Most companies and businesses have invested in having websites to represent the products and services they offer to the world at large. One major problem that these website owners experience is the lack of direct ways to gauge the amount of progress made or the success rate.

Ranking a website is not a direct procedure as it requires you to have patience. Several factors determine the performance of a website. These include:

• The amount of traffic a website receives.
• The conversion rates

Each of these elements leads to a Return on Investment (ROI), which defines the actual gain a website has made. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), being the most effective way to increase website visibility, has been embraced by website owners.

Steps in Calculating the ROI of SEO

Numerous efforts have been made geared toward the idea of promoting SEO and using it to improve sales and conversions. Several elements indicate the presence of a significant ROI, but they do not give accurate data.

Often, you will notice an increase in traffic on your website, but without proper information and calculations, you will not be able to determine where it is coming from and if it is organic.

To determine the referrals and conversion rate, you need to;

1. Set up conversion tracking in analytics. There are two types of conversions which are determined by the goal of your website. For eCommerce sites, conversions refer to a purchase being made while for lea- based websites, conversions refer to subscriptions and registrations.
2. Divide the conversions and categorise them by channels. This will allow you to look at the performance of your website through a specific timeframe. You need to determine which elements on your site draw the most traffic.
3. Create a comparison chart of how much you spend within the specified time frame, could be a month or a year, with the amount you are getting.

What You Should do to Determine ROI

Although the subtle observance of website performance does not give you a clear perspective of what you are achieving, there are several things you can do to determine ROI without going through the technical details.

First, you need to monitor traffic on your website. Determine when you get the most visitors and try to establish why. Focus your website marketing efforts to specific platforms at a time to establish which ones draw in people the most.

Then, determine how many conversions you have gotten over a specified period. Finally, look through the use of links to directly access your website. This will let you know that users are directly typing your website details to access information. You might also notice that you are receiving more traffic through the search engines.