SEO Tracking:How to Measure and Improve Your Results

Why do you need to measure your SEO results?

In the previous modules, you progressed through every stage of website optimisation: you researched your keywords, created content aligned with search intent, structured your website’s architecture and internal links, developed its authority through external links and optimised its technical performance.

At this point, the key question is inevitable: are all these efforts producing results?

This is where SEO tracking comes in, the final stage of your SEO journey. Measuring does not mean publishing an article and checking analytics every day while waiting for a miracle. Nor does it mean collecting data without knowing what to do with it.

SEO tracking means applying a practical method based on three steps:

Step 01

Measure

Collect the data from your tools.

Step 02

Interpret

Cross-reference it to diagnose what is happening.

Step 03

Improve

Decide on and apply the next change.

Throughout this guide, you will learn how to turn numbers into strategic decisions so that you can optimise your project with sound judgement.

PART 1: Understand what you need to measure

Which SEO metrics should you measure for tracking?

One of the most common mistakes when starting out is analysing isolated metrics without understanding their context. To avoid this, we will organise the indicators according to the strategic question they answer within the user’s journey:

Google displays your content

→

The user clicks

→

They view your content

→

They take an action

Is Google showing your content more often?

Before receiving visits, your pages need to appear in the search results for relevant queries.

• Impressions: the number of times a URL from your website appears in the search results in front of a user. A sustained increase in impressions can be an early sign that your content is gaining visibility, even before it receives more clicks.
• Average position: the average position occupied by your pages in Google results for the queries where they appear.
• Keyword movement: the number of terms for which your website ranks and how their positions change over time.
• CTR (Click-Through Rate): the percentage of users who see your result in Google and decide to click it (clicks / impressions × 100).

Is your visibility turning into real visits?

It is essential not to confuse search-engine visibility metrics with metrics describing behaviour on your website:

• Clicks from Google (Search Console): the total number of times users clicked your results within Google. The same user can generate several clicks through different searches or at different times.
• Organic users and sessions (Google Analytics 4): users represent the visitors who arrive on your website, while sessions indicate the number of visits started.
• Movement by page: compare traffic across your URLs to identify which ones are growing and which ones are losing visits.

Do users find your content useful when they arrive?

• Average engagement time: indicates how long a visitor spends reading or actively interacting with your page. A longer duration generally suggests that the content is interesting, although it must be interpreted according to the type of page. A detailed guide can generate several minutes of engagement, while a quick answer may satisfy the user in a few seconds.
• Engagement rate and bounce rate: in GA4, engagement rate indicates the percentage of sessions in which the user remains active for long enough, visits several pages or completes a key event (conversion). Bounce rate represents the opposite percentage: sessions that do not meet these criteria.
• Interpreting bounce rate: a high value is not automatically a problem. If a page immediately answers a specific question, the user may leave satisfied without needing to continue browsing. There is no universal ideal bounce rate. Compare it mainly between similar pages in your own project and observe its trend.

Does SEO traffic contribute to your real objectives?

Traffic alone does not sustain a project. You need to assess whether visitors complete commercially valuable actions through key events:

• Clicks on outbound or affiliate links: if you monetise your content through affiliate marketing, using plugins such as Pretty Links, you can measure how many users click your recommendations. The SEO and analytics tools we use are collected in Online Business Tools.
• Leads and registrations: subscribers joining your mailing list or requests for information.
• Sales or transactions: completed purchases or registrations for your services.

PART 2: Configure your tracking tools

Which tools do you need to measure your SEO?

To measure this journey simply and without duplicating effort, Scale & Own uses three complementary tools:

Google Search Console

Measures what happens in Google before the click.

Google Analytics 4

Measures what users do on your website after the click.

Exaldia

Monitors your visibility, keyword positions and industry data.

Google Search Console: how Google sees your website

Google Search Console is Google’s official free tool for analysing how the search engine crawls, indexes and displays your website in its results.

