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How to Measure SEO Value in 2020 and Beyond

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Maybe it's recency bias, but it feels like SEO is changing more quickly than ever before. For Uproer and other SEO agencies, that’s a good thing. Companies need the guidance of search industry experts more than ever when things are changing.

However, it's sparked challenging conversations around measuring the value of SEO. It’s easier to measure the value of something when other variables in the equation remain constant. But in SEO, the current landscape is almost unrecognizable compared to where we were a year or two ago.

Search Marketing Trends with Big Implications for Your Measurement Strategy

Here are a couple of recent trends in search marketing that demonstrate just how much search marketing is evolving:

Trend #1: More dynamic search engine result pages (SERPs) that contain fewer traditional "blue link" organic listings

The prevalence of Rich Answers (featured snippets, knowledge panels, and other answer-based SERP features) more than doubled in 2019, according to a study conducted by Perficient Digital.

total rich answers in google serps

Trend #2: Google increasing its monetization of SERPs

In the past two years, Google’s ad revenue has increased by 40% which is supported by a 93% increase in paid clicks. This is according to data from Alphabet's quarterly financial results, which includes data from other Google properties like YouTube.

google advertising revenue and paid search clicks by quarter

What Do These Trends Mean for Your SEO Performance?

Here's what your SEO strategy is up against. Organic search traffic is declining across all devices. Q3 of 2019 marked the fourth consecutive quarter of slowed or declining organic search growth, according to Merkle’s Q3 Digital Marketing Report.

organic visits by quarter

With paid search ads capturing a greater share of the click volume, organic search click-through rates (CTR) are declining. This is especially true for commercial-intent keywords where text and Shopping ads can dominate the SERP.

We compared the CTR curve for an ecommerce client's top non-brand, commercial-intent keywords in Q2 2019 vs Q2 2018. Here’s what we found:

non-brand organic click curve

  • The CTR for keywords ranking in the top 3 positions fell by 26%
  • The CTR for keywords ranking in position 1 fell by 43%

Another contributing factor is the rise in "zero-click searches". 50% of Google searches do not result in a click. Google's rich results, like featured snippets, contribute to this trend by answering search queries directly within the SERP.

google search CTR

Source: Sparktoro

If SEO is Changing, Then The Way We Measure It Should Change Too

As you can see, earning organic traffic is more difficult than it used to be. Driving traffic from lower-funnel, commercial-intent keywords (which typically account for the majority of your conversions) is especially challenging due to increasingly heavier ad competition in SERPs.

Losing organic traffic at this phase in the customer journey can have a substantial negative impact on your conversion KPIs, like leads, transactions or revenue. Most digital marketing reports are built off of a last-click attribution model, which disproportionately rewards lower-funnel channel interactions.

To illustrate this challenge, here are a couple of actual scenarios that we're observing with our clients at Uproer:

Situation 1: An ecommerce company is seeing less revenue attributed to organic search compared to last year despite overall improvements in organic traffic, ranked keywords and average ranking positions. Their ecommerce business is growing overall.

Situation 2: A SaaS company is earning less organic traffic and lead conversions for their “money” keywords compared to last year despite maintaining or improving upon their ranking positions. Their overall organic search traffic is growing.

When these companies look at their bottom lines, they see that SEO is down. At the same time, their presence in organic search results is growing along with their businesses overall. How do we reconcile these conflicting trends and get closer to a more accurate measurement of SEO's value? We have to change the way we look at our marketing analytics data.

4 Ways You Can Measure SEO in 2020 to Better Understand its Value

1. Assisted Conversions & Alternative Attribution Models

If Google is taking away our lower-funnel organic traffic, then we should seek to better understand SEO’s role throughout the entire funnel.

You may be underreporting on the critical role that SEO is playing in the early stages of your customers’ paths to purchase. By reporting on assisted conversions and exploring other attribution models that credit earlier customer touchpoints, you may be able to tell a more accurate story of how SEO is driving value for your business.

For example, you may find that:

  • SEO is facilitating brand discovery and helping paid media channels to build high-quality remarketing audiences that ultimately convert these customers.
  • SEO is driving “soft” conversions, like email sign-ups, that lead to higher-LTV customers down the road.

