How to Calculate the ROI of Your SEO Strategy

It can be difficult to want to measure the ROI (return on investment) of an SEO campaign, because the money invested is spread across the different means and tactics. The money invested is done over the long term, compared to the SEM which is often used for a specific time. Calculating the ROI of your campaigns SEO is used to see if each planned action meets the given objectives. It allows you to track a person's behavior during a purchasing journey and make corrections if necessary.

There are two different calculations for the ROI, including one before the strategy is deployed. This is used to determine the possible cost. The second way is used to know the performance of SEO.

Formula of the ROI of SEO anticipated = (SEO Anticipated gains on SEO efforts – SEO Proposed investment costs) / SEO Investment costs of the SEO project

This formula is used to explain the SEO strategy and know the costs related to the strategy. The calculation is based on the number of monthly visitors, the website's online conversion rate and the average order value. If you do not have all the information, it is not possible to calculate the anticipated ROI.

Source:Pixabay

Actual SEO ROI formula = ((SEO Total gains on e-commerce + \Total value of SEO objectives achieved) – SEO Investment costs) / SEO Costs investment

\Total value of SEO objectives achieved = Assistance conversion value + conversion value of last interaction

If the result is:

• 1: deficit

• = 1: neither gain nor loss

• >1: profit

What is the purpose of calculating the ROI of SEO strategies?

It allows you to evaluate the return on money invested in order to see what worked and what worked less well to correct it for future campaigns.

1. Helps make decisions;

2. Analyzes the performance of the campaign or of its site.

It is an action-oriented measure

What can be perceived as difficult to calculate the ROI of an SEO campaign is that there are several elements to take into account and depending on whether the company has an e-commerce account or not. It must therefore be calculated manually if the customer does not buy online, but rather goes to the store.

Here is a process that allows you to calculate SEO on an e-commerce site:

1. To calculate the ROI of SEO, we must take into account all the people or elements who interact in SEO, that is to say, these are both the people who will sell a product and the after-sales service. For example, a company that sells tires. So, it is as much the person who will receive the customer in store, as the person who answered the customer's questions when searching for tires on the chat, as the person who does the installation as in the after-sales service. All of these people who are involved in the sales process will have an impact on the customer experience;

2. When calculating, please exclude keywords that relate to your business. They are not part of people's effort to find you, because they already know you. People enter the company name instead of doing a search;

3. Choose your goal carefully in Google Analytics;

4. Determine customer conversion rate;

5. Determine keyword conversion rate;

6. Activate tracking systems for e-commerce. In case you do not have an e-commerce site. You have to do it manually as follows. e-commerce site. You have to do it manually as follows.

Source: Pixabay

Another way to calculate the ROI of your SEO strategy

Determine your attribution model

In fact, it is about determining the journey that the customer can take to make a purchase.

Configure Google Search Console (GSC)

• Download data to GSC;

• For each HTTP link, create a separate web page to see the number of visits, clicks and all information related to that page;

• The subdomains, mobile sites and desktop sites should be independently linked to track the customer journey.

Optimize Google Analytics (GA) for your site analysis

• Define goals;

• Follow up on e-commerce;

• Compare the different attribution models and keep the channels that work best;

• Integrate GSC with GA to track them.

Do you have a project regarding an SEO strategy for your business website?

Contact us to be put in contact with suppliers certified!

Know the average order value

When the customer makes a purchase in-store, this is called average order value. This is what the customer is willing to spend on your business. This is total revenue / total sales = average order value.

Source: Pixabay

Know the average lifetime value

This table is only good if you are using a non-split path to purchase, because otherwise the calculation is likely to be duplicated. This calculation is used to know how long a customer continues to be profitable for your business.

The total value of the customer on the channel / number of customers = Average lifetime value.

In short, calculating the return on investment of an SEO campaign is not easy. This requires the participation of several people throughout the purchasing process in order to provide a pleasant experience. Although the process is long, it makes it possible to optimize the web referencing and the tools that accompany it to increase the customer conversion rate. The more tools you have to track the journey, the more effective you are in calculating your SEO ROI.

Cover Photo Source: Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

Sotheary Chan