With Search Console, you can discover which queries make your pages appear in Google, check their indexing status, detect problems related to user experience and view the external and internal links that Google identifies on your website.

How to configure Google Search Console step by step

Step 1: Access the platform

Open Google Search Console and sign in with the Google account associated with your project.

Step 2: Add a property

You need to verify that you own the website. There are two main methods:

DNS verification (recommended)

• Select the “Domain” option.
• Copy the TXT record provided.

Open your domain provider (Hostinger).

• Go to the Domains section.
• Select the domain you want to verify.
• Click Manage DNS or Manage DNS records.
• Find the option to add a new DNS record.
• Select the TXT record type.
• Paste the verification code provided.
• Click Add record to save the changes.
• Return to Search Console and click “Verify”.
• Advantage: this method includes the entire domain, including subdomains and URLs.

HTML file verification

If you prefer not to use DNS verification:

• Select “URL prefix”.
• Download the HTML file.
• Upload it to the root of your website.
• Click “Verify”.

Step 3: Add the sitemap

Add your sitemap to make it easier to crawl your website.

The sitemap helps Google discover the important pages on your website. If you use a plugin such as All in One SEO or Yoast, your sitemap is created automatically. Copy its path, for example yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml, and enter it under Indexing → Sitemaps.

Step 4: Wait for data

The first data can take some time to appear, so it is normal not to have complete information immediately after setup. You will begin to see recorded activity after a few days.

Main Google Search Console reports

• Performance: analyses clicks, impressions, average CTR and average position by query or page.
• Indexing: shows which URLs are indexed correctly and which have warnings or crawl blocks, including sitemap status.
• Experience: evaluates Core Web Vitals metrics and performance on mobile devices.
• Links: lists the domains linking to your website and the pages receiving the most internal links.

Google Analytics 4: what users do on your website

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) mainly measures where your visitors come from and their interactions once they reach your content.

What can you analyse with Google Analytics 4?

• The traffic sources for your visits, such as Google, social media, direct traffic and email.
• Average engagement time and the most frequently viewed pages.
• Specific events and key events, such as scrolls, button clicks, downloads, forms and sales.

How to configure Google Analytics 4 in WordPress with Site Kit

Step 1: Create your account

Go to analytics.google.com and sign in with your Google account.

Click the “Start measuring” button.

In the “Account name” field, enter the name of your project, for example Scale & Own.

This name is used only to identify your account internally.

Click Next.

Complete all the fields and, at step 5, choose Web as the platform.

After choosing Web, the “Set up a data stream” screen appears.

Step 2: Install Site Kit in WordPress

• Open your WordPress administration dashboard.
• Go to Plugins → Add New Plugin, search for Site Kit by Google, install it and activate it.

Step 3: Connect your account

• Click the Site Kit setup notice at the top of the WordPress dashboard.
• Sign in with the same Google account you used to create GA4 and grant the requested permissions.
• The plugin will automatically detect your Analytics property and connect the Analytics tag to your website. If you have already created your Search Console property, Site Kit will also link it automatically.

Step 4: Confirm in the Realtime report

Open your website in an incognito window. Then open GA4 and go to Reports → Realtime. Your visit should appear immediately. General reports may take some time to process and display all accumulated data.

Search Console vs Google Analytics: which tool should you use?

Criterion	Google Search Console	Google Analytics 4
Analysis point	What happens before the click, on the Google results page.	What happens after the click, on your website.
Key metrics	Impressions, SERP clicks, average position, CTR and indexing.	Users, sessions, engagement time and key events.
Main objective	Evaluate visibility, keywords and indexing status.	Evaluate user behaviour, navigation and conversions.

Using both tools gives you a complete perspective: Search Console reveals how the public finds you, while GA4 reveals what they do after entering your website.

External SEO tools: position and competitor tracking

Although Google’s services are essential, they do not provide daily ranking monitoring for specific keywords or allow you to audit other projects in your industry. We therefore recommend complementing your tracking with specialist tools such as Exaldia, or solutions such as Semrush.