Reporting on assisted conversions and exploring other attribution models can help you better understand SEO’s value in relation to the broader customer journey.

2. Share of Voice

Earning organic traffic is a zero-sum game. If you aren’t capturing search volume, then your competitors will (that, or Google is taking the volume for themselves!).

Let’s say you find yourself competing in a market where the overall volume of organic clicks is in decline, but your share of that volume is growing relative to the competition. In that case, your traffic KPIs are not telling the whole story.

Tracking and reporting on your organic share of voice (SOV) can help you better understand the value of top-line SEO gains or losses by benchmarking them against your competitors.

seo share of voice with STAT

We use STAT, an excellent keyword tracking tool, to track SOV for specified keyword groupings. There are many other SEO tools out there, like Ahrefs, Moz and SEO Monitor, that provide similar competitive metrics.

3. Earned Media Value

Earned media value (EMV) calculates the equivalent cost of your organic traffic if you were to acquire that traffic via paid search advertising.

Google CPCs have increased on a Y/Y basis for the last 11 fiscal quarters, according to Merkle’s Digital Marketing Reports. All the while, organic clicks remain free. By analyzing EMV, you may find that the relative value of your organic traffic is rising as compared to increasingly expensive paid search clicks.

Caveat: While helpful, EMV isn’t a metric to apply against your entire set of organic keyword rankings. It doesn’t make sense to bid on certain keywords due to their search intent, cost or projected ROI. Rather, you should use EMV selectively to compare the equivalent paid search cost against organic keywords that currently are, or could be, bid on.

ahrefs traffic value

Ahrefs provides a version of EMV called Traffic Value. However, it’s probably best to calculate this metric using your actual organic and paid search data.

4. Combined Search Marketing Performance

Your goal is to maximize your visibility in SERPs to earn clicks for relevant keywords. Whether that click comes from a paid ad, a traditional organic listing, or a rich SERP feature may not matter so much if your entire search marketing program is profitable.

The search landscape is changing rapidly and, with it, the roles that SEO and paid search each play in your marketing funnel. Viewing them as two separate channels ignores how intertwined they are. Rather, it may be time to report on search marketing as one channel. Wherein, SEO and paid search activities represent tactical decisions to improve overall search marketing performance.

What else are you measuring to better understand the value of SEO? Let us know in the comments.

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Griffin Roer

Griffin Roer

Griffin has spent more than a decade in the search engine marketing industry. After years of working as an SEO consultant to some of the country’s largest retail and tech brands, Griffin pursued his entrepreneurial calling and founded Uproer in May of 2017. He's also served as a board member for the Minnesota Search Engine Marketing Association.

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MGWM

Sr. Manager, SEO & Operations

Dave Sewich

dave sewich

Dave made an accidental foray into digital marketing after graduating from the University of Minnesota Duluth and hasn’t looked back. Having spent the first part of his marketing journey brand-side, he now works with the Uproer team to help clients realize their goals through the lens of search.

When not at work, you’ll find Dave staying active and living a healthy lifestyle, listening to podcasts, and enjoying live music. A Minnesotan born and raised, his favorite sport is hockey and he still finds time to skate once in a while.

Dave’s DiSC style is C. He enjoys getting things done deliberately and systematically without sacrificing speed and efficiency. When it comes to evaluating new ideas and plans, he prefers to take a logical approach, always sprinkling on a bit of healthy skepticism for good measure. At work, Dave’s happiest when he has a chance to dive deep into a single project for hours at a time. He loves contributing to Uproer and being a part of a supportive team but is most productive when working solo.

Founder & CEO

Griffin Roer

Griffin discovered SEO in 2012 during a self-taught web development course and hasn’t looked back. After years of working as an SEO consultant to some of the country’s largest retail and tech brands, Griffin pursued his entrepreneurial calling of starting an agency in May of 2017.

Outside of work, Griffin enjoys going to concerts and spending time with his wife, two kids, and four pets.

Griffin’s DiSC style is D. He’s driven to set and achieve goals quickly, which helps explain why he’s built his career in the fast-paced agency business. Griffin’s most valuable contributions to the workplace include his motivation to make progress, his tendency towards bold action, and his willingness to challenge assumptions.