Short answer: Pick a handful of metrics tied to revenue or operational capacity—qualified leads, booked jobs, margin per order—not raw sessions alone.
Vanity charts feel productive; they rarely change decisions.
Examples by model
- Local services: calls, form submissions, booked quotes, show-up rate.
- Ecommerce: conversion rate, AOV, contribution margin, cart abandonment at key steps.
- B2B brochure: demo requests, content downloads by ICP, sales-qualified opportunities.
Define “good” before you optimise
Without a baseline and target, any trend looks meaningful. Write down one north-star and two supporting metrics for the quarter.
SEO connection
Track landing pages that produce outcomes, not only rankings—content investments should move commercial URLs, not just blog traffic.
Frequently asked questions
Are rankings useless?
They are noisy diagnostics, not goals—pair with clicks and conversions.
How many KPIs?
Three to five actionable ones beat thirty passive dashboards.