Wondering how to create an SEO dashboard to streamline the SEO data analysis for your client’s campaigns? Running an efficient modern SEO strategy needs every agency to build an SEO dashboard to enhance client transparency and showcase your agency’s efficiency.
SEO is a long-term investment into a marketing campaign than most other types of marketing. Other than the period it takes to start seeing results, there is no specific metric to tell you whether your SEO efforts are bearing positive results. Instead, you’ll have to monitor several metrics to be sure that your strategy is working. These metrics include SERP ranking over a specific period and off-page and on-page metrics.
However, due to the huge chunk of data marketers need to make sense of, it is practical to create an SEO reporting dashboard that pulls relevant KPIs from different data sources. The dashboard eliminates the need to switch between platforms, therefore improving the efficiency of your agency in analysing your client’s SEO data.
What’s an SEO Dashboard?
An SEO dashboard is an intuitive, tailor-made interface view of the key SEO metrics in an easily accessible and coherent manner. Any search engine optimization strategy deemed successful needs one as it makes it easier to monitor, assess, and comprehend the outcomes of SEO campaigns in real time.
Your client’s SEO dashboard needs to maximise visibility and enhance insights. It utilises data from different sources like Google Analytics, presenting it in a clear, concise, easily digestible format. A typical dashboard highlights SEO metrics such as organic search traffic, landing page performance, click-through rates, keyword rankings, etc. We’ll review these in detail shortly.
Why Is SEO Data Analysis Important to A Marketing Campaign?
As opposed to other traditional types of marketing, SEO campaigns provide much more data for agencies to track, analyse, and generate reports on. While it takes time to get results, analysing your SEO data consistently helps you unravel actionable insights to drive a marketing campaign forward. Some of these powerful insights include:
- Identifying new opportunities for ranking higher on SERPs for high-volume keywords.
- Detecting on-site problems that can affect search ranking performance by running in-depth site audits.
- Tracing the sources of organic traffic that account for the highest level of ROI in your campaign.
As you might have noticed, monitoring most of the SEO-related data takes a lot of manual effort. But by using an SEO dashboard, you can incorporate automation and focus on high-value tasks. Some of the manual tasks that you can automate are data visualization, collecting data from Google Analytics and Google Search Console, and daily SERP rank tracking.
What Metric To Include in an SEO Dashboard
One of the most important things to consider on how to create an SEO dashboard is the type of SEO metric to put on the dashboard. Here are the key metrics to keep track of in your client’s SEO dashboard:
1. Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is the bread and butter of an SEO campaign. It shows how many people discovered and developed a genuine interest in your content or brand. Tracking organic traffic allows you to know how much traffic came from SEO efforts.
2. Keyword Rankings
Search engines rely on keywords to spot the most relevant content according to a user search query. Including keyword rankings in your client’s SEO dashboard helps them detect any fluctuations and make the essential changes to keyword improve rankings.
3. Organic Conversions
This SEO metric shows how much traffic generated came from organic traffic. Organic conversions are what your business goals should be built on. Conversion, in this sense, can be anything related to your campaign’s success, from customer acquisition, submission, downloads, etc. It highlights how your campaign is performing.
4. Bounce Rate
It’s also highly important that your SEO dashboard includes a bounce rate. This is the rate at which users are leaving your site without navigating to other pages. Tracking bounce rates allows you to identify the pages that users don’t find appealing or relevant enough. After compiling this in your marketing reports, you can then take measures to improve those pages and keep visitors engaged.
5. Organic CTR
Organic click-through rates are equally important in any SEO campaign, and that’s why it should be part of your SEO dashboard. It’s the measure of the percentage of users that click on your site in the SERP compared to how many eyeballs saw your site in the results.
6. Domain Authority
How popular is your site in the search engine results? Domain authority indicates whether search engines find your site credible and is ideal for comparing your brand performance with your competition.
7. Page Loading Speed
How fast do your web pages load? Faster loading speed can directly affect user experience, which consequently leads to a positive impact on your site.
How To Create an SEO Dashboard
Running an SEO campaign without a dashboard is like cruising the deep sea without a compass—drifting aimlessly with the hope that you’ll find land. But with one, you become the captain of your SEO ship. You can navigate through turbulence as well as calm waters. So, here’s how to create an SEO dashboard and gain control of your SEO campaign.
Step 1: Define Your SEO Goals
Before starting to choose the metrics to include in the dashboard, you need to set the objective of the SEO campaign you’re managing. Is the goal to increase organic traffic, enhance domain authority, or boost organic conversions from search results?
