Being clear about the ROI of an SEO strategy favors the use of human and financial resources in its application, which also leads to more positive results for business.
One of the great advantages of digital marketing is the ability to control the return on investment of each action on a day-to-day basis and adjust them as the results appear.
An example of this is SEO work , which if done well can bring great benefits to a company.
Do you want to know if your SEO strategy is working? Then discover everything you need to know to calculate the ROI of your company’s SEO!
Why is it important to calculate the ROI of SEO?
After all, does calculating return on search optimization efforts really make a difference?
Here are 4 simple reasons why doing so is critical to your SEO strategy being successful:
Present results to managers and clients
Today, there is no company that can afford to invest without being sure of a return , at least one that wants to stay in the market for a long time.
Thinking about this need, it is important that you can confirm the efficiency of SEO when necessary, be it for the clients of your organization or even for a senior executive.
Calculating ROI will do just that, and allow you and your team to continue to do a good job without risking budget cuts or other constraints .
Make better decisions
How else will you be able to know if the decisions made so far were correct and if the techniques adopted worked?
Only through an accurate calculation of the return on investment in SEO will you have an exact idea of how your strategy is going in this regard.
And, for example, if you need to increase the number of visits to your website or increase conversions to achieve the goals you initially set, how will you know?
The answer is: calculating the ROI of SEO.
Earn more money
From the moment you start to make better decisions and do even more thorough SEO work, with the goal of increasing conversions, the trend is for profits to increase as well.
And, one thing’s for sure: SEO is one of the best return investments in digital marketing , provided it’s done right, of course.
That is why it remains a popular choice when it comes to investing in the internet as a business channel .
Calculate from time to time how your company can use this powerful tool so important to take advantage of each new opportunity to earn more money.
Become an authority in the market
Producing quality content is not the only thing you need for your company to become an authority in the education of your niche.
And it is that carrying out a keyword research , finding the best option between long tail or head tail words and following the changes in the search algorithms are some of the precautions involved in that.
Ultimately, organic traffic that comes from search engines like Google has a huge impact on getting your content to the right audience, and reaching people who can eventually become customers.
By analyzing your current SEO ROI, you’ll have an idea of which of those details is worth tweaking for the most impressive results.
Based on that, calculating your SEO ROI serves both to show that this is a great investment and to help make it even more profitable.
Otherwise, it is impossible to know if what was planned and executed is leading the business on the right track or not.
How to prepare to do the calculation?
Before getting to the calculation itself, you first need to prepare to ensure that the work is done well and that the data collected is accurate.
To do that, let’s look at four important steps to take before calculating your SEO ROI.
1. Understand what it means to have a good SEO ROI
The role of SEO is not just about getting numbers, increasing traffic, visits, etc.
The real goal is to increase conversions and leads. Well, high conversions mean a good ROI from SEO. Otherwise, you need to make changes.
But what kind of conversions are we talking about? Any action that converts a visitor into a lead or potential customer. Some examples are:
- Subscription to a newsletter;
- download rich materials.
- sales of products and services,
- among other.
On each of these occasions, it is necessary to use CRM tools and digital marketing automation , to identify if those prospects came to the company’s website due to organic traffic, derived from SEO.
2. Choose and organize the SEO KPIs to be followed
More than just metrics, it is imperative that you choose good SEO KPIs to have a reliable and clear analysis of what is being done.
KPIs go beyond metrics , allowing you to understand performance in depth and find issues that you might not otherwise be able to identify.
Not to mention the opportunities you can find, such as small adjustments that do not involve a lot of effort, but that bring significant improvements.
3. Establish a reasonable period before calculating the return
As with the vast majority of strategies available within digital marketing, it is important to remember that SEO does not pay off as quickly .
Therefore, it is necessary to define a reasonable waiting period, especially if the optimization plan has just been implemented. So tracking performance month by month is a reasonable option.
But keep in mind that – before you think that nothing works and make big changes – there are certain tactics that take many months to take effect. Don’t trust SEO professionals who promise to get you to the top of Google in 1-2 months!
4. Set realistic goals to achieve
Aiming high is different from being realistic. For example, would it make sense to project a 500% growth in conversions in three months? Certainly not!
It is much better to set goals that you can achieve and continue to do so progressively as you reach them.
With time, patience and continuous work on SEO optimization – along with other actions – it is possible to go beyond 500%, but as long as expectations are met, taking into account the size of the team and the availability of resources.
How to calculate the ROI of your SEO strategies?
Now, after “preparing the ground” we can get down to business and begin the calculation that will determine the performance of your company’s SEO actions.
Remember that the main idea is to see what works in practice, not to measure numbers for no purpose.
With this in mind, do the following:
Choose the period that you are going to analyze
First, you must choose the time period you want to analyze to determine the effectiveness of your plan.
Depending on how deep you want the analysis to go, you can even look at different periods and make comparisons between them later.
But strive for balance: too long periods don’t give such a comprehensive feel for specific actions, and too short periods give a confused view of performance.
Examine the data related to conversions
As we have already clarified, what matters when calculating the ROI of SEO is the conversion rate.
So that’s what you need to investigate.
In fact, having chosen the KPIs in that task will be of great help, since these indicators not only measure cold numbers – such as the number of monthly visits – but in its entirety, each indicator helps you see how a certain action is contributing. to increase conversions.
Compare the results with the defined objectives
Once the data has been collected, it is enough to make a simple comparison: do the results obtained coincide with the defined objectives?
Answering that question will help you know if the same strategy is worth keeping – just striving for continuous improvement – or if radical changes are necessary.
It is natural that you always have to change one detail or another, but nothing so big as to start planning from scratch.
Want to see an example of SEO ROI analysis in action?
See how a single blog post brought 2 million reais to Rock in less than 3 years.
Record what needs adjustments
If you find that the results are not good enough to meet the defined objectives, dig into each KPI.
By doing this, you will discover what needs to change so that the investment is more profitable and achieves what was intended from the beginning.
On the other hand, if the answer is that the results reached the goal, the next step is to study other ways to further optimize what is already working and set a little bolder goals.
Check your SEO knowledge
No matter what your experience on the subject is or the results you have achieved, you should always review your SEO knowledge.
Remembering the purpose of using it, the time it takes to get results and the importance of adapting will go a long way so that your strategy never gets stuck.
And always stay informed about Google algorithms! SEO always changes to adapt to the needs of the user, and whoever adapts the fastest gets ahead.
Calculating the ROI of SEO is essential to extract everything that search engines can do for your business. By doing the proper preparation, analyzing the metrics correctly, and acting on the data collected, your business has what it takes to be at the top of the search rankings.
In addition, Marketing uses technology as an ally to attract and conquer the consumer in a minimally invasive way and attending to their needs. Therefore, in this ebook we will take a more in-depth look at Content Marketing and how that strategy can help you increase your sales results. Download it!
