The Art of SEO, 2nd Edition

Tying SEO to Conversion and ROI

As we discussed previously in this chapter, it is important to tie your SEO campaign to the results it brings to the business. Key to that is measuring the conversions driven by organic SEO traffic. Here are some of the most common types of conversions:

Sales/sales revenue

This is the one most people think of when they think of conversions. Sales and sales revenue (or better still, margin) conversions can be the simplest things to track, provided you are not selling many different products at different price points and in different quantities. In that case, the process needs to be a bit more sophisticated.

If your site is advertising-driven, you need to look at the impact of organic search traffic on advertising revenue. If you have no financial goals for your site, you need to look at some of the other types of conversions and determine their value or worth.

Email/blog/newsletter subscriptions

Any time a user signs up to receive regular communications from you, it is a win. Even though this action does not have direct financial consequences, it is still a conversion. Someone who has subscribed to something you offer is more likely to become a customer than a first-time visitor to your site, so you need to credit this type of conversion.

Sign-ups

Closely related to subscriptions are other types of sign-ups. Perhaps you offer a service such as a tool that people need to sign up to use. Even if the tool is free, you should track this as a conversion.

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