In the data-rich universe of Search Engine Optimization, teams are often inundated with a bewildering array of metrics.
While many indicators genuinely illuminate performance, others fall into the deceptive category of “vanity metrics”—numbers that might look impressive on a report but fail to translate into tangible business growth or true competitive advantage.
Discerning genuine value from misleading hype remains a critical challenge for organizations striving for impactful digital performance.
For business leaders and digital growth professionals, the question becomes: What is one specific vanity metric in SEO that you consciously steer clear of, despite the persistent hype often generated around it?
This article compiles expert perspectives from those at the forefront of driving real digital results, cutting through the noise to reveal a key metric they actively deprioritize and why focusing on it can be a costly distraction.
Read on!
Jock Breitwieser
One SEO vanity metric we steer clear of is total impressions. It feels exciting to watch the number climb, but we’ve found it’s like counting how many people glanced at your billboard on the freeway; it says nothing about who actually turned into a customer.
We learned this the hard way with a B2B client whose impression count had tripled after a content sprint, but their demo bookings hadn’t moved an inch. Our fix was to pivot from tracking surface-level visibility to Intent-Aligned Clicks, measuring visits to pages designed for specific buyer questions.
The game-changer was realizing that 80% of their impressions came from blog content ranking for curiosity-based queries that were rarely converted.
By shifting strategy to cover decision-stage questions with high match intent, their qualified lead volume jumped 35% in just 3 months. Most SEO teams still celebrate impression spikes like wins, but we’ve consistently found that relevance beats reach, every time.
Digital Marketing Strategist, SocialSellinator
Velizara Tellalyan
One vanity metric I avoid focusing on is Domain Authority (DA).
Even though it gets a lot of attention, DA is just a third-party score that doesn’t truly represent how Google ranks sites. It’s tempting to chase after a higher DA, thinking you’re making progress, but that often leads to a misleading sense of SEO achievement. Instead, I prefer to concentrate on genuine performance metrics like organic traffic growth, keyword rankings, and conversions, which have a real impact on business outcomes.
That said, I understand why many clients like to focus on DA: it’s simple, easy to grasp, and provides an oversimplified way to “measure” SEO success.
Digital Marketing Consultant & Founder, Velizara Tellalyan
Shankar Subba
Impressions are the vanity metric I avoid like the plague. They look impressive in Search Console, but I’ve worked on pages with over 100,000 impressions that brought in zero leads. It’s a misleading stat that looks good but means nothing if it doesn’t bring in business.
Clients often get excited when impressions jump, but I always ask: are the right people seeing it, and what are they doing after? A lot of content picks up views just because it matches a trending keyword, but those visits rarely lead to calls or quote requests.
I mostly focus on conversion paths like pages that actually lead to form fills, sales chats, or email signups. I’d rather have 2,000 impressions from high-intent keywords converting at 5% than 50,000 from broad junk that bounces in seconds.
Impressions can give a false sense of success, and chasing them wastes time and energy better spent on what really drives growth. For me, results that impact the bottom line are what matter, not just numbers that look good on a report.
Head of SEO, WP Creative
Bilal Ahmed
One vanity metric I avoid, despite its popularity, is raw keyword rankings. While many teams obsess over ranking #1 for hundreds of keywords, rankings alone don’t guarantee traffic, conversions, or revenue. For example, a page can rank #1 for a low-intent keyword and still drive zero business value.
Similarly, I don’t rely heavily on Domain Authority (DA) or Page Authority (PA) as standalone success indicators. These scores can be misleading because they focus primarily on link quantity rather than quality or relevance. A site with high DA may still underperform if its content doesn’t align with user intent or if its backlinks are low-quality.
Instead, I focus on rankings tied to actual conversions, organic traffic growth from high-value keywords, and engagement metrics like time-on-page or goal completions. For backlinks, I prioritize referral traffic, domain relevance, and conversions from linked pages over arbitrary authority scores. This approach ensures my SEO efforts deliver a measurable business impact rather than just superficial metrics.
Digital Marketing Manager, ConceptRecall
Josiah Roche
Domain Authority is one of the most overused and misunderstood metrics in SEO. It’s a third-party score that doesn’t factor into Google’s algorithm, yet it’s often treated like a performance benchmark.
The problem is it creates a false sense of progress. A site can have high DA and still struggle to rank or convert. That’s because the content might miss the mark, the technical setup could be off, or the search intent isn’t aligned.
So chasing DA often leads teams to run link-building campaigns that look impressive in reports but don’t actually bring in qualified traffic or lower customer acquisition costs.
It’s easy to throw DA into a slide deck because it gives stakeholders a clean number. But it rarely shows what’s really driving organic growth.
