How to Measure the SEO Impact of Blog Submission Sites

The internet is a huge place. It is a vast library containing billions of books.

How big is it? The number of new blog posts being written and posted is over 7 million every day. That is enough blog posts to make some entire countries!

You want people to read the blog post you have written. But how do they find it? The majority of people locate things through a search engine such as Google. Indeed, over fifty per cent (approximately, 53%) of all web visitors are referred by a person searching through Google.

This is the reason why blogging is of great interest to those people who desire to sell something or communicate ideas—over 8 out of 10 marketers report using blogs and a concept called content marketing as a primary component of their activity.

So, you write a great blog post. You post it on blog submission Sites, the equivalent of an enormous bulletin board or an Internet club of bloggers. But do you know whether that did any good? Even then, do you know whether anybody saw it?

This article will demonstrate to you in simple, easy steps how to measure your work. We shall see whether the practice of sharing your blog on these sites is actually paying off.

Blog Submission Sites: What Are They?

Blog submission sites are online platforms where you can submit your blog posts, articles, or website links to gain visibility, build backlinks, and attract referral traffic.

These sites act as content-sharing hubs that help search engines discover your content faster while improving your website’s authority through quality inbound links.

For SEO, blog submission sites are valuable because they support faster indexing, stronger link profiles, and increased organic reach when used strategically.

By posting your blog post to them, you are doing two things:

You are establishing a bridge (a backlink). The submission site also places a link on their site that directs to your site.

• You are finding visitors: A few individuals in that large continent (the submission site) may also notice your link and come to your island to visit.
• These are highly significant backlinks: They are your website votes. When Google notices that a well-known, respected webpage is linking to your blog, Google believes, “Oh, this little island must be significant! I ought to present it to others more when they are in search of it.

Why Measuring SEO Impact Matters

Take, as an example, that you spend the entire weekend baking cookies to sell at a school bake sale. You bake 100 cookies. You find yourself asking yourself at the end of the day, How many cookies did I sell?

Unless you count your money or count the cookies you have left, you will never be able to tell whether your cookies were a hit. You will not know whether you will bake the same thing the next time.

It is the same with measuring your SEO work. It is as though you were counting your cookies.

Here’s why it’s so important:

• To Know What Works: Have You Shared Your Blog on https://www.google.com/search?q=CoolBloggers.com? 100 Visitors? Or did it send zero? You have to know so that you can do it (or you have to quit wasting your time).
• To Save Money and Time: You have a good time. When you spend 10 hours submitting your blog to 50 sites and only one of those sites ends up assisting you, it would be possible to quit using the other 49 sites and save yourself a lot of time.
• To Prove Your Work: In case you are doing SEO as a job or even for a client, you must demonstrate to them that you are doing a good job. You cannot simply say that I did a lot of work. You need to show them numbers. This month, we received 200 new visitors due to our work.
• To Find Problems: There are bad links sometimes. The association of a spammy site or a junk site will even damage your position in Google. Making measurements assists you in identifying these bad links in order to fix them.

Key SEO Metrics to Track

Metric	Definition	Tool	Why It Matters
Organic Traffic	Visitors from search engines	Google Analytics	Shows SEO reach and effectiveness
Keyword Rankings	Position of target keywords	SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz	Measures visibility in search results
Backlinks	Number & quality of external links	Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush	Builds authority and trust
Domain Authority (DA)	Overall website authority	Moz	Predicts ranking potential
Page Authority (PA)	Authority of individual pages	Moz	Predicts page ranking strength
Bounce Rate	% of visitors leaving after one page	Google Analytics	Indicates engagement quality
Click-Through Rate (CTR)	% of users clicking your link in SERPs	Google Search Console	Measures effectiveness of titles/meta
Conversion Rate	% of visitors completing goals	Google Analytics	Measures SEO ROI

In measuring, you must know what to measure. We call these “metrics.” This refers to the numbers to monitor. These are the most significant ones to submit blogs.

Backlinks

This is the most straightforward thing that you can get out of a submission Site.

• What it is: A backlink is a hyperlink from one website that points to another website, signalling trust and authority to search engines.
• Imaginary definition: A popularity vote.

What to watch:

• How many? (Quantity)
• Are they good? (Quality): They belong to a relevant website or just a general, low DA, or spammy website.
• “Follow” vs. “Nofollow” is a bit technical but not so hard to understand.  A “follow” link is a real vote. It gives Google the message, “I believe in this site! We want this.  

A no-follow link is a link that describes itself as such. It is still capable of attracting visitors, yet it provides fewer SEO services.  

When you post to a blog, you desire a good follow link.  

2. Organic Traffic  

The visitors who have come to your Site by using search engines such as Google or Bing without having paid ads. Think of it as having your stand-by discovered by people after reading a sign on the street and not on TV.  

What to watch:  

• Has the number of your total organic visits risen since the time you got the backlink?  

