I’ve been wracking my brains for over a month now with a persistent problem cooked up by the sales team… how to (as accurately as possible) calculate the ROI for an SEO campaign over time.
I completely understand that from a clients point of view ROI is all that matters however with a shifting landscape that is SEO this is not as easy as A+B=C.
What i have devised is a series of charts that when combined provide a reasonably solid foundation for an ROI calculation:
Chart 1 shows click through rates for keywords within the top 20 results (you can find these anywhere or buy accurate ones from the excellent hitwise team).
Chart 2 uses data from the Google Adwords keyword tool to depict seasonality.
Chart 3 shows compression of traffic advancement. Basically the movement up the SERPS gets smaller as the placement gets higher.
Chart 4 is the actual combined chart.
To give this more weight get real enquiry to sale information and an average cost per order from the client and bobs your mothers brother… you have an SEO ROI calculator for your client!
I would publish our spreadsheet that does this but its a trade secret and i’d have to kill you lolz.
Have SEO ROI Calculated For Your Campaign
If you’d like us to calculate ROI for your SEO campaign then please give me a call on 0845 688 4491 or email markrush@gmail.com. We will need to take some sensitive data like your websites conversion rate, average basket value, keyword focus, budget and current rankings to give you the best prediction.
Thanks to James O – Maths wiz extrordinare for making my dream a reality ;)
So you’ve published your charts, but don’t give us more insight on how you’ve generated those ? I work as an SEO – full time and would love to hear more on those charts; if not the insights – at least a walkthrough with which I can pin-point the exact KPI’s …
Hi Cristian
If you break out Excel you should be able to replicate them… all the info is there ;)
I think you should make a correction – instead of prediction it should say estimate :)
Good point, but that wouldnt have attracted nearly as much traffic lolz
so the post was actually to grab some spotlight attention :-)
I think its helpful … its really just to demonstrate a better way than guessing which seems to be the industry norm.
I agree to some extent it’s offers a better overview than going with the regular “we’ll measure our efforts as we go along” … although the ultimate purpose is 1st place position, it’s nice to have a grasp on the effort you’re going to be putting into that certain project.
Nevertheless, I’m still thinking of a better way to get a ROI projection for an SEO related project; The factors you’ve mentioned are only the tip of the iceberg, there are so many others to be taken into consideration it’s starting to seem like a chore
This is fantastic! The click through by position chart really shows what you can achieve by getting top of the results
Thanks for the post. As a recent graduate that is starting a career in SEO, I am always looking for ways to learn more. ROI seems to be tricky, especially with social media marketing and campaigns around facebok, youtube, etc…
However, I believe a lot of this is due to the fact that SEO is so new and still changing so much.
One of the problems with ROI measurement for SEO is that it can be very difficult to connect SEO efforts with results — that is, you can see results, and you’ve done SEO, but proving that one caused the other is challenging. General increased visibility, improvements in the focus of traffic rather than large increases in traffic, and improvements in a site’s appearance in the SERPs can all result from SEO without leaving nice tracks in charts like these. And all of those things can improve the client’s business and income.
Hi Lee
I agree however with the increasing pressure to deliver a measurable ROI againts some projections this is better than sticking your finger in the air ;)
SRSLY if you have any comments or ideas on how to make this more effective then let me know… the more people contribute ill probably make this an open tool ;)