One of the most cost-effective marketing strategies for driving traffic to your website is SEO. There are other options as well, including paid search marketing through Google Adwords. Consider how much paid search would cost for the same amount of traffic when considering SEO investment. If the amount is greater, then SEO traffic and spend are valuable. If you could buy each visit for less, it might be worth asking the SEO company you’re working with.
A good way to measure SEO Costs ROI is by looking at how many sales and leads you’re generating through organic traffic. By spending $5,000 a month on SEO, driving $250,000 a month in online sales, and having a 20% profit margin, you’re well into the green by $45,000 a month. This basic math and thinking about your SEO investment in this way can really help you feel comfortable paying your invoice each month.
YOU SHOULD CHOOSE AN SEO COMPANY THAT PROVIDES VALUE
You generally get what you pay for with SEO, but one must vet SEO companies carefully before hiring them. You can do that by following these tips:
- Look for results that have been proven. Ask the companies you’re considering for case studies and examples of their success. It is likely they haven’t had much success if they can’t provide you with any success stories.
- Get feedback from past clients. Check out both their website and 3rd party websites for reviews. Even the best companies (SEO and otherwise) will always have a few negative reviews, so take them with a grain of salt. You should instead look for overarching trends and move on if you notice any recurring red flags.
- Get in touch with the team directly. Speak to the actual employees who will manage your SEO account or to the person who oversees SEO. Even when hiring a legit agency, it’s not unreasonable for you to want to know more about the people working on your website and what strategies they’re implementing to improve your search results.
- Identify shady strategies. Learn about “black-hat SEO” and ensure that any strategies the salespeople discuss with you don’t violate Google’s policies. With Phenomenon, you can be assured that your site will never be penalized as a result of our white-hat SEO efforts. That would be a total waste of time!
- Compare a few. Comparing the results of SEO audits from several companies is a good idea. It may cost a little more upfront, but you’ll be able to pick the best service provider. After selecting an SEO company to work with, share those findings with your new SEO company to ensure any valuable discoveries you paid for are leveraged accordingly.
With more than 5 billion Google searches per day, it is crucial that you are visible to your customers when they are looking for your products. Customers searching on Google or other search engines are “actively engaged”, meaning they are looking for you. You have a better chance of capturing that traffic if you appear at the top of the search results. Over 25% of people click on the first organic search result on Google? Being number 1 on Google could result in upwards of 2,500 free visits per month if a keyword is searched 10,000 times per month. Ranking organically is crucial to the success of your integrated digital marketing strategy, unless you have an enormous paid search budget.