3. Keyword Rankings  

A keyword is a word or phrase that people enter into a search. The keywords that you may use in a post about how to walk a dog are how to walk a dog or the best tips to walk a dog.  

Google ranking: the ranking of your page. Is it #1? #7? #87?  

• This means at what number and on which page on Google SERP your website is ranking.

What to watch:  

• SERP position of your website on your different keywords

You must know that the more quality backlinks you have, the better the SERP will be.

4. Engagement Metrics  

• People do not leave without engaging on your Site. Do they remain or go on the spot?  
• Think of it as a party. Do visitors come and socialise, or walk out immediately?  

What to watch:  

• Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who exit on a single page. A high rate is alarming. We want a low rate.  
• Time on Page: The duration of stay of visitors. When an average of 10 seconds is realised by a 2,000-word post, then there is a problem. We want a long time.  
• Pages per Visit: Do visitors visit other pages after reading your article? That is good; it means that they enjoy what you have to say.  

Why is this important? We should see whether the visitors of the submission site are helpful. When a site has 1,000 visitors that bounce in 3 seconds, then they are bad visitors and do not help.  

5. Domain Authority Page Authority (DA / PA)  

This is not a Google measure. It is a rating between 0 and 100 that SEO companies like Moz produce.  

Metric	Main Factors
Domain Authority (DA)	– Total number of backlinks to the domain – Quality and authority of linking domains – Diversity of linking root domains – Domain age and history – Overall site structure and technical SEO – Content quality across the site
Page Authority (PA)	– Number of backlinks pointing to the specific page – Quality and relevance of linking pages – Internal linking from other pages on the site – Content relevance and optimization for the page – User engagement signals (indirectly)

What to watch:  

• Is there any increment in your DA/PA from the blog links?

Tools to Measure SEO Impact  

You are not able to; you require instruments. The positive news is that the best ones are free.  

1. Google Analytics (GA)  

Tracks traffic coming from blog submission sites.

• Measure referral traffic from blog directories or guest post sites.
• Track user engagement metrics (time on page, bounce rate).
• Identify which blog submissions drive leads or conversions.

To locate Referral Traffic: This is the primary report.  

•       Visit Acquisition/All Traffic/ Referrals.  
•       It shows all the sites that have referred you.  
•       Check the list: e.g. “Site X referred you 50 visitors last week!  
•       Click a site to view what those visitors did- bounce rate, time on Site, etc.  

To find Organic Traffic:  

•     Click on Acquisition All Traffic Channels.  
•     Click “Organic Search.”  
•     It demonstrates the number of individuals who left Google. Watch it to see if it rises.

2. Google Search Console (GSC)

Monitors website performance in Google search results.

• See which blog submission links contribute to impressions and clicks.
• Monitor indexed backlinks from submitted blogs.
• Detect any manual penalties or issues arising from submitted content.

SEO measures tools/extensions

These are the tools developed by other companies (not Google), such as Moz, Ahrefs or Semrush. Think of it as spy tools. They can be compared to detective kits that allow you to monitor any Site, as well as your own and your competitors.

• SEOquake: Check backlinks, traffic, and keyword density instantly.
• MozBar: View DA, PA, and link metrics while browsing blog submission sites.
• Ahrefs SEO Toolbar: Analyse referring domains, anchor text, and link quality.

You do not have to spend a tremendous amount of money on the extensive and costly tools. You may begin by using a free web browser extension such as the MozBar or Ahrefs SEO Toolbar. 

Measuring SEO performance: Step-by-Step An action plan

Step 1: Monitor referral traffic (have they referred people?)

This is the direct impact.

• Go to Google Analytics and under acquisition, under all traffic, referrals.

• Cafe Change the date range to one of the following: The last 30 days or since you posted.
• Is the search query of CoolBloggers.com on the list?

It will tell you:

• The number of users (visitors) that it sent (e.g., 78 visitors).
• What was the bounce rate?. (e.g., “30%”). This is excellent, and it is shallow. It implies that these 78 visitors were quality and remained to read.
• No: This was not the case with any person on that Site clicking the link. That’s okay! It may even be promoting your SEO.

Step 2: Monitor Backlinks

Use tools like Ahrefs, Moz Link Explorer, or SEMrush to track:

• Total backlinks from each blog submission
• Quality and authority of linking domains
• Anchor text distribution

Step 3: Verify Indexed Links and Keyword Performance

If search engines don’t index your backlinks, they won’t contribute to SEO.

Use Google Search Console to check which backlinks are recognised.
Go to Links → Top Linking Sites and monitor whether these links improve keyword rankings and search visibility over time.

Step 4: Measure Domain and Page Authority

Use tools like Moz, Ahrefs, or SEOquake to track changes in DA and PA over time. Growth in these metrics indicates that your blog submission efforts are boosting your site’s credibility.