What external SEO tools provide

These tools complement Google’s data with information about changes in your positions, competitors and other growth opportunities.

What you can track with Exaldia

• Position tracking: monitor changes in your target keywords in search results.
• Estimated traffic movement: evaluate which pages are gaining or losing visibility overall.
• Link monitoring: track the acquisition or loss of backlinks and analyse where they come from.
• Competitor analysis: compare changes in your domain with other websites in your niche.
• Opportunity detection: identify keywords close to the top positions to find content with room for improvement.
• Artificial-intelligence visibility: monitor whether your domain and content are cited in the answers of the main AI assistants.

Turn your SEO data into clear decisions.

Exaldia centralises positions, visibility, competitors and opportunities to help you identify what is working, what needs attention and where to act first.

• Silo architecture
• Keyword research
• Content planning
• Automation

Discover Exaldia

Designed to organise, create and optimise content from a single space.

PART 3: Measure your visibility beyond Google

How to measure your visibility in AI searches

If you have applied GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), you may also begin to gain visibility and receive visits from artificial-intelligence assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude.

Exaldia also allows you to monitor whether your domain is cited in their answers. However, to obtain a more complete view, you also need to analyse the traffic these platforms send to your website and understand how this new visibility appears in your analytics tools.

Identify traffic from AI assistants in GA4

In the current version of GA4, visits from recognised AI platforms are recorded in acquisition reports within the referral channel, or grouped according to their source. You can find them under Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition.

To analyse them in more detail, you can create a filter or custom channel group using the main referral sources:

chatgpt.com

perplexity.ai

claude.ai

gemini.google.com

copilot.microsoft.com

Understand the limits of this data

It is important to note that a substantial proportion of traffic sent by AI models arrives without source information, or referrer data, and is therefore included in the Direct channel.

An increase in direct traffic does not necessarily come from virtual assistants. It may be caused by browser bookmarks, direct visits, mobile applications or repeat visits. Treat AI traffic measurement as a complementary trend indicator, not an exact figure.

Track brand mentions and citations

In addition to the traffic you receive, analyse whether your domain and content are cited directly in AI assistant answers. You can automate this tracking with Exaldia and, when necessary, complement it with manual checks in ChatGPT, Perplexity or other assistants to observe which content they use as a source and which competitors appear alongside you.

In Search Console, appearances in Google’s AI-generated answers, known as AI Overviews, are counted in the general Performance report as standard SERP impressions and clicks.

How to interpret your SEO data

Access to charts and lists provides no value if you do not know which decisions to make from them. The following situations show how to cross-reference the data to produce an accurate diagnosis of your pages:

Many impressions but few clicks (low CTR)

What this may mean

Your page appears in searches, but users prefer to click other results.

What to review

SEO titles, meaning the title tag, and meta descriptions. Make them more relevant and include appealing calls to action.

Good positions but little total traffic

What this may mean

There may be several causes: the keyword has very low search volume, the search is answered directly in the SERP without a click, known as zero-click, or your snippet is less attractive than your competitors’ snippets.

What to review

The actual SERP, the appeal of your title and snippet, and whether there are long-tail variations with greater demand.

Growing traffic but low engagement or a high bounce rate

What this may mean

The content does not quickly satisfy what the user expected to find, the reading structure is heavy or loading speed is poor.

What to review

The opening paragraphs, which should answer the user’s search quickly, the visual formatting, including headings, bold text and lists, and mobile speed.

High traffic but few conversions

What this may mean

You are attracting a high volume of purely informational visits without immediate purchase intent, or your calls to action (CTAs) go unnoticed.

What to review

The placement and visibility of your CTAs, the page’s value proposition and internal links to your commercial content.

A page gradually loses positions

What this may mean

Your content may have become outdated, competitors may have improved theirs, your page may have lost links or a technical problem may be affecting its performance.

What to review

The SERP, content updates, internal and external links and any incidents reported in Search Console.

PART 5: Improve your strategy

What should you do if your SEO results do not improve?

