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Investing in SEO: The 6-Point Feasibility Checklist (Part 2)

by Phil Robinson | 16th May 2006

Phil Robinson Part 1 of this article introduced why outsourcing Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is not necessarily suitable for every business sector or company and introduced the first three questions that should be to ensure you do not fall into the trap of being sold SEO services from an agency when the return on investment case is not clear.

Questions in part 1 included;

Are there enough searches being done on relevant phrases to justify investment in SEO?
Is your site of a high enough standard to convert traffic to enquiries or sales?
What positions do you currently have on natural search engine rankings?

The 6-Point Check List (Part 2)

What is the average value from resulting enquiries or actual sales generated from your web site?

The sales value of your products/services has a huge impact on the potential returns from an SEO campaign. For example, for an ecommerce site selling vitamins and minerals at an average value of £10-20 per purchase, may have much lower returns from an investment in SEO services compared to an ecommerce site selling washing machines and cookers at an average value of £150-£600.

Both of these ecommerce businesses may be able to justify investment in SEO services, however, the return on investment figures will be very different. Other factors to consider are the relative margins made on the products.

How much competition is there for natural rankings on your relevant search phrases?

The level of competition on phrases you wish to drive traffic from is a hugely important factor. For example, compare the level of competition between two phrases in two business sectors, for example, if you run a search on Google for ‘recruitment services’ you will find 77,900,000 sites listed, whereas for ‘financial services’ there are 709,000,000 sites listed. Taking this further, doing a more specific search on ‘financial services nottingham’ brings back 2,610,000 sites.

The relevance of this question to reviewing whether to invest in SEO services, is that the more niche and less competitive the search phrases you are targeting, the quicker you will see results from a managed SEO campaign. For example, if you are a financial services company wanting to target ‘financial services’ then it will take much longer to achieve results from this than for a Recruitment Company wanting to target ‘Recruitment Services’ phrases. As a result, a Financial Services company may need to calculate potential returns from SEO on a much longer term basis, plus the work required is likely to more intensive and expensive when using an SEO agency.

How well optimised are web sites in your sector?

While the above is a valid model to use, it is quite simplified. There are other issues to consider with regards to the competition in your sector, in particular is how well optimised the other sites are that you are competing against.

For example, if you look at the natural listings for the search term ‘counselling services’ compared to ‘insurance services’ you will find that the sites on the first two pages are far more well optimised for ‘insurance services’. Also you will find that the sites listed have much better ‘link popularity’ scores and better overall optimisation.

Therefore, irrespective of how many competing sites there are for each search phrase, taking things a level further the quality of the competition in optimisation terms is a far better indicator of how long it may to see results from a managed SEO campaign.

Any diligent SEO agency should consider these factors before starting an SEO campaign on your behalf and will give you an indication of how long it may take to see results.

Read the article How to Choose an SEM Company.