How To Prove Roi With Seo? Options

[iloveseo2]

Hi there,

I'm working to increase rankings on a number of sites.

What is the best way to track conversions on SEO? We are already using tracking codes to track paid search.

What is the best way to go about keeping paid search tracking results different from organic search tracking results?

Thanks!
Deborah

[RobAde]

while I am sure their are `better' ways, I like to use Google Analytics and within the analytics you can see how visitors discovered your site.

[nethy]

IMO (some will disagree) Return on investment from SEO cannot be clearly 'proven' in the same way that ROI from a machine can be 'proven.' because:
the return lasts for an indefinite period and at various levels of value.
--you do not know how long the increase in traffic will last
--how much of future traffic can be attributed to your contribution. (immediate traffic increases can be easier to attribute)
--You do not know the future value of that traffic

You can return a very useful analysis of this investment by looking at (meaningful metrics). You'll need to show context somehow. Either trends or 'before & after photos' is the usual choice. Here are a few:

General Metrics
unique visits
unique organic SE visits
Loyal visitors (define this metric somehow and stick to it)
Visits resulting in more then X pageviews (or time on site)
Visits displaying a certain level of engagement (you'll probably have to customise this metric if you choose to use it)

Direct Outcomes
leads
sales
revenue
mailing list growth
other goal conversions

Branding Metrics
Direct Visits
Brand specific search terms
returning visitors
long term loyalty
engagement metrics
Search terms specific to sub-brands r brand specific product names
Identified visitors (signed in)
repeat purchasors (or conversions of other types)
participation in online activities (forum posts, comments, reviews, send to a friend traffic, wiki's, etc.)

Naturally, if the site is an ecommerce site with clear, direct goals and most purchases are incidental (visitors search a a term & buy 2 minutes later) the ROI is more of a 'real' provable accounting metric. If your goals or the selling/marketing/informing/educating/persuading process is more complex, ROI is further from accounting ROI as the return is what they would call intangible assets. These latter cases are more difficult to measure or prove but they can usuallybe demonstrated.

Which/How many you choose & how you report on it will vary depending on the purpose of a site. If IM is an important component in their marketing, monitoring these will be important anyway.

This post has been edited by nethy: Mar 25 2008, 06:01 PM

[Hyperformance]

There is also just making the phone ring and recognizing the prospect came from the website. A little harder to track, but very worthwhile.

I have worked with websites where this was the number one goal... they did not want emails (back then), they wanted their 800 number to ring.

So if all persons answering the phones are simply asking every new prospect "How did you hear about us?" then there is some measurable metric. Because you know how much the phone was ringing before your activities started (or you should).

I believe there are so many businesses getting calls that were generated by their website and they do not even know this, so it never gets to the analytics stage for them, or at least not credited properly.

This is still a conversion - it's just one they don't know about and so it never gets properly credited - Analytics can be awesome, unless they are interpreted improperly - then you never get the clearest picture of your actual ROI and may be outright wrong in your conclusions if something was working or not.

Oh, and you can also get them to tell you that they found your website in Google, or Yahoo!, or wherever (before calling) if approached properly - people will tell you.

I know this sounds elementary, but you would be very surprised.

- S

[donp]

If you are looking for and counting phone calls as a part of your conversion reporting, you can purchase a new 800 number easily and put it on your website only. Then you will know exactly how many calls your site is generating. The calls ring thru to your regular number and are very inexpensive, but the monthly bill will tell all.

I have customers that swear they get no phone calls from the web site - this tells the tale.

[Chris Boggs]

This is a great topic and I am glad to see continuing discussion on it. I wrote a couple posts last year at SEW that deal with measuring ROI from both current and future SEO efforts, and welcome opinions. I feel that along with Nethy's great list above, this lays out a lot of the inherent issues that make this sort of prediction difficult to make in a statistically valid way.

searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3626090 and searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3625973

Hi Jill if you read this! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Reason for edit: removed live urls as per forum rules

[Scottie]

Nice article, Chris!

When asked, I usually give an analogy. Because I do that a lot.

A public relations campaign is designed to raise awareness of a company or product and is rarely measurable. A marketing campaign usually has specific monetary goals and is more tightly controlled and monitored.

When promoting a website, you market it through PPC directly. You control the placement of the ad, the size of the spend and the exact creative used. It is finitely measurable and tweakable.

You promote it for organic results by getting others to talk about it, link to it, and generally send traffic. Those links send traffic on their own as well as assist with higher visibility. It's not nearly as measurable, but just as if not more valuable than direct marketing.

That doesn't directly answer the question, but my stance is that the question is incorrect, not the answer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink1.gif)

[nethy]

That doesn't directly answer the question, but my stance is that the question is incorrect, not the answer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink1.gif)

True. If you can't define your goals clearly you cannot measure them anyway.

[Lakshmi Narsimha...]

Proving ROI on SEO efforts may be a difficult task but it is possible with the primary data which can be obtained using a niche specific questionnaire, that can be sent to the users.

This questionnaire will have the number of products or services, their price list, Market, Income and industry. After getting the responses from the users, analysts can input that data into SAS software to know the ROI. This is how I do.