SEO is a gradual process that requires time. If you do not see significant progress after applying changes, this does not necessarily mean the strategy is wrong. Instead, you should review each part of your project methodically.

Use this workflow to review your website’s entire chain:

Keywords

→

Content

→

Architecture and internal links

→

Authority

→

Technical SEO

→

Tracking

→

Optimisation

Step 01

Review your keywords

Check whether you are trying to rank for terms that are too broad or competitive for your website’s level of maturity. Look for more specific long-tail opportunities with a level of competition your project can handle.

Step 02

Review your content

Compare your page with the pages occupying the top positions. Assess whether your text addresses search intent better, is clearer and offers a more practical structure.

Step 03

Review the architecture and internal links

Check whether the page you want to rank receives enough internal links from other relevant articles on your website, or whether it has become isolated within the structure.

Step 04

Review authority

Evaluate gains or losses in external links (backlinks). If you compete in an industry with established competitors, a lack of high-quality inbound links may be one of the factors limiting your ability to compete.

Step 05

Review technical SEO

Open Search Console to rule out indexing problems, crawl blocks, 404 errors or declines in loading speed.

Step 06

Review experience and conversion

Make sure that mobile navigation is smooth and calls to action are well integrated.

PART 6: Create a tracking routine

Your SEO tracking routine

To track performance efficiently without overwhelming yourself with daily analytics, Scale & Own organises reviews at two levels:

Every week

Quick review

15 minutes

• Urgent technical errors or indexing warnings in Google Search Console.
• The main changes in the positions of your strategic keywords in Exaldia.
• Unusual traffic drops: sudden losses of visits on important pages.

Every month

In-depth review

1 hour

• Overall traffic movement: compare organic traffic performance in GA4 with previous periods.
• Performance by page: identify which URLs gain or lose visits so that you can plan content updates.
• Conversion metrics: assess SEO’s real effect on sales, subscriber acquisition or affiliate clicks through your key events.
• Authority status: review backlinks gained or lost during the month.
• AI visibility queries: carry out manual checks in conversational assistants to see whether your content is cited.

SEO tracking checklist

Use this list to confirm that the foundations of your analytics are in place:

• Have you configured Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4?
• Have you submitted your website’s sitemap to Search Console?
• Do you monitor your main keywords and competitors in Exaldia or an equivalent tool?
• Do you know which pages generate the most traffic and which ones need optimisation?
• Have you configured the key events that allow you to measure your project’s conversions?
• Do you carry out regular weekly and monthly reviews?

Measure, analyse and improve

You have reached the final stage of our journey through SEO.

Throughout this chapter, you have learned to build a web project from its foundations: from selecting keywords and structuring content, through internal links, authority and technical SEO, to analysing results.

As you have seen, SEO is not just about looking at numbers, but understanding what to do with them.

SEO is a dynamic discipline in which you compete with other projects for the same searches and for users’ attention. If a page overtakes you, examine the data, analyse the reasons, adjust your content and continue improving. Your ability to diagnose a situation and adapt with sound judgement will be your best tool for growth.

Next step at Scale & Own

This guide completes our section on SEO.

If you need to reinforce a concept or review your website’s optimisation, we recommend revisiting the previous lessons. This will allow you to consolidate your knowledge and make sure your project has a solid foundation.

You can also visit our video training page, where everything is explained in a more practical and concrete way.

At Scale & Own, we take a comprehensive view of entrepreneurship: creating and ranking a digital project is the first step, but learning to manage and grow the income you earn is also essential.

For this reason, when you feel ready, we invite you to continue with our Investing and Financial Management module, where you will learn to manage and grow the capital generated by your projects.

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• Why measure your SEO results?
• Which SEO metrics should you measure?
• Which tools do you need?
• Google Search Console
• Google Analytics 4
• External SEO tools
• Measure your visibility beyond Google
• How to interpret your SEO data
• Improve your SEO strategy
• Create a tracking routine
• SEO tracking checklist
• Measure, analyse and improve
• Next step