SEO: How to estimate Sales Potential by using Keywords and Phrases
It is a popular belief that search engine optimization can do wonders, but it is true that if not approached properly there are more chances of your failing in bringing forth flow of traffic and converting them into sales. SEO can bring or divert traffic no question, but how to measure them in realistic terms? This article is to clarify some myths about SEO and how can you make realistic estimates about growth in traffic to your site, after your efforts towards Search Engine Optimization.
The starting point is you should know before hand, how much of natural traffic and sales are materializing to your site presently. For this the web analytic program will be handy and by going through the statistics in last month, you will know which of the keywords and phrases have driven the traffic.
For example if you are running an online site for machine tools, your web analytic form will show as follows:
Monthly Web Analytic Export
Term |
Revenue |
Visits |
|
|
|
Magnetic drill |
$645 |
25 |
|
|
|
Portable Saw |
$ - |
- |
|
|
|
Portable Panel |
$ - |
- |
|
|
|
Panel Saw |
$ - |
- |
|
|
|
Multi Drill |
$ - |
62 |
|
|
|
Magnetic Screw Driver |
$ - |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
This is for a regular business where transactions occur every month. If what you run is a seasonal business, then there will be no transactions at all in off seasons and you have to select the data from the seasonal months – two or three at best.
The above format shows the keywords and phrases, which bring you natural-search referred traffic through the search engines and the sales they turned out at your site. You have to make a comparison of available keyword market that is on those keywords and phrases what are the number of searches made in an ordinary month and for the same keywords what is your site’s score. KeywordDiscovery.com and Google Adwords Keyword Tool can help you in this regard to determine the current rate of success your site has achieved.
Then record the total number of searches as per your keyword tool estimates for each keyword and phrase generated. Now you can make a simple calculation to know the fact – Total Searches minus your traffic /Divided by your Traffic – to know the growth opportunity percentage existing for the keywords and phrases, which are driving traffic from natural searchers. Supposing the Google search total in a month for a particular keyword phrase is 10000 and for the same keyword phrase for your site is just 1000, then you can find the percentage growth opportunity is – 10000 minus 1000 divided by 1000 = 900%.
But this is not all. The most upside work comes really from the keywords and phrases where you are drawing blank with no traffic and sales. The next task is big in identifying the keywords and phrases that your site needs for driving natural traffic and this needs in-depth research to ascertain what additional traffic the same keywords and phrases can send in to your site. Your keyword research tools can be used to find out the most popular ways of searching for the content, after identifying the keywords for which there is relevant content at your site.
The value of keyword research depends upon two things -1) the relevance of your site’s content to the keyword and 2) the types of search terms used by real users should be fully there at your site. In this context you can refer to PJ Fusco’s keyword research primer for more details on keyword research.
Monthly |
Web |
Analytic |
Keyword Tool |
Growth |
Opportunity |
|
Term |
ExportRevenue |
Visits |
Total MonthlySearchVolume |
AvailableSearches |
% Growth |
Magnetic drill |
$645 |
25 |
275 |
250 |
1000% |
Portable Saw |
$ - |
- |
200,010 |
200,010 |
ALL |
Portable Panel |
$ - |
- |
33,200 |
33,200 |
ALL |
Panel Saw |
$ |
- |
1200 |
1200 |
ALL |
Multi Drill |
$ |
62 |
3500 |
3438 |
5545% |
Magnetic Screw Driver |
$ |
- |
178 |
178 |
ALL |
|
|
|
Total Growth |
238,363 |
|
|
|
|
|
5% Click ThroughRevenue per visitEstimated Value |
11,918$ 1$11,918 |
|
|
As can be seen from the above table, the keyword phrases “Magnetic Drill” and “Multi Drill” are already generating traffic and sales from natural searchers, whereas there is no traffic at all for the keywords “Portable Saw”, “Portable Panel”, ”Panel Saw” and “Magnetic Screw Driver”.
Now that you have collected all the data, you can sum the “Total Monthly Search Volume” column, so as to identify the total SEO Traffic upside. It should be remembered that this number indicates theoretically 100% of the total available natural search traffic. It has been studied by researches that the No.1 position ranking in search engine listings will average about 45% of the click-through available. As such if you rank No.1 for the keyword “Portable Saw”, which is approximately 200,010 searches per month, roughly 90,004 searchers from them which is 45%, will be clicking through Google to your site. However, a more conservative approach for 5% click-through rate is recommended in estimating the opportunity, with your efforts in SEO can bring forth for your site.
By knowing the average revenue value each visit can make your site, you can estimate the value of optimizing your site in order to achieve those additional visits by natural searches.
Further similar spreadsheets can be prepared by the growth columns sorted so that you identify the keywords and phrases that can represent the biggest opportunities for growth and that will give you a prioritized list of content-topics to be optimized.
The foregoing is only an example of six keyword and phrases and are a fraction of the total opportunity you want to be estimated on the keyword research for your site.
You will find that the ranking data is missing from this formula. Site owners would love to focus on them, since Rankings are easy and quick snapshots of SEO progress. It is true that higher the ranking, larger the traffic will be from that particular keyword. But rankings are notoriously unreliable to indicate SEO progress, because of personalization, blended search, vertical research, and other factors that are large in number.
For reliably setting your expectations for SEO success, you can do well to sticking to traffic, sales and keyword research as the basis of your SEO upside estimations.
As can be seen from the above table, the keyword phrases “Magnetic Drill” and “Multi Drill” are already generating traffic and sales from natural searchers, whereas there is no traffic at all for the keywords “Portable Saw”, “Portable Panel”, ”Panel Saw” and “Magnetic Screw Driver”.
Now that you have collected all the data, you can sum the “Total Monthly Search Volume” column, so as to identify the total SEO Traffic upside. It should be remembered that this number indicates theoretically 100% of the total available natural search traffic. It has been studied by researches that the No.1 position ranking in search engine listings will average about 45% of the click-through available. As such if you rank No.1 for the keyword “Portable Saw”, which is approximately 200,010 searches per month, roughly 90,004 searchers from them which is 45%, will be clicking through Google to your site. However, a more conservative approach for 5% click-through rate is recommended in estimating the opportunity, with your efforts in SEO can bring forth for your site.
By knowing the average revenue value each visit can make your site, you can estimate the value of optimizing your site in order to achieve those additional visits by natural searches.
Further similar spreadsheets can be prepared by the growth columns sorted so that you identify the keywords and phrases that can represent the biggest opportunities for growth and that will give you a prioritized list of content-topics to be optimized.
The foregoing is only an example of six keyword and phrases and are a fraction of the total opportunity you want to be estimated on the keyword research for your site.
You will find that the ranking data is missing from this formula. Site owners would love to focus on them, since Rankings are easy and quick snapshots of SEO progress. It is true that higher the ranking, larger the traffic will be from that particular keyword. But rankings are notoriously unreliable to indicate SEO progress, because of personalization, blended search, vertical research, and other factors that are large in number.
For reliably setting your expectations for SEO success, you can do well to sticking to traffic, sales and keyword research as the basis of your SEO upside estimations.
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