{"id":142041,"date":"2022-05-16T02:56:08","date_gmt":"2022-05-16T07:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?p=142041"},"modified":"2022-11-28T03:53:25","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T08:53:25","slug":"seo-roi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-roi\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Measure SEO ROI (Incl. 6 Challenges of Calculating It)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"intro-txt\">SEO&nbsp;ROI (return on investment) estimates the business value of all SEO activities in contrast to their cost. It\u2019s one of the most common topics any SEO consultant or manager has to address when it comes to allocating marketing budgets and resources.<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In its essence, calculating ROI is quite easy and straightforward. But in SEO, there are many caveats you should be aware of. Those ultimately make measuring and interpreting ROI one of the most complex and challenging problems you can face in&nbsp;SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But we\u2019ve got you covered and will share the ins and outs of measuring SEO ROI. In this article, we\u2019ll go through these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"#1-how-to-measure-roi\">How to measure SEO&nbsp;ROI<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#2-six-main-challenges-of-measuring-seo-roi\">Six main challenges of measuring SEO&nbsp;ROI<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#3-alternative-approach-to-measuring-roi\">Alternative approach to measuring SEO&nbsp;ROI<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s dive&nbsp;in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How to measure SEO ROI\" data-section=\"1-how-to-measure-roi\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h.9ae1k7ghduaa\">How to measure SEO&nbsp;ROI<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The ROI formula for SEO is simple in essence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SEO ROI = (value of organic conversions - cost of SEO investments)\/cost of SEO investments<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, you need to divide the SEO profit by the associated SEO costs. Let\u2019s expand on each variable because it can be quite tricky to get to some final numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h.ouwye2nuif9u\">1. Calculate your SEO investments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Organic search is often viewed as a \u201cfree traffic\u201d channel, but that\u2019s devaluing the huge time investments that usually go into it. And those are not the only associated SEO&nbsp;costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SEO investments can usually be divided into four categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>In-house employees<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;It\u2019s obvious to count in dedicated SEO and content creation staff, but you should also account for the required designer and developer resources.<\/li>\n<li><strong>SEO freelancers and agencies<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 This is straightforward. And if you hire SEO freelancers or agencies, they can and, in many cases, should be the ones measuring SEO&nbsp;ROI.<\/li>\n<li><strong>SEO tools<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Count in all your subscriptions for dedicated SEO tools like Ahrefs. You can also partially include the costs of tools used by the broader marketing department if you also use them&nbsp;for SEO (e.g., Similarweb, BuzzSumo, <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/haro-link-building\/\">HARO<\/a>, PR software, etc.).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Content distribution and link building<\/strong> \u2013 As we know, SEO doesn\u2019t end with publishing content. Consider partially including costs of content promotion efforts. Also, if you buy links as one of your link building tactics, count that in. Google and many SEOs warn against buying links, but the reality of link building is often different.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Combine these costs over your desired period of time. Now, choosing the time period is one of the big challenges. We\u2019ll expand on that later, but you can start with monthly comparisons for the sake of simplicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h.ukf05cqour17\">2. Calculate the value of your organic traffic conversions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You need proper conversion tracking in Google Analytics (or its alternatives) to get this number. Segment the traffic to \u201corganic\u201d and check the value of conversions that you want to account for in the ROI calculations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/1-ga4-conversions.png\" alt=\"Conversions data in GA4\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The type of conversions and how you assign conversion values will differ from business to business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s pretty straightforward for e-commerce businesses, as they send the value of sales conversions to&nbsp;GA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, for example, it may be more complex for lead generation businesses. For them, it can be helpful to assign dollar values to new marketing or sales-qualified leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"further-reading\"><div class=\"reading-title\">Further reading<\/div><div class=\"reading-content\">\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-analytics-for-seo\/\">How to Use Google Analytics to Improve SEO Performance<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-analytics-tracking-mistakes\/\">13 Google Analytics Tracking Mistakes (And How to Fix&nbsp;Them)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h.ks0362rkf94l\">3. Account for the value of assisted conversions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Historically, we often had to get used to working with the default \u201clast non-direct click\u201d attribution model in Universal Analytics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a flawed model in most cases because it assigns 100% of the conversion credit to a single marketing channel closest to the conversion event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s a good sports analogy for understanding this: It\u2019s similar to you only praising players who score a goal. Goalkeepers and those responsible for defense won\u2019t be too&nbsp;happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your website likely drives organic traffic at all <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/buyers-journey\/\">stages of the customer journey<\/a>. Even one piece of content can target multiple steps in the <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/marketing-funnels\/\">marketing funnel<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-142030\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/2-content-marketing-funnel.jpg\" alt=\"Table showing four questions with corresponding answers that are used to decide which stage(s) of the marketing funnel a blog article serves\" width=\"583\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/2-content-marketing-funnel.jpg 1166w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/2-content-marketing-funnel-310x425.jpg 310w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/2-content-marketing-funnel-768x1054.