AuthorDaniel Cartland
LinkedIn
Proving SEO’s value isn’t always straightforward, but it’s essential for building trust with stakeholders. So, how can we help to visualise this value in terms of what really drives decision making in eCom businesses - traffic and revenue?
Outside of the standard organic traffic and organic revenue, this article explores some less commonly used metrics that can help to show the value that SEO can bring to a marketing mix.
Email Signups Driven by Organic Sessions
SEOs spend a lot of time creating content and for good reason! However, in an eCom world, even the best content can be hard to find ROI for since if it’s top of funnel sat on the blog it’s not uncommon for it to be very low at converting directly.
However, this does not mean that the content is not playing a valuable role by reaching new, untapped potential customers.
Creating a goal which identifies how many email sign ups can help to put a revenue number on content that’s been created:
Email sign ups from organic traffic x Email CVR x AOV = Additional value of organic traffic
This can be useful across all organic traffic, but some common examples that often come from SEO recommendations include:
- Brand discount code pages
- OOS product pages having email captures
- Out of season sales pages having email captures
- Top of funnel blogs
- Mid-funnel guides
A classic example of an email signup popup I came across recently whilst shopping. If your organic search efforts are driving email sign ups - track this!
Takeaway #1 - Track email signups driven by organic traffic to quantify the impact of top-of-funnel content.
Equivalent CPC Spend on Organic Traffic
Organic and paid search - both crucial components of a successful digital marketing strategy. Too often these two channels are pitted against one another. By working in tandem organic benefits can take the pressure off of paid search, to allow paid search more flexibility to target different areas.
Ranking very well for particular keywords can mean that you don’t have to bid on them, therefore the value they bring is not only the direct benefit of the traffic you get, but also the spend you don’t have to make bidding on them.
To calculate this you can use the following equation:
Additional clicks to query x query CPC = equivalent CPC value of organic traffic
For example:
If clicks to query “brown boots” increased by 2000 clicks in Google Search Console and this has a CPC of £0.54, this traffic is the equivalent to 2000 * 0.54 = £1080 spent on paid search.
N.B. This isn’t an exact science, and nor is it meant to be. For example, if competitors are bidding on these keywords there still may be value in bidding on them yourselves even if you’re ranking in first position. However, this is a way to demonstrate the value of SEO outside of direct metrics. Keep in mind this doesn’t account for ROAS.
Takeaway #2 - Use an equivalent CPC calculation to show how organic rankings save paid search costs.
Organic Sessions, Normalised by Search Demand
You may be thinking, wow organic sessions, that much is obvious! However, what isn’t always obvious is the context in which they occur.
If fewer people overall are searching for the terms your site ranks for, then if you stayed in the same position with no growth, you would expect to see traffic to drop by an equal amount. Therefore, even if traffic is down, if it is down by a lower percentage than the overall search demand, then your site has actually made ground.
Adding the context of search demand can be crucial in really understanding the value that your SEO is bringing.
Let’s see an example in action:
Head of Growth - “Organic traffic is down 20%”
CEO - “That is bad”
Head of Growth - “But overall search demand is down 50%”
CEO - “That is also bad”
Head of Growth - “This means that compared to the market we’re actually doing 30% better than would be expected if we stayed at the same level.”
CEO - “With this context I now understand that SEO is performing as a successful marketing channel. This is good!”
How to Find Search Demand Trends
Lots of keyword research tools show YoY search volumes, here are some of our favourites:
- Glimpse - overlay Google Trends data with search volumes to calculate search demand changes at a topic/industry level
- SEOMonitor - allows you to define groups of keywords and reports search demands drops on a group level, or a keyword level.
An SEOMonitor example showing that the number of searches for our 27 keywords assigned to the “Dry Dog Food” group is 29% down YoY. This should be considered as part of the overall analysis of results.
Importantly, this should be used to add context and not to deceive - if search demand is up, you should also see equal increases!
Takeaway #3 - Use search demand information to add context to your organic performance.
Traffic/Revenue Saved by Not Making a Change
The job of an SEO is not just about making changes to a site, but also advising on when particular changes should not be made due to being detrimental to SEO.
If we can quantify the value we have saved by advising on not making a change, we can help prove the value SEO is bringing to the table.
For example, during a migration a client was going to consolidate their US, AU, and EU subdomains into a single .com domain with localisation handled with JavaScript (no country subfolders).
The subdomains they were consolidating were making well over £1.5 million of revenue.
We advised against this and could well have saved millions of pounds every year by advising against the change. This in itself is a clear way that SEO can bring value.
Sometimes the value is in advising to NOT make a change.
It’s not always straightforward to assign values to changes, particularly when it’s when a change hasn’t been made, however, as long as your argument uses logical assumptions this is enough to build your case.
Takeaway #4 - Calculate and report the money saved by not making an onsite change that would be detrimental to SEO.
Referral Traffic/Revenue from Links Built
A big secondary benefit of building links on relevant, high-traffic, and authoritative websites is that people that see these links have the chance of clicking on them and even purchasing as a result!
By using the Referral traffic report in Google Analytics you can pin down additional sessions and potentially revenue that your links have gained. These aren’t always huge, but particularly during peak seasons and sales periods can certainly add up!
Reports > Traffic Acquisition > Referral > Add Sessions Source as secondary dimension
N.B. This doesn’t give the exact referral URL so if you have many links from the same referral source these will be combined.
So as well as the main benefit of links to influence keyword rankings for organic search, don’t forget to look at the referral traffic and revenue your links have brought in.
Takeaway #5 - Look at referral traffic and revenue from links you have built as a secondary benefit of Digital PR.
Ready to uncover SEO's hidden value for your eCommerce site (as well as the direct value!?) Let's optimise your marketing strategy together. Get in touch, today!