That’s why the focus should be on metrics that show real outcomes. Things like how well pages are indexed, how fast they move up in rankings, how they convert, and whether they match what people are actually searching for.
Because when a page ranks well, brings in the right traffic, and drives action, DA doesn’t matter.
People use search to solve problems or find something specific. So giving them fast, useful, well-structured content beats chasing vanity scores every time.
Fractional CMO, JRR Marketing
Haley Gallerani
One vanity metric I avoid is average position. It’s often used to paint a positive picture, but in reality, it can be misleading.
Average position blends together rankings across all keywords, including branded terms and low-volume queries that barely move the needle for traffic or revenue. A page might rank #1 for several irrelevant long-tail phrases while sitting on page two for the keyword that actually drives conversions. That brings the “average” up without delivering meaningful business results.
In real estate SEO, this is especially problematic. A team might claim they rank in the top 3 for dozens of keywords, but those terms could include things like top-of-funnel informational queries. These rarely convert into leads. Meanwhile, if you’re sitting at position 9 for “homes for sale in [city],” that’s the one keyword worth fixing. The average position hides that urgency.
At Real Estate Rankers, we work only with real estate websites and have found that focusing on qualified traffic and conversions tells a much clearer story. We look at metrics like organic leads by landing page, click-through rate from commercial-intent keywords, and impressions for city and neighborhood search terms. It’s not about how many keywords you rank for or where they fall on average. It’s about ranking well for the right keywords that get buyers and sellers to take action.
A better alternative to average position is isolating rank tracking for a curated keyword list that includes your core location + service combinations. Monitor those weekly. Combine that with actual engagement metrics from Google Search Console and GA4, and you’ll get a much more accurate picture of what’s working.
For real estate professionals, your focus should always be on visibility for bottom-of-funnel searches like “buy a house in [city]” or “real estate agent near me.” These are the queries that lead to appointments. Average position won’t tell you if you’re winning in those spaces. That’s why we steer clients away from that metric entirely.
Joe Spisak
Keyword rankings are definitely the vanity metric I avoid getting caught up in despite the industry’s obsession with them. I’ve seen countless eCommerce businesses and 3PL partners fixate on ranking for specific keywords while completely missing the forest for the trees.
During my entrepreneurial journey, I worked with an eCommerce brand that celebrated reaching position #1 for a high-volume keyword. Their SEO team was popping champagne while their conversion rate from that traffic was abysmal. The rankings looked impressive in reports, but the business impact was negligible.
Here’s the reality: a #1 ranking for a keyword that doesn’t match user intent or doesn’t attract your ideal customer is worthless. I’d rather rank #5 for a term that drives qualified leads who need our 3PL matching services than #1 for a general term that brings window shoppers.
What truly matters is whether your SEO efforts drive meaningful business outcomes. Are you generating qualified leads? Are visitors taking desired actions? Is your SEO contributing to revenue growth? These are the metrics that should guide your strategy.
In the logistics and fulfillment space, we’ve found that focusing on content that addresses specific pain points in the fulfillment journey generates far better results than chasing rankings for broad terms like “3PL provider” or “eCommerce fulfillment.”
My advice? Track the journey from organic search to conversion. Understand which keywords and pages drive actual business results, not just traffic. That’s how you build an SEO strategy that delivers true ROI rather than vanity metrics that look good in presentations but don’t impact your bottom line.
CEO, Fulfill
Joaquin Calvo
Page views. It’s tempting to chase high numbers, but they don’t tell you much on their own. You can get tons of traffic, but if those visitors don’t stick around, click through, or take action, those views don’t really mean anything. It might look good in a report, but it won’t move your business forward.
Director, Comligo Spanish
Alec Loeb
One vanity metric I avoid is keyword ranking for generic terms. It creates noise without context. Ranking high for a broad term looks good in a dashboard but doesn’t connect to conversions, revenue, or long-term value. I’ve seen teams celebrate ranking wins without checking bounce rates or engagement. That leads to empty traffic and no action.
At EcoATM, we focus on value per session and return visit rate. If someone finds us through search but doesn’t move forward or return, that keyword isn’t helping growth. When I worked in retail, we ranked first for a popular term but saw little lift in sales. Once we shifted to transactional intent and tracked micro-conversions, we saw better returns from fewer clicks. Time on site, page depth, and referral action matter more than vanity labels.
The goal is not to look good in reports but to build sustainable channels that convert. That means stripping out noise. You need to align your SEO with behavior, not applause. Track what leads to action. Celebrate that. Ignore what inflates numbers without driving growth. I hold our teams to that discipline because growth comes from what people do, not what they glance at.
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