Perfection in SEO is elusive. There are many variables that shape this reality: unknown search algorithms, ongoing competition risks, recommended content freshness considerations. Following guidelines and implementing keywords may result in a quick boost, but over time an SEO effort needs to be maintained and measured to maximize results. This presents a challenge shared between both the SEO strategist and the enterprising SEO client: How do I justify an ongoing SEO investment to my [client/boss/accountant/self]? This analysis will serve as a starting point for that conversation.

To analyze the benefits of ongoing SEO, one must consider the various shifting elements in SEO and the amount of work required to outperform competition. Ultimately an ROI calculation is beneficial for analyzing SEO investments.

Short-Term Boost or Long-Term Effectiveness

Companies that invest in SEO typically have one goal in mind: Increase sales generated online. With that in mind, it's easy for a business owner to begin to lose a little interest in financing the SEO effort after they begin to see ranking performance and traffic improvements. However short-term SEO benefits are only a small proportion of the long-term benefits with respect to generating sales online. Further, a short-term SEO strategy rarely results in long-term effectiveness

Without a continuing effort to keep content fresh, build links, and increase website exposure, rankings and traffic can lose steam quickly. Search engines put higher value on fresh content, and their algorithm updates will result in occasional shifts in keyword rankings. Your competition also isn't likely to stand pat as they watch you move up the search results, so it's important to keep building links and distributing content to increase your search reputability. In essence a monthly budget for maintenance, monitoring, link building, and sharing is a necessity to optimize SEO performance.

SEO is an Ongoing Tactical Measure, Not a Campaign

Setting aside the performance risks of short-term SEO service, consider that an SEO guru operates in a competitive environment with unknown algorithms, and builds long-term branding value in the process. An SEO guru will follow guidelines to achieve and maintain initial rankings, but over time a good SEO will also perform measurements and tests based on competition, hypotheses, and keyword factors to keep their client ahead of the game and moving forward. Explaining the core fundamentals of this consideration is the clearest way to explain why ongoing service is a worthwhile investment.

In fact, customers that are looking for a one-time campaign-like boost in sales are probably not great candidates for an SEO effort. These companies are foregoing any long-term branding benefits and competitive advantages associated with well-funded SEO efforts. They'd be better off carrying out an email blast or Pay-Per-Click effort.

SEO Maintenance Guide


SEO maintenance is carried out on an ongoing basis with measures performed at varying frequencies, similar to a car maintenance schedule.

  • Webmaster Tool Checks (Weekly or More)
    • Crawler Access Settings and Errors
    • Keyword and Search Query List
    • Sitemap Maintenance
  • Analytics Checks (Monthly or More)
    • Traffic Performance
    • Bounce Rate, Exit Pages, etc.
  • Content Maintenance (Monthly or More)
    • META Tag Maintenance
    • Content Freshness
  • Social Media (Monthly or More)
    • Link-Building
    • Sharing and Content Distribution
  • Search Performance Monitoring (Quarterly or More)
    • Keyword Ranking Checks
    • Competitor Analysis

These tasks can be time-consuming due to the inexact nature of search, but experience and quality reporting can help structure the proper service levels.

Ongoing SEO ROI Calculation

Ongoing SEO ROI will be assessed based on converted sales. First a business owner must determine the estimated value of a new lead. This can be hard to deduce, so err on the side of a smaller-scale customer. For a real estate agent, this may be approximately $1000, or ~7% of a $150,000 home sale. For ease of analysis, we will also assume he's targeting a 20% return on his SEO investment.

With this in mind, to justify an SEO investment of $2,000 + $500 a month ($8,000 annual investment) this agent must earn at least $9,600 over the year via sales generated online. Thus ten home sales will cover the 20% required ROI for online-generated home sales.

To determine accurate measurements, the agent must directly connect ten home sales with an online lead. For large-margin clients such as real estate agents, a post-sale questionnaire or pre-sale application can often help discover lead sources. For smaller-margin clients, it is generally a good idea to capture and store form submissions for ROI measurement, and perform checks with analytics and webmaster search traffic information. Landing pages, promo codes, and ecommerce can also make the process easier.