How Do I Know If My SEO Is Working? Metrics and Reporting Explained
You are paying for SEO every month and you are not sure what you are getting. This guide covers the SEO metrics that actually tell you whether your SEO is working, what to expect at three, six and twelve months, what a good SEO report should show, and the red flags that suggest your SEO efforts are not producing anything.
The Short Answer
Your SEO is working if organic traffic, keyword rankings and enquiries are all trending upwards over three to six months, and if the growth is happening on commercial search queries rather than only on irrelevant ones.
The single best test is simpler than any SEO tool. Are you getting more enquiries from organic search than you were six months ago? If yes, your SEO is doing its job. If no, and it has been more than six months, something needs to change.
Why Keyword Rankings Alone Are a Bad Measure
Most SEO reports lead with keyword rankings, because rankings are easy to show and easy to make look good.
The problem is that a ranking is not a result. It is possible to rank first for keywords nobody searches, to rank higher for terms with no buying intent, and to show a chart full of green arrows while the business receives no more leads or sales than it did a year ago.
Rankings also move last. By the time your average position improves, the underlying signals shifted weeks earlier. Judging your SEO on keyword rankings alone means reacting late to both good news and bad.
Rankings matter, but as one input among several, not as the headline metric.
The SEO Metrics and KPIs That Actually Matter
These SEO KPIs are listed roughly in the order they move, which is also the order in which you should expect to see them improve.
| Metric | What it tells you | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions | Whether Google is showing you more often. Moves first | Google Search Console |
| Number of ranking keywords | Whether your search visibility is broadening | Google Search Console, Semrush, Ahrefs |
| Average position | Whether your website ranks higher over time | Google Search Console |
| Click through rate | Whether your titles and meta descriptions are working | Google Search Console |
| Organic traffic | Whether more people are actually arriving from organic search | Google Analytics |
| Engagement | Bounce rate, time on page, time on site, pages per session | Google Analytics |
| Share of voice | Your visibility against named competitors | Semrush, Ahrefs |
| Google Business Profile actions | Calls, direction requests, website clicks from local search | Google Business Profile |
| Conversions | Enquiries, calls and form submissions from organic search | Google Analytics with goals configured |
| Revenue | The only metric that pays your wages | Your own sales records |
If your monthly report shows the first three and stops, you are being shown activity rather than SEO results.
A note on bounce rate
Bounce rate is widely misread. A high bounce rate on a contact page is bad. A high bounce rate on a page that answers a question completely may be perfectly fine, because the visitor got what they came for. Always read bounce rate and time on page together, and against the purpose of the page, rather than treating a single number as an SEO health score.
A note on domain authority
Domain authority is a third party score invented by Moz, not a Google ranking factor. It is a useful rough comparison between sites and a terrible headline metric. Any SEO report that leads with domain authority is leading with something Google does not use.
What to Expect at Three, Six and Twelve Months
| Timeframe | What working SEO looks like |
|---|---|
| Month 1 to 2 | Little visible change. Technical SEO fixes, keyword research and on-page optimization happening. Impressions may begin rising |
| Month 3 | Impressions clearly up. More keywords ranking. Average position improving. Local visibility often moving already |
| Month 6 | Organic search traffic measurably higher. Commercial keywords on page one or close. Enquiries beginning to increase |
| Month 12 | Sustained increase in organic traffic and enquiries. Competitive terms ranking. New content ranking faster than at the start |
If you are at month six with no movement in impressions or ranking keyword counts, that is a genuine warning sign. Note that SEO typically takes 3 to 6 months to show meaningful results, so judging your SEO strategy at month two is unfair to any provider.
What a Good SEO Report Should Show
A monthly SEO report exists to answer three questions: what was done, what changed, and what happens next. Most reports answer only the second, and only selectively.
A good report includes:
- Work completed this month. Specific tasks, not categories. “Rewrote and republished four service pages” rather than “on-page SEO”
- Organic traffic compared to the previous period and the same period last year, since seasonality distorts month on month comparisons
- Impressions and average position from Google Search Console
- Keyword rankings for commercially relevant terms, including the ones that went down
- Conversions from organic search, with the definition of a conversion stated clearly
- Google Business Profile performance if you are a local business
- Technical SEO health, including indexing status, page speed and any new issues found in the latest audit
- Backlinks gained and lost
- Plain-English commentary explaining what the numbers mean
- Next month’s plan, so you know what you are paying for
The commentary matters more than the charts. Anyone can export a dashboard from an SEO tool. Explaining what happened and why is the actual work.
Red Flags That Your SEO Is Not Working
- Rankings and impressions only, with no organic traffic or conversion data
- Keywords you have never heard of, usually easy terms chosen because they rank
- Only the keywords that improved, with losses quietly omitted
- Vanity metrics such as domain authority presented as the headline result
- An automated SEO checker export with no commentary
- The same generic tasks listed every month
- “Content published” counts with no explanation of what the content targets
- No mention of what happens next month
- Reluctance to give you direct access to Google Analytics or Google Search Console
That last one is the most serious. Your analytics and your Search Console property belong to you. Any provider unwilling to give you full access is a provider you should be asking hard questions.
