How do you tell whether SEO is working?

SEO work is easy to sell and hard to check. A report full of charts can hide the one fact you need: are more of the right people finding the site, and are they getting in touch? This guide explains what to measure, which free tools show it and how to read the numbers without being misled. It does not promise any result: a search engine decides rankings, not an agency.

Start with the goal, not the chart

Before you look at a number, write down what the site is for. For most business sites it is one of these: enquiries, quote requests, bookings or calls. Everything else (visits, impressions, rankings) matters only as far as it leads there.

The free tools that matter

• Google Search Console shows how your site appears in Google search: queries, pages, clicks, impressions, average position, indexing problems and manual actions. Start with the Search Console introduction. It is the most direct source, and you should own the account, not your agency.
• A visit-measurement tool shows what visitors do after they arrive. Pick one that fits your privacy duties. See website cookies, and the CNIL's page on audience-measurement tools.
• Your own enquiry log. A simple record of where each enquiry came from ("how did you find us?") catches what tools miss, such as calls and messages.

The numbers worth watching

• Clicks and impressions for your key pages and queries, over months, not days. Search results move for many reasons.
• Indexed pages versus pages you want indexed. A gap points to a technical problem. See the technical SEO checklist.
• Queries that include your brand versus those that do not. Brand searches show people who already know you. The others show new demand.
• Enquiries and where they came from. This is the number that pays the bills.

How to read them without being misled

• Compare like with like. Compare the same weeks or months, and the same pages. A seasonal business changes all year.
• Average position is an average. One page may rank first for one query and fortieth for another.
• Impressions can rise while clicks fall. Search pages change, and some answers now appear on the results page itself.
• A drop is a question, not a verdict. Google's guide to debugging drops in search traffic lists the usual causes: technical changes, site moves, updates and seasonality. For site moves, see redesigning without losing search traffic.
• Be careful with "keywords ranked" counts. A long list of obscure phrases may include none that bring a customer.

What a good report from an agency contains

• What changed on the site, and why.
• What happened to the numbers above, with the date range and the page set.
• What did not work, said plainly.
• What happens next, in a few lines.

Questions to ask whoever does your SEO

• Which goal are you measuring against, and how is it tracked?
• Do I own the Search Console and measurement accounts?
• Which period and pages does each chart cover?
• How do you separate your work from seasonality and updates?
• What will you stop doing if it does not help?

Sources and further reading

• Google Search Central: Search Console introduction
• Google Search Central: debugging drops in search traffic
• CNIL: audience-measurement tools (French)

How DMC Kreatif handles it

We tell the client what we measure before the work starts, and the client keeps ownership of the accounts. We report what changed and what happened, including what did not work. We do not promise rankings or traffic. For managed search work, read our SEO and Google Ads service, then ask for a quote. Within 48 h you get a concrete approach, a realistic timeline and a clear quote.