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/2-content-marketing-funnel-1119x1536.jpg 1119w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 583px) 100vw, 583px\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>For example, people may land on 10 of your articles from Google and then convert after clicking a search or retargeting ad. In that case, you\u2019ll want to see that initial organic search contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The shift to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) partially solves this problem via utilizing a <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/analytics\/answer\/10596866#zippy=%2Cin-this-article\">data-driven attribution (DDA) model<\/a>&nbsp;by default&nbsp;(more on that&nbsp;later).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The conversions and the values you see in all GA4 reports already account for the partial contributions of organic traffic to the overall website conversions. If you already use GA4, you don\u2019t technically need to dive into the assisted conversions report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nevertheless, it\u2019s always a good idea to check and analyze the conversion paths of your visitors and how each channel contributes to conversions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Universal Analytics, I already covered the process of <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-kpis\/#assisted-organic-traffic-conversions\">analyzing assisted organic conversions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In GA4, go to <em>Advertising &gt; Attribution &gt; Conversion paths<\/em>, select the conversion event you want to analyze, and check the impact of organic search throughout customer journeys:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/3-ga4-conversion-paths.png\" alt=\"Data on conversion paths in GA4\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>You can also filter the organic traffic only to get the most relevant data, as seen in the table&nbsp;below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/4-ga4-conversion-paths-organic.jpg\" alt=\"Conversion path data in GA4 (filter organic traffic only) \"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The screenshots and data come from the official GA4 demo account, so the conversion paths are simplistic and won\u2019t be like that in most cases. Also, feel free to play around with other attribution models to get some interesting insights there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can imagine this simplified process of calculating SEO ROI only raises more questions, so it\u2019s time to dive deeper into all the nuances and caveats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Six main challenges of measuring SEO ROI\" data-section=\"2-six-main-challenges-of-measuring-seo-roi\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h.ouqa9q640yjp\">Six main challenges of measuring SEO&nbsp;ROI<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>You should be aware of these challenges to calculate SEO ROI and all the other related metrics as best as you can. I\u2019ll provide a few recommendations to apply in practice along the&nbsp;way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h.d487xxniz9d\">1. Marketing attribution is inherently flawed<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Marketing attribution is one of those topics that provoke many discussions. We have experts on completely opposite sides of the&nbsp;fence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some say it\u2019s almost never worth the resources to try and solve it properly and that you should trust your gut instead. Others are convinced that proper attribution can be almost always reasonably achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One thing is for sure. Attributing conversions to marketing channels is inherently flawed regardless of the attribution model used. Heuristic models like the last non-direct click will just be much more flawed than the new&nbsp;DDA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Customer journeys and touchpoints are often much more complex than analytics software makes them&nbsp;look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s a great example of a specific buyer\u2019s journey of a SparkToro customer. (SparkToro is the SaaS company of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/randfish\">Rand Fishkin<\/a>, who&nbsp;is one of those experts on the \u201cbetter trust your gut\u201d side of things.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s take a&nbsp;look:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"width: 1610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/5-complex-customer-journey.png\" alt=\"Write-up on a SparkToro customer's complex buyer journey; on its right, explanation of why it is hard to track and attribute the journey  \" width=\"1600\" height=\"894\"><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taken from <a href=\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/provable-marketing-attribution-is-a-boondoggle-trust-your-gut-instead\/\">Rand\u2019s article about attribution<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As mentioned earlier, organic search traffic is a marketing channel that can span the whole customer journey from awareness to retention. Attribution is especially tricky here, so let\u2019s discuss the implications further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DDA is a solid solution for this that will likely shift many people closer to the \u201cproper attribution is possible\u201d camp. But it still doesn\u2019t solve many other problems. It\u2019s a black box that gets more accurate with increasing traffic and conversions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unless you have \u201chigher\u201d hundreds (or ideally thousands of conversions) a month, I\u2019d still take those numbers with a huge grain of salt. And ultimately, no matter the attribution model, you still don\u2019t see data from sessions where the tracking code wasn\u2019t fired (e.g., ad blockers and quick bounces).