Maximize Enterprise SEO ROI: Try Our Enterprise SEO ROI Calculator for Better Insights

At the enterprise level, the scope and impact of everything, be it marketing efforts or SEO, are amplified and magnified. The same goes for the return on investment (ROI) of your enterprise search engine optimization strategy.

It's not like a small business where you may be using a handful of keywords and targeting a specific group of customers. In enterprise SEO, you are competing with thousands of other websites, targeting an expansive audience, and investing a significant amount of resources into your SEO strategy.

So, as important as measuring enterprise SEO ROI is, it's also complicated —luckily, not with an enterprise SEO ROI calculator. An SEO calculator provides you with data-driven insights that you can use not only to evaluate how well your strategy is performing but also to identify areas of improvement for better ROI.

Our guide covers the working mechanism of an enterprise SEO ROI calculator along with the key metrics and best practices to maximize your enterprise SEO ROI.

How to Use the Enterprise SEO ROI Calculator

Using the enterprise SEO ROI calculator is as simple as filling the fields with the required information. The calculator will do the rest. Here are the steps to follow when using this SEO calculator.

Step 1: Gathering Data

To start, you'll need the data to input into the calculator. For some fields, you might not have 100% accurate data, and that's okay. Just try to get the most accurate numbers possible.

Here's what you'll need:

• Keyword Rankings: You can use a tool like Semrush to get the keyword ranking data for your website. Semrush Keyword Rank Checker shows you your ranking keywords along with their position on the search engine result pages (SERPs). You can also see the volume, traffic, CPC, and keyword difficulty score.
• Organic Traffic: This metric represents the total number of visitors to your website from organic search results. You can find this data in Google Analytics by going to Reports > Search Console > Google organic search traffic.
• Conversion Rates: You can calculate this metric yourself by using the information in our guide on conversion rates. Alternatively, if you have set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics, you can find this data there.
• Sales Data: The sales data associated with organic search results will differ depending on your business. It could be the number of products sold, revenue earned, or any other metric that is relevant to your business goals.
• SEO Investment: How much are you currently investing in your SEO efforts? For in-house teams, this might include salaries, tool subscriptions, and overhead costs, while for agencies or freelancers, it could be the monthly retainer or project fees.

Step 2: Input Data Into Calculator

Once you have all the data, you can then enter it into the calculator. For keyword rankings, just write the keyword and search volume, separated by a comma. Write one keyword per line in the designated field.

For the total keyword search volume, just enter the total number that you've accumulated from all the keywords inputted. Do the same for organic traffic.

Conversion rates are written in percentages. Round off to the nearest whole number. For example, if your conversion rate is 3.75%, just enter '4.' As for the sales data, simply enter the total number in the designated field.

In the SEO investment field, you have to enter a monthly amount. So, if you have an annual budget, divide it by 12 to get your monthly investment and enter that number instead. After that, click on the 'Calculate' button to see your estimated ROI.

Step 3: Analyzing the Results

The calculator shows you the total profit and the ROI percentage based on the values you have input. Keep in mind that these are estimates and not exact figures, so you should take them with a grain of salt.

Let's say the profit for your business is $5,000, and your total SEO investment is $2,000. Your ROI percentage will be calculated as follows:

• $5,000 (profit) - $2,000 (SEO investment) = $3,000 (net profit)
• ($3,000 / $2,000) x 100% = 150% ROI

This means that for every dollar you invest in SEO, you are getting $1.50 back in profit. Objectively, this is a good ROI and shows that your SEO efforts are paying off.

However, if you were expecting a higher ROI, this could indicate that your SEO strategy needs improvement. Perhaps you need to target more profitable keywords, use some new tools, or even hand over your SEO efforts to a different SEO agency.

Step 4: Adjusting for Scenarios

The results from an enterprise SEO ROI calculator don't really tell you what you need to do to improve the results. However, the calculator can give you an idea of what may be causing a low ROI.

You can model different scenarios using the calculator to see how they impact your SEO efforts' ROI. For example, you can input higher keyword rankings and traffic to see how it affects the final ROI. If you see an increase, it means you must put in more effort to rank higher in search engines and increase traffic to your site.

