Did you know 51% of all website traffic comes from organic search?

That’s right, over half of people visiting websites find them through unpaid search engine results.

If you want to reach more potential customers who are actively searching for products or services related to your business then you should adopt a powerful SEO Strategy.

Here's what makes an SEO strategy a game-changer:

• SEO data
• SEO Dashboard/ report

An effective SEO strategy leverages data and insights to optimize your website for search engines.

But simply having data isn't enough. You need a dashboard/ report to track and analyze that data to know what’s working, what’s not working, and what will work for your business in terms of SEO.

In this blog post, we’ll talk about creating quality SEO dashboards using data from SEMrush, a popular SEO tool.

We'll cover everything you need to know, including:

• Understanding SEO and its benefits
• What SEO data SEMrush provides
• Best Practices for Effective SEO Dashboard

What is SEO and Why Should You Care?

SEO which stands for Search Engine Optimization is a collection of practices that improve your website's visibility in organic search results.

When you type in a search query(e.g., "best running shoes for beginners") in a search engine like Google, complex algorithms analyze billions of web pages to return the most relevant and informative results to you.

Chances are you’d click on the first few links, right?

And if the first website you click on has what you need, you'd likely make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter, download a resource, engage with their content, or subscribe to a service– basically, you'd take a desired action.

Now, put your target customers in the same shoes. There are people actively searching for services or products that you provide.

But how would they receive the value you offer if your website isn't ranking high in search results? They might not find you at all!

Here's where SEO can be your secret weapon.

By optimizing your website for search engines, you can increase your chances of appearing on the first page of search results for relevant keywords.

This translates to several significant benefits for your business:

• More organic visitors who are genuinely interested in what you offer.
• Higher quality leads because organic search traffic typically consists of users with a specific intent, meaning you’re more likely to convert these visitors into paying customers or loyal subscribers.
• Improved brand awareness
• Reduced marketing cost since unlike paid advertising, SEO delivers results over time without requiring constant financial investment.
• Competitive Advantage as good SEO helps you outrank your competitors and puts your business at the forefront of the online marketplace.

With that said, we can agree SEO is not just a buzzword. It’s something every business, including yours, should strive to improve.

And the best way to do that is by adopting a winning SEO strategy.

A winning SEO strategy is simply a data-driven SEO strategy; one that makes the best use of all the data available by turning this data into insights that catalyze growth.

So, let’s tackle two things first:

• Where does this data come from?
• What data is available?

What SEO data does SEMrush provide?

SEMrush is a leading SEO Software as a Service that acts like your personal search engine optimization consultant.

This is where the data comes from.

It crawls the web and gathers a massive amount of data to help you understand how your website performs in search results and how you can improve.

So, what data does SEMrush provide?

Below is a rundown of some key SEO data points SEMrush provides, along with what they mean for your business and what actions you can take.

1. Keyword Research Data:

• Search Volume: How many people are searching for your target keywords each month. This tells you if there's enough potential traffic for these keywords.
• Competition Level: How difficult it is to rank for those keywords. This helps you prioritize keywords you have a realistic chance of outranking competitors for.

You should focus on keywords with a good balance of search volume (enough people searching) and manageable competition (not too many high-authority websites already ranking).

Action step: Target these keywords by creating high-quality, informative content that grabs attention and positions your website as a valuable resource.

2. On-Page Optimization Data:

• Technical SEO: Checks for technical issues that might prevent search engines from finding and understanding your website.
• On-Page Content: Evaluates if your content is relevant to your target keywords and engaging for visitors.

Technical problems can prevent search engines from seeing your website, while bad content won't attract or keep visitors interested.

Action step: Fix any technical issues that SEMrush flags. Make sure your website content is informative, engaging, and optimized for your target keywords.

3. Backlink Analysis Data:

• Backlink Profile: The number of websites linking back to yours (more is generally better).
• Backlink Quality: The authority and relevance of those websites (high-quality backlinks carry more weight).

The more high-quality backlinks you have, the more trustworthy your website appears to search engines, potentially leading to higher rankings.

Action step: Develop a strategy to acquire backlinks from relevant and authoritative websites. This could involve guest blogging, creating link-worthy content, or online outreach.

4. Competitor Analysis Data:

• Organic Traffic Sources: The keywords your competitors rank for and the traffic they receive from organic search.
• Content Strategy: Analyzes their content approach to identify potential gaps and opportunities for you to stand out.

By understanding your competitors' SEO strategies, you can find areas where you can outrank them and capture a larger audience.

Action step: Learn from their successes and adapt their winning strategies to your website, while capitalizing on any weaknesses you discover in their approach.

5. Traffic Analytics Data:

• Website Traffic: The total number of visitors coming to your website.
• Visitor Behavior: How visitors interact with your website, such as average time spent on a page and click-through rate (CTR).

Traffic data shows you how effective your SEO efforts are in attracting visitors. Analyzing visitor behavior allows you to identify areas that need improvement to keep visitors engaged.

Action step: Use traffic data to identify high-performing and low-performing content. Focus on optimizing low-performing pages and creating more content that resonates with your audience based on their behavior.

SEMrush provides you with all this insightful data (AND MORE!) which is nothing less than incredible but...

Have you stopped for a moment to think about how overwhelming this ocean of information can be?

If not managed properly, all the SEMrush data at your disposal can become... paralyzing.

Information overload is counter-effective for the winning SEO strategy your business needs. You might get lost in the details and struggle to see the bigger picture.

This is where a well-designed SEO dashboard/ report comes in.

Best Practices for Effective SEO Dashboard

An SEO dashboard/report is more or less a central hub that gives you a unified and organized view of all the SEO metrics, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and data available to you.

Conveniently, SEMrush as a comprehensive SEO platform provides several SEO report templates to help you get started but the true power lies in customization.

The thing is building a customized SEO Dashboard can be a double-edged sword. While it offers immense benefits, if not done properly, it can also be counterproductive.

That’s why we’ve come up with some best practices for building effective customized SEO dashboards/ reports for your business.

Here at Vidi, we help you make the most of your SEO data using these best practices:

• Start with a website assessment: Conduct an SEO audit or website analysis to identify your current SEO health, target audience, and business goals. This will help you determine the key metrics most relevant to track on your dashboard.
• Focus on KPIs, not vanity metrics: Don't get bogged down by every data point. Your dashboard should reflect your overall marketing strategy. Track metrics/ KPIs that directly contribute to achieving your specific business goals, whether it's brand awareness, lead generation, or e-commerce sales.
• The actionable insights should be clear: Your dashboard shouldn't just display data; it should tell a story and provide clear insights you can use to optimize your SEO strategy. It should highlight trends, areas for improvement, and so on.
• Keep it visually appealing: You can’t make sense of a dashboard that’s hurtful to the visual senses. Use simple and intuitive visualizations to make the data easily digestible. Customize your dashboard layout to highlight the most critical insights. Group related metrics together for a more cohesive and scannable experience.
• Track progress over time: A good dashboard allows you to monitor your progress over time. See how your SEO efforts are impacting your KPIs and identify areas that need ongoing attention. Use comparative data to track progress over time.

Other best practices include:

• Incorporating automated alerts for significant changes in key metrics.
• Tailoring the dashboard to its intended audience. i.e. more in-depth data for technical SEO professionals, a high-level overview of key metrics for executives, etc.

Our team of professionals can work with you to build a bespoke SEO dashboard or report with SEMrush data that laser-targets your business goals and delivers real results.

Vidi completes your winning SEO Strategy.Yes, we don't just build dashboards, we build lasting success.

Ready to see the difference our customized SEO dashboard can make?