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h.fpbyr2820tp6\">2. The connection between SEO and brand-building<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s say you browse through some YouTube videos and see someone talking about an interesting product. You Google that brand or product, head to the website, and make a purchase. Organic traffic gets 100% attribution for the conversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can come up with many other scenarios where the only organic search interaction is through branded queries. SEO gets the credit when it shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, you can have strong SEO with high search visibility on the SERPs throughout the whole funnel. It\u2019s perfectly capable of converting many prospects from start to finish by itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But social media ads, display ads, and search ads get in the way and make a bigger contribution to the conversion just because they\u2019re more prominent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DDA in GA4 partly solves this problem, but it still can\u2019t take into account the branding aspect of SEO. The brand awareness and salience you build by being seen in top-of-the-funnel content either through your own content production or by outreach aren\u2019t things we can measure well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not being able to segment branded vs. non-branded organic traffic with conversion data makes all of this difficult to assess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h.wd4b3lxf77tl\">3. We can\u2019t measure the retention impact of&nbsp;SEO<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Ahrefs is a great example of this. We produce product-led content that\u2019s constantly educating our (potential) customers about all the ways they can use our tools to solve their SEO and marketing problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we neither use GA nor store cookies, I can\u2019t back this up with data. But I\u2019d estimate that 20-30% of organic traffic visits to our blog come from people who are already Ahrefs customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The retention impact of SEO, in this case, can be divided into two categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As people learn to squeeze more out of our toolset, they start using the tool more and more, which leads to <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/churn-rate\/\">lowering churn rates<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Content about tools and features included in higher-priced plans makes some people upgrade their monthly subscriptions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, SEO has the power to increase the customer lifetime value, as many pieces of content also overlap with the retention and nurturing stages of the marketing funnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But again, it is difficult or even impossible to take this impact into account when calculating the SEO&nbsp;ROI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h.htkdh9anunbe\">4. Huge time discrepancies between \u201cinvestment\u201d and \u201creturn\u201d periods<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The variables in calculating ROI are the investments and returns over certain time periods. But when we look at that on the whole website and business level, it\u2019s impossible to tie specific investments to specific returns in&nbsp;SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is where the simplified principle of comparing the same monthly periods of \u201cinvestments\u201d and \u201creturns\u201d fails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SEO can take a lot of time to provide returns on the investment. Yes, you can certainly have <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-wins\/\">quick wins<\/a>. But nothing is guaranteed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A good alternative to choosing arbitrary time periods is to be more granular and start calculating ROI on the category, page, or keyword level. You can measure well the \u201creturn\u201d of ranking with particular pages and can also know most of the \u201cinvestments\u201d that went into&nbsp;it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019d still omit technical SEO and other related costs and efforts that are usually applied to a broader scope of the website at once. But these partial costs are unlikely to shift a specific page from positive to negative ROI, so feel free to leave them out for simplicity\u2019s sake\u2014as long as you\u2019re aware of&nbsp;them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h.4tvnucu7b70\">5. SEO testing has limited capabilities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>One way to better understand the contribution of a marketing channel to overarching <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/marketing-objectives\/\">marketing objectives<\/a>&nbsp;is to stop running campaigns on it for a while and see what happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, we ran such an experiment with PPC channels:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">We\u2019ll be reallocating our paid traffic budget (~$200k\ud83d\udcb0) for December away from the Google\/Facebook\u2014and into sponsoring the industry\u2019s best creators and thought leaders.