If you can’t measure it, you can’t give it meaning. This highlights one of the biggest obstacles business leaders face when it comes to search engine optimization.
There’s no doubt that SEO delivers a return on your investment. That has been proven time and time again. But the math isn’t as simple as, say, pay-per-click advertising with its simple transactional nature.
Marketing leaders from different industries wonder: How much of my marketing budget should be spent on SEO, and what can we expect from it?
SEO is undoubtedly a long-term game. But make no mistake that this means it won’t have a real, concrete and measurable impact on revenue. Taking steps to track and increase the value of your SEO efforts isn’t easy, but it’s very rewarding.
“Taking steps to track and increase the value of your SEO efforts isn’t easy, but it’s very rewarding.” — @NickNelsonMN Click to tweet
Measuring SEO value: 6 key metrics and takeaways
There is a difference between statistics and techniques used to measure the performance of your SEO vs value of your SEO. You’ll find an assortment of performance and optimization metrics in our upcoming comprehensive guide to B2B search engine optimization.
Here we will emphasize value-based measurement methods that can help demonstrate the bottom-line impact of a high-performing SEO strategy.
1. Organic Traffic (and Attributed Leads)
The leading Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for virtually any SEO program is organic traffic, which refers to visitors who arrive at your website through unpaid searches. When you generate organic traffic around terms that matter to your business, it means you’re putting your brand in front of relevant and interested people.
Search engines evolve around search intent. Understanding your buyer’s journey and providing useful content to support it can help you gain rankings and attract qualified website visitors. Unsurprisingly, this type of traffic tends to convert faster than most other sources.
Measuring the leads and opportunities your business seeks through organic search results and comparing the quality or conversion rate of those leads to other sources can provide great insight into the vital role SEO plays.
Of course, tracking a potential customer to the organic search results isn’t always (or often) an A-to-B comparison. Marketers use a variety of techniques, including multi-touch attribution, to gain this insight.
“Measuring the leads and opportunities your company seeks through organic search results and then comparing the quality or conversion rate of those leads to other sources can provide great insight into the vital role SEO plays.” — @NickNelsonMN Click to tweet
2. Keyword Rankings
Ranking at the top of a search engine results page (SERP) for a keyword or query that is of great importance to your business is more than a point of pride. It can lead to significant revenue impact!
The reality of online search is that top results in a SERP receive a vast majority of clicks from users. According to Ahrefs75% of all clicks go to the top three organic results and 32% of clicks go to the highest ranking page.
As we just discussed, organic traffic is money. However, how much money it is depends on how well your strategy capitalizes on this traffic. High-quality content that keeps users on the page, demonstrates thought leadership, and drives next steps will help convert those clicks into commercially valuable results.
3. Click through to valuable pages and assets
Many marketing teams have large-scale initiatives and investments they are pursuing in the name of driving robust growth. These campaigns can include events, assets, sponsorships, influencer programs and more.
Use your high-performing SEO pages as conduits for this content, driving qualified traffic to the premium work in a context that makes sense based on the original search intent. You can also use relevant SEO content to drive traffic to social media campaigns, which are often difficult to discover organically outside of their platforms.
When you ultimately measure and evaluate the success of those investments, make sure that SEO’s contribution is being spent.
4. Savings on paid search campaigns
Paid search is a key ingredient in a digital marketing strategy. But when companies become too dependent on this tactic, it is no longer cost-effective and can also prove limiting to the brand’s reach.
When your organic search strategy generates clicks for intent-driven terms, you pay less for those clicks, and marketers can scale back their ad spend while still creating pipeline impact.
Yes: Creating effective SEO content requires an upfront investment and a strategic foundation. But the free clicks and engagement your SEO content generates over time will lead to a lasting, snowball effect.
“When your organic search strategy generates clicks for intent-driven terms, you pay less for those clicks, and marketers can scale back their ad spend while still creating pipeline impact.” — @NickNelsonMN Click to tweet
5. First-hand data
Access to quality, reliable data is a major challenge for forward-looking marketers. Many third-party data sources that were traditionally commodity will no longer be available or will be less reliable. This increases the collective emphasis on first-party data.
First-party data, in short, is data that you own. This data can be collected through your company’s app or through your product, but the most common source for first-party data is your website.
When your SEO strategy drives qualified organic traffic to your website, it means you’re acquiring relevant and engaged users. They are often more likely to interact with content, subscribe to newsletters, fill out contact forms, create accounts, and participate in surveys or feedback requests, all of which collect personal data.
Additionally – and crucially – the keyword research insights you gain from organic searches inform content creation and personalization that can shape your broader marketing strategy in profound ways.
6. Return on investment
Of course, this is the big metric that everyone cares about, and rightly so. Any company that invests in a marketing strategy can expect a greater return than what they put into it. Calculating SEO ROI is absolutely possible, but you won’t get an accurate picture unless you think about returns holistically.
Several calculations exist to measure SEO ROI. Ahrefs shares this example:
SEO ROI = (Value of Organic Conversions – Cost of SEO Investments)/Cost of SEO Investments
The great thing about this formula is that it is practical and uncomplicated. You can set up goal tracking in Google Analytics to define and measure “organic conversions,” then compare the quantified value of those conversions to the total cost of your SEO program.
The problem, as Michal Pecánek clearly points out in the piece, is that there are major challenges and limitations associated with measuring SEO ROI through such a basic lens.
Not only do shortcomings in marketing attribution make it difficult to categorize all organic conversions with confidence, but, as we’ve explored, those conversions themselves barely account for the total value of SEO to the business. We haven’t even touched on the crucial relationship between SEO and brand building, which in itself is key to increasing market share.
Highlight the value of your SEO strategy
Measuring the business value of SEO isn’t easy, but no marketer should let that stop them from focusing on it. When companies have an incomplete or inaccurate understanding of the impact and role of their search strategy on revenue growth, it can lead to very costly decisions (or indecision).
At TopRank Marketing we know how to demonstrate and grow the value of SEO. Learn more about our services and how we can help you find answers with your search strategy.
About the author
Nick Nelson is our friendly neighborhood writer. As Associate Content Director at TopRank Marketing, he is on a mission to drive brand storytelling with smart, fun and sharp wordplay. In his spare time, Nick enjoys basking in the misery of Minnesota sports fanatics, making ridiculous puns, and smothering all manner of foods in buffalo sauce.
Reference By: www.toprankblog.com
