Search engine optimization (SEO) can be a tricky part of marketing, one that simultaneously gets overhyped and has developed a bad rap. If your business is looking ahead to next year’s marketing plan and you’re having trouble deciding how—or if—SEO should be part of your strategy, you need to have more than a gut feeling behind your plan. SEO is a marketing tactic that must be evaluated by the numbers so you can get a true picture of the potential ROI.
SEO is about improving the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search results. Search engines are the tools everyone uses to find their way around the internet, and if your site isn’t appearing in front of the right prospects, you might as well be invisible. However, getting those results is more complex than running a PPC ad campaign, and as a result, figuring out if your investment in SEO is paying off is also more complex.
A pay-per-click campaign is relatively straightforward: you pick keywords, write and place ad based on those keywords, pay when someone clicks, direct that click to the landing page you choose, then track the results (sales or leads). SEO, on the other hand, requires a more holistic approach to your online presence. This can include revamping your website, such as changing architecture or navigation, creating new page templates for better SEO, and adding a blog or resource section, and updating or adding relevant content. All of this can add up to a significant investment, which is why you need to look at what you stand to gain in terms of tangible benefits—sales and leads.
One of the first things you need to do is identify possible keywords you’d want to target. One method is to do some research on organic search terms that are working for your competitors. When you’ve found a competitor who seems to have a significant organic presence online, you’ll need to drill down to their top keywords (excluding brand terms like company name, etc.) to see the volume of traffic associated with those terms.
Next you need to evaluate what that volume of increase would mean for your business in increased revenue. For an e-commerce business, that means multiplying the number of visits per month by your conversion rate to estimate the number of sales; for example, 12,000 visits per month times a 1.5% conversion rate would equal 180 sales. If your average net sale is $400, then the total value would be $72,000.
If you’re calculating by lead generation, you’ll want to look at what your internal data tells you about how many of those visitors will turn into leads, and then into customers. If you have a conversion rate of 5% into leads, 12,000 visits will yield 600 leads. If half of those leads are qualified, you end up with 300. If 40% of qualified leads turn into sales, your investment in SEO will result in 120 sales. Multiply that by your average net sale to determine the revenue those efforts will generate.
While these rough numbers won’t tell the whole story, they will give you an idea of what your company stands to gain by boosting your online visibility through SEO. However, for a thoroughly data-driven SEO approach, SEO2Sales is where you should be looking.
Why has SEO gotten a bad reputation in some quarters? Because website traffic doesn’t always equal improved sales and leads. Many companies stumble at the very first step—deciding which search terms to go after. At Iffel International, we start with the fundamentals in determining your SEO2Sales plan, which begins with looking at your numbers to figure out your ideal profit strategy. What product or service brings you the greatest return and has the most potential to drive growth in your business? We assume nothing, and yes, we do turn up surprises for our clients!
SEO2Sales is all about math: setting goals based on what will bring your business profit, and then creating the SEO strategy that will bring in increased numbers of the right traffic. If you don’t know where to start with SEO, Iffel International can help. We assess where you stand against the competition as well as your best money-making opportunities to create a customized SEO2Sales plan designed to grab market share. The time to get started making next year your best ever is now—to find out more about how SEO2Sales can unlock your profit potential, contact us here today.
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