Making SEO Decisions With Confidence: A Guide To Data-Driven Strategies via @sejournal, @AdamHeitzman

In SEO, making strategical decisions without empirical information is similar relying connected luck for accordant results.

But however tin you efficaciously harness information to usher your SEO efforts and guarantee you’re not conscionable shooting successful the dark?

This broad usher volition amusement you however to leverage information for confident, results-driven SEO strategies.

The Power Of Data-Driven SEO: A Case Study

Let’s commencement with a compelling example. Glassdoor.com, earlier its merchantability to Recruit Holdings successful 2018, had an awesome 29,500,000 successful monthly postulation – astir wholly organic.

Screenshot from Semrush, September 2024

Their occurrence wasn’t by chance; it was the effect of a meticulous, data-driven attack to SEO.

In her 2017 presumption astatine a selling summit, Dawn Lyon, vice president of firm affairs, shared how they weaved information from antithetic net sources.

Image from Dawn Lyon/Glassdoor, September 2024

Glassdoor’s strategy progressive analyzing information from assorted net sources to place contented gaps and make high-value, well-optimized content.

This attack led to implicit 200,000,000 backlinks from much than 200,000 websites, establishing their power and authorization successful the online employment industry.

The takeaway? Glassdoor utilized information to place invaluable contented assets and gaps, creating contented that brought them person to their prospects.

This data-driven strategy importantly influenced their rankings successful hunt results for the online employment industry.

What Types Of Data Are Important In SEO?

Before diving into strategies, it’s important to recognize the types of information that substance successful SEO:

• Traffic data: This includes organic traffic, nonstop traffic, referral traffic, and paid traffic. It helps you recognize however users are uncovering your site.
• Keyword probe data: This reveals the terms and phrases radical use to find websites similar yours. It’s important for contented readying and on-page optimization.
• Backlink data: These are links from different websites to yours. Search engines see them a sign of spot and authority.
• Competitor data: This shows competitor show and strategies, helping you place opportunities and threats successful your niche.
• Content data: This includes accusation astir your website’s content, specified arsenic connection count, readability score, and interior linking structure.
• User behaviour data: Metrics similar bounce complaint and league duration connection insights into user experience and content effectiveness.
• Technical SEO data: This gives accusation connected website performance, specified arsenic page load speed and mobile-friendliness.
• Conversion complaint data: Based connected your desired outcomes, conversion rate tells you wherever you request to amended and however you tin optimize for amended results.

Each of these information types provides unsocial insights that tin pass your SEO strategy.

The Importance Of Data In SEO

Data takes the guesswork retired of SEO, allowing you to absorption connected what works based connected empirical evidence. For instance:

• Keyword probe information helps you recognize your people audience’s symptom points.
• Bounce rate information tin assistance you code issues affecting idiosyncratic engagement.
• Engagement metrics amusement which contented resonates with your audience.

How To Use Data In Your SEO Strategy

Now, let’s research however to instrumentality data-driven strategies successful your SEO efforts:

1. Define Clear Objectives For SEO

Start by mounting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) SEO objectives. This helps you navigate the measurement of disposable information and prioritize cardinal areas for your campaigns.

Screenshot taken by author, September 2024

2. Establish Baseline Metrics And KPIs

Identify KPIs that align with your objectives and found baseline metrics to measurement existent performance. This provides a notation constituent for evaluating the interaction of your SEO strategy.

Screenshot from Semrush, September 2024

3. Understand User Intent

Analyze hunt intent down keywords to efficaciously optimize your content. Use tools similar Google Search Console to way click-through rates (CTR) for idiosyncratic pages, which tin bespeak however good your contented matches idiosyncratic intent.

4. Choose High-Opportunity Keywords

Identify “low-hanging fruit” keywords with important hunt measurement and debased to mean competition. Evaluate their concern imaginable earlier targeting them.

Screenshot from Ahrefs, September 2024

5. Gather And Analyze Your Website Data

Use tools similar Google Analytics to way your website traffic and idiosyncratic engagement metrics. This information tin supply insights into your hunt show and assistance you place areas for improvement.

6. Conduct Competitor Analysis

Identify your SEO competitors and analyse their strategies. Tools similar Semrush tin assistance you find keyword gaps and backlink opportunities.

Screenshot from Semrush, September 2024

7. Create A Data-Driven SEO Strategy

Based connected your gathered data, make an informed SEO strategy. This should include:

• Creating your perfect lawsuit profile.
• Targeting the close keywords.
• Conducting a site-wide audit.
• Creating a contented calendar.

8. Double-Down On High-Performing Keyword Categories

Identify which keywords thrust the astir integrated postulation and conversions connected your site. Use Google Search Console to spot which presumption fertile highest and pull the astir click-throughs from hunt results.

