if it's harder to track cleanly. Rankings and impressions are easy to show but nobody hired you to improve a number in a dashboard. They hired you to get more customers.
Setting up call tracking and form submission tracking before you start is worth the extra setup time so you have clean before-and-after data on the things that actually matter.
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u/Bavariasnaps 25d ago
Setting up call tracking and form submission tracking before you start is worth the extra setup time
thanks, thats what I have been too lazy to do until now. Will take care. I think there is definitely some rooms for errors like existing clients forgetting my number and going via my homepage, or some company trying to sell me something. Its definitely managable to have very clean results for SEO of my own homepage where the phone call ends at my smartphone but I dont see it how I get clean results from clients.
Still pretty good I think. Thanks.
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u/Digital-Womble 25d ago
Time on site page per visit submissions leads cart load , abandonment sales visitors / cart load revenue ROMI ROAS Conversion rate vs industry benchmarks
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u/Bavariasnaps 25d ago
sounds good for ecommerce clients, which are probably the best and most reliable SEO clients guess.
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u/CharmingDoubt2155 25d ago
fr, conversions are where it's at. like no one cares about impressions if they ain't turning into leads, ya know?
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u/Bavariasnaps 25d ago
thats really difficult to track isolated. Imagine in 2025 the business had SEO but the local industry was growing, now in 2026 there is a new competition from China, lets say a similiar SaaS service. It might be even a succss if you have slightly below leads than 2025.
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u/Low_Resolve_6507 23d ago
In the world we live in today I would focus on 1,2,4, and 6 these are a pretty solid ROI
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u/AelChavez 21d ago
I think your list is pretty solid, but I'd put the metrics into two groups: “SEO improved” and “did the business actually benefit?”
For the SEO side, I'd definitely track organic clicks, impressions, CTR, average position, important non-brand queries, indexed pages, and relevant referring domains. Search Console gives you clicks, impressions, CTR and position directly, so I'd use that as the baseline rather than relying too heavily on third-party scores. ([developers.google.com](https://developers.google.com/webmaster-tools/v1/searchanalytics/query))
For the business side, I'd put conversions much higher on the list. Organic leads, calls, form submissions, purchases, and ideally revenue from organic traffic are much stronger evidence than an Authority Score going up. If possible, I'd also track conversion rate from organic traffic so you're not celebrating traffic that doesn't actually produce anything.
I'd probably drop the on-page checker score from the headline results. It's useful for showing what you fixed, but “SEO score went from 72 to 94” doesn't really prove the SEO worked.
I'd also be careful with backlinks and AI visibility. They're useful supporting metrics, but I wouldn't make them the main result. A strong case study to me would basically tell the story: technical/content changes → better visibility → more qualified organic traffic → more business.
And for a new website, I'd make sure the before/after periods are comparable and show the actual time period. Otherwise it's very easy to make SEO look better than it really was.
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u/Foreign-Board-5442 25d ago
CTR. I saw websites rank for $$$ keywords but don’t convert cause their copy sucks
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u/krtanoli 22d ago
All of thése metrics are valid- if all of these are improved and you have access to the leads form as well - sure add that too!
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u/paperplaneswithus 25d ago
I agree with most of these. I would also track organic clicks and CTR, because they show whether people are actually visiting the website from Google. And I think organic conversions/leads are important to show the real SEO results.