This is an article ‘Forecasting SEO growth in 2023’ by Marc Primo Warren
Not to be too ominous, but 2023 may curtail many significant marketing resources and staff numbers across industries. Because of the current shaky state of the economy, these business predictions are slowly becoming new trends we all have to weather. To ensure a fair share of resources in this fiscal climate, SEO marketers must now, more than ever, be able to define their projects' value and future return on investment. This development will entail predicting how a particular resource level will spur growth above any other SEO facet.
Such adjustments can be complicated in SEO because the procedures combine art and math. We all know that the results of most organic marketing efforts are not necessarily quantifiable in the same manner as paid advertising channels. The latter provides precise benchmarks for the number of clicks and impressions you may anticipate for a given budget. Given all this, it may be challenging to offer specific responses when clients or potential clients ask crucial questions.
The importance of SEO forecasting
Establishing clear expectations is essential in business, particularly when planning for the future. SEO forecasting can help companies understand where to allocate resources to drive digital marketing growth. While you may have case studies to support your approach, it's important to remember that your competitors likely do as well.
So, what sets you apart from the competition? The key is to connect the dots and show how your plan can help a potential client outperform their keyword competitors in a constantly changing market and how that translates into increased revenue. You can differentiate yourself from other SEO and marketing agencies by demonstrating how your strategies can directly improve a client's profits and win the contract.
However, the real question is if we could determine how much traffic we can achieve in a period and what our efforts translate to in terms of revenue when doing SEO. Marketers may effectively argue for the significance of their efforts by showcasing a thorough understanding of the variables that affect SEO performance and how to optimize for them.
Despite the inherent uncertainty of SEO, it's possible to forecast and provide directional answers to questions about expected traffic and impact on revenue.
Read on to find out how.
Establish time frame and benchmarks
It's crucial to keep this in mind when developing a forecasting template: SEO forecasting accuracy demands using mature data as a point of reference. Making growth rate forecasts based on data from the first few months of your website's traffic record is likely to produce false results.
Instead, you should pick a precise time frame that more accurately captures the traffic history of your website. This period should also account for any occasions or elements that might have unintentionally influenced your online traffic, such as site transfers, one-time ad campaigns, extended disruptions, and others.
Determine the average month-over-month rate of increase after choosing your benchmarking data, taking into account seasonal variations to smooth out any erratic traffic spikes or drops. Doing this gives you a solid base to project future traffic and performance.
Once you have established your historical benchmarking data, you can use it to begin forecasting future traffic and performance. Create a column that reflects your historical data per date; then, you can list the average month-on-month growth rate on another column and fill up your forecasting baseline.
You can also use the "forecast" formula in Google Sheets to predict future traffic based on a linear regression of your dataset. This formula takes the previous year's data and produces a forecast not based on a flat month-over-month growth rate. Instead, it displays an analysis of the entire dataset. The values in your actual traffic rate and traffic forecast columns should represent your forecasting models for your traffic growth if you let it continue on its momentum. The results should be consistent and feasible without applying any other additional SEO resources.
Forecasting SEO traffic
The 5th column on your template is where your proper SEO forecasting should reflect. It should take your historical SEO data per date and apply a range of expected growth percentages based on the projected SEO resources you will have available. It's up to you to set the two fields you need to calculate the anticipated growth.
For example, you can create one conservative range for the first three months of your annual SEO efforts to allow traction for your chosen focused keywords and momentum to build for newly in-focus keywords. Your second range should be your more aggressive gauge for the following nine months.
Analyze the keywords you want to rank for in the coming year to determine the predicted growth ranges. Consider the monthly search volume for these phrases. Use an actual click-through rate (CTR) to calculate the possible amount of traffic you could get if you were on page one for these searches for roughly nine months (it typically takes as long to reach a higher ranking). The figures that turn up will offer you a general notion of how your SEO efforts affect traffic.
Take last notes
Due to the continually changing nature of search engines and results pages (SERPs), which might have unanticipated effects on traffic, predicting the impact of SEO activities is a different science. Remember that this data should be seen as illustrative rather than conclusive and that it might not consider outside factors influencing organic growth for brand keywords, such as planned site revamps or adjustments in the marketing budget.
Despite these drawbacks, forecasts can still serve as a helpful point of reference for groups considering investing in SEO soon. It gives an idea of the probable traffic and progress that SEO activities could produce and can assist in guiding decisions on resource allocation. To present this information in a way that makes your case for SEO budget allocations worth it, you must use the correct Excel formulas combined with your talent to report the real deal regarding campaign progress.
Knowing how to prepare your SEO forecasting template correctly and with the correct data will give you a clear overview of what to expect in the coming year. Aside from that, it can also prepare you for how you can brace for any other disruption that may arise.