How to watch your cash (… grow).
Beyond choosing keywords appropriate for your services or products, there are many ROI-related variables to keep in mind. Start by going beyond just the rankings or traffic that natural search-engine optimization can deliver. An ultimate return-on-investment (ROI) may be an increase in the right type of sales to ideal customers. But let’s start with…
Know How Much a Visitor is Worth
How much are you paying through other marketing means to connect with prospects? What is the long-term value of each customer? In other words, look at the cost of the online marketing program and divide it by how much you typically pay per qualified visitor (by phone, email, in person). At that point, you’ll begin to see how many qualified visitors you would like to get over the life of the program (e.g. one year).
Again, the ongoing value of a customer (and any referrals) may also come into play.
The Limits of Rankings
If you have a coveted Top 10 ranking for a competitive keyword, other adjustments you make or moves missed by competitors can improve your rankings over time. By contrast, an algorithm change could send yours down and off the front pages. Will you know what to do then?
The bigger question is, “Do you know what to do with your traffic right now?” That’s right, your site needs to be conversion-ready in order to maximize its earnings potential. All the traffic in the world means nothing if your site is unusable.
Here are some other considerations:
- Track sales and conversion rates by service or product and/or category
- Establish specific phone numbers for high-ranking SEO pages (see call tracking)
- Provide a field on response forms to determine how someone found the website (i.e. friend, article, search engine, etc.)
- Monitor customer acquisition costs
- Be aware of your profit margins
- Allow for seasonal trends
- Test website page factors, including copy, colors and calls-to-action
- Don’t make response forms too long
ROI also can be affected by many other factors, including viability of shopping carts in e-commerce, corporate age and reputation, shipping and refund policies, testimonials, prices, and much more.
Learn more about the ROI you’re missing.
Request an online marketing assessment.