Similarly, you can play around with SEO investments, too. Typically, when you lower the SEO investments, the ROI also goes down. But what if you reduce the SEO costs but increase the conversion rates? Check if this increases the ROI.

If it does, that means you can improve your SEO ROI by focusing on conversion rate optimization. Our guide on eCommerce conversion rate optimization tips is helpful here.

The point is, by using an enterprise SEO ROI calculator, you can find the ideal scenario that gives you the highest ROI. You can use this calculation as the base for your SEO adjustments. 

Key Metrics to Consider in Enterprise SEO ROI

When you're calculating enterprise SEO ROI, here are some metrics you must account for.

Organic Traffic

This one's pretty simple: the more people visiting your site from organic search, the better it is for your SEO efforts. Ideally, you want organic traffic to be as high as possible because more people means more opportunities for a conversion, which ultimately means more revenue.

Sugar Geek Show is an excellent example of why this metric works so well. The baking and cake decorating blog generated a six-figure revenue by focusing on its organic traffic growth. To do this, they used Semrush Keyword Magic Tool to:

• Measure the monthly search volume for relevant topics
• Analyze keyword difficulty for those topics
• Monitor the search trend for the topics to publish recipes and tutorials at the right time

Semrush keyword magic tool

Since there was a lot of competition for the top spot, Sugar Geek Show focused on the low-hanging fruit. They looked for keywords with a search volume of 4k to 20k and a keyword difficulty of 70. Then, they used the Keyword Magic Tool to find Questions related to their keywords and create content that answered those questions.

Semrush keyword magic tool

The result? A 269% increase in blog traffic and 1.5 million monthly blog views, which ultimately resulted in Sugar Geek Show earning 60% of its revenue from the blog.

Conversion Rates

The conversion rate correlates with key actions that bring in revenue, such as a purchase or a sign-up for a newsletter. For eCommerce businesses, it's as simple as measuring the ratio of sales to visitors.

For other businesses, however, conversion rates may not be as straightforward. For example, a B2B company may measure conversions as the number of leads generated through a contact form. Some of those leads may convert into sales, while others may not. So, you need to have a clear understanding of what actions correspond to conversions for your business.

Let's say historical data shows that 70% of website visitors who sign up for the newsletter end up making a purchase within 3 months. 

The average order value for those purchases is $500. So, if 100 visitors sign up for the newsletter, that generates $35,000 in revenue. This is just an example of how you can calculate conversion rates for non-eCommerce businesses.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

A customer's lifetime value is the revenue you generate from their repeated purchases over the course of their engagement with your business. When measuring SEO ROI, you need to focus on the CLV of search-acquired customers.

Suppose you're a SaaS business. Your basic subscription model costs $50 per month. On average, your customers stay subscribed for 12 months. So, the CLV of each customer is $600.

Now, how many of these customers are generated through SEO? Let's say 25% of your new subscribers come from organic search. That means for every 100 new subscribers, 25 of them are acquired through SEO. So, the total CLV from those 25 customers is $15,000.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

It's great that every customer is bringing in $600. But if you're spending $800 to acquire them, you're actually losing money. That's why it's important to measure the CPA for search-acquired customers.

In our SaaS example, let's say you spent $10,000 on SEO efforts in a month. As mentioned, 25 of your new customers came from organic search. So, your CPA is $400.

This means even though a customer brings in $600, you're actually only making a profit of $200 from them. Keeping track of CPA is important for this very reason. If you're too close to the break-even point or even losing money, you may need to:

• Tweak your SEO strategy
• Lower your SEO costs
• Improve your conversion rates

Revenue from Organic Search

Using our SaaS example, if we assume that each customer brings in $600 in CLV and 25% of new subscribers are acquired through SEO, the total revenue generated from organic search would be $15,000.

But this doesn't account for potential incremental sales through upselling or cross-selling. If you have additional products or services that can be sold to them, the revenue from organic search could potentially be even higher. So, it's important to look at your revenue from organic search comprehensively.

