Search Performance Analytics focuses on tracking and evaluating how your website performs across search channels. It includes measuring organic traffic, user engagement signals, ranking trends, conversion rates, and visibility benchmarks. This category helps you understand what is working, where performance is declining, and how search visibility impacts business outcomes.
Search Performance Analytics represents the evaluation layer of search strategy. It does not optimize content directly; instead, it measures the results of your technical SEO, content strategy, authority building, and GEO initiatives. Analytics turns optimization efforts into measurable insights and business intelligence.
A method of comparing two versions of a web page or element to determine which performs better. Users are randomly shown version A or B, and conversion data reveals the winner. Essential for data-driven optimization.
AI SEO KPIs are the key performance indicators used to measure a brand's visibility, authority, and commercial impact within AI-driven search and answer engine environments. They include metrics like AI citation rate, share of voice in AI responses, prompt coverage, AI sentiment score, and AI-referred traffic-providing a measurement framework for the generative AI search channel distinct from traditional SEO metrics.
The percentage of single-page sessions where users leave without interacting further. In GA4, this is replaced by 'engagement rate' (inverse of bounce rate), measuring sessions lasting 10+ seconds, with conversion, or 2+ pageviews.
Click-through rate (CTR) in SEO is the percentage of users who click on a search result after seeing it in a SERP, calculated as clicks divided by impressions. Organic CTR varies significantly by position, query type, SERP feature presence, and title/description quality. As AI Overviews occupy more SERP space and satisfy more queries without clicks, understanding and optimizing organic CTR becomes essential for capturing maximum value from remaining click-through opportunities.
Comparing your brand's AI visibility metrics against competitors to understand relative market position and identify opportunities. Measures comparative share of voice, citation rates, and positioning across AI platforms.
The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action (purchase, sign-up, download, call). Calculated as (conversions / total visitors) × 100. A key metric for measuring SEO effectiveness and website performance.
Dwell time is the duration a user spends on a webpage after clicking from a search result before returning to the SERP. It is an inferred quality signal-longer dwell time suggests the content satisfied the user's query, while rapid return to the SERP (pogo-sticking) suggests dissatisfaction. While Google hasn't confirmed dwell time as a direct ranking factor, user behavior patterns that correlate with high dwell time (low bounce rate, deep scroll, multiple page visits) are clearly associated with strong ranking performance.
First-party data strategy for SEO is the practice of using proprietary audience data-collected directly from site visitors, customers, and users with explicit consent-to inform content strategy, keyword targeting, and AI visibility investment decisions. First-party data sources including site search queries, CRM data, support ticket topics, and behavioral analytics provide unique insights into actual audience information needs that third-party keyword tools cannot replicate.
Google's latest analytics platform using event-based tracking instead of session-based metrics. Replaces Universal Analytics with privacy-focused measurement, cross-device tracking, and AI-powered insights.
A free Google tool that monitors, maintains, and troubleshoots website presence in Google Search results. Provides essential data on rankings, clicks, impressions, indexing, and technical issues.
Visitors who arrive at your website from unpaid search engine results. The primary goal of SEO, representing users who found your site naturally through search queries rather than paid advertisements.
Pogo-sticking is the search behavior where a user clicks on a search result, quickly returns to the search results page, and clicks on a different result-indicating the first result failed to satisfy their search intent. It represents the most negative possible user satisfaction signal a search result can generate. Search algorithms interpret consistent pogo-sticking as evidence of content-query mismatch and may use it to demote the pogo-sticked result over time.
SGE traffic impact refers to the change in organic click-through rates and website traffic resulting from Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) and AI Mode, which place AI-generated answers above traditional organic results. Studies show that AI-generated responses reduce clicks on organic results for informational queries, creating a fundamental shift in how search traffic is distributed between AI citations and organic links.
Measurements of how users interact with web pages including time on page, scroll depth, click-through rate, bounce rate, and pages per session. Google uses engagement signals as ranking factors to identify quality content.
Zero-party data is information that users proactively and intentionally share with a brand-through quizzes, surveys, preference centers, interactive assessments, and direct product configuration choices. Unlike behaviorally collected first-party data, zero-party data represents explicit audience self-disclosure. For SEO and AI content strategy, zero-party data collection (through quizzes, assessments, and surveys) simultaneously generates valuable audience intelligence and creates engaging, linkable content assets.
Monitor your brand's visibility, engagement signals, rankings, and competitive benchmarks in one unified dashboard.
