Be Found. 
How well does SEO work?
- A large study (with over 3000 respondents) done by MarketingSherpa in 2005 reported that, after an SEO campaign:
- Traffic rose by an average 38% when the SEO was done in-house.
- Traffic rose by an average 110% when the SEO was done by a specialized company.
- 39% of e-commerce websites use search-engine optimization and 92% of those find it an effective technique (Forrester, 2005).
Is it worth the investment?
Absolutely. Search engine optimization represents a small part of total cost of a site. But what good is spending money on the site if nobody is going to see it? The added cost of SEO is minimal and will help put your site on the map; remember that in cyber-space, there is no passing traffic; visitors will not be aware of the existence of your site unless they are directed to it – in contrast to the real world, where a store can be noticed even if the passerby doesn’t enter it. Without traffic, a website may as well not exist.
To evaluate the costs/benefits of a search engine optimization campaign, consider this case (fictional, but based on realistic figures):
- Before the SEO campaign, the sales of a small gift company are $10,000/month (the site receives 10,000 visitors per month with a 4% conversion rate and a $25 average order value).
- The company’s profits are 10%, or $1000/month.
- The cost of SEO for the company’s site is $2000.
- The traffic increases by 110% (average increase reported by the MarketingSherpa study when the SEO campaign is conducted by a specialized company).
- The conversion rate increases by 20% (average increase reported by the MarketingSherpa study, because the incoming references are more targeted).
- The website now receives 21,000 visitors per month, of which 5% convert, leading to a revenue of $26250/month and a profit of $2625/month – a 162% increase.
- The cost of the SEO campaign is recovered in just over one month.
See also: Why SEO?; Search Engine Users Facts.