In an enterprise where multiple marketing channels are used, it's also important to track the impact of SEO on revenue from other channels. For example, a customer may initially find your website through a Google search but end up purchasing from a social media ad. In this case, SEO has an indirect effect on revenue from social media.

Multi-touch attribution comes into play here since multiple channels are contributing to the sale. You can take one of the following approaches to measure the revenue from organic search in such cases:

• First-Touch Attribution: The full credit of the sale goes to the first touchpoint, which in this case is organic search. So, even if the sale came from a social media ad, you calculate its revenue in SEO.
• Last-Touch Attribution: It's the opposite of first-touch attribution, where the last touchpoint gets full credit. In our example, that would be the social media ad.
• Linear Attribution: You can divide the credit equally among all touchpoints, so in our example, organic search and social media ads would each get 50% of the revenue.
• Position-Based Attribution: If there are more than two touchpoints, form an imaginary ''U'' and place the first and last touch points on the tips. Others go in the middle. The first and last touchpoints get 40% each, and the remaining 20% is divided equally among the others.

Google Analytics can help you track multi-touch attribution and calculate the revenue specifically generated by your enterprise SEO strategies. Alternatively, you can use an attribution platform like Ruler Analytics or SegmentStream. 

Industry Benchmarks and Comparing Your SEO ROI

To compare your SEO ROI to that of industry competitors, you need to know two main things: industry benchmarks and standard pricing models. With this information, you can determine if your ROI is good or bad compared to others in the same industry.

Overview of SEO Pricing Models

SEO enterprise agencies typically use the following pricing models:

• Monthly Retainers: In a monthly retainer model, the enterprise SEO agency charges a fixed amount every month for their services. As an enterprise, you'd obviously want to work with an experienced SEO agency. The range can be anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000 since enterprises usually require more extensive and customized services.

• Project-Based Pricing: You should opt for this model if you have a specific SEO project in mind, like website redesign or content creation. The average cost for a project ranges between $2,500 and $5,000.
• Hourly Rates: Hourly SEO plans aren't as suitable for enterprises with continuous SEO needs, but you can use them for short-term needs, such as a one-time SEO audit. The hourly rates range from $125 to $200, depending on the experience of the agency.

Industry-Standard ROI Benchmarks

Industry ROI benchmarks don't exactly serve as your goals; they are simply indicators of where you stand compared to your competitors. This way, you can determine if your SEO efforts are yielding results that are comparable to those in your industry.

A study by First Page Sage found that a combination of SEO and thought leadership delivers the highest ROI of 748% in comparison to 15% for basic content marketing and 117% for technical SEO. They also found the standard SEO ROI for some industries. The major ones include:

• B2B Saas - 702%
• eCommerce - 317%
• Financial Services - 1,031%
• Manufacturing - 813%
• Real Estate - 1,389%
• Legal Services - 526%

If these seem too high, don't be skeptical since other studies have found SEO ROI to be quite high, too. For example, Profitworks, a digital marketing agency, revealed that they generate an SEO ROI of 275%. Similarly, Terakeet found SEO ROI to be between 5x and 12.2x.

So, when you pay for SEO services, make sure they align with the industry benchmarks to ensure you're getting the most out of your investment. However, bear in mind that every business is unique. You can't expect your ROI to be exactly the same as that of your competitors, but it should be in proximity to their range. 

Strategies to Improve Your Enterprise SEO ROI

If you want to maximize your SEO ROI, here are some helpful strategies to implement.

Scale Your Content

High-quality, targeted content can do wonders for your SEO strategy. When you create content that is tailored to your target audience and optimized for search engines, you will see an increase in organic traffic and conversions. 

For an enterprise, the amount of content needed can be overwhelming. Thankfully, AI writing tools can save you a lot of time. Alternatively, you can partner with SEO copywriting agencies to scale your content strategy. 

As for the type of content to focus on, start with long-form content, such as a pillar page. You can then branch out into shorter, more specific blog posts and interlink them to your pillar page.

Similarly, you can write case studies, whitepapers, reports, and eBooks to establish your brand as an industry thought leader. These types of content can also generate backlinks from reputable sources, further boosting your SEO efforts.