How to Tell If You Hired a Good SEO Company
Beyond the reporting itself, a few practical tests.
Ask what they did last month and why. A good answer connects specific work to a specific goal. A poor answer is a list of activity with no reasoning.
Ask which keywords matter and why those. If the target keyword list is not obviously connected to what you sell, that is a problem.
Ask what is not working. Every campaign has something underperforming. An SEO expert who claims everything is going well is either not looking or not telling you.
Ask what they would do with double the budget. The answer reveals whether there is a strategy or just a monthly routine.
Ask when they last ran a technical SEO audit. If the answer is “at the start”, nobody has checked your site’s SEO health in months.
Check you own everything. Your website, your domain, your Google Business Profile, your analytics, your ad accounts and your content. If any of it sits in a supplier’s account, that is leverage rather than service.
Free Tools to Check If Your SEO Is Working
You do not need an expensive SEO tool to sanity check your SEO performance.
Google Search Console is free and is the only source of genuine data on how your website appears in Google search. Compare the last three months against the previous three for impressions, clicks, keyword counts and average position.
Google Analytics shows what visitors from organic search actually did once they arrived. Set up conversion tracking if you have not already, because without it no report can tell you anything useful.
Google Business Profile insights show calls, direction requests and website clicks from local search.
PageSpeed Insights gives you a free read on page speed and Core Web Vitals, which is one of the few technical SEO elements you can check yourself in seconds.
Paid SEO tools such as Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz and Ubersuggest add competitor data, share of voice and keyword rank tracking. Useful for a specialist, but not necessary for a business owner checking whether things are moving. A free SEO checker will give you a rough site health score, though treat those scores with caution, since they measure what is easy to measure rather than what matters.
Is SEO Still Relevant With AI Search?
Yes, but the picture is broadening.
AI Overviews and assistants such as ChatGPT now answer a share of search queries that would previously have produced a click. That means impressions can rise while clicks stay flat, and it means traditional traffic metrics understate your search visibility.
The practical response is to add two things to your measurement: whether your business gets named when you ask AI assistants questions your customers would ask, and whether branded search volume is growing, since people who encounter you in an AI answer often search your name afterwards.
It also raises the importance of conversions over raw website traffic. Fewer, better qualified visitors is not a failure.
Common Mistakes When Measuring SEO Success
- Judging SEO results at month two, before foundational work has had time to register
- Comparing month on month rather than year on year, which mistakes seasonality for performance
- Tracking keyword rankings from a personalised, logged-in browser rather than a neutral tool
- Counting all organic traffic rather than separating branded from non-branded search traffic
- Having no conversion tracking configured, which makes every other metric guesswork
- Treating bounce rate as a quality signal without considering the page’s purpose
- Ignoring enquiries that arrive by phone, which are invisible without call tracking
- Assuming a lot of traffic means effective SEO, when traffic alone does not lead to more sales
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if my SEO is working?
Check whether impressions, ranking keywords, organic traffic and enquiries have all improved over three to six months. Impressions move first and enquiries last. If impressions and keyword counts are rising, your SEO efforts are landing even if traffic has not caught up yet.
What are the key metrics to measure SEO performance?
Conversions from organic search first, organic traffic second, then impressions, ranking keywords and average position. For local businesses, Google Business Profile calls and direction requests belong near the top. Keyword rankings alone are the weakest of the common SEO metrics.
How long does it take for SEO to show results?
Three months for early signals, six months for a fair judgement, twelve months for the full picture. Judging at month two is unreasonable. Waiting until month twelve to ask questions is too generous.
How can I tell if my SEO strategy is not working?
The clearest sign is no movement in Google Search Console impressions or ranking keyword counts after three months. Others include improvement only on keywords irrelevant to your business, reports that avoid traffic and conversion data, and a provider who cannot explain what they did last month.
What tools can I use to check my SEO performance?
Google Search Console and Google Analytics are free and cover most of what a business owner needs, alongside Google Business Profile insights for local performance and PageSpeed Insights for page speed. Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz and Ubersuggest add competitor tracking and share of voice if you want more depth.
Should I fire my SEO company if rankings have not improved?
Not on rankings alone. Ask to see impressions and keyword counts first, since those move earlier. If those are flat after three to six months and the provider cannot explain why, that is a fair basis for a difficult conversation. An independent second opinion is usually cheaper than a wasted year.
What is a realistic increase in organic traffic?
It depends enormously on your starting point. A site with almost no visibility can double or triple website traffic in a year. An established site with strong rankings might gain twenty to forty percent. Percentage growth from a low base is easy, so always ask for absolute numbers alongside percentages.
Want an Independent Second Opinion?
If you are paying for SEO and cannot tell whether it is working, an outside view is usually the fastest way to find out. We will look at your Google Search Console data, your analytics and your current reporting, and tell you honestly whether the numbers support what you are being told.
An SEO consultancy call costs £50 for thirty minutes or £80 for a full hour. There is no obligation to move your work to us, and if your current provider is doing a good job we will say so.
You can also read more about how we handle reporting and monthly campaign reviews as part of digital marketing in Glasgow and across Scotland.
