How to Set SEO Goals that Drive Revenue + Examples

SEO goals are data-driven objectives that help businesses increase visibility, traffic, and leads for their website. Learn expert tips for creating SMART SEO goals that deliver real results. Cheat sheet included.

To see SEO success, build a thriving marketing funnel, and consistently drive qualified leads for your business, you need to understand how to define smart SEO goals.

In this article, we’ll look at SEO basics – and teach you to maximize your website’s impact with smart SEO goals. You’ll learn how to define specific goals and learn how to track your success with SEO metrics and how to align them with business goals.

We’ve even created a cheat sheet for you to use as you develop your SEO strategy.

What are SEO goals?

SEO goals are specific objectives and targets set by businesses to improve their website’s visibility and ranking on search engines like Google.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential component of effective digital marketing. You might have brilliant copy with stunning designs – but you won’t reach your maximum audience if you don’t have your SEO dialed in.

To achieve the best results with your SEO strategy, you need to set goals before you begin implementing. Without goals, you risk using tactics that won’t lead to desired outcomes.

For example, setting a goal to increase organic traffic by 30% within six months can guide your SEO efforts toward creating high-quality evergreen content, optimizing keywords, and improving website performance to attract more visitors and potential customers.

If you never set a goal, your team will waste time on content and strategies that won’t deliver what the business needs.

How to set actionable, realistic SEO goals

SEO fundamentals encompass a wide range of factors. On-page, technical, and off-page SEO tap into content marketing, linking, tagging, and more. It can feel like a lot to handle.

But setting SEO goals doesn’t have to be overwhelming. SEO is never set in stone. As your site grows, you can iterate and improve your SEO objectives.

Here’s how to set specific goals for SEO you can achieve:

1. Audit your website. Using a tool like Semrush or Ahrefs to audit your site reveals your SEO gaps. These tools analyze your website for SEO errors and places to improve.

The audit results should serve as a roadmap for setting your SEO goals. The weaknesses identified by the audit will define the best opportunities to improve your site’s authority and relevance.

2. Determine the timeline of your goals. Based on your SEO audit, you’ll either set long-term goals, short-term goals, or a mix of both. For each goal, define the timeline for results.

Short-term goals will likely include on-site SEO goals, while long-term goals are generally things like establishing domain authority through backlinks. Setting an unrealistic timeline is one of the most common causes of failure with SEO – so set reality-based timelines.

3. Use the SMART goal model. The SMART goal model developed by George Doran, Arthur Miller, and James Cunningham is an ideal way to set goals that lead to results.

Each SEO goal you set should be:

• Specific: Your goal should have defined characteristics – including what exactly is to be accomplished and who will execute it.
• Measurable: Your goals should be measurable. It should be easy to determine whether or not the goal has been met. Use SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to track your SEO performance. Your goal should include the precise metrics you want to achieve.
• Achievable: Your goal should be something you can achieve within budget. Expecting conversions to triple within a week after you incorporate target keywords into a blog post is unrealistic. Do research to make sure your goals are attainable.
• Relevant: Your goals should be directly relevant to the core reasons you have a website – whether that’s to increase sales, generate leads, or build brand awareness. By setting relevant goals, you can be confident you’re building an SEO strategy that’ll contribute to the success of your business.
• Time-bound: Set specifications for how long your goal should take to execute. Without a timeline, you can spend weeks or months working toward an SEO goal you never reach. Timelines add pressure to get things done.

The SMART goal model isn’t the only way to set goals. But it’s a great start when you want to set SEO goals that make a positive business impact.

Meet with your marketing team to brainstorm the SEO goals that are right for your business. Ensure each team member understands the overarching goal – and what it’ll take to make it happen.

SEO is always changing – so be flexible. Google algorithm updates like RankBrain, BERT, and Medic had a major impact on many site owners’ traffic. Stay on top of SEO trends and be ready to adapt when needed.

Finally, always set data-driven goals. Do thorough research to understand how certain SEO elements impact your overall ranking.

How to align SEO and business goals

Investing in SEO is a smart move, but only if it moves the needle toward your business objectives. Otherwise, you’re wasting precious dollars on initiatives that don’t serve your bottom line.

Before building an SEO strategy, take the following steps to ensure your SEO goals align with your business goals.

1. Define your business objectives
2. Understand your audience
3. Choose the right KPIs
4. Align content strategy
5. Monitor, measure, and adjust
6. Communicate and collaborate

Step 1: Define your business objectives

This is the time to get specific. Vague goals like “increase sales” or “grow the business” leave too much room for interpretation, causing team members to bump heads. Instead, pinpoint exactly what you’re aiming for.

Are you looking to boost online sales by 20% in the next quarter? Or perhaps you aim to increase leads for a particular service by 30% within six months? Whatever it is, write it down and share it with all stakeholders.