Setting clear SEO goals will guide you in choosing the VIP metrics and which ones belong in the guest list. Just remember that not every metric is the same—some are key to achieving your SEO goals, and others are just good to have.
Step 2: Choose Your Metrics
With the SEO goals in check, the next phase is choosing which metrics to include in the SEO reporting dashboard. This is where the magic happens, but take caution not to pile everything on your plate. Doing that might end up confusing your client. Only pick the SEO metrics that are aligned with your client objectives, and can narrate a beautiful SEO story.
We already discussed some of the metrics that are nice to have, but don’t be limited to this list. Go beyond and include other metrics that you think can help shed light on your client’s SEO goals.
Step 3: Choose Your Dashboard Platform
Now you’ve got your SEO goals and metrics figured out. It’s time to choose the right platforms to bring it all together. Here, you might be spoilt for a choice of tools to go with as you can pick a cost-free platform such as Looker Studio (Google Data Studio). Or go for more advanced tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush. The goal is to go for a tool that matches your needs and the client’s budget.
Looker Studio
Looker Studio is highly flexible as it allows you to source data from Google Search Console, and Google Analytics, among other sources to customize your dashboard.
SEMrush
SEMrush is a powerful SEO tool with detailed insights into various SEO metrics such as keyword rankings, backlinks, etc. It isn’t the cheapest option, but if you’re serious about delivering reliable results for your client, it’s worth the investment.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is another top contender, excellent at keyword research and backlink analysis. It’s costlier but has a wealth of data to upgrade your SEO game to a higher level.
Step 4: Build Your Dashboard
Now you’re ready to start building a solution that finalises the query, “How to create an SEO dashboard.” This is the part where the hidden data artist in you comes to light. Don’t forget that the objective isn’t to throw a bunch of graphs and charts on the dashboard. The SEO dashboard should narrate a story, guiding your client through the SEO data in a manner that is easily understandable and actionable.
- Keep it simple: Don’t bombard the audience with too much information. Instead, focus on the important SEO metrics that matter to the client’s campaign objectives.
- Use visuals wisely: Graphs and charts are amazing, but that doesn’t mean you use them anyway, even if they don’t add any value. Go for the right visual type for each SEO metric. Line graphs are great for showing trends over time while bar charts do well in comparisons.
- Narrate a story: Let the dashboard have a logical flow. Start with high-level metrics as you drill down into detailed data.
Step 5: Test, Tweak, Iterate
Creating an SEO reporting dashboard takes a lot of effort considering it’s an ongoing process rather than a one-and-done deal. You need to test the dashboard, make some tweaks, and iterate. After getting the dashboard up and running, take ample time to review it with your team as well as the client. Find out whether the displayed metrics are clear and comprehensible. Find out if you left out any data that would otherwise add immense value.
- Regular updates: SEO changes constantly and so, your dashboard needs to reflect these changes. Create a schedule for when you’ll be conducting updates to keep your dashboard relevant.
- Client input: Your client’s input is valuable, so find out which metrics they need to keep track of. Find out their high-value metrics and the least important ones. Doing this ensures the dashboard meets their needs.
- Continuous improvement: Always be open to making changes when needed. Great dashboards evolve with time, just like an SEO campaign strategy.
Step 6: Share The Dashboard and Educate the Client
When your dashboard is finally complete and well-polished, share it with your clients. This is the chance to showcase all the effort you’ve put into optimising the client’s site and driving SEO results. Don’t just drop the SEO reporting dashboard and call it a day. You need to take your time to walk them through it with explanations of the importance of each metric. Show how the metrics are tied to their SEO goals.
This comes in handy in ensuring everyone on the client’s team is on the same page and understands the dashboard well.
Conclusion
In learning how to create an SEO dashboard, every marketer needs to understand that the metrics displayed should be tied to the overall SEO campaign goals. In the end, the dashboard will be more than just a collection of charts and metrics. It will narrate the story of your client’s SEO journey—where they are at, where they’re headed, and what’s needed to get there. By properly defining SEO goals, selecting the right metrics, and creating an informative and visually attractive dashboard, you can help your client drive their SEO strategy forward. And if all this seems too complex for you to accomplish, there’s always the option of using the help of an expert. Get in touch with Eaglytics Co today and discover how we leverage Google Analytics to build highly informative and intuitive SEO dashboards.
