{"id":6383,"date":"2022-10-14T10:51:36","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T10:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/14\/4-advanced-ways-youre-not-measuring-seo-effectiveness-yet\/"},"modified":"2022-10-14T10:51:36","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T10:51:36","slug":"4-advanced-ways-youre-not-measuring-seo-effectiveness-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/14\/4-advanced-ways-youre-not-measuring-seo-effectiveness-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"4 advanced ways you\u2019re not measuring SEO effectiveness \u2013 yet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/measure-seo-effectiveness-388013\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">4 smarter ways to measure SEO effectiveness<\/a>, I analyzed four fairly boilerplate SEO metrics (traffic, rankings, conversions, links) and detailed ways to apply an additional layer of rigor to each to improve your analytical insights.<\/p>\n<p>In this article, I\u2019m going to take it up a notch to introduce four <strong>new<\/strong><em> <\/em>methods of gauging the value of your SEO campaigns. They are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Brand vs. non-brand clicks.<\/li>\n<li>SEO\u2019s impact on other channels.<\/li>\n<li>SEO CAC (customer acquisition cost).<\/li>\n<li>SEO keyword performance (we\u2019re bringing it back!).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While some of these are more directional than others, I\u2019ve found each to be a highly effective way of quantifying the impact of my team\u2019s SEO efforts for our clients. (If you\u2019re in-house, they play well with executives looking to gauge your team\u2019s value.)<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_81 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/14\/4-advanced-ways-youre-not-measuring-seo-effectiveness-yet\/#1_Brand_vs_non-brand_clicks\" >1. Brand vs. non-brand clicks<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/14\/4-advanced-ways-youre-not-measuring-seo-effectiveness-yet\/#2_SEOs_impact_on_other_channels\" >2. SEO\u2019s impact on other channels<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/14\/4-advanced-ways-youre-not-measuring-seo-effectiveness-yet\/#3_SEO_customer_acquisition_cost\" >3. SEO customer acquisition cost<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/14\/4-advanced-ways-youre-not-measuring-seo-effectiveness-yet\/#4_SEO_keyword_performance\" >4. SEO keyword performance<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/14\/4-advanced-ways-youre-not-measuring-seo-effectiveness-yet\/#Conclusion\" >Conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_Brand_vs_non-brand_clicks\"><\/span>1. Brand vs. non-brand clicks<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Why is this segmentation important? A couple of reasons.<\/p>\n<p>First, brand traffic indicates a level of awareness and intent that means these users aren\u2019t net-new.<\/p>\n<p>They may have <strong>become<\/strong> aware of your brand through earlier SEO searches, but you won\u2019t have a chance to connect those dots without segmenting the data.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s obviously value in brand traffic, particularly when you start getting traffic on {brand + product} or {brand + service} queries.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the exact value may differ from bringing net-new users into your system, particularly if you\u2019re using first-touch attribution.<\/p>\n<p>The other reason is that in certain industries (particularly SaaS), a decent chunk of brand traffic comes from customers using Google to find your site so they can log back in. This absolutely affects the aggregate value of brand searches.<\/p>\n<p>All that said, I use Google Search Console to get insight into brand vs. non-brand searches.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You could use Ahrefs or Semrush to do the same thing, but I prefer GSC (although the UI isn\u2019t as snazzy) because all the data is coming directly from Google.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Even though it\u2019s only a data sample, I contend that it\u2019s more accurate than third-party tools, and the best organic measurement tries to reduce ambiguity as much as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, because it\u2019s just giving you a sample, GSC isn\u2019t perfect, and I\u2019m clear with my clients about that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When we\u2019re all on the same page about it being the best option for measuring brand vs. non-brand traffic, I:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Export the keyword data (a subset of the total traffic) from GSC within a date range.<\/li>\n<li>Remove\/filter any keywords that mention the brand.<\/li>\n<li>Calculate the percentage of non-brand vs. brand keyword data.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here\u2019s what that looks like:<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"488\" src=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2022\/10\/brand-vs-nonbrand-clicks-800x488.png\" alt=\"Brand vs. non-brand clicks\" class=\"wp-image-388669\" title=\"| Craig Hordlow\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Once you have several months\u2019 worth of this data, you get a good layer of visibility into exact non-brand and brand trends.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_SEOs_impact_on_other_channels\"><\/span>2. SEO\u2019s impact on other channels<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>While SEO can obviously lead directly to conversions (as I\u2019ll discuss more in a minute), much of its value comes from up-funnel engagements.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s extremely common for good SEO campaigns to introduce users to \u2013 and educate them about \u2013 brands and products\/services, only to have users convert on other, more transaction-focused channels.<\/p>\n<p>So what\u2019s the value of those engagements?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>How do we measure SEO\u2019s impact on downstream metrics?<\/p>\n<p>On a macro level, one of the things I look at over time is whether there\u2019s any correlation between increased SEO traffic and lower customer acquisition cost (CAC) on other channels.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If SEO engagement is growing a lot, and performance marketing is becoming more efficient, that\u2019s a signal to dig into your traffic mix and close\/sales mix to see exactly:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Where leads are coming from.<\/li>\n<li>Which channels are bringing in leads with a good close rate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One of the most promising features of <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/11-steps-to-setting-up-a-successful-ga4-property-388458\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GA4<\/a>, which I\u2019ve been playing with a ton recently, is that once you set up events\/conversions, there\u2019s an attribution model that shows multi-touch attribution so you can get a direct measurement of touchpoints in a conversion channel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a huge boost to a more nuanced measurement of SEO\u2019s value if you\u2019re tying back engagements to conversions. The report looks like this:<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"348\" src=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2022\/10\/ga4-attribution-example-800x348.png\" alt=\"Google Analytics 4 attribution example.\" class=\"wp-image-388670\" title=\"| Craig Hordlow\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>To round out the picture with less scientific, more quantifiable data, make sure your sales reps are asking leads where or how they\u2019ve heard of you. <\/p>\n<p>You can get good data and insight into how SEO is related to other channels \u2013 whether you\u2019re at an enterprise company with scale that shows you macro trends or you\u2019re at an SMB where one SEO-related conversion can really change the performance picture.