The Real Value of SEO: Measuring the Cost, Benefits, and ROI of Organic Search

In a hurry? Here's the main takeaway: SEO can increase sales and conversions for your website. That's why SEO is valuable.

If you've got a some time to find out how SEO works, please keep on reading to learn the thoughts of someone who's done SEO for more than 20 years.

SEO is how you explain to search engines what you want them to know about your site.

SEO tells search engines, "This is what's important about my site. These are the subjects I am an expert in, and this is why my product or service offers better value than my competitors."

(BORING BUT NECESSARY INTRODUCTORY CONTENT, TO MAKE SURE WE ALL AGREE ON WHAT WE'RE DISCUSSING)

Search engines do a good job of understanding websites. To find out what's on the internet, search engine companies like Google, Bing, and others send out crawlers to read the contents of your site. The crawlers read the contents of the pages they find, and give this information back to the search engines. The search engines evaluate your site's content against other sites with similar information, and then they make decisions:

• Which search phrases should your site rank for?
• How well should your site rank for these phrases?
• Where should your site appear on the search engine results page?
• Should your site appear on maps, in local business searches, or should it appear as a normal blue link, or should it be listed as a citation in an AI summary, or...?

Google has 82% of the search market, and handles 8.2 billion searches every day. This means Google is doing a good job of giving a good search experience to its users. If Google wasn't giving good answers to these questions, people wouldn't be using Google 8.2 billion times a day.

But is Google perfect? No, of course not.

SEO is a way to make sure search engines like Google are making the right decisions about your site.  When more visitors come to your site through organic search, that's how you know your site has SEO Value. 

Raising SEO value: if Google doesn't understand your content, your site will rank below other sites.

Google tells webmasters exactly how to do SEO at their Google Developers Blog and in their Search Essentials (though they used to call this "Google Webmaster Guidelines"). In these two places, Google tells you what features and functionalities are available on their search engine result pages and, more importantly, how to make sure your site is visible to organic search.

If you don't have time to go through these sites, then an SEO Consultant (like this guy) might be who you're looking for. A good SEO consultant will be familiar with Google's expectations for websites, and will be able to suggest revisions to your website to highlight your website's most important information.

SEO ROI Calculator Widget

Are you interested in determining the value of SEO for your business? Below is an ROI calculator that you can use to estimate how much money you could get back from your investment in SEO. The calculator is simple to use, here's how:

• First, pick a search volume for the keyword you're interested in. You can use Google Keyword Planner to find the estimated search volume of a keyword.
• Second, set a percentage for "CTR". This means "Click Through Rate". A rough estimate is 30% for a #1 ranked term, 15% for a #2 ranked term, and 5% for a #3 ranked term.
• Then, set a CPC (that's "Cost Per Click). That is the amount you WOULD pay for a click if you were doing a paid search campaign.
• Select a "Conversion Rate". This is the percentage of visitors to your page who "convert", e.g. they buy the product, they subscribe, they sign up for your newsletter, etc. If you don't know what your conversion rate is, you can use Google Analytics to tell you.
• Set the average Order Value, which is the amount of money that you get when someone converts.
• The "Monthly SEO Cost" is what you would pay for an SEO Firm or an SEO Consultant each month to help you get the rank (and CTR) for that term. 

As you move the dials around, you'll see the numbers at the top change. This will give you an idea of how much SEO might be worth. "Traffic Value" is, like it says, the estimated amount of money that the keyword is worth. "Monthly Revenue" is the amount of money you're getting each month from that keyword's CTR. "Est. ROI" is the percentage return on your investment in SEO. You'll see that the ROI gets big pretty much only when you have visibility for a ver popular keyword.  

Revisions to improve a site's Search Engine Optimization may involve things like:

• Adding new content to explain your product's new features
• Fixing the site navigation so users can find your catalog page easier
• Focusing your pages on information that connects better with your target audience

A site that's optimized for search will not only get more traffic from search engines, but it will also

• Bring visitors who are genuinely interested in what your site has to offer
• Encourage visitors to stay longer and interact with your site more often
• Thoroughly inform visitors about the merits of your product or service and satisfy the need for information that brought them to your site in the first place

That's why SEO's valuable. Pretty simple, huh? Write me if you'd like to learn more.

More Information

The "Fresh Eyes" Audit | Technical SEO Deep-Dive | SEO Portfolio