{"id":13955,"date":"2022-10-24T09:53:08","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T09:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/?p=13955"},"modified":"2022-11-28T08:38:08","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T08:38:08","slug":"seo-return-on-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/seo-return-on-investment\/","title":{"rendered":"Is SEO Worth It? How to Measure SEO Return on Investment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If you\u2018re here to learn how to measure SEO return on investment, then you&#8217;re already on the right track \u2012 because you&#8217;re thinking about what actually matters.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sure, marketers can talk all day about how great SEO is&#8230;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But let\u2019s be realistic: the only real way to know if SEO is worth it to you is to calculate its return on investment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, it is possible to reliably measure the impact of SEO on your bottom line. <strong>In fact, it&#8217;s much simpler than some marketers make it out to be.&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ll tell you exactly how to measure the ROI of your SEO, step-by-step, so it\u2019s easy to know if SEO is worth it for you.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to Measure the ROI of SEO \u2012 and the Impact of SEO on Your Bottom Line<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s all too common for business owners to invest in some form of SEO and, at the end of the day, have <em>no idea <\/em>if that SEO is actually worth it\u2026or if it&#8217;s money going to waste.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It doesn&#8217;t help that some marketers <em>claim<\/em> measuring the ROI of SEO is impossible. They\u2019re either wrong, or dishonest.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As long as you have the right data, the formula you use to calculate SEO return on investment is pretty straightforward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Here\u2019s a quick and easy formula you can use to determine whether SEO has been worth your money in a specific period:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>(Value of Conversions \u2013 Cost of SEO) \/ Cost of SEO<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/how-to-measure-seo-return-on-investment-roi-trafficsoda-1024x683.png\" alt=\"How to measure SEO return on investment: (value of conversions-cost of SEO)\/cost of SEO\" class=\"wp-image-13977\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/how-to-measure-seo-return-on-investment-roi-trafficsoda-1024x683.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/how-to-measure-seo-return-on-investment-roi-trafficsoda-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/how-to-measure-seo-return-on-investment-roi-trafficsoda-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/how-to-measure-seo-return-on-investment-roi-trafficsoda-480x320.png 480w, https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/how-to-measure-seo-return-on-investment-roi-trafficsoda.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There it is. And in the rest of this article, we\u2019ll explain exactly how to get the data you need to fill in this formula.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, we\u2019d be lying if we said there are <em>no<\/em> challenges involved with calculating SEO return on investment. We&#8217;ll also help you cut through those challenges so you get the clearest possible picture of your SEO return on investment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But first, let\u2019s grab the data we need to measure the ROI of SEO.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Step 1: Determine the Cost of Your Investment in SEO<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, you have to calculate how much SEO cost you over the timeframe you want to measure.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you work with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/seo-services\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">professional SEO agency<\/a>, this step is as simple as it gets. You can find out how much you&#8217;re paying just by looking at the bill.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you do all your SEO in-house, or a hybrid of in-house and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/seo-services\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">agency SEO services<\/a>, the breakdown will be more complicated. Some of the costs you&#8217;ll need to factor in include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Any in-house staff who contribute to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/on-page-seo-vs-off-page-seo-differences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">on-page and off-page SEO<\/a>, including content creators and copywriters<\/li><li>Web designers and developers who contribute to technical SEO, as well as setting up SEO tracking like Google Analytics (more on that later)<\/li><li>Monthly or annual subscriptions to SEO tools like SemRush, Ahrefs, or anything else you use for traffic analytics, site auditing, keyword research, list management, etc.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>When you add these costs up, you&#8217;ll have a figure that can be used in your SEO ROI calculation.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember that these costs may change monthly. Don&#8217;t forget to take those changes into account when measuring your SEO return on investment for a specific timeframe.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Step 2: Measure Conversions From Organic Traffic<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a nutshell, <a href=\"https:\/\/evenbound.com\/blog\/direct-traffic-vs-organic-traffic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">organic traffic<\/a> is any traffic to your website from a search engine that you don\u2019t pay for directly.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whenever someone clicks on your site in Google search results \u2012 as long as it\u2019s not one of your ads \u2012 it\u2019s organic traffic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since SEO is all about boosting organic traffic, <strong>conversions from organic traffic provide one of the best metrics for measuring the ROI of SEO.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get that number, we recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/track-organic-conversions\/342345\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">using Google Analytics to track your organic conversions<\/a>. You can use it for free and it just works.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The way you set this up will depend on the way your business and website work, and we won&#8217;t go into too much detail here. Setting up conversion tracking correctly is <strong>extremely important<\/strong>, so we recommend getting help from an experienced developer or digital marketer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you have Google Analytics tracking your conversions, calculating the value of SEO conversions is a breeze:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>For <strong>sales made on your website<\/strong>, simply segment conversions by channel and look at revenue for organic traffic. Narrow down the timeframe and you\u2019ve got your number.<\/li><li>For<strong> leads that come in through your website<\/strong>, this is trickier, because the actual conversion happens offline and not every lead converts. You need to assign a value to your leads overall and use that as your value. Best practice is to base that value on the average lifetime value of a customer multiplied by closure rate %.<br><br><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Step 3: Use This Formula to Calculate SEO Return on Investment<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After you&#8217;ve collected your data, plug it in to this formula to calculate your SEO return on investment:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>(Value of Conversions \u2013 Cost of Investment) \/ Cost of Investment<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s an example.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Say that organic traffic got you $100,000 in revenue over one year, and that the costs associated with SEO during that time were $20,000.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Put these figures into the formula above and we get:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>($100,000 &#8211; $20,000) \/ $20,000 = 4<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So for every $1 you spent on SEO, you got $4 back. This means you&#8217;re getting a 400% return on investment.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using this formula, you can calculate the ROI of your SEO campaign over any timeframe you choose, as long as you know both the costs and the returns.