How to Maximize Your ROI on SEO

As an agency that provides SEO for customers in the Greater Pittsburgh Area and beyond, we are often asked how to maximize ROI (Return On Investment) for SEO. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be a complex fight for clicks in an increasingly fractured online battlefield. However, there are ways to engage with your SEO provider to get the best results for your marketing dollars.

First, it’s beneficial to define exactly what SEO is: optimizing your website to be found by search engines. There are often other elements that need to be balanced against SEO, or that can work with SEO to boost your effectiveness. For example, a budget could be allotted for ads to boost your content, or additional elements could be added to a page that help sales teams deliver better presentations to customers. Both these approaches can benefit your bottom line, but they are not SEO in the traditional sense.

To add confusion for those shopping for services, paid search ads (such as Google Ads, formerly Google Ad Words, campaigns) are often offered by SEO providers and the line can get blurry at times. For the sake of this guide, we will consider SEO to be purely on-page content (meaning content on your website).

So how do I get the best out of my SEO campaign?

The short answer: content your audience cares about.

The longer answer: it’s about providing unique expertise and value with information, FAQs, guides, analysis, and beyond.

How do I build successful SEO content?

Two simple questions should be first in your mind:

• • What does my target audience need to know to do their job?
  • How can I provide the answers they need better than the competition?

Both elements are critical and both can be the source of a lot of potential pitfalls.

Let’s start with the first question: “what does my audience need to know?”

This step requires work, but the good news is that you don’t have to figure it out all at once! Start with a topic at a time and build out your content plan. For example, if you manufacture automotive transmissions, you could consider a series of guides on the best way to design a bell housing to increase drivetrain feel, how to reduce weight on mounting connectors, or create a new blog post on the future of transmissions for electric vehicles.

Remember, the goal here is to position your website as a valuable source of information and value for your target audience.

The next question: “How can I provide the answers they need better than the competition?” is equally important.

It’s natural to look at a competitor’s website and create a ‘me too’ piece. But ask yourself this first: why would a potential customer (or a search engine) look at your information above the competition. Particularly if the competition got there first! What can you offer that is a unique value?

OK, so you’ve answered 1 and 2 and put together a great piece of content. Maybe it’s a how-to guide that nobody else offers, maybe it’s a cool calculator that your engineering customers will love. Now what?

That’s where your SEO company comes in. By formatting your piece so the right keywords are included (work with them on this to make sure they are valuable to your business, but make sure not to remove a critical keyword just out of preference!) and structuring the page to be as crawlable (readable) for search engines as possible, your SEO provider can help you get in front of the right people for your business.

To summarize: if you want to get the most value out of your SEO campaigns, ask the following questions:

• • What does my target audience need to know to do their job?
  • How can I provide the answers they need better than the competition?

Then make sure you include the right applicable keywords, formatted on your web page, to make your piece pop. After you’ve done all that, you can then consider a paid campaign to help increase your visibility, and make sure to share your page on social media and email to kick start traffic! Even with AI search starting to change the game of SEO, these core principles will help you succeed in building a strong, and valuable, website for your business.