In the data-saturated 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 key metrics they actively deprioritize and why focusing on them can be a costly distraction.
Read on!
Nicholas Gibson
I’ve always been of the opinion that Domain Rating, Domain Authority, and all of the other third-party metrics used as replacements for PageRank are misleading at best and outright worthless at worst.
When SEOs obsess over these metrics, it’s easy to become scared of targeting great keywords due to the belief that you need a website of a certain “strength” to compete. This type of DR or DA-focused thinking can also result in huge amounts of time and money wasted on ineffective links that don’t move the needle.
Although there is a correlation between these metrics and rankings for competitive keywords, the most important factor in SEO will always be how well your website addresses the user’s search query. If you can understand this and put it into practice effectively, it’s very possible to compete with strong-looking websites as a startup with little to no link building budget.
Nicholas Gibson
Marketing Director, Prime Ship
Christophe Deneulin
Despite the interest in LLMs and in particular ChatGPT, I believe businesses should keep focusing on Google while working on an AI-SEO strategy in the long run. ChatGPT won’t overtake Google in one day, but clients sometimes believe it will, and want to allocate all resources to increase their visibility there, while neglecting their “traditional” SEO strategy, which can penalise their revenue in the short and mid-term.
SEO Consultant, Christophe Deneulin SEO Consultancy
Steve Grant
A vanity metric I always avoid is “total keyword rankings.” While it sounds impressive to say your site ranks for thousands of keywords, this number often includes irrelevant or very low-volume terms that don’t drive meaningful traffic or conversions.
Focusing on total rankings can create a false sense of progress, distracting teams from what really matters — targeting high-value keywords that bring qualified visitors. It’s far more effective to measure rankings for core terms that align with business goals, alongside metrics like organic traffic quality, engagement and conversion rates.
SEO success comes from quality over quantity. Teams should invest their time optimising content around keywords that truly move the needle rather than chasing big numbers that inflate performance without impact.
Founder, Figment
Leury Pichardo
From my experience building websites, the most celebrated metrics are often the least valuable for actual business growth.
The most seductive vanity metric is impressions. Teams proudly report millions of impressions in Google Search Console as a sign of visibility, but it’s often a symptom of poor targeting. A high impression count paired with a low CTR is a failure, not a win.
For one of my sites, a single article was generating over 30,000 impressions a month, but its CTR was less than 1%. The page was ranking for a broad term but failing to connect with user intent.
We changed the title to target a more specific, long tail version of the query. Total impressions plummeted, but our qualified clicks from that one page more than doubled. Ignore impressions; obsess over the impression to click through ratio instead.
Manager, Digital Ceuticals
Shamil Shamilov
The vanity metric I avoid at all costs is Domain Authority (DA). It’s not a Google metric, yet agencies still obsess over it like it’s gospel. DA doesn’t reflect topical authority, content quality, or conversion performance, just link profiles.
I’ve seen firms with DA in the 20s outrank those in the 60s simply because their content nailed intent and answered what users actually searched for.
According to the FTC, 81% of legal service seekers start online, but they don’t care about your DA they care if your site answers their questions and builds trust. DA chasers waste resources on irrelevant backlinks instead of crafting smart, intent-driven content ecosystems.
We focus on organic visibility that converts, not vanity metrics that impress no one but other SEOs.
Rodney Moreland
Domain Authority (DA) is the vanity metric I see most teams obsess over despite it being a third-party metric that Google doesn’t even use. I’ve watched startups spend months chasing DA improvements while their actual organic traffic and conversions stagnated.
At Celestial Digital Services, I had a tech startup client whose DA jumped from 25 to 40 over six months through aggressive link building. Their team celebrated, but their organic traffic only increased 12% and lead generation actually dropped 8% because they neglected content quality and user intent optimization.
The real problem is DA doesn’t reflect search engine rankings or business results. I’ve seen sites with DA 15 outrank DA 50 competitors because they focused on relevant keywords, technical SEO, and user experience instead of chasing an arbitrary score.
Focus on metrics that matter: organic traffic growth, keyword ranking improvements, and conversion rates. These directly correlate with revenue, unlike DA which is just Moz’s prediction algorithm that changes whenever they update their methodology.
Digital Marketing Specialist, Celestial Digital Services
Kerry Anderson
After 15 years scaling businesses from $1M to $200M+ in revenue, I’ve seen countless teams panic over high bounce rates while missing what actually drives conversions. A 90% bounce rate sounds terrifying until you realize users found exactly what they needed on that single page.
I had a client obsessing over their 85% bounce rate on service pages. Meanwhile, those same pages were generating 40% more qualified leads than their “sticky” blog content with 30% bounce rates. Users weren’t bouncing because the content was bad – they were converting faster.
The real problem? Bounce rate doesn’t distinguish between satisfied users and frustrated ones. I focus on average session duration combined with conversion rates instead. A 10-second visit that converts beats a 5-minute visit that doesn’t every single time.
Co-founder, RankingCo
Hazel Andrews-Oxlade
One SEO vanity metric to steer clear of is social media likes.
You may have 500,000 likes on your Facebook page, but if you are a local hairdresser that only services clients in the local area, is this really a benefit to your business? If you’re worried about the number of people that like your page, then you can buy likes. However, this won’t boost the sales for your business. It will just ‘look good’ to you, and maybe some of your ‘real’ followers. Instead, focus on attracting the right audience.
It really is about quality over quantity. Find followers that will be likely to purchase from your business. Then create content that they will want to engage with.
Owner & Founder, Creative Content Company
Magee Clegg
Organic traffic increases is the vanity metric I avoid obsessing over. After 10+ years running Cleartail Marketing and working with 90+ B2B clients, I’ve seen companies celebrate massive traffic spikes while their sales pipeline stays empty.
I had a manufacturing client whose website traffic jumped 14,000% through our SEO work, but their initial lead quality was terrible. We were driving tons of job seekers and competitors to their site instead of qualified buyers. The real breakthrough came when we shifted focus to tracking sales-qualified leads and actual revenue attribution.
Traffic means nothing if it doesn’t convert to customers. I’ve seen businesses get 50,000 monthly visitors and generate 2 leads, while others get 500 visitors and close 10 new clients. The magic happens when you track metrics that directly tie to revenue growth.
Now I tell my clients to ignore traffic bragging rights and focus on lead quality and conversion rates. One client went from 278% revenue growth specifically because we optimized for buyer intent keywords, not traffic volume. Traffic is just a vanity number unless it translates to actual business growth.
Founder & CEO, Cleartail Marketing
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