SEO goals are a bit like New Year’s resolutions.
“Get more traffic” sounds nice… until you realise you have absolutely no idea what “more” means, how you’ll measure it, or what you’re actually going to do differently next week.
That’s where SMART goals come in. They turn fluffy intentions into something you can plan, execute, and report on without spiralling into 47 dashboards and a mild identity crisis.
SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Let’s make that feel practical for SEO.
Where to begin? Start with the business outcome (not the SEO metric)
Before you touch the acronym, ask:
- What does the business actually need right now?
- More sales? More leads? More brand awareness? More footfall? Fewer support tickets?
- Which products/services matter most?
- Are we trying to grow, recover, or protect performance?
Because if the real goal is “increase revenue from non-brand search”, and your SEO goal is “increase impressions”, you’re probably going to end up celebrating the wrong win.
A simple way to frame it is:
Business outcome > Marketing goal > SEO goal > Actions
Example:
- Business outcome: Increase qualified leads for a high-margin service
- Marketing goal: Increase enquiries from people searching for that service
- SEO goal: Improve organic visibility + conversions for service pages
- Actions: Improve content depth, add supporting articles, fix technical blockers, strengthen internal links, test titles/meta, etc.
Now you’re aiming at something that matters.
S is for Specific
Pick a clear target
“Improve SEO” isn’t a goal. It’s a vibe.
Specific means you can point at the thing you’re trying to move.
Good “specific” SEO goals usually include:
- A target area: blog, category pages, product pages, service pages, local landing pages
- A target audience/intent: informational vs transactional, brand vs non-brand
- A target topic/theme: “running shoes”, “emergency plumber”, “student discount code”
- A target action: purchase, enquiry, sign-up, booking, call
Specific examples (you’ll see these turn into full SMART goals soon):
- Increase non-brand organic traffic to the /services/ section
- Improve rankings for commercial keywords related to a [specific product category]
- Increase organic enquiries from users landing on [3 priority pages]
- Reduce Core Web Vitals “Poor” URLs on key templates
The more specific you are, the easier it is to choose the right work.
M is for Measurable
Choose the metrics that prove it worked
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it (and you definitely can’t defend it in a review call).
Pick one primary KPI (the main proof) and 2–3 supporting metrics (the “why” behind it).
Common SEO metrics you can measure reliably:
Visibility & demand capture
- Clicks / Impressions / CTR / Average position in Google Search Console
- Share of voice (via SEO tools)
On-site performance
- Organic sessions/users (GA4)
- Engagement metrics (careful with these—context matters)
Outcomes
- Key events (conversions) in GA4 (forms, purchases, sign-ups, calls, etc.)
- Revenue (for eCommerce)
- Lead quality (if you can track it)
Technical experience
- Core Web Vitals (LCP / INP / CLS) and “Good / Needs improvement / Poor” groupings
A quick rule of thumb:
- If you’re selling, measure sales and revenue.
- If you’re lead gen, measure qualified enquiries.
- If you’re local, measure calls, direction requests, bookings, and local pack visibility.
A is for Achievable
Use baselines so you don’t set fantasy targets
This is where most SEO goals fall apart.
Achievable doesn’t mean “easy”. It means grounded in reality.
Do this before you set the number:
- Pull a baseline (last 3–6 months is usually a solid start)
- Check seasonality (is this a peak month?)
- Look at current constraints (dev resource, content capacity, CMS limitations)
- Sanity-check with competition (are you trying to outrank Amazon with a Wix site and vibes?)
If organic leads have grown ~5% month-on-month recently, setting a goal for +200% next month is… optimistic. You might get there with a huge strategic shift, but it’s not a normal planning target.
Make it challenging, but defensible.
R is for Relevant
Tie it back to what matters
This is where you filter out vanity metrics.
Yes, rankings matter. Yes, traffic is nice. But relevance means: does this goal directly support the business outcome?
A relevant goal answers:
- Why are we doing this?
- What will change if we hit it?
- Who benefits (customers, sales team, pipeline, retention, etc.)?
For example:
- “Increase organic sessions by 20%” is only relevant if the traffic is the right traffic.
- “Increase organic enquiries from service pages by 20%” is way more aligned with actual growth.
T is for Time-bound
Give it a deadline and a check-in rhythm
SEO needs time, but “sometime this year” is not a plan.
Add:
- A clear deadline (e.g., by the end of June)
- A review cadence (e.g., weekly checks, monthly reporting, quarterly strategy review)
Also: build in a bit of flexibility. Google does what it wants. Your job is to steer.
Putting it together: SMART SEO goal examples you can steal
Example 1: eCommerce (category growth)
Goal: Increase organic revenue from non-brand category pages by 15% by 30 June, while maintaining an AOV within +5% of current performance.
Measure: Organic revenue + AOV (GA4) + non-brand clicks (GSC).
Why it’s SMART: specific pages + measurable outcome + realistic uplift + directly tied to revenue + deadline.
Example 2: Lead gen (service enquiries)
Goal: Increase organic form submissions (key event) from the 3 priority service pages by 25% by 1 May, by improving page content, internal links, and SERP CTR.
Example 3: Technical (performance + UX)
Goal: Reduce the number of “Poor” Core Web Vitals URLs on the blog template by 50% by end of Q2, prioritising LCP and INP improvements.
A simple SMART SEO goal template
Copy/paste this and fill in the blanks:
Increase [metric] for [page type / topic / audience] by [number or %] by [date], measured in [tool/report], by focusing on [2–4 key actions].
Example:
Increase non-brand GSC clicks to the /guides/ hub by 20% by 31 March, measured in Search Console, by publishing 8 supporting articles, refreshing top 10 pages, and strengthening internal linking.
Common mistakes (so you can avoid pain)
- Setting too many goals: pick 1–3 per quarter. Any more and you’ll dilute the work.
- Only tracking rankings: rankings are a means, not the end. Track outcomes too.
- Ignoring conversion tracking: if you can’t measure leads/sales, you’ll end up arguing about traffic quality forever.
- No ownership: every goal needs an owner and a clear set of actions.
- No “so what?”: if hitting the goal doesn’t change anything meaningful, it’s probably not the right goal.
Final thought: your goal should tell you what to do on Monday
A good SMART SEO goal isn’t just something you report on. It should make decision-making easier.
When you’re choosing between rewriting titles, improving internal links, fixing indexing issues, or publishing new content, your goal should act like a compass.
If it moves the goal forward, it’s in. If it doesn’t, it’s a “nice to have”.
And honestly? That clarity alone is half the battle.
