Website owners may hear that search engine optimization (SEO) is a foundational requirement, if you want to generate positive return on your efforts. Unless you are technically savvy, an expert, or otherwise interested in the internet of things, the requirements may sound like something that’s better left to the experts. Whether you hire someone to implement your SEO strategy or choose to do-it-yourself, you should know the value of your investment, and the trade-offs of outsourcing over developing in-house talent. For these decisions, you may need something a little more concrete than a passing understanding of SEO, especially the SEO-Return-on-Investment (ROI) connection.
Simple SEO Definition
SEO enables search engines to find your website quickly, and helps to provide an enjoyable experience for the consumer, throughout their visit. It entails using commands that instruct crawlers to provide the desired consumer experience. These commands can also maximize the visibility of your website, and maximize the credibility of your website.
The SEO Umbrella
SEO encompasses all facets of making a website or a brand visible and readily accessible to the consumer through unpaid search engine tactics, include the following:
• Strategic Keywords
• Metadata
• Internal Links
• Reputable Outbound Links
• Inbound Links
• Anchor Text
• Site Map
• Content Structure
• Load Time
• Comment Management
• Paid Advertisement Links
• Web Crawler Management
Branding SEO components may include the following:
• A Facebook status update that connects the consumer to a product promotion page
• A tweet that connects followers to a new blog post
• A LinkedIn post that connects job seekers to a career site
This communication type appears in search results independent of the originating social network.
Additionally, search results are also impacted by the number of shares and the amount of traffic generated, so it would be remiss not to include these results as a part of the SEO landscape.
– Lifetime Value of a Customer
Why You Should Care
Each search engine, (Google, Safari, Microsoft Edge, etc.), has its own algorithm and user interface, complicating the process of getting your business recognized online.
Current research shows that 90% of us use search engines, and over 6 billion searches are completed each day. Approximately 80% of people say they research online, before making a large purchase, and 85% of search engine users say they found what they needed during their search. So, there is too much business to be procured online to ignore any major search engine, and any major SEO strategy. Paying for search is an option; but, it isn’t necessary, as most people still have an aversion to advertisements.
Only 15% of search is generated via paid advertisements; 50% of search traffic is generated via organic search, and 10% is generated via social media.
Keywords and Position Matter
The top factors that impact the likelihood of a consumer finding your page are a function of keywords and your site’s bounce rate. A keyword helps the consumer match their need to your offering, and the bounce rate is indicative of how often the consumer could not accurately match their need to your product or service. The right keyword(s) and lower bounce rates encourage search engines to place your site in the top ten search results.
Sites listed in the top five search results receive over 60% of all click-through traffic, and the first ten search results receive 70% of all click-through traffic.
Obtaining a search result position ahead of your competition improves the likelihood that the consumer purchases the good or service they need from you versus your competitor.
Choose keywords that provide an accurate description of your product or service, and use them as often as possible on your site, within reason – without becoming spam-like. Maximize the relevancy of your keyword by identifying the most sought after verbiage across search engines, and optimize your keyword positioning by using them in unique combinations, to distinguish yourself from the competition. The keyword planning function of Google Ads is free.
– Fundamentals of Good Stewardship
Metadata
Metadata is another important factor. It’s found in your site’s header, pages, photos, products, services, and blog posts, and provides explicit instruction on how your site should be presented to the public, and other crawler actions:
- No-index identifies pages that should not be crawled and available in browser search results.
- Nofollow identifies links that should not be considered in the ranking of your site; this is especially good for blog posts that may include links to outside sources that you do not necessarily endorse.
- Sponsored should be used to identify paid links or content.
- User-generated Content (UCG) is specific to blogs and publishers and should be used in the comments section of the website.
- Noarchive forces web crawlers not to cache your site and to maintain the most current version of your site available. This is especially important if you make frequent changes to your website.
- Adding a caption to photos is metadata that can serve as a strategic keyword opportunity.
- Including searchable tags or categories to your product or service, such as #pink #sweatshirt, or #financial #advisor, is metadata that helps consumers match their needs to your company.
Many platforms provide quick methods of adding metadata, especially tags/categories. Metadata such as no-index and noarchive are typically placed in the <head> of your website or page. Metadata such as nofollow, sponsored, and ucg are specific and should be used at each occurrence of a link or comments section. Providing metadata instructions to web crawlers directs search engines to focus only where you specify, and also helps to disassociate potentially harmful information that can reduce your ranking and search result visibility.
ROI
Whether you hire a professional or assign an internal resource, it’s easier to gain buy-in from stakeholders when the added monetary value can be conveyed.
If you are a non-web based business, with only occasional SEO needs, the choice between outsourcing and developing the talent internally, may be fairly easy decision. In the long-run, it will cost less to outsource and get occasional maintenance, than to pay a salaried specialist. Also, the cost to implement would be so nominal, you probably would not concern yourself with the nuances of deriving an estimate of the expected profit generated by SEO, versus the expected future cost for SEO. But, if you’re a web dependent business, the choice to outsource versus develop talent, is not as evident. You’ll need SEO updates as industry changes, and you’ll want to know what to expect, and how to determine the value of the SEO efforts. In addition, if you are product-based business with frequent website updates, you will want more regular monitoring to ensure that SEO settings remain optimal.
Fortunately, ROI is a measure that explicitly captures a project’s value. It’s flexible enough to use as an initial indicator of value, as well as for ongoing analysis. ROI will also provide a basis for comparing the value of several projects, such as the expected benefits of implementation compared to the cost to outsource and the cost to develop in-house talent.
SEO-ROI Metrics
If you’re running a campaign, it’s easy to identify the total dollar return of campaign and divide it by the total campaign expenditure to arrive at the campaign’s ROI. But when you’re not running a specific campaign, determining the ROI of SEO efforts can be more complicated. The following are four key areas in assessing the ROI of SEO:
• Pagerank is the value that search engine algorithms assign to your webpages. Monitor ranking by site, page, or link and see if you hit your target, e.g. top 10 search results.
• Traffic patterns can be monitored by referring site as well as geographic location. For branding and promotional efforts, the success of a specific link should be monitored concerning the volume of visits generated, which triggers consideration of link/site popularity.
• Keyword searches should be performed regularly for the top five keywords. Monitor the results and note the changes in position, positive or negative, for each keyword. Furthermore, track the search terms used by visitors. Note which are used most and note the trends for favored keywords that diverge from your organization’s current top five.
• Bounce Rate: Always scrub against the bounce rate data. It will help to determine if a chosen keyword association is detracting from SEO-ROI. It will also help to pinpoint the degree of effectiveness of traffic generated by branding and promotional links.
Changes in the aforementioned can be divided by the number of hours dedicated to SEO, the salary of committed employees, the money paid to third parties, etc., to arrive at a ROI.
Monitoring performance is never an easy task, and is subject to the organization’s structure, goals, tactics, budget, etc. However, the exercise is well worth the headache. Establishing value puts the organization on the right track and helps to get the needed stakeholder buy-in. In addition, SEO can help to optimize the organization’s visibility, especially when a wide an array of SEO tactics are implemented, (e.g., a establishing a social media presence, a blog, a podcast, a newsletter, white papers, and business listings). However, it’s not necessary to have a presence on every social media outlet or to implement every SEO tactic; it’s more important to choose the mix that best suits the organization, and to make that presence the absolute best representation. The goal of SEO is to enhance your online retail space by making it both customer and search engine friendly. In the end, you’ll reap the rewards of increased awareness and visibility.