Timothy Carter

On-site SEO is all about calibrating content for maximum searchability. From keyword research to backlinks to word length, there are several factors that impact search engine optimization (SEO). Is there an ideal ratio of keywords to total word count for a piece of content to rank well in SERPs? In this post, we’ll go over what keyword density means, whether it’s important for SEO, and some actionable tips for you to get the most out of keywords. What is Keyword Density? Quite simply, keyword density is the number of times a keyword appears or is used on a webpage relative to the page’s total word count. Usually, keyword density is expressed in the form a of a percentage that can be calculated with the following formula: Number of target keywords / total number of words = keyword density For example, a blog article on how to take care of goldfish might use the keyword “goldfish” 13 times in a post of 1000 words. In this case, one would divide 13 by 1000 to arrive at 0.013. Multiply 0.013 by 100 to get the percentage, and you have 1.3%. So, the blog article has a keyword density of 1.3%. Once you learn how, calculating keyword density is simple. The real question becomes exactly how important is keyword density for SEO. Is Keyword Density Important for SEO? Keywords themselves are integral to SEO. They tell search engines what a piece of content is about, so the search engine can know where to display it in search engine results pages. For marketers, targeting keywords is an effective way to attract leads to a product or service. In the early years of search engines, some marketers would try to game the system by stuffing their content with keywords. For example, many booking agencies would keyword stuff their webpage footers with phrases like “cheap hotels paris” or “cheap hotels nyc” just to increase their SERP ranking. And back then, keyword stuffing was somewhat effective. Source: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/irrelevant-keywords However, search engines have since evolved to detect and penalize keyword-stuffed content. Major algorithm changes like Google’s Panda, Hummingbird, and RankBrain updates have ensured that only quality content ranks. The 2011 Panda update started penalizing thin content and unusually high keyword density. The 2013 Hummingbird update placed greater emphasis on natural language. The 2015 RankBrain update allowed AI technology to alter search ranking depending on the keyword. Together, these algorithm changes make keyword stuffing unviable. Now, keyword stuffing gets webpages demoted or even removed because it’s considered a black hat SEO tactic in bad taste. That said, content still needs to have the keyword spread throughout. Otherwise, search engines won’t know what the content is about. But reaching an optimal keyword density is much less important than other SEO factors. In 2014, John Mueller from Google said, “Keyword density, in general, is something I wouldn’t focus on . . . Search engines have kind of moved on from there.” Many agree that SEO keyword density is less important than it once was. If anything, search engines like Google put more weight on keyword clustering. They try to understand content thematically by identifying topic clusters. To do this, they look at semantically related words. For example, instead of only crawling web pages for a single keyword like “goldfish,” Google acknowledges related terms like “fish food” and “fish tank” to better understand what the content is about overall. Furthermore, search engines take into account keyword variations, also known as “stemming.” Examples include plurals or alternate conjugations of a word. Returning to our previous “goldfish” example, keyword variations would include “goldfishes.” On a basic level, keyword density does matter for SEO, especially if you want to target keywords and rank for competitive terms. You should always strive to include keywords, their variations, and related keywords in your content. That way, search engines index and rank your content for your target keyword. The Ideal Keyword Density for SEO Remember our keyword density formula calculation from above: Even if keyword density is not a top SEO factor, it’s worth knowing a range for keyword density, just so your content avoids having too few or too many repetitions of the keyword. Most SEO experts believe the ideal keyword density is 1-2%. Of course, Google has never established an ideal keyword density, so the answers vary depending on who you ask. WordPress SEO plugin creator Yoast, for example, recommends a keyword density of anywhere from 0.5 to 3%. But on average, the 1 to 2% range is the most accepted range. That means a 1000-word piece should contain the target keyword anywhere from 10 to 20 times. In our previous example, you would include the word “goldfish” 10 to 20 times if the article were 1000 words long. Tips on Keyword Density When it comes to keyword density, focus first on writing for readers. Nobody wants to read something that sounds forced or artificial. Your content should read naturally. Only after the content is written should you go back to check keyword density. You can check keyword density manually with the formula provided earlier or with a tool like the Yoast SEO plugin or the Moz On-page SEO Grader. Keep in mind, synonyms don’t count toward keyword density. So just count the actual keyword and its stem variations. Also, longer keywords tend to have more weight with Google than shorter keywords. So if you have a long-tail keyword, aim for a lower keyword density limit of 1%. But if your keyword is short like “goldfish,” go ahead and aim for that upper limit of 2%. You can also use a technique called the Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) to identify the right keyword. TF-IDF analyzes keyword frequency within a piece of content while also devaluing common words that say little about the subject. For example, words like “and,” “a,” and “the” are common but irrelevant to the topic. Hence, they are weighted less, while unique terms like “goldfish” are valued more. TF-IDF can help you

