Here is a 3-part SEO question that was emailed to me:

The questions:
1. “How does a business determine the value of a organic result on a term that matters to them on a place like google?”

2. “Is the value different if your listing is on the 1st page above the fold vs. listing #6-#10 or just being in top 30?”

3. “What if a term is not searched on Google all that frequently but it is important to the person or company?”

The Answers:
1a) Direct Response Campaign:
I’m sure there is more than one way. For a direct response campaign, check your web analytics to get your avg conversion rate, and amount of traffic from a given keyword across either all Search Engines, or just a specific engine like Google. For example, if you had 1000 visitors and 20 bought something, that be a conversion rate of 2%. The formula is: Orders/Visitors=Conversion Rate.

If each conversion is worth $100, then you’d have $2000 in Gross Sales Revenue. Deduct your marketing costs, and that is the value of that organic keyword. So, if you’re spending $1000/month for the time & links of an SEO Consultant to retain an Organic keyword ranking, then the Keyword in this example is worth $1000/month in Net Profits.

1b) To sell CPM-based Advertising…Impressions matter. Perhaps you are spending $2000 on a specific keyword that is driving 30,000 visits per month. If each visitor has an average of 10 page views, and you have 5 ad spots on each page…Then you could potentially make a fortune on Ad Revenue.

1c) Branding Campaign:
Keyword Ranking can impact the success of a Search Branding Campaign. Although, keyword value is not typically measured as one of the success metrics in a Branding campaign.

2) Based on the answer 1a, the position can certainly influence the keyword’s current value because research has shown that a higher position gets more traffic than listings lower on the page, or outside of the Golden Triangle.

3) A person or company might want to own the traffic on a specific term (eg: Brands). A name can be a brand. Especially, in the case of a political, or reputation management campaign. The value of a Keyword could be extremely high, even in the abscence of any kind of ROI.

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1. Splash Pages: Bad for Usability, Bad for SEO
2. 10 Tactics for Video Optimization