Step 2: Understand your audience

Before you can align your SEO goals with your business objectives, you must know who you’re talking to. Who are your customers? What are their pain points, needs, and search behaviors? This isn’t just about demographics; it’s about getting into the nitty-gritty of what makes your audience tick (or should we say, click?).

This will guide your keyword research, content creation, and SEO strategies, ensuring they’re tailored to meet your audience’s needs and your business goals.

Step 3: Choose the right KPIs

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are your best friends in measuring the success of your SEO efforts. Choose KPIs that directly reflect progress towards your business goals.

If you’re focused on increasing sales, relevant KPIs may include organic traffic, conversion rate, and average order value from organic search. These metrics will track the effectiveness of your SEO strategy, so you can make necessary adjustments.

Step 4: Align content strategy with SEO and business goals

Content is king, but only if it’s the right kind of content. Your content strategy should be a bridge between your SEO goals and business objectives.

For example, if you’re aiming to increase leads for a specific service, your content should not only be optimized for relevant keywords but also address the questions and concerns of potential customers, guiding them toward conversion.

This approach ensures your SEO efforts contribute directly to reaching your business goals (e.g., sign ups, sales, calls).

Step 5: Monitor, measure, and adjust

SEO and business objectives are ever-changing, and so should your strategy. Regularly monitor your KPIs and adjust your tactics as needed. Perhaps certain keywords aren’t performing as expected, or a new competitor has entered the scene.

Be prepared to pivot and refine your strategy to stay aligned with both your SEO and business objectives. Remember, SEO is not a set-it-and-forget-it kind of deal.

Step 6: Communicate and collaborate

Keep all stakeholders on the same page at all times. SEO doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it intersects with various parts of your business, from marketing and sales to IT and customer service.

So, regularly communicate your SEO plans, progress, and results with relevant teams. This collaboration fosters a unified approach to achieving business goals while ensuring your SEO strategy benefits from everyone’s perspectives and expertise.

Examples of great SEO goals

Let’s review examples of great SEO goals:

Boost e-commerce conversion rates by 15% within the next quarter by optimizing product descriptions and improving the checkout process. Sarah and Tom will lead the optimization efforts, starting with A/B testing different descriptions and checkout flows over the next two months. Success will be measured by comparing conversion rates before and after changes.

Double website traffic by the end of the year by expanding content marketing efforts and leveraging social media advertising. Lisa and Alex will spearhead the creation of targeted content and ad campaigns, focusing on high-engagement platforms. Initial content and ad rollout to occur within the next three months, with ongoing adjustments based on performance analytics.

Increase blog views by 25% over the next six months by incorporating 7-10 well-researched keywords into pre-existing blog posts. Maddy and Jenny will work on this project. The keywords should be incorporated within the next four weeks. We’ll monitor results for the next 3-6 months.

Improve technical SEO by addressing all the index issues in the Semrush SEO audit. Mark will be responsible for this project, addressing each problem and achieving 100% indexing on all pages, excluding admin pages, in the next six weeks.

See a 10% decrease in bounce rate on our home page in the next six months by incorporating keywords into the visible copy that speak to users’ search intent. Maddy and Mark will tackle this project over the next month.

Here’s why these are great SEO goals:

1. They feature timeframes for results and for the action steps.
2. They feature specific metrics for knowing whether or not the goal was achieved.
3. The action steps are well-defined.
4. The teams are designated.
5. The timelines are based on research.
6. Each goal uses attainable resources.

The experts at HawkSEM have mastered turning smart SEO goals into results. We helped Caring Places Management increase its organic traffic by 85% using data-driven goals and performance-oriented strategy to sculpt its SEO campaign.

“SEO is a core competency here at HawkSEM,” shares Sam Yadegar, CEO of HawkSEM. “We take a performance driven and ROI approach when it comes to SEO for its clients.  Goal setting is a must and our team looks at industry benchmark data to help set realistic goals and timelines for success.”

We take time to learn about the business, target audience and buyer persona to name a few. From there, we create a custom SEO program (manually, we don’t use a software or tool to run seo programs), monitor them and track them closely to ensure a positive ROI.

Each SEO campaign we manage has a senior strategist (human touch/intelligence) that is leading the efforts. And we NEVER use AI generated content as there is always a human managing and watching over the campaign and its progress.

Consequences of unrealistic SEO goals

Setting smart SEO goals impacts results. But failing to set realistic SEO goals can have an equally serious impact on your business:

• Poor morale. Failing to reach a goal is a huge downer. If your goals aren’t specific, actionable, or achievable, your poorly articulated goal will directly impact your team’s morale.
• Resource waste. If you’re not focused on achievable SEO goals that’ll move your business forward, chances are you’re wasting time and effort on things that won’t improve your ROI. Poor goal setting is one of the most common reasons companies waste their marketing spend.
• Search engine penalties. Poor, unresearched SEO can hurt your ranking. For example, if you’re obsessing over what the algorithm wants at the expense of delivering a great user experience, you’ll harm your search engine rankings and waste the time you invested in SEO.
• Unnecessary disappointment. Experts know that SEO results can take six months to a year to appear in search engine results pages (SERPs). So if you’re expecting results on a quick timeline, prepare to be disappointed. Well-researched SEO goals take into account a significant time delay in results.