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can then use this data to help determine whether SEO is worth it for you or not\u2026with a couple of important caveats.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ll look at those caveats next.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>3 Challenges of Measuring SEO Return on Investment<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Real-time conversion tracking has made it easier than ever to reliably measure the return on investment of your SEO efforts.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, not even the best tracking tools can perfectly measure every facet of your organic search traffic. SEO is a time-consuming and complicated process with many moving parts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of this, quantifying SEO return on investment will always be a bit of an art as well as a science.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s what you need to know about the tricky part of measuring SEO and its ROI:<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenge 1: SEO Costs Are Complex<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, measuring SEO ROI can be tough because of the sheer number of variables that contribute to a successful campaign.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An effective SEO campaign is based on a number of variables, from high-quality content, to link building, to technical SEO and more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having an agency handle your SEO makes quantifying these costs a breeze. You know how much you&#8217;re paying them, so use that figure in your calculation.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tallying the costs of your internal SEO efforts is harder.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While PPC advertising has clearly identifiable click costs, SEO is about<em> earning<\/em> clicks rather than buying them. Those clicks are technically free. But the SEO you spend to get them isn&#8217;t.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You have to consider things like the cost of in-house labour (which you can break down by individuals or tasks), the SEO tools you use, and all the time you or your managers put into running that team smoothly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a lot, and you\u2019ve got to get it right if you want a true picture of your SEO ROI.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenge 2: SEO Takes Time<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you&#8217;re doing SEO, it can be hard to tie specific investments and returns to work that was done in a specific timeframe.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s because it can take a long time for SEO to pay off. Quick wins are certainly possible, but there\u2019s no guarantee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From our experience and that of other reputable SEO agencies, we can estimate it will take 4-6 months for SEO to start \u2018working\u2019, meaning it begins to produce measurable results.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, the simplified principle of comparing returns and investments over the same period does not quite work. It gives you a solid idea of whether things are working, but it\u2019s not 1:1.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One way to get around this is to calculate ROI on a category, page, or keyword level, rather than an arbitrary time period, <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-roi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">as Ahrefs describes here<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To learn more about SEO timelines, check out our blog post on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/seo-timeline-for-results\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">how long it takes to get SEO results.<\/a><br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenge 3: Even \u2018Perfect\u2019 Conversion Tracking Isn\u2019t Flawless<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This problem isn&#8217;t specific to SEO.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But SEO is no exception.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The simple fact is that <strong>customer journeys are often more complex than any tracking software makes them seem<\/strong>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, Google Analytics will tell you if someone converted after visiting your website through an organic search. However, there may be things going on <em>behind the scenes<\/em> that you aren&#8217;t aware of or can&#8217;t track.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>For example\u2026<\/em>say you watch a YouTube video about an interesting product. Then you Google that product, go to the website, and buy it.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Organic traffic gets 100% of the credit for that conversion&#8230;but it was really the YouTube video that got you there, wasn\u2019t it?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Here&#8217;s another example with the opposite effect. <\/em>Say you Google a product on your phone, find the website, and make a mental note of it. Later, you fire up your laptop and visit the website directly by typing the URL in your browser, and buy the product.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since you switched devices, direct traffic gets 100% credit&#8230;but wasn&#8217;t that really an organic conversion?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You can see how customer journeys can twist and turn in ways that can skew your attribution.&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, no matter how well your Google Analytics is configured, you cannot always pinpoint <em>exactly<\/em> how many conversions you owe to SEO.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The more traffic and conversions you have, the more accurate it becomes, but it will never be perfect.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This begs the question: why even bother?<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What You\u2019re Missing If You Aren\u2019t Measuring SEO Return on Investment<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Put simply, not measuring your ROI is almost as bad as not doing SEO at all.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In spite of the challenges of measuring SEO ROI to pinpoint accuracy, you&#8217;re missing out on a lot of valuable data if you don&#8217;t do it at all.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/organic-search-responsible-for-53-of-all-site-traffic-paid-15-study-322298\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The average business generates 53% of its traffic through organic search<\/a>. Meaning that SEO does have an impact on the bottom line for most businesses. You can\u2019t afford to ignore it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And unless you know your return on investment for every dollar you spend on SEO, you can&#8217;t decide which strategies are working best, which you should scale, and whether something\u2019s wasting your money.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since SEO is a long-term strategy that generates results over time, you may not see a positive ROI right away. But once you\u2019re past that, SEO will begin to deliver a return and can continue to pay dividends for years to come.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When that turning point comes, you <em>won&#8217;t know<\/em> it unless you\u2019ve been actively measuring the ongoing ROI of your SEO work. And if you <em>don\u2019t know<\/em>, you could end up pulling the plug on a profitable strategy just when it&#8217;s getting started.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If you need help moving the needle on your website\u2019s search rankings, we are happy to help. <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/contact\/\"><strong>Get in touch with our SEO Team<\/strong><\/a><strong> to learn more about our services here at TrafficSoda.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2018re here to learn how to measure SEO return on investment, then you&#8217;re already on the right track \u2012 because you&#8217;re thinking about what actually matters.\u00a0 Sure, marketers can talk all day about how great SEO is&#8230;&nbsp;&nbsp; But let\u2019s be realistic: the only real way to know if SEO is worth it to you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[208,209,45,10,207,46],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/trafficsoda-how-to-measure-seo-return-on-investment.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Megan","author_link":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/author\/megan\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13955"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13980,"href":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13955\/revisions\/13980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trafficsoda.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}