Just how easy is it to look at SEO performance in terms of ROI?

You might want to check out this article. Many out there will no doubt have experience around the shortcomings of SEO forecasting. If you run or are part of an SEO agency, there's always going to be demand for assessing SEO performance with good old ROI - but here, Search Engine Journal looks at why sometimes, things don't work out to be that clear-cut.



The article here argues that looking at SEO in terms of ROI means examining a highly complex set of metrics around rankings, seasonality, organic traffic, and many other factors of performance. When everything is so dynamic, how's it possible to know where to begin gaining a useful picture of what's making a significant difference to return, and what's not?

The author here points out that SEO forecasting relies, among other things, on human ability to interpret, predict accurately, and make good decisions all of the time - based on a solid understanding of the data. That can happen either because people underestimate or over-egg their performance. We hear that the bias can affect forecasting in various ways.

Not only that but the writer suggests that current times demand more than an over-reliance on any particular aspect of performance. Ranking, organic traffic, CTRs - when considered as anything other than a bigger overall picture don't add up to an accurate representation of performance.

If this is something that sounds all too familiar to you, give this article a read. The author goes into some great detail concerning how looking at what's behind factors like traffic and clicks can offer more accurate insights - and better predictions. Basically, the more you look at, the deeper you delve, the closer your forecast will get to the real results.