Which SEO metrics Do You Care About?

[InsightsDigital]

In regards to SEO, I think of the following metrics:
1. # of results per search engine in English
2. differences in # of results among various related keywords
3. different categories represented.
4. Where does your company fall under the first page, second page, and even third page or SERPs?
5. Where does competitors fall in the first, second, and third page?

What other metrics to you associate with SEO?

[goodroi]

1. # of results per search engine in English
personally i dont care about # of results. if you search for "red" you will see there are millions of results. i dont think anyone is trying to optimize for the word "red". the only time that the number of results is helpful is if you are searching for a unique text string from your site to see how many pages have been indexed.

2. differences in # of results among various related keywords
again see my earlier response. personally it doesnt matter to me. this does not help me rank my site any higher. all that matters is ranking my site higher and getting more clicks to my site. just because a word has more results than another word simply means it is written on more webpages. it doesnt mean people are searching for it, trying to buy it or competing for it. it just means it is mentioned on more webpages.

3. different categories represented.
dont know what you mean

4. Where does your company fall under the first page, second page, and even third page or SERPs?
This matters to me. I track where i rank, where my competition ranks and where the top 20 sites rank. I regularly monitor the ranks. When I notice a site has moved I investigate it. I look to see if the backlinks have changed or if the content has changed. Sometime no change has happened to the site that has dropped, in those situations it can mean a new site simply can into the industry

5. Where does competitors fall in the first, second, and third page?see above

I spend most of my time looking at backlinks. The quantity and quality of backlinks is vital to ranking in the search engines. I track the backlinks for my site and my competition. When there is a change with the competition I make sure to copy it or adjust for it. When I am in my analytics I look at traffic trends, keywords, referring sites to create more situational awareness. Honestly it isnt needed. The critical metric is backlinks.

ps i didnt mention pagerank since toolbar pagerank is not accurate.

[InsightsDigital]

This was really good. Thanks for your insights!

[MktgRob]

I think the bigger question to ask is what SEO metrics are going to be the ones that will show to your employer/client the value of your efforts. I was at an event where one of the speakers said that the best thing an SEO pro or a social media marketer can do to prove their worth (and maintain their employment) was to tie there work to a profit center and be able to show how their efforts were generating revenue.