<\/p>\n\u2014 Ahrefs (@ahrefs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ahrefs\/status\/1463495813900820488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 24,&nbsp;2021<\/a><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n\n<p>What you\u2019d be looking for here is marketing incrementality\u2014the lift the channel brings on top of a specific outcome that happens anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s say the outcome we want to monitor is conversions, so we\u2019d be looking at how many conversions we\u2019d still get if we halted specific marketing activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem with SEO is that you can\u2019t just turn it off. Or well, you can. But no sane marketer will ever deploy <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/meta-robots\/\">noindex robots meta tag<\/a>&nbsp;on the whole website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Organic search is simply one of the most important channels for many businesses, and sabotaging your own SEO can have long-term detrimental effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This doesn\u2019t mean that you can\u2019t run SEO experiments and tests. You absolutely can. There\u2019s been quite a lot of development and <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-testing\/\">coverage about SEO testing<\/a>&nbsp;in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But for the purpose of measuring incrementality and ROI, it is close to impossible for the vast majority of websites to come up with a good hypothesis and valid testing scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h.213z6m47i3l4\">6. Forecasting future ROI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Last but not least, as SEOs, we\u2019re often asked about the expected outcomes and ROI of certain SEO activities. This can get even more complicated, as <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-forecasting\/\">SEO forecasting<\/a>&nbsp;is a discipline on its own and can clash with all the aforementioned challenges as&nbsp;well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t try to beat around the bush. Instead, face the uncertainty head-on. <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-goals\/\">Setting up SEO objectives<\/a>&nbsp;and making sure we\u2019re on the right track to achieving them is a crucial part of our job. Having good communication skills is another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A good way to approach this is to consider the following factors when coming up with specific numbers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Past SEO performance of the page(s) or a website and its competitors<\/li>\n<li>Compounded traffic potential of the content in question<\/li>\n<li>Estimation of an average conversion rate (can be applied just to the bottom-of-the-funnel content for simplicity\u2019s sake)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For SEO performance, a good start is to look up your website in Ahrefs\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Site Explorer<\/a>, head over to the Performance chart in the <strong>Overview<\/strong>&nbsp;report, and add all your relevant competitors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/6-ahrefs-overview-domain-comparison.png\" alt=\"Site Explorer overview of ahrefs.com\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>You can also check the traffic value (estimated monthly cost of traffic from all keywords a site is ranking for if paid via&nbsp;PPC):<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/7-ahrefs-overview-traffic-value.png\" alt=\"Line graph and pop-up list showing overview of traffic value for ahrefs.com and three other competitors \" width=\"1600\" height=\"644\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>And the number of organic pages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/8-ahrefs-overview-organic-pages.png\" alt=\"Line graph and pop-up list showing overview of organic pages for ahrefs.com and three other competitors \"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>This should give you an idea about the relationship between the content output and organic traffic in your niche. It still leaves out link building activities and technical SEO, but that will only complicate things here even&nbsp;more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for the traffic potential, paste all the keywords you plan to target with the new proposed content into Ahrefs\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/keywords-explorer\">Keywords Explorer<\/a>&nbsp;and take a look at the Traffic Potential (TP) column:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/9-ahrefs-traffic-potential.png\" alt=\"Keywords Explorer's Overview report results \"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>TP in Ahrefs shows how much organic traffic the #1 ranking page for your target keyword receives from all the keywords that it ranks for in your target country.&nbsp;You can either analyze this on a keyword-to-keyword basis or export the list to sum up the column values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And lastly, we have the conversion. You should already have this data available for similar content in the tracking software, and you can also look up and\/or survey other websites in your&nbsp;niche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the end of this, you can extrapolate and estimate the outcome of all the proposed SEO activities. Or you can go more \u201cgranular,\u201d as that information will always be more accurate and easier to communicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, stay away from any guarantees. But saying something along the lines of \u201cI expect that [SEO activity] can increase traffic by X, which could bring Y conversions\u201d&nbsp;can work when you set up the right expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Alternative approach to measuring SEO ROI\" data-section=\"3-alternative-approach-to-measuring-roi\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h.2vig1pk3jtty\">Alternative approach to measuring SEO&nbsp;ROI<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>To be honest, I\u2019m in the camp advocating that it\u2019s not even necessary to calculate the ROI of your SEO and related content marketing efforts. This is especially true if you can prioritize content creation and other SEO tasks&nbsp;well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our CMO, Tim Soulo, wrote a great Twitter thread about the ROI of content marketing that\u2019s highly relevant to this topic and also shows how we think about that in Ahrefs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/timsoulo\/status\/1374242996531597315<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So what\u2019s the alternative? Choosing and tracking the most suitable <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-kpis\/\">SEO KPI<\/a>&nbsp;that\u2019s not based on conversions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best candidate for this KPI, in most cases, is search visibility. It\u2019s the SEO version of one of the most important marketing KPIs, <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/share-of-voice\/\">share of voice (SOV)<\/a>, which measures how visible your brand is in the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s important because there\u2019s a <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/share-of-voice\/#why-sov-is-important\">strong relationship<\/a>&nbsp;between SOV and market share. Generally speaking, the higher your SOV, the bigger your share of the&nbsp;pie.