That's what the owner of Nourish Move Love did for her health and fitness website. Unlike other fitness gurus who were selling their workout plans, she offered them for free on her website but decided to monetize her site through ads. For that, she needed to create ample content that would bring in a lot of traffic.

She used Semrush Keyword Magic Tool to ensure she wasn't competing with herself due to keyword cannibalization. The tool helped her find name variations for common workouts that her audience searched for. She could then incorporate these keyword variations into her content.

Semrush Keyword Overview

When she got pregnant, she created another keyword niche for her in prenatal and postpartum workouts. Again, she created even more content, targeting keywords and variations to drive more organic traffic. To ensure her content is optimized, she used Semrush's SEO Writing Assistant plugin in WordPress for real-time SEO tips.

This scaled and highly targeted content helped her earn six-figure ad revenue in six months. She also had to bring two full-time employees on board to help her with the content creation and distribution. She also got to partner with her favorite brand, LuluLemon. As you can see, her content creation not only brought in revenue but also opened up new opportunities for partnerships and collaborations.

Focus on Technical SEO

In their efforts for on-page and off-page SEO, many enterprises overlook technical SEO. But the technical side of things forms the backbone of SEO.

You should use a tool like Semrush Site Audit to keep an eye on your site's health. It'll scan over 140 technical checks from surface-level problems like broken links and duplicate content to technical issues such as hreflang attribute for international SEO.

It's important for your website to be usable on mobile phones and load quickly so that users can easily access your content. It's up to you to decide the frequency of technical SEO audits, but every six months is recommended.

Take Sam The Concrete Man as an example. The concrete contractor has local franchises across the US, with each franchise having a separate subdomain. They have to maintain the site health of all these subdomains to ensure zero hurdles for their audience.

Semrush Site Audit

So, they use the Site Audit tool by Semrush for on-page and SEO checks to ensure a positive user experience through a well-maintained website. As a result, all their subdomains rank well in local search results.

Build Backlinks and Grow Your Site's Authority

The "A" in Google's E-E-A-T guidelines is for authoritativeness, which means it's one of the most important factors the search engine uses to rank your website. So, you must focus on building site authority through a robust backlink strategy.

Ideally, you want high-authority websites in your niche to link back to your content. But why would they? Well, if you have quality content on your website, they'll reference it when writing their own articles. You can also write guest posts for these websites and include a link back to your site in the author bio.

Another way to acquire backlinks is through partnerships. Reach out to businesses or organizations that complement your products or services and offer to collaborate on content. For example, you can create a report or infographic together and link back to each other.

Then, use a backlink checker like Semrush Backlink Analytics to determine the health of your backlink profile. This tool will show you the number of backlinks and referring domains. You can also identify toxic backlinks that may be harming your site's authority.

For more details, check this guide: How to Build Domain Authority Using a Content Strategy.

Automate Enterprise SEO With Tools

Our AI Marketing Benchmark Report (which is an example of the kind of content you should be creating to build backlinks) found that nearly 69% of marketers already use AI in their marketing operations. Why should SEO be any different?

SEO tools don't only save you a lot of time but also provide insights that are hard to derive manually. For example, Abdi Ibrahim, a pharmaceutical company that sells supplements and vitamins in Turkey, had low organic traffic for nine of their brand websites. They wanted to boost their visibility by using all the strategies we have mentioned above: scaling content, getting backlinks, and conducting technical SEO audits.

So, they opted for a comprehensive tool, Semrush, to meet all their needs. With Semrush, they could:

• Use the Keyword Gap tool to find keywords they weren't using, but their competitors were
• Create pillars and content clusters using insights from the Keyword Magic Tool
• Conduct site audits to identify broken or unhealthy pages
• Use the Backlink Audit tool to find toxic backlinks and disavow them
• Examine their competitors' backlink profiles using the Backlink Gap and Backlink Analytics tools

Semrush Keyword Overlap

Thanks to the automation and insights from Semrush, the pharmaceutical company experienced a 410% growth in organic traffic. Their ranking keywords also increased by 786%. 

