Ranking on SERPs organically takes a lot of time and effort. If you do things wrong, all this effort can go to waste. Fortunately, you can foretell whether your efforts will work by checking SEO Trends and Data.
With SEO forecasting, you can foretell how your site will rank, the expected traffic, and the overall value of your SEO effort. In this article, we will guide you on how to use SEO trends and data to forecast the future performance of your site.
What is SEO Forecasting?
SEO forecasting involves using third-party tools to foretell the future performance of your site as a result of your SEO efforts. Using SEO trends and data such as keyword search volumes, monthly organic traffic, and clickthrough rate, you can foretell your visibility on the search engines.
It can also help you detect any potential issues with your site to resolve them before they affect your search engine ranking. Some of the changes you can effect include altering your content strategy or link-building strategy. But since nobody can accurately predict the future, there is a margin of error. However, it will show you how to set realistic goals.
Benefits of SEO Forecasting
There are several benefits of forecasting the future performance of your site. These include:
Make Informed Decisions
All the efforts you put into an SEO strategy have a goal. This could be an increase in traffic or ROI. However, with SEO efforts affected by many factors, it can be hard to measure SEO goals. SEO forecasting can help you make more informed marketing decisions. It will show you what resources you need in the future.
Create a Content Strategy
By understanding the results you are likely to see in your SEO effort, you can create a better content strategy. This is because you will focus more on keywords with a better return on investment.
Common Metrics to Consider in SEO Forecasting
When doing SEO forecasting, you should look into the following:
Keyword Performance
When looking at keyword performance, you should check the ranking of individual keywords. Are they ranking well? Is there something you can do to improve their performance? By identifying the well-performing keywords, you can see if there are opportunities to create new content around them.
By looking at the search volume of a keyword, you can tell if it has the potential to bring traffic and, thus, a higher ROI. For instance, if your keyword ranks at number 5 in SERPs, by looking at the search volume, you can easily tell the traffic you can get if you move to the first position.
Conversion Rate
This refers to the number of visitors to your site who perform a particular action. The visitor may respond to a call such as signup, purchase, or download. By checking this metric, you cna determine the engagement level of a keyword.
Seasonality
Are there periods when the demand for a keyword spikes and others when it goes down? This is the seasonality data and will help you determine if you can rank for a keyword throughout the year.
Search Intent
This is the purpose for which a user searches a keyword. It can show if there are chances of a keyword ranking. For instance, transactional keywords have a higher search intent than informational keywords.
Click-through rate
This refers to the number of clicks in relation to the number of impressions a site gets for a particular query. By observing the clickthrough rate, you will consider the chances of converting someone who clicks on your keyword. This metric will show you the organic traffic you can drive, depending on a site’s position and organic impressions.
How to Do SEO Forecasting
Here are the steps you need to follow when doing SEO forecasting.
Determine What You Want To Track
You Should begin by listing the steps you would like to track. Consider what you want to do with the prediction. Remember that it takes more than just picking a metric like conversion. You should also track the position of your business.
Gather the Necessary Data
This step will provide you with a high-level view of your past traffic/ You should look at your site’s historical data on the Google Analytics Report or other third-party tools. You will want to look at the past traffic and other details of the people visiting your page. Pay special attention to specific patterns and seasonality of the keywords.
Check External Factors
Even as you check your previous data, you should consider if there are external factors that may have affected the results during a particular period. Some of these factors may include:
- Google algorithm updates that have impacted your site
- Previous marketing efforts that may have impacted performances
- Key seasons that may favor your site
- If you have an ecommerce site, pay attention to major shopping dates such as Black Fridays.
You can use third-party tools to check this information. Consider the performance of your competitors in relation to yours.
Use an SEO Forecasting Tool
There are many tools out there you can use to read the forecasting data. These may give different data, so it may be necessary to compare a few different tools. Some of the best SEO forecasting tools are:
- Ahrefs site traffic forecast
- Prophet by Facebook
- Google Data Studio
- SEO Monitor
Analyze the Data
By looking at previous search data, you can determine if there are traffic patterns and cycles that can emerge in the future. This can give you a picture of how the traffic will likely turn out in a given month.
It will also show you areas where you aren’t doing well and there is a need for improvement. For instance, if you had a lot of traffic before a Google update, you should consider updating your content to rank better.
In Conclusion
Understanding your site’s previous data is important. But it’s even better also to understand its future performance. Not only will it help you know where to invest more resources, but it will show if there is a potential for ranking for other keywords. By following this guide, it will be possible to get the most out of SEO forecasting.
