Too much data isn't good for you

Personally, I think too many SEOs look at too much data. 

Before you get all up in arms, let me share with you the data we track.

This is exactly what’s included in the monthly KPI dashboard that we send to each of our brands:

• Organic Search Revenue (GA4)

• Money page keyword rankings (Semrush/Ahrefs)

• Organic conversion rate (GA4)

• Organic new users (GA4)

• Number of organic sessions (GA4)

• Clicks (GSC)

• Impressions (GSC)

As an eCommerce brand investing in SEO, these are the only metrics that matter. Improving these will effect massive change in your business & help you make a lot of money.

Here’s what isn’t included (and what I never spend any time ever looking at):

• Bounce Rate

• Average session duration/time on page

• Pages per session

• Page load time

• Top exit pages

Why?

It’s simple. None of these trivial metrics are nearly as important as organic search revenue for an eCommerce brand.

They play a microscopic role in your growth.

Instead, your North Star metric should be organic search revenue.

I see a lot of SEOs on Twitter/X posting screenshots of hourly GA4 reports. 

Yes, you need data to make decisions.

But again, too much data is bad for you.

Two reasons why:

One, I check each of our brand's KPI dashboards 1x per week, as well as Search Console & Semrush to see how rankings have fluctuated after implementing changes.

I don’t have time to sit in front of my laptop for hours every fucking day watching visitors roll up to the site.

And if you do have the time, I challenge you to answer this question: Are you actually getting any work done, or are you just searching for a cheap hit of dopamine?

Two, SEO is slow-moving. 

It is very rare that any monumental changes will happen on a day-to-day basis.

Think about your traffic & revenue graph like the stock market. If you look at today’s market, not a ton of movement. 

It’s up just 0.50% on the day, but up 44.22% year-to-date (YTD). 

My advice? Think like an investor, not a day trader. 

Look, the only metric people care about is more money. 

“But people bounce higher than our competi—”

Do you make more money? Yes? Don’t care at all.

Focus on pulling massive levers that help move your North Star metric: organic search revenue. 

Everything else is a vanity metric. 

That is all for today.

Until next time,

Kai Cromwell