There is no question that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services are a vital part of the services offered by your marketing agency. However, if you have a limited in-house team, you may find providing the services clients want and need is challenging.
Even if this is the case, SEO is a critical component to drive traffic and increase your client’s online visibility. Modern businesses want to appear near the top of SERPs (search engine results pages). If you are finding it challenging to provide these results, it may be time to consider white-label SEO outsourcing.
With white-label services, you are the face of your marketing agency, and the white-label provider handles the work in the background. This makes your marketing agency more effective in meeting client demands.
However, white-label SEO outsourcing services come at a price. If your marketing agency is using these services, knowing they are providing the desired results is imperative.
The question is – how do you do this?
Determining the ROI – return on investment – for these services is essential. It will help ensure you know you are getting the most out of the partnership you have chosen.
Here, you can learn how to determine the ROI of the white-label provider you have partnered with.
Understanding ROI in SEO
Before delving into calculations, it’s essential to understand what ROI means in the context of SEO. The ROI from SEO activities measures the profits generated from these efforts compared to the costs incurred. It involves both quantitative and qualitative metrics. This is because SEO results can often be more than just revenue generation.
Step 1: Set Clear SEO Goals
The first step to determining ROI is to define clear, measurable goals for your SEO campaign.
These could be:
Increasing Organic Traffic by a Certain Percentage
Increasing organic traffic involves attracting visitors to your website. This is done through non-paid search engine results. It’s about enhancing your site’s visibility for relevant searches. By doing the following, you can attract a larger audience:
- Optimizing content
- Improving site structure
- Building backlinks
The goal is a quantifiable uptick in users finding your site naturally. This is tracked by analytics platforms, showing the efficacy of SEO strategies employed.
Improving the Ranking of Specific Keywords
This objective focuses on elevating your website’s position in search engine results for targeted keywords. It’s crucial for businesses aiming to be more discoverable in specific search queries related to their products or services.
Effective keyword optimization, quality content creation, and SEO best practices are employed to boost rankings. Success is measured by improved positions tracked over time through various SEO tools.
Generating a Set Number of Leads
Lead generation is the process of attracting prospects to convert them into customers. For digital marketing, this means creating content or offers that encourage visitors to provide contact information.
The target is a specific tally of potential clients showing interest. This is tracked through form submissions, newsletter sign-ups, or other conversion points. It demonstrates the pull and relevance of your marketing efforts.
Achieving a Specific Number of Conversions
Conversion achievement zeroes in on the number of visitors who complete a desired action on a website. Examples include:
- Making a purchase
- Signing up for a service
- Downloading a resource
The goal is to hit a defined milestone for these actions. This is a direct indicator of the website’s success in compelling users to engage. This is monitored through conversion rate metrics and reflects the effectiveness of site design and user experience.
With concrete goals for your clients, it is possible to determine if white-label outsourcing is effective.
Step 2: Track Your Campaigns
Tools like Google Analytics, SEMrush, or Ahrefs are invaluable for tracking your website’s performance. Be sure to use these before and after using a white-label SEO service.
Pay attention to:
- Organic Traffic: Organic traffic refers to the number of visitors to your website through unpaid search engine results. It’s an essential measure of SEO success. It indicates how well your site attracts visitors naturally without advertising.
- Bounce Rate: Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who navigate away from your site after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate might indicate that the site content is irrelevant to the user’s search. Another issue may be that the user experience is lacking, prompting them to leave prematurely.
- Conversion Rate: Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website who take a desired action out of the total number of visitors. This action can vary greatly. A higher conversion rate implies that the website effectively convinces users to complete the goal action.
- Keyword Rankings: Keyword rankings refer to a website’s position in search engine results for a specific keyword. This metric is crucial for SEO. Higher rankings can lead to increased visibility, more organic traffic, and potentially more conversions. Rankings are influenced by a website’s relevance, authority, and SEO efforts related to the keyword.
Monitoring these metrics will provide insight into the success of your SEO efforts.
Step 3: Measure Direct Revenue
If your SEO goals are tied to direct sales, measuring revenue is straightforward:
- Calculate the total revenue generated from organic traffic. This is done by setting up goal tracking in Google Analytics to track conversions from organic traffic.
- Subtract the cost of the white-label SEO service from the revenue generated. This includes any monthly or one-time fees paid to the service provider.
- Consider other direct costs. Examples include additional tools or software that the service requires.
Remember, it is necessary to take time to do this for each of your clients. This will give you a clear picture of what is working and what is not.
Step 4: Consider Indirect Benefits
Not all benefits of SEO can be measured in direct revenue. Brand visibility, customer trust, and market influence are also valuable. Quantify these by:
- Surveying how customers found you and their reasons for choosing your service.
- Monitoring social shares and mentions.
- Tracking the number of new backlinks.
These factors contribute to long-term success and can be significant indicators of a positive ROI.
Step 5: Calculate Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Understanding the lifetime value of a customer acquired through organic search can significantly impact ROI calculations:
- Determine average purchase value: Divide your company’s total revenue by the number of purchases.
- Calculate purchase frequency rate: Divide the number of purchases by the number of unique customers who purchased during the same period.
- Calculate customer value: Multiply the average purchase value by the purchase frequency rate.
- Determine the average customer lifespan: Calculate the average years a customer continues purchasing from your business.
- Calculate CLV: Multiply customer value by the average customer lifespan. This will give you the revenue you can expect on average from a single customer.
As your marketing company grows, new services will come into play. These are things that the white-label SEO outsourcing service can help with, too.
Step 6: Factor In SEO Lifetime Value
With paid ads, traffic stops the moment you stop funding them. However, SEO builds upon itself over time. The content created and optimizations made will continue to drive traffic and generate revenue long after the initial investment. When calculating ROI, factor in the long-term value of the SEO work.
Step 7: Use an ROI Formula
After considering the factors above, you can use the following simple formula to calculate ROI:
SEO ROI=(Total Value from SEO−Total Cost of SEO/Total Cost of SEO)×100
This is as simple and straightforward as it gets. Remember, it may be necessary to determine the value of the white-label provider for each client. This will ensure you pay for a service benefiting you and your clients.
Step 8: Conduct Regular ROI Analysis
SEO is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. Conduct regular ROI analysis to adjust strategies and optimize your spending on white-label services. The digital landscape is constantly changing. Your marketing agency needs to take this approach to SEO and measure its success.
White-Label SEO Outsourcing Provides Countless Benefits
Determining the ROI of your white-label SEO outsourcing service may sound complicated. However, as a marketing agency, it is imperative to know that the investment you make is worthwhile.
It requires a balance of tracking tangible metrics and understanding the intangible benefits of increased visibility and brand authority. When you consider the factors above, you can make informed decisions about the investments you are making.
The goal is to ensure that the provider you choose can meet your client’s needs. They should also work in the background. This will give your marketing agency the boost needed to grow and succeed.