When we are chosen by a client to manage their SEO there is always a conversation about expected results. Amongst our Key Performance Indicators (measured against percentage increases or target numbers) are:

1. Improving rankings
2. Increasing site traffic
3. Delivering relevant visitors to the site

These 3 KPIs are essential to the success of a campaign, but they don’t always address the über specific ‘success’ factors for a campaign. For example, your site may have the option to:
* subscribe to a feed or newsletter
* download a trial
* request a quote
* make a purchase
* a mixture of all the above

Which of these 5 options would hold the most value for your business? Which is going to provide the biggest benefit or serve a longer-term goal? Of course, your answer will depend on your business needs and associated requirements at one particular moment in time.

Obviously visitors need to do something to make investing in getting them to your site worthwhile. But what should that "something" be? A generic response could be "performing a desired action" but that’s going to be tricky if you can’t quantify what it is…

…and if you can’t quantify it, any ROI or KPI for your SEO (gotta love those TLAs) will have questionable value.

So, before you evaluate any potential SEO provider take the time to understand what you really want from your visitors- and make it explicit e.g:
*You want them to make a few visits to evaluate you > they then ‘phone you to book an appointment
*You want them to go straight to a product cart and hit "buy now!"
*You want them to subscribe to a feed

By doing this you will be able to set meaningful KPIs, usually based on (or related to) conversions for very specific visitor activity- and it is these clear and robust KPIs that will enable me to do a better job you!