Ever wondered if your hard-earned bucks spent on SEO are actually paying off? Sure, you’re getting more clicks, but are those clicks turning into dollars? Stick around, because we’re about to decode the often perplexing world of measuring the Return on Investment (ROI) of your SEO campaigns in a really simple way.
What Is SEO ROI and Why Should You Care?
In a nutshell, SEO ROI tells you if the time, money, and resources you’re pouring into SEO are actually adding value to your business. It’s like the report card for your SEO efforts, showcasing what’s working and what needs to go back to the drawing board.
The Perks of Knowing the ROI on Your SEO Campaigns:
- Prove Your Point: If you’ve been trying to secure more budget for SEO, ROI stats are your best friend. Nothing convinces stakeholders like cold, hard facts.
- Make Better Business Decisions: With hard numbers as proof of the performance, you can make well informed decisions to direct your business in the right direction.
- Spot Weak Spots: Understanding your ROI can help you identify areas that need a tweak or a total overhaul.
1. Setting SMART Goals:
Your first mission is to set SMART goals—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Think of them as your GPS, helping you steer your SEO campaigns in the right direction.
2. Metrics Mania: Which Numbers Should You Track?
There are too many metrics available for you to track. However, in the spirit of making things simpler, let’s stick to the ones you definitely need to keep an eye on:
- Organic Website Traffic: The more, the merrier. However, it’s important to make sure that you are sending the right traffic to the website.
- Page Views and Time Spent: Knowing which pages people visit and spend time on can inform you if the content is striking a chord with the target audience or if it needs to be improved.
- Bounce Rate: If visitors are bouncing faster than a ping-pong ball, you’ve got a problem. This could mean your content isn’t resonating with the target audience.
- Conversion Rate: This tells you if people are actually doing what you want them to do—like requesting your services or buying your products.
Quick tip: Keep a close eye on the source of your website traffic, dwell time, actions, and drop-off page of your users on the website. This helps you to identify key gaps in the user journey.
If you are seeing constant increases in these metrics over time, in most cases you would find that your page starts to rank gradually. Having said that, often we see a big mistake that most businesses make by expecting instant results with SEO.
3. The Time Factor: SEO is a Marathon, Not a Sprint
Newsflash: SEO results don’t happen overnight. You need to track metrics over time to see meaningful patterns and understand the long game. To bear the fruits of your SEO efforts, it’s always recommended to wait for 4 to 6 months before you start dreaming of the top position in Google search rankings.
The aim here is to build your online authority over time and showcase your website as the go-to place for valuable information/products/service. This online authority can be built by creating high-quality content and ensuring strong backlinks are used. To ensure that you have this, it’s important to have the right tools to help you track and make the right decisions.
4. Tool Time: Get The Right Instruments
You wouldn’t try to hammer a nail with a screwdriver, right? That’s why using tools like Google Analytics, SEMrush, and Ahrefs is so important in understanding your business—they’re the right tools that provide you all the necessary SEO insights needed to give you the edge over your competitors.
Quick Tip: Stay on your toes with Google algorithm updates. Picture this – Google changes its algorithm and suddenly your website ranks start to plummet. As Google’s algorithm is constantly changing, it’s important to keep yourself informed on the latest updates and trends to stay ahead of the game.
5. Picking the Best Marketing & SEO Agency in Town: Choose Wisely
Picking the best digital marketing agency in town is not necessarily the best option for all businesses. To deliver the best results, its crucial that you and your marketing agency sync well too. Understanding how well you sync in terms of values, working style, and most importantly communication will truly determine the success of your relationship. Before hiring an SEO company near you, there are 3 important questions you need to always ask yourself:
- Do their strategies align with your goals?
- Are they transparent?
- Do they have a track record of success?
Once you’re satisfied with the answers to those questions, be assured that you have just found the best SEO agency for you!
Beware: If something sounds too good to be true, in most cases it might be. Big numbers and unrealistic goals are often thrown around to get business, so make sure that they can back that up with previous results.
6. Keep Tabs and Report: The More You Know the Better
Constant vigilance! Keep an eye on your key performance indicators (KPIs), create comprehensive reports, and keep your team in the loop. Make sure that this is done on a bi-weekly or monthly basis to be assured that you are on the right track and not missing on potential customers.
7. Research What Your Competitors Up To?
Just like in a spy thriller, knowing what your competitors are up to can give you an edge. Research their keyword strategy, backlinks, and content to figure out how to one-up them. Make sure not to copy, but instead, use it as an inspiration to create a better strategy for yourself.
8. Going Local: The Locale Lowdown
If your business serves a specific locale, your SEO strategy needs a local flavour. For example, while searching for a marketing agency, a person in Kelowna, BC would search for the keyword ‘best marketing agency in Kelowna‘. Researching more local will get you to uncover additional SEO keywords, and phrases that people would be using to find your service or business in the region.
Quick Tip: Monitor your Google Business Profile, track your local rankings, and keep an eye on those online reviews as those will give you the best insight into what your target audience is liking or lacking.
9. Don’t Forget Social Media: Boost Your SEO the Social Way
Social media can be the cherry on top of your SEO sundae. High-quality shareable content and a solid social media following can ramp up your backlinks and organic traffic.
Whether you’re an SEO newbie or a seasoned pro, understanding the relation between your SEO and ROI is what will ultimately help you turn those clicks into customers and those customers.
