Search Marketing Sage

It can be difficult to track and measure Return on Investment (ROI) through Search  Engine Optimization (SEO).

Chris Boggs, Director, SEO of Rosetta, discusses how to confidently project a reasonable ROI for your SEO campaign, something that has been a challenge for many SEOers to accomplish.

SEO is comprised of three areas of focus

• Technical – Site structure
• On-Site Optimization – Content
• Off-site Promotion – Linking

Focus on SEO ROI measurement history

Since SEO has made its way into marketing calendars, savvy marketers have been trying to show more than just “improved rankings.”Simplest formula for proposed SEO campaigns may look like this:

Predicted ROI = (Anticipated revenue from SEO efforts) – (Proposed cost of SEO project)

If sponsored listings are not labeled, what percentage of searchers click on organic listings versus paid listings? Who doesn’t click at all? With over 4.2 million searches, 54% of people clicked on organic results, 35.2 did not make a click, and only 10.2% clicked a sponsor link.

The final panel I attended at SMX Advanced was the “How Did They Do That? Accounts of Recent SEM Business Investments and Sales” panel, given by Michelle Goldberg of Ignition Partners, Jon Kelly of QuinStreet, John P. White of Moorgate Capital Partners, and Richard Zwicky of Enquisite. This was a very realistic look at funding and M&A today.

With the challenges facing the economy today, pricing, needless to say, is an issue on the minds of many search marketing agencies. Today’s “How Much Do I Charge for SEM, Especially Now Search Marketing Agency Pricing Models” panel was anchored by Andrew Beckman of Location3 Media, Matt Walker of Best Rank, Inc. and Marty Weintraub of AimClear.

Today’s session on “Where to From Here? Wha’ts Next for the Search Engine Marketing Business?” panel featured Ron Jones of SEMPO, Rebecca Lieb of Econsultancy, and Mark Mahaney of Citi Investment Research. Each brought a unique position on the future of the search engine marketing industry — Ron from industry research, Rebecca from indpendent experience and research, and Mark from a business’ research and perspective.

A few years back, I used to give a talk at Search Engine Strategies about partnering with ad agencies and why it may be a great channel for SEM agencies. Over the years, Search Mojo has worked with several different partners, and one of the discussions that often arises is the desire by some agencies to have Search Mojo “white label” our services.

White labeling, in the ad agency world, involves the a vendor or consultant appearing as the ad agency’s representatives, as if the vendor has put a “white label” over his own brand. In the past, white labeling was a fantastic way for an ad agency to appear to have a wider offering and more employees through the use of vendors. Agencies were able to offer a wider breadth of services while still appearing to be one cohesive company.

However, the dawn of transparency may bring the end of the white label approach.