When small business owners employ local SEO experts they expect returns that they can measure or analyze. Instead what they usually get is a bunch of automated statistic reports. The problem has three parts – too many jargons make it impossible for some SMO to understand what exactly the reports say. They fail to understand too much data, and they fail to understand the impact of the SEO work on their business.
When small business owners are spending tons of money on local SEO, make sure you are providing them with a proper return. Follow these 5 tips for showing return of interest in a better way:
1. Concentrate on Result
There needs to be a focus on the result so that your client understands how the business is succeeding from your local SEO efforts. All they care is to see an increased ranking of the keywords within a certain amount of time say in 30 days. So we recommend you to make conversions the focus of your report that you send to your client. You need to target what the business owner really wants out of you, and then you need to highlight those points. It’s as simple as that.
2. No Automated Google Analytics Reports
You can’t just forward automate reports that you perfectly understand and expect your client will understand too. You are the local SEO guy, your client isn’t. The goal is to understand what they are getting out of the truck load of money that they are spending on you. Although Google Analytics is a very powerful tool and if used properly can help businesses tremendously. But too much data can be overwhelming which is why you must break the reports down to a few essential data.
3. Calculate Estimate Revenue
This is something that most people make the mistake of not doing. But by doing this, you come up with solid numbers showing your clients how much money you are making for them, against the money that they are paying you. A good way of calculating the estimated revenue is by multiplying lifetime value of a customer by the closing ration and that into the number of conversions.
4. Use Call Tracking
You need to track calls by using dynamic number insertion. This is something that you must be doing as an SEO guy. We recommend using CallRail or Call Tracking Metrics which will help in viewing the source of a call. The method saves you from messing up the NAP consistency unlike what happens when you use incoming call tracking number on your website. We mentioned how Google Analytics could be a powerful tool. You can use it to set up calls as goals. That way you can show your clients the pages that bring most of the calls, thanks to your efforts.
5. Make Reports Visually Clear and Gripping
The best way of doing this is by grabbing screenshots. Looks like photographs are still the best way of grabbing attention. Keep a screenshot of the ranking before you began working and then a screenshot of the result of your hard work. Nothing hits them hard like a screenshot.
Hope you find these tips on showing the ROI of your local SEO efforts useful. Questions and comments are welcome.
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