SEO = ROI
SEO = ROI
So, everyone has heard of SEO and most companies have already gone totally in, checked it out or at least tried it in the past.
Most companies have had various results from SEO. However, we’ve found that most companies don’t actually stick with SEO long enough to make it begin to give you returns.
It’s kind of funny, because most businesses plan on staying in businesses for more than 5 years, but few have plans for growing during those years.
This causes hurt feelings and anger and I believe this lies squarely on the SEO companies not setting expectations for results.
SEO companies fail to tell clients that SEO is a long play and is expensive up-front because of the work and time involved. Once you get past a certain point however, SEO is infinitely less expensive than most other promotional channels.
A great analogy I use for SEO is financing most cars, boats or other cool stuff you may buy on timed payments. If you sign a 48 month contract, most of your payments in the first two of the four years go to interest. You know how much you are paying each month and you know there is a certain date at which you own it. You really don’t care about “how” the loan is structured, because it’s transparent enough.
Good SEO folks know nerd math and can pretty much tell you how long it will take to start earning your money back and how much you might see in profits. This is where most companies don’t have the tough conversations with clients. Most companies just give you a blanket “it will take anywhere from 90 days to 6 months to see results” and hope they can move the needle before you fire them.
The best SEO companies can actually produce a roadmap that lays out your ROI based on your sales and margins. These roadmaps give you the ability to see if it even worth it to engage in SEO or that PPC and funnel building might be more profitable in the long run. These roadmaps are designed for a medium-sized entity in a competitive market. They are not free nor cheap and are part of a larger engagement and marketing plan.
However, an SEO roadmap can actually tell you that your SEO for your market(s) will be $XX per month and on Month 8 you will break even with projected sales and after a year you will profit X times your investment, and after two years you will be looking at an expected X times return on investment.
These roadmaps will help you understand the investment you are making and ask great questions about what the folks doing your SEO will actually be providing. Content, link-building and other elements of the equation should be measurable as well as the incremental changes to your lead flow and online visibility.
If you would like to talk about how SEO for you business might be a great option, just contact us.