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color\">\n<p><!-- START INLINE FORM --><\/p>\n<div class=\"nl-inline-form border py-2 px-1 my-2\">\n<div class=\"row align-items-center\">\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-3 col-xl-4 pe-md-0 pb-2 pb-lg-0\">\n<p class=\"inline-form-text text-center mb-0\">Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-7 col-xl-6  pe-lg-0\">\n<div class=\"form-nl-inline\">\n<div class=\"row g-0\">\n<div class=\"form-group col-12 col-lg-8 mb-0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-4 col-xl-4 mb-0\">\n<div class=\"d-none\">\n<p>Processing\u2026Please wait.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<button class=\"btn btn-dark inlineButton w-100 rounded-0 font-weight-bold\" type=\"submit\" name=\"submit_button\">SUBSCRIBE<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-2 col-xl-2 ps-1\">\n<p class=\"text-center mb-0\"><a class=\"nl-terms\" href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/termsofuse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">See terms.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- END INLINE FORM --><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color\">\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3_SEO_customer_acquisition_cost\"><\/span>3. SEO customer acquisition cost<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>One of my favorite metrics to calculate is SEO customer acquisition cost (CAC).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve heard fairly frequently over the years that SEO fees are high \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/seo-during-global-disruption-387218\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">especially in times of disruption<\/a>. But if you can put the <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/seo-is-math-388151\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ROI of SEO<\/a> in front of the people holding the budgets, you\u2019ll likely be in good shape.<\/p>\n<p>First, pick a set-up (GA4, Looker, Mixpanel, etc.) that enables you to track engagements.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Choose an attribution model and create a channel report to track signups, leads, demo requests, etc. (or product views, add to carts, conversions, etc. if you\u2019re in ecommerce).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, you\u2019re looking to ascribe a raw number of events with attributed value back to your SEO campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>Next, look at your SEO costs per month. These generally boil down to agency fees and\/or in-house resources, plus any tech stack costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Apply those costs to find how much you pay to get these users (and events).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For example, if you pay a full-service SEO agency $10,000 a month to run SEO and write content, and the SEO channel delivered 200 last-click signups in that month, you could report a simplified $50 CAC for SEO.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With metrics like that, odds are you\u2019ll be able to show a great return on spend that you can line up against CPC from paid channels.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, you can compare this CAC number to an LTV data point to really see the value.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If the LTV of your customer is greater than the SEO CAC, you are moving in the right direction for showing SEO as a profitable marketing channel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t need to re-invent reporting for SEO, but compare apples to apples if parties are using performance data as a comparison.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"4_SEO_keyword_performance\"><\/span>4. SEO keyword performance<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>SEO long-timers will remember with fondness the days before 2011 when Google started replacing valuable keyword-level data with \u201ckeyword not provided.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a lot harder to pinpoint and quantify exact keyword performance and value, but you can put together some pieces to get close.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding the play between SEO and paid search is really crucial and helps address the question of how to ascribe sign-ups to specific keywords if all you can do is find traffic in GSC.<\/p>\n<p>Paid search provides accurate, to-the-minute keyword data.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re targeting the same keywords in both paid and organic search, you can take the rough conversion percentage from paid search and extrapolate the value of organic engagement.<\/p>\n<p>Even if you\u2019re not able to access paid search data, there are scenarios where you can ascribe value.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s say you build a \u201cprogram features\u201d page for a SaaS product that\u2019s ranking on page one for a long-tail non-brand term.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You can look at how people are converting on that page (GA4, Looker, Mixpanel) and triangulate how that keyword is doing. <\/p>\n<p>So if 80% of that traffic on the page is from the long-tail keyword (which you can find in GSC), you can say there\u2019s a high likelihood that they\u2019re converting <strong>from<\/strong><em> <\/em>that keyword.<\/p>\n<p>Are these methods exact? No.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Are they directionally useful? Yes.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span>Conclusion<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>GA4 advancements aside, SEO measurement is an exercise in imperfection.<\/p>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t mean you should settle for the basic units of measurement you can get from Google or third-party platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Be clear with the powers that be about how you\u2019re getting your numbers and that they\u2019re directional, not 100% accurate.<\/p>\n<p>Flex your analytical muscles to dig a little deeper to understand how your efforts are driving actual business outcomes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Measuring SEO impact beyond basic traffic and keyword ranking is hard.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This is why real SEO business insight is so valuable in helping execs and decision-makers gauge its standing in the marketing mix.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/measure-seo-effectiveness-advanced-388666\" target=\"_blank\">4 advanced ways you\u2019re not measuring SEO effectiveness \u2013 yet<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Search Engine Land<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 4 smarter ways to measure SEO effectiveness, I analyzed four fairly boilerplate SEO metrics (traffic, rankings, conversions, links) and detailed ways to apply an additional layer of rigor to each to improve your analytical insights. In this article, I\u2019m going to take it up a notch to introduce four new methods of gauging the value of your SEO campaigns. They are: Brand vs. non-brand clicks. SEO\u2019s impact on other channels. SEO CAC (customer acquisition cost). SEO keyword performance (we\u2019re bringing it back!). While some of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"h5ap_radio_sources":[],"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-seo-blogs"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":false,"author_link":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/author\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}