A good ROI – that is, a return on investment – can be hard to track when it comes to SEO. For most people in the business world, it’s pretty simple if they want to calculate the return on their investment. They look at how much they spent on a particular asset. They then see how much the asset is now worth, or how much the asset is bringing it. If they’re getting more than they paid for, then that’s a pretty good sign that they’re getting a strong ROI. Of course, they will have to ensure that the elements they’re assessing are the direct result of their initial investment. But, overall, the whole thing is fairly simple.
But it’s not so easy to calculate when you’re judging an SEO campaign. While the ultimate goal of most SEO campaigns is to get more sales, that’s not always the case. In fact, even if the goal is to get more sales, those sales can’t always be the only metric upon which to base its efficacy.
So how exactly do we judge how good an SEO campaign is? If your website isn’t driven by sales – or if you don’t even have particular financial goals – it can seem tricky. But what you need to look our for are conversions. These are what will tell you whether or not you need to work with a new SEO agency!
Subscriptions to emails, blogs, and newsletters
Since your SEO campaign started, are you seeing more subscriptions? How many people are going to be informed of content additions to your website? If you don’t have any subscription functionalities, then you need to look into it now. These subscribers are the people who will probably come back to your site in the near future. If your website is commercial, then you still need to count this conversion as a success. After all, these new subscribers are interested in your wares, which is half the battle!
Downloads
Does your website offer downloads? And you should be considering all downloads, not just paid ones. Many websites have PDF documents available, or other types of “white papers”. You may even have computer tools that you offer on your website for free. Whatever the case, you should find out how many more downloads you’re getting since you started this SEO campaign. Some people may be hesitant to include a download in this assessment if the download in question didn’t require any type of sign-up. But this is a mistake! The downloads you offer on your website are being utilized. This is very good.
Shares
We’re in the age of social media. As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, social media is extremely important for your business. Not everyone who sees your website as a result of an SEO campaign is going to be interested. However, they may know someone who is interested. In that case, they’re likely to share it over social media. If you know how to track such link sharing on social media, then this is another bit of data you should have. Shares should also be counted as conversions!