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-142037\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/10-sov-market-share-relationship.png\" alt=\"Line graph showing the higher your SOV, the more your market share\" width=\"450\" height=\"528\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/10-sov-market-share-relationship.png 900w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/10-sov-market-share-relationship-363x425.png 363w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/10-sov-market-share-relationship-768x900.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>For the most accurate tracking of search visibility, paste the keywords that matter to you into Ahrefs\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/rank-tracker\">Rank Tracker<\/a>. Note that these should be the main keywords that encompass what your target audience is searching for (don\u2019t bother with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/long-tail-keywords\/\">long-tails<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/11-ahrefs-add-keywords.png\" alt=\"Rank Tracker page where user can add keywords to track; notably, &quot;SOV&quot; tag has been added\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>From there, head to the Competitors Overview tab and check the Visibility column:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/12-ahrefs-search-visibility.png\" alt=\"Competitor Overview tab showing visibility data for Ahrefs and two competitors \"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s it. As long as you see a long-term growth trend in the search visibility for your website, you should be confident that your SEO efforts are paying off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know&nbsp;this isn\u2019t a possible alternative for many teams that are required to show \u201cmoney metrics,\u201d but it\u2019s definitely worth tracking as one of your SEO&nbsp;KPIs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h.ja3d5kdvy8h8\">Final thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I could have taken the easy path here and just touched the surface without diving into all the challenges and caveats of calculating SEO ROI. But this is what stakeholders care about the most, so we should all be knowledgeable and confident in communicating these matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many topics covered here can be in-depth standalone articles. If you\u2019re interested in learning more about everything related to marketing analytics and attribution, I highly recommend you check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaushik.net\/avinash\/sitemap\/\">blog of Avinash Kaushik<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Got questions or interesting insights regarding SEO ROI? Ping me <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/michalpecanek\">on Twitter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In its essence, calculating ROI is quite easy and straightforward. But in SEO, there are many caveats you should be aware of. Those ultimately make measuring and interpreting ROI one of the most complex and challenging problems you can face<span class=\"ellipsis\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more \u203a<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":142043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[335],"tags":[],"coauthors":[375],"class_list":["post-142041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-seo","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Measure SEO ROI (Incl. 6 Challenges of Calculating It)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SEO ROI estimates the business value of all SEO activities in contrast to their cost. Simple in essence but complex in practice. Learn why.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-roi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Measure SEO ROI (Incl. 6 Challenges of Calculating It)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tackle this challenging SEO problem.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-roi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SEO Blog by Ahrefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Ahrefs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-16T07:56:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-28T08:53:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/fb_seo_roi.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michal Pec\u00e1nek\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Tackle this challenging SEO problem.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@michalpecanek\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ahrefs\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/seo-roi\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/seo-roi\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michal Pec\u00e1nek\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b66ba944c48e71d0abac1af2f11265ec\"},\"headline\":\"How to Measure SEO ROI (Incl. 6 Challenges of Calculating It)\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-16T07:56:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-28T08:53:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/seo-roi\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":2900,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/seo-roi\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/05\\\/fb_seo_roi.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"General SEO\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/seo-roi\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/seo-roi\\\/\",\"name\":\"How to Measure SEO ROI (Incl. 6 Challenges of Calculating It)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/seo-roi\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/seo-roi\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/05\\\/fb_seo_roi.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-16T07:56:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-28T08:53:25+00:00\",\"description\":\"SEO ROI estimates the business value of all SEO activities in contrast to their cost. 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