This post was sponsored by Semify. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.
Have you ever wondered how beneficial SEO would be for your business, or how much of your budget you should invest in it?
Do you sometimes worry your SEO efforts won’t bring in enough profit to justify the cost?
56% of small businesses still don’t use SEO or aren’t sure if it’s part of their marketing strategy.
That means that 56% of small businesses are closing their doors to an evergreen, free traffic source.
Chances are, your competition may not be kickstarting their online presence with SEO, making the investment into search engine optimization a great way to get ahead.
But how can you demonstrate the true value of SEO?
How do you convince your leads or your boss that SEO is worth the effort?
We’ve created a powerful tool to take the guesswork out of the equation.
Today, you’ll learn how to calculate the return on investment (ROI) of SEO.
Why Is The ROI Of SEO Important For Businesses?
It’s hard to spend money if you’re not sure how it will benefit you down the road.
You may already know that SEO offers the lowest cost per lead of any marketing channel.
SEO also helps to crack the code on organic search.
The number one spot on Google search result pages (SERPs) receives at least a quarter of the organic traffic share, so investing in SEO can even the playing field against your competitors.
But while SEO is one of the most affordable marketing tools available, you may need to know if those costs will pay off.
We can conclude that better rankings equal more traffic and conversions, but how does that translate to a dollar amount?
As you can imagine, there’s no substitute for hard (or even estimated) data.
When you can prove with numbers – rather than theoretical concepts – that SEO is worthwhile, you’ll get the “Powers That Be” on board.
What’s Challenging About Determining SEO Return On Investment (ROI)?
That being said, it’s not always easy to get that kind of granular data for the ROI of SEO.
For one thing, no one knows when or how Google will rank a given website. Even if you have all your ducks in a row, anything from algorithm updates to technical website issues can slow your progress.
Although we think we know what Google wants, we can’t control how quickly results occur – nor whether a campaign will perform the way we think it should. We can make predictions based on our experiences, but there are no SEO guarantees.
And unlike display or PPC ads, which offer answers right at your fingertips, SEO requires more data compilation and general know-how to determine whether you’re moving in the right direction.
Isolating data can also be a challenge when you’re pursuing a multi-pronged digital marketing strategy.
Since most marketing techniques tend to work best in conjunction with one another, figuring out the source of your success won’t always be straightforward.
Finally, because SEO is a long-term solution, it may seem like progress is at a standstill. For folks who are accustomed to seeing immediate results, SEO can feel like a huge leap of faith.
So, you need to convince your leadership to stick it out by showing the ROI of SEO.
What’s The Best Way To Measure The ROI Of SEO?
At Semify, we’ve come up with a reliable tool that can show the potential impact of SEO over time – an ROI of SEO calculator.
When paired with up-to-date keyword research, you’ll be able to instantly learn how profitable your search optimization efforts could be!
Below, we’ll walk you through how to calculate your SEO return on investment.
Step 1: Download A Free ROI Of SEO Calculator
Your first step is to get a customizable ROI of SEO calculator that allows you to plug in your information and instantly learn how profitable your SEO strategy could be.
To make it easy, we’ve created an ROI calculator that includes 1-month projections and 18-month projections for a more realistic rankings timetable.
With these numbers in hand, you can set better expectations and show the value of SEO.
Step 2: Perform Keyword Selection & Ranking
In order to calculate the ROI for your SEO strategy, your ROI of SEO calculator will need to know:
- Which keywords you’re planning to target.
- What each target keyword’s monthly search volume is.
Once you have these two pieces of information, likely already in your SEO strategy, simply add them to the ROI of SEO calculator.
How To Discover A Keyword’s Monthly Search Volume
Today, we’ll pretend that we’re proving the ROI of SEO for a hypothetical local dentist.
To get the most accurate ROI, you’ll want to make sure that you’re selecting long-tail keywords that specifically match your prospect’s search intent and relevance.
So, instead of simply targeting [dentist], we recommend targeting [dentist rochester ny] instead.
Next, put [dentist rochester ny] into your favorite SEO keyword research tool to discover its keyword volume, or monthly searches.
The keyword [dentist rochester ny] has about 1,600 monthly searches.