If you usage a rank-tracking tool, harvester this information with Google Analytics to spot however pages execute successful presumption of traffic, engagement, and conversions.

Once you’ve identified your best-performing keywords, grow your contented footprint wrong these high-value areas.

For example, if “beginner yoga poses” is simply a apical performer, see processing contented for related presumption similar “yoga poses for flexibility,” “yoga routines for beginners,” and “best yoga mats for beginners.”

These “content clusters” astir a taxable volition assistance you seizure much postulation from thematically related keywords and tin summation your domain’s wide authorization for that taxable area.

9. Analyze What Makes Your Best Content Effective

Examine your highest-performing contented to place factors that marque it engaging for users. Consider aspects like:

• Word count: Is longer contented performing better, oregon bash users similar concise information?
• Tone of voice: Is a casual, conversational code much effective, oregon bash users respond amended to a formal, authoritative voice?
• Presentation: How does the usage of headings, slug points, images, and different ocular elements interaction engagement?
• Originality: Are unsocial insights oregon archetypal probe driving much engagement?
• Expertise demonstrated: How does the level of experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) interaction performance?
• Call-to-action (CTA): Analyze the clarity and entreaty of your CTAs. Are they driving the desired idiosyncratic actions?

Understanding which of these variables plays a portion volition usher you successful crafting aboriginal contented that mightiness reflector the aforesaid success.

10. Eliminate Friction From Your Conversion Paths

Analyze which idiosyncratic journeys pb to the highest levels of conversions. Look for commonalities successful these high-converting paths and purpose to replicate these elements crossed your site.

11. Prioritize Core Web Vitals

Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to measure your site’s show crossed Core Web Vitals metrics. Implement recommended fixes to amended your site’s idiosyncratic experience.

12. Enhance Your Site’s Mobile Usability

With mobile accounting for astir 63% of integrated hunt postulation successful the U.S., optimizing for mobile users is crucial. Use Google’s Lighthouse instrumentality to trial your site’s mobile-friendliness and instrumentality indispensable improvements.

13. Analyze Backlinks For More Targeted Outreach

Study your site’s backlink information to optimize your link-building strategy. Use this accusation to tailor your outreach strategy and people high-authority websites that are apt to find your contented valuable.

14. Collaborate With Cross-Functional Teams

Communicate the worth of SEO to each stakeholders and align it with broader concern goals. Integrate feedback from assorted teams to amended your SEO workflow efficiency.

15. Monitor And Iterate

Remember, SEO isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. Continuously show your advancement and beryllium prepared to iterate based connected caller information and insights.

Tools To Find SEO Data

To instrumentality these strategies effectively, you’ll request the close tools. Here are immoderate indispensable ones:

• Google Analytics: For postulation information and idiosyncratic behaviour insights. GA4 provides elaborate accusation astir your website visitors, including their demographics, interests, and however they interact with your site.
• Google Search Console: For keyword probe and onsite data. Google Search Console shows you however your tract appears successful Google hunt results and tin assistance you place and hole indexing problems.
• Ahrefs: For backlink information and rival analysis. It offers broad insights into your backlink illustration and helps you place link-building opportunities.
• Semrush: For broad rival information and keyword research. It’s peculiarly utile for knowing your competitors’ strategies and uncovering keyword gaps.
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider: For method SEO data. This instrumentality crawls your website to place method issues that could beryllium impacting your hunt motor performance.
• PageSpeed Insights: For Core Web Vitals analysis. It provides some laboratory and tract information astir leafage performance, with suggestions for improvement.
• Lighthouse: For mobile usability testing. This open-source instrumentality audits performance, accessibility, progressive web apps, and more.

Remember, portion these tools supply invaluable data, the existent powerfulness lies successful however you construe and enactment connected this information.

Regularly reappraisal your data, look for trends and patterns, and usage these insights to continuously refine your SEO strategy.

Leverage Data For Decision Making

Success successful SEO isn’t luck oregon magic. With the close data, you tin marque informed strategies that chopped done the sound and execute amended results connected the hunt motor results pages (SERPs).

Remember, SEO is not conscionable astir mentation – it’s astir implementation. The last measurement of your data-driven decisions is to enactment your strategies into enactment and benchmark against your erstwhile performance.

By leveraging information arsenic a instauration for decision-making, you tin make much effectual SEO strategies.

From capitalizing connected high-performing keywords to enhancing mobile usability and optimizing backlink strategies, each data-driven enactment you instrumentality helps solidify your online beingness and amended your rankings.

Stay analytical, enactment informed, and fto the information illuminate your way to SEO success.

More resources: 

• 7 Common Mistakes New Independent SEO Consultants Make (And How To Avoid Them) 
• 15 Project Management Tools For SEO Professionals
• State Of SEO 2025

Featured Image: Deemerwha studio/Shutterstock