Troubleshooting and Forecasting Your SEO ROI

Troubleshooting Common SEO ROI Issues

SEO can come with its own set of challenges, and sometimes, despite our best efforts, we may not see the desired results. This can be frustrating, but it's important to identify and troubleshoot any issues. Here are a few.

Inaccurate Data Inputs

If your enterprise SEO ROI calculator results are way off, double-check your inputs. Make sure that you're using accurate data for things like conversion rates, keyword ranking, SEO investments, and traffic numbers. Even a small error in these inputs can affect the final calculation.

Low Conversion Rates

A common issue with SEO ROI is low conversion rates. This may be a result of poor user experience, an ineffective content strategy, or other factors. Here's what to do:

• Conduct a content audit to identify gaps in your content strategy and make necessary improvements.
• Improve the overall user experience of your website by implementing better design, navigation, and functionality.
• Personalize your content to hyper-target your audience.

Our guide on conversion marketing can help you get started.

You may also need to remarket to your audience through email campaigns, retargeting ads, or other methods. We have a detailed guide on remarketing strategies, too.

Long Time to See Results

Impatience won't do you any good in terms of SEO ROI since SEO takes time to show results. Expect a minimum of 4 to 6 months before you see significant changes in your website's organic traffic and search engine rankings. Most SEO strategies can take up to a year or more to see the full effects.

In the FirstPageSage report we discussed earlier, such high SEO ROIs were only seen after 9 to 15 months of executing the SEO plan. If you're not seeing results as expected, don't panic. Give your strategy some time to work.

Forecasting SEO ROI with Historical Data

As an enterprise, you must have sufficient historical SEO data to forecast what you can earn in the future from your SEO efforts. Historical data helps you understand how much traffic, leads, and revenue you generated in the past so that you can set realistic expectations for the future.

Let's say in Q2 of last year, you earned $100,000 in revenue from your organic search efforts. Your website's conversion rate stood at 25%. And you spend 25,000 on SEO efforts.

For this year, for the same period, if you plan to increase the conversion rate to 50%, you can expect to spend $50,000 on SEO efforts. That means you could earn up to $200,000 in revenue.

This is just an example, but it gives you a glimpse of how to use historical data for SEO ROI forecasting.

You can also put data from last year into our enterprise SEO ROI calculator to see how a change in conversion rate, SEO investment, traffic, or other focus areas will impact your SEO profitability. 

Continuous Optimization for Long-Term Success

When doing enterprise SEO, your eyes should be set on long-term success, not just short-term wins. For this, you must:

• Refine your SEO strategy regularly by conducting audits, updating content, adapting to algorithm changes, and addressing technical issues.
• Make data-driven adjustments using insights from SEO tools and Google Analytics.
• Allocate resources and invest in any new technologies or strategies that can improve your SEO efforts.
• Monitor SEO analytics and use them to inform strategic adjustments.

Calculate Your Way to Enterprise SEO Success

Enterprises are way more complex than their smaller counterparts. So, their SEO efforts also require a more analytical approach and continuous measurement of results. Our enterprise SEO ROI calculator is a free resource that gives you an approximate measure of your organization's SEO ROI. On top of that, it also lets you model different scenarios to see how different factors can impact your SEO profitability.

Besides using an SEO calculator, you should also use other SEO tools to automate your strategy. Even free tools like ChatGPT help. In fact, our ChatGPT SEO guide covers multiple ways to use the tool for SEO success.

In addition, you should monitor your SEO strategy regularly, conduct SEO audits, create a strong backlink profile, scale content, and troubleshoot common SEO issues. And if this seems like too much to do, don't hesitate to partner with an SEO agency for professional handling of all your SEO needs. 

About the Author

Djanan Kasumovic

Writer

Djanan Kasumovic, Head of Growth at Influencer Marketing Hub, drives innovation in digital marketing with expertise in AI marketing and AI influencer strategies. He is directly involved in shaping content strategies for top clients like Viral Nation, NeoReach, Brandwatch, and more, blending creative flair with data-driven insights to ensure people not only enjoy the content but leave a little smarter.