Expert strategies for maximizing the success of your SEO goals

Setting great goals is one thing. Maximizing the impact of your SEO strategy is another. Your SEO goals may be SMART, but it should also deliver the highest conversion rate and ROI for the time and effort you invest.

Here’s how to ensure your SEO goals make an impact:

• Prioritize quality over quantity. Some SEO strategists can pump out keyword-stuffed content at unbelievable rates. But they’re missing the point. Google cares more about quality than quantity. SEO algorithms aim to improve the user experience – and if you’re filling your blogs with poor-quality content, you’re doing the opposite.
• Stay up-to-date. SEO is an ever-moving target. Stay current on best SEO practices, even once you know the fundamentals with resources like Search Engine Journal.
• Align your SEO goals with your business objectives. If you’re a real estate company looking to gain authority, delve into keyword research for your blog posts. But if you’re an HVAC company with a simple site, hone in on local SEO. Always keep your business objectives front and center.
• Research, research, research. Your goals must be based on data. Read case studies and blog posts to teach you the fundamentals of great SEO. Ahrefs’s “The Beginner’s Guide to SEO” is a great starting point for learning the basics of SEO strategy.
• Incorporate key performance indicators (KPIs). When setting goals, identify SEO KPIs to measure how well you achieved your goal. KPIs include organic traffic numbers, search volume, keyword rankings, click-through rates (CTRs), conversion rates, and more. Your goals should each include a KPI benchmark to measure your success.
  
• Call in an expert. Chances are, your marketing team is working on many projects at once. If you don’t have the time and resources to invest in developing your own SEO strategy, call in an expert. HawkSEM’s SEO experts will craft performance-driven goals – and bring the execution skills to make them a reality.

Tracking the success of your SEO campaign

Running an SEO campaign gives you access to in-depth analytics to assess the success or failure of your SEO efforts. Here are a few tips for tracking your SEO efforts:

• Use analytics tools. Without SEO analytics to show SEO goals progression, you’re shooting in the dark. Use one of the many tools – Moz, Ahrefs, or SEMrush – to monitor SEO initiatives.
• Set up a tracking schedule. Set up a schedule for looking at metrics and adjusting your SEO goals. Do this with your team every week, or twice a month – whatever makes the most sense for you. Make sure regular performance monitoring is on your schedule.
• Let your metrics inform your goals. Define SEO goals based on what your data tells you. Look for gaps in your SEO campaign, as well as spots where you’re exceeding your goals. Let these metrics drive your goals.

The key to a great SEO campaign is a well-informed team. Use tools and metrics to drive your SEO decision-making process.

Here at HawkSEM, we use our own proprietary tool called ConversionIQ – which takes the tracking game to the next level.

“It’ll be hard to achieve goals, without proper tracking in place,” explains Yadegar. “Tracking is an essential part of any SEO campaign. We use ConversionIQ (CIQ) to granularly track every step of the buyer journey to better understand what aspects of a campaign work and where we should trim the fat. This allows us to optimize towards a higher ROI YoY.”

Tracking with CIQ provides more insight about the target audience, which allows us to take that data and use it on another marketing channel (such as SEO or Social media) to further scale while maintaining profitability.

SEO goals cheat sheet

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this article.

To make it easy for you and your marketing team to implement, we’ve created a handy cheat sheet for you to peek at when you need to set some SEO goals:

• Did you conduct an SEO audit of your website? It should include:
  • On-page SEO
  • Off-page SEO
  • Technical SEO
  • Competitor analysis
• Write a few goals based on your SEO audit. Are they:
  • Specific?
  • Measurable?
  • Attainable?
  • Realistic?
  • Timebound?
• Do your goals align with your business needs?
• Do your goals include key performance indicators?
• Are your goals based in current research on SEO trends and algorithms?
• Once you’ve implemented your SEO changes, do you have a monitoring schedule set up? It should include:
  • Tools for measurement (Google Analytics, SEMrush, Ahrefs)
  • Recurring times for checking on analytics
  • Times to refresh knowledge on current SEO trends

The takeaway

Setting good SEO goals isn’t just a one-time, set-it-and-forget-it exercise. Well-researched, data-driven SEO goals are your roadmap for improving your search rankings and raising the overall profitability of your business – and you need to continually dial them in over time.

Crafting strong SEO goals requires a lot of research, time, and effort. If you’re looking to take the fast track to improve your SEO, reach out to our team of experts at HawkSEM.

SEO is a core competency of the HawkSEM team. We love developing goals and strategies that maximize your website’s rank, conversion rates, and ROI. We build personalized strategies that drive powerful results for each business we collaborate with.

If you’re looking for a strategic partner who can help you take your SEO to the next level, reach out to HawkSEM SEO experts for a free consultation.