Step 5: Analyse Engagement and Conversions

Use Google Analytics, Hotjar, or Crazy Egg to monitor:

• Time spent on pages
• Click-throughs to other parts of your website
• Form submissions, sign-ups, or product inquiries

Step 6: Check Keyword Rankings (Did Your “Grade” Go Up?)

This is the reason why your organic traffic increased.  

1. Go to Google Search Console, then Performance.  

2. Search for your keyword best dog walking tips.  

3. Look at the picture and compare it with the previous image.  

• Before: Position #48 (page 5)  
• Now: Position #15 (page 2)  
• The backlink supported your post, and thus, Google brought it up. The fact that it is on page 2 rather than page 5 implies that more people will visit it.  

Step 7: Use SEO Browser Extensions for Quick Insights

Browser extensions provide instant data on the quality and relevance of submission sites. Use SEOquake, MozBar, or Ahrefs Toolbar to check quickly:

• Domain authority of the submission Site
• Backlink profile
• On-page SEO metrics

Advanced/AI-Optimised SEO Impact Measurement

It isn’t very easy, but it is straightforward. AI-Optimised refers to innovative computer programs to aid you in writing or planning blogs. Perhaps you were using AI to identify good keywords. Or maybe it assisted you in writing a superior outline. What is the measurement of the effectiveness of this smarter content?  

Our measurements are the same, but we seek even better results in several significant areas:  

• Improved Interaction: An excellent AI article must provide an answer to the user’s question. When it does, your engagement statistics will be tremendous.  
  
• Time on page: Look for a high time on page.
• You measure: Find a low bounce rate. That indicates that people like the content.  
  
• Featured Snippets Ranking: When an answer box is the top box on Google, it is called a Featured Snippet.  
• You measure: In Search Engine, check whether your page takes these position slots (0). It is a kind of AI assistance that is usually helpful since it is transparent and properly organised.  
  
• Content Clusters: It is an intelligent blog strategy. You do not write one post, but write a cluster. Write a giant post (a Pillar Post) such as The Ultimate Guide to Dogs. After that, write 10 smaller posts (How to Wash a Dog, Best Dog Food, Dog Walking Tips, etc.) and connect all of them with the big one.  
• You measure: Determine whether the entire cluster is beginning to rank. When the backlink to your big guide is received, check whether the less significant posts receive more traffic as well. If they do, your cluster works.  

Tips for Accurate SEO Measurement

Measuring can be tricky. These are just some last suggestions to ensure that you do it correctly.  

Tip 1: Be Patient.

SEO is not a light switch but a tree that needs to be planted. Not daily, but once a month.  

Tip 2: Look at Trends, Not One Day.  

Traffic goes up and down. Perhaps there is no one visiting on Saturday. Don’t panic. Observe the trend on a monthly or quarterly basis. When the line is generally up, then that gives a win.  

Tip 3: Not All Links Are Good.  

  There are junk or spammy sites for blog submissions. A link from a bad Site can hurt. When the DA of a Site is 0 or 1 or the Site appears ugly with numerous advertisements, then avoid it. Use only professional and clean websites.  

Tip 4: Use Annotations.  

  In Google Analytics, select the option of making a new annotation. On the day of posting your blog, make a note: “Posted dog post to https://www.google.com/search?q=CoolBloggers.com. When you view your traffic chart later, you will be able to view the note and determine whether the traffic began to increase after the submission.  

Tip 5: Compare Apples to Apples.  

Examine the before and after numbers fairly. Never compare a hectic Tuesday with a lazy Sunday. Compare this month with the previous month or with an older blog, this March with the previous March, to take into consideration the seasonal variations.

Conclusion

Blog submission sites remain a powerful tool for building backlinks, increasing referral traffic, and enhancing search visibility—but only when measured and leveraged strategically. By systematically tracking referral traffic, backlinks, indexed links, keyword rankings, domain and page authority, and user engagement, you gain a clear understanding of which submissions drive real SEO value.

For maximum impact, focus on high-quality, niche-relevant blog directories, guest posts, and authoritative platforms rather than mass submissions. Use reliable tools to monitor performance, uncover insights, and refine your strategy.

FAQs  

What is the time frame for SEO results of a blog submission?  

It takes time. It may take a couple of days to see referral visitors, though it can take 3 weeks to 6 months to see real SEO gains.  

Aren’t all blog submission sites good for SEO?  

No. Most of them are of low quality and may be detrimental to your site. Check the site first. As long as it appears business-like and is pertinent to your subject matter, then it is likely okay.  

What is the most significant figure to observe?  

Organic traffic. That’s the goal. It indicates that Google has more faith in your site and attracts new free traffic who are searching on what you are writing.  

Am I supposed to pay a lot of money to purchase expensive SEO tools?  

No. To begin with, the free Google tools provide you with the majority of what you want. It has a free extension, MozBar, that can be added to check the domain authority scores.