Why is SEO so difficult to measure?

Measuring how successful an SEO campaign has been can be very difficult. To start with, there are a lot of different ways you can measure your success. Some of the ways that you can look for success is with ROI, conversion rates, keyword ranking, traffic and more. There are additional non-technical benefits like branding, brand visibility, user experience and other less measurable items. These items are harder to quantify.

Ranking-

Ranking is one of the best ways to see if an SEO campaign is working. Better keyword ranking is the goal of an SEO company and campaign. Higher search result ranking helps to increase visibility and traffic. It is vital that the keywords you rank for make sense for your business. Higher rankings for relevant terms over multiple search engine sites is a great way to see if your SEO campaign is working.

Traffic-

Monitoring your site traffic is also a good way to measure the success of your SEO work. There are multiple different types of traffic including non-branded organic traffic which means someone searched a targeted keyword and clicked your site in the search rankings. Non-branded organic traffic is a great way to see if your SEO campaign is improving your traffic. You may also see traffic raising from your social media marketing campaigns as well.

Conversion Rates-

If you are getting a higher percentage of visitors that are arriving at your site and completing your desired conversion action you are seeing a higher conversion rate. A higher conversion rate can generate more sales and business.

Cost Per Conversion-

When running an SEO campaign you may also be thinking about the cost of your conversions. If the cost is too high you may find the campaign is not working.

Return on Investment or ROI-

Return on investment is a great business tool and is very effective when it comes to SEO. It can be hard to calculate, but if you look at all the above factors and think about the number of leads they create, and potential sales and how much you spent to find them you can figure out a basic ROI and see if the SEO campaign you are running is effective.

These different techniques can help you figure out if your SEO campaign is effective. One thing that is important to consider is that SEO takes time and you need to be patient and give the campaign time to work.