The Value of SEO, What Makes SEO Profitable for Businesses

These days, the number of digital marketing channels is constantly increasing. Social media, pay-per-click, and SEO are just a few of the numerous marketing options to consider.  

With such a wide variety of options, it’s important to determine which marketing channel will produce the greatest return on investment for your business.  

Consequently, today’s blog post will explain why the value of SEO generally outpaces that of other digital marketing channels. 

What Makes SEO Unique

More than 53% of online traffic is from organic search. Investing in SEO means targeting the largest portion of internet traffic.

Furthermore, the dollar per dollar value of SEO is very high. Unlike other marketing channels, a well-developed SEO plan becomes a long-term source of leads. Effective SEO continues to generate potential customers after the initial investment.

Most digital marketing channels stop producing leads when a business stops pouring in money. 

Comparing SEO Cost Efficiency to Other Marketing Channels 

For example, let’s say a catering company starts a Google Ads campaign targeting the search query, “food catering”. The company would pay approximately $4.50 every time someone searches for “food catering” and clicks on their ad. 

The catering company wants to generate 5 paying customers (per month) from their Google Ads campaign. If the conversion rate for their ad is 5%, the company would need to buy 100 ads each month to meet their goal. 

This means the catering company would pay $450 a month for 5 paying customers. 

That said, the second the company stops pouring money into Google Ads, those customers disappear.

On the other hand, if that same catering company decides they want to rank for the keyword “food catering” on Google (a keyword with approximately 3,300 searches a month), they would start by investing work hours within the company or by hiring an SEO company to improve their ranking.

If the catering company invests $2000 into ranking number one for this keyword on Google, (and succeeds in ranking first for this keyword) they would likely receive around 1,100 monthly visits to their website from this keyword.

Typically, the conversion rate of organic traffic is less than pay per click. We’ll say that 2% of those visitors become paying customers. At that rate, the company would generate 22 paying customers from its SEO efforts each month.

If you just look at a single month, you might say that pay per click and SEO have approximately the same cost per acquisition. 

$450 / 5 = $90 per customer

$2000 / 22 = $90.9 per customer

However, the catering company’s first-place ranking on Google will continue to bring in customers even after the catering company stops investing in SEO. 

On the other hand, the catering company will have to keep spending money on Google Ads to bring in those customers. With that in mind, here’s what the cost per acquisition will look like after two months. 

Google Ads: $900 / 5 = $90 per customer

SEO: $2000 / 44 = $45.45 per customer

Even better, the cost per acquisition and ROI of SEO will continue to decrease, as long as the catering company holds the first spot for its target keyword. This long-term perspective really highlights the cost efficiency of SEO.

Marketing channels such as PPC and paid social are like throwing cash on the fire that is your business. The cash will keep the fire burning, but only until you run out of money. SEO is an investment that will pay dividends long after the initial monetary investment.

In Conclusion

SEO is a valuable marketing tool for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Unfortunately, SEO can be confusing and challenging for those without experience. 

Instead of wasting time and energy trying to do your own SEO, reach out to Kash Data Consulting LLC and start taking advantage of the value of SEO today. 

Kash Data Technology LLC provides a wide range of services to Dallas area small businesses looking to boost their visibility and gain customers. We can help with SEO, Google Analytics, Google Ads, Social Media Marketing, Local Search Marketing, YouTube Optimization, and content writing to clients in Plano, Frisco, Allen, and the surrounding DFW Metroplex. Please contact us by online form or email (info@datatechnologyllc.com).