Besides traffic, what other key performance indicators can be shown from SEO?

• How could we go about convincing a prospect of the importance of our "SEO" services when they're relatively unconcerned about increasing traffic, but willing to consider working with us provided that we can provide them with key performance indicators (KPI) that will justify our services to top management?

  Since they've already set goal conversions in Google Analytics, I don't think we should go in that direction. But I'm wondering if there are other indicators we could track to show them positive results based on our SEO efforts?

Answer:

Actually there are many key performance indicators (KPIs) that can result from professional SEO besides just traffic. Looking at (the Malaysian internet banking) site you specifically asked about, here's are four KPIs that we see could immediately lead to measurable overall improvements;

• Track and reduce 404/500 and other errors on the site. Since error rates can undermine customer trust as well as signal a low quality site to Google, it's critical that errors be tracked, managed, and kept to a minimum.
• Improve Page Speed which can help contribute to improved ranking plus higher customer satisfaction.
• Because Google rewards sites that are secure (HTTPS) with higher ranking, switching their site from HTTP to HTTPS is seen as a site quality improvement factor that can not only boost rankings, but also improve customer trust.
• Measure and Improve their click through rates both in search as well as on landing pages by utilizing A/B/A testing strategy. For example, you could test various headlines, page content, calls to action, signup bonuses, and layouts (just to name a few) with the idea of finding the best combinations that lead to optimum on-site conversion rates.

That should get you started.