📈 How to prove SEO value to clients (Strategy to retain clients)

Learn how to retain your SEO clients with this reporting template

Most SEOs share growth metrics like traffic, impressions, and maybe the number of leads generated in their reporting.

While this provides an overview of SEO’s current growth status, clients only care about the business value generated from SEO.

When doing monthly SEO reports, give less importance to:

• Traffic growth

• Number of backlinks you’ve acquired

• Number of pages published

• Domain rating

Instead, you should give the more importance to:

• Monetary value generated from SEO (primary)

• Number of leads (secondary)

After reading this episode, you’ll learn how to present the SEO value with a visual chart like this:

Here's how to show the true value generated from SEO:

Step 0: Get the basic metrics

Before you start, ensure you have the following metrics from your SEO:

1. Average cost per lead

How to calculate:

• Figure out the average CPC in your niche (use Semrush or Keyword Planner)

• Find an average traffic-to-leads conversion rate in your industry

Calculate Cost per lead = (CPC/ Traffic to leads conversion rate)

2. Number of leads generated through SEO

How to calculate:

• Setup conversions in GA4

3. Average order value

How to calculate: You can ask your client about the average order value for clarity (you should know this value even before starting an SEO project)

4. Leads to sales conversion rate

How to calculate: Generally, the conversion rate varies from 1 to 5% (depending on the industry). Ask your clients to get the average conversion rate.

Step 1. Calculate the monetary value of leads generated

This step is basically about knowing the worth of total leads generated from SEO.

Calculate:

SEO value from leads acquired = CPL * Number of Leads

Example:

Organic leads acquired in the last 30 days = 646

CPL = ₹307.29

Now, leads value = 646 × 307.29 = ₹198,016.34

Here’s an example of finding the monetary value of monthly generated leads:

Step 2. Calculate the sales generated from SEO

Once you know the average order value and conversion rate, you can easily calculate the revenue generated from SEO.

Example:

Assume leads to sales conversion rate = 2%

Average order value = ₹15000

Organic leads acquired in the last 30 days = 646

Total Sales = 646×0.02 = 12.92 ~ 13

Total revenue generated from SEO = 13 * 15000 = ₹195,000

Step 3. Calculate the total monetary value of SEO

Here’s how to calculate the combined value of leads and sales generated from SEO:

Total Cost to Generate Leads = ₹198,016.34

Total Revenue from Sales = ₹195,000

Total monetary value of SEO = 198,016.34 + 195,000 = 393,016.34 = ₹3.93Lakhs

Step 4. Show the value in SEO reporting

Report this monetary value as the first thing in your SEO reporting. What matters the most to your client is the actual business impact.

By showing this monetary value generated from SEO will help the client to visualize the total impact and ROI.

Imagine how helpful it will be for the clients if you show this monetary value growth over the months.

Here’s an example chart you can use:

If required you can also use your historical data to create a forecast chart.

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Let's make SEO the biggest growth engine for your brand.

We started Accrue SERP with one clear goal— making SEO an outcome-based marketing channel (leads, signups, & conversions) rather than chasing site traffic that doesn’t add any business value to your bottom line.

Let’s schedule a 15 to 30-minute meeting to understand how we can help you achieve business growth with our outcome-based SEO services in India.

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