What goals should you set for SEO?

SEO goals should be relevant to the business, measurable, and time-bound. They can include improving search visibility, increasing organic search traffic, and improving engagement and conversions; keyword rankings alone should not determine success. When choosing goals, specify what you want to improve, which metrics you will use to assess progress, and when you will review results, then build an implementation plan around the available resources.

Measure being found separately from delivering results

One Warrior Forum contributor breaks the goals down into getting Google to find the website, ranking for target keywords, and then generating conversions. This can help structure your goals, but it is not an officially prescribed sequence. A Semrush article also lists rankings, organic search traffic, engagement, and conversions as forms of value SEO can deliver.

• Search visibility: Use impressions and target keyword rankings to track how visible the website is.
• Website traffic: Use organic search traffic and click-through rate to see whether search impressions lead to visits.
• Engagement and conversions: Track engagement metrics and conversion rates rather than treating increased traffic as equivalent to business results.

Define success clearly with SMART goals

In a 2023 article, Semrush recommends that SEO goals be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Simply writing “generate more leads” is not enough to define success; you also need a clear measurement method and timeframe.

The article gives this example: “Increase organic search traffic by 25% over the next six months through on-page optimization, content creation, and backlink building, measured using Google Analytics.” This illustrates how to frame a goal; it is neither a promise of growth that every website can achieve nor a universal standard. Actual goals still need to be achievable under your own circumstances.

Views differ on keyword scope, but user value cannot be overlooked

Another Warrior Forum contributor argues that SEO should make every effort to rank for all potentially relevant keywords. This is a forum opinion. By contrast, the SMART framework emphasizes relevance and achievability, while tenten’s article on long-term planning calls for budgeting, team planning, and metrics. “Rank for every relevant keyword” should therefore not be treated as a mandatory goal for every website.

An iThome article points out that a website ultimately serves its users. If its content offers insufficient value or the experience is poor, it may fail to retain visitors even if it attracts new traffic. This supports including content and user experience in your assessment, but it does not establish that improving the experience will necessarily increase rankings or conversions.

Growth is not necessarily the top priority for specialized projects

For a website migration, for example, tenten’s 2025 guide suggests goals such as maintaining or increasing existing traffic, reducing load times, or improving user experience. These recommendations apply to migrations and should not be applied indiscriminately to all SEO projects.

Before a migration, record performance as a baseline for comparison, then set metrics such as traffic, bounce rate, and conversion rate, along with deadlines for each phase. Long-term SEO plans should also specify who is responsible, the resources and budget, and how results will be reported, so that goals are more than aspirations and have an implementation plan that can be tracked.