What Are Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)?
Key performance indicators, also known as KPIs or KPI metrics, are specific and measurable goals that focus on the bigger picture for your business.
They help you evaluate whether your business is on track for achieving success. And are actionable, attainable, and time-bound.
An example of a KPI is, “Rank within the top 10 results on Google for all target keywords within six months.”
Which is a goal that directly contributes to your larger business success.
KPIs allow you to understand your current performance. So you can tell how well you’re doing against your most important targets and objectives.
What Are Metrics?
Metrics are quantitative data points that help you monitor and analyze your performance for specific business activities. Rather than an overarching goal.
You can use them to gauge the effectiveness of day-to-day operations and procedures. That contributes to the success of wider goals and KPIs.
Metrics can be classified into four categories, depending on what they measure and how they’re used:
- Input metrics: The resources, efforts, or investments that go into an activity. For example, the amount of money spent on marketing campaigns or the number of hours worked by an employee.
- Output metrics: The direct results or products generated. For example, the number of products manufactured in a day or the volume of sales generated.
- Outcome metrics: The broader impact of your achieved results. These metrics assess the overall effect on the business or a specific goal. For example, the increase in customer satisfaction scores after implementing a new customer service strategy.
- Process metrics: The efficiency, effectiveness, or performance of the various stages within a process. For example, the average response time to customer inquiries or the number of issues resolved per hour.
Another example of an outcome metric is your domain’s Authority Score. Which you can find in Semrush’s Domain Overview.