Most website owners understand it’s important to build links for optimum SEO results. However, you can’t just swap links with any old site anymore and get the results you want. Link relevance is a critical component of SEO success. For instance, it would be rare for a website about law to link to a cannabis site with commercial-intent anchor text. This guide will explain what link relevance is and why it matters for your site SEO. What is Link Relevance in SEO? Link relevance refers to the content similarity and usefulness of the linking website when they link to yours. The long and short of it is you need links from websites that are related to your site. If you own a mortgage refinance website, it isn’t relevant to have links to websites about classic cars. Even if those car websites are highly ranked in Google, this won’t help your rank. Why does Google focus so much today on link relevance? Here’s why: It gives Google a better idea of what your site is about, including the types of products or services you sell. It stops black-hat link builders from putting up websites with thousands of random links that are irrelevant to your site. Google has the ability to understand how relevant the link is from each domain, page, and even link to page. The name of the game is natural link authenticity and disambiguation. Link Relevancy Or Link Authority? Most of us can agree that a successful link-building strategy is centered on getting recognition from related, authoritative websites. But many people who write content wonder, is link relevancy or authority more critical to Google success? It’s a bit of both! While most of us would like to see our site mentioned in Forbes.com, getting links from relevant websites tells the search engines what you’re about and the searches you should rank for. If you sell automotive parts, you will want links, if possible, to sites such as Autoweek and Car and Driver. Even if those sites don’t have as much authority as yours, they’re still important links to have. You’re building backlinks that show search engines you’re an authority in the auto repair space and will rank for search terms that are most vital in your niche. Also, consider the kinds of sites that don’t have sufficient authority that you probably don’t want to link to, even if they’re relevant. The best link building strategy incorporates a blended approach that will work the best over the long term. When you have doubt, you should prioritize link building on sites that are related to what you offer. How Do You Quantify Link Relevance? Link relevancy is a bit of a gray area, but there are several principles to follow so you ensure your methodology is logical and you’re getting links that really help you: Review Your Site Content Strategy Look at the blog posts and landing pages you make every month. Does every topic seem logical for your niche and brand? Or, are some of the pieces less relevant to your brand? If you want to improve your site’s link relevance, you might need to nudge your content strategy to things that more align with your outer markets. Many SEO experts find that content that is driven by data is the best way to come up with content that ties into your brand and gets you coveted links from authoritative properties. Review Your Backlinks You may feel fantastic about your link-building methodology, but it always helps to take a close look. Many SEOs use Majestic to figure out the trust flow and topical trust flow of their domain. Topical Trust Flow on Majestic indicates the type of website Google thinks yours is and areas where it sees you as authoritative. If you have the right link-building strategy, the list will generally align with your services or products. If you’re a small mortgage lender, for example, you will want to have sites that you’re getting links from to be in the mortgage, real estate brokerage and real estate law niches. It also helps to check Trust Score to see if your site is trustworthy in Google’s eyes. This tool predicts the authority of a page, given that the most trustworthy sites usually link to other sites that are trustworthy. How To Improve the Relevancy of Your Backlinks   Google has stated in the past that it will penalize sites that buy links or do link swaps. They say the way to get links to high-quality sites is to create unique content that is of value to others in the Internet community. There are a few proven ways you can make your site links more relevant: Perform Outreach To Sites in Your Niche When you work on link building, reach out to other sites that are in your field or niche. You should look for sites that solve similar problems or have the same audience. Also, remember to check the site’s domain authority to ensure it’s a site you want to link to in the first place. Connecting to spammy and Google-penalized sites can damage your site’s brand and rank. Write Unique Content Of course, writing the best, unique content you can is always vital to improving your link relevancy and rank. Answer common questions your audience has and offer new content that addresses those issues. If you stick to it over the weeks and months, you’ll improve your link relevance for sure. Focus On Relevant Anchor Text It’s not just important to build relevant links; you also need to have the best anchor text because it’s vital to how valuable and relevant those coveted links are. Many SEOs say you should come up with guidelines for forming anchor text that makes the best sense for the links you get. You should use branded keywords more than generic words such as ‘click here’ and ‘infographic.’ Summary We hope we’ve showed how important link relevance is to your site rank. It’s one

If you want your SEO agency to continue growing, earning more revenue and enjoying more stability, you’ll need to ensure you have a steady stream of new clients—or increased sales from your existing client base. But investing time and resources on new SEO clients can spread your team thin. So how do successful agency owners find new SEO clients without compromising their existing workflows? When the SEO Industry is Growing, But Your SEO Business Isn’t… As an industry that continues to grow, organic search is also extremely competitive. All sales and marketing strategies need to start with sound principles, and any competent agency knows this. By adhering to these foundational principles, you’ll not only increase your chances of getting seen, but you’ll also demonstrate your knowledge of marketing fundamentals: Demographic targeting. All your strategies should be targeted to one specific demographic (or multiple specific demographics, with a segmented strategy on your target audience). Aiming your words, ads, and sales pitches toward more specific audiences means you’ll instantly reduce your competition and simultaneously increase your relevance to that demographic. The better you understand the demographic, and the more finely tuned your SEO strategy is, the more effective it’s going to be. Competitive differentiation. There are dozens, if not hundreds of marketing agencies like yours, so what makes yours different? In Google Ads, marketing materials, and sales pitches, it’s vital to showcase how you’re different. That might mean lower prices, higher-quality services, a field of specialty, or even better customer service. In any case, it’s imperative to stand out. There are those who drill down into markets like SEO for lawyers or SEO for dentists. Sometimes niching down may be exactly what you need. Valuable offers. If you’re going to persuade new clients to enlist your services, you need to convince them of the value you bring. Don’t just pitch a new service; explain how that service is going to yield a positive ROI. Don’t just tell them a strategy is important, or that their competitors are already using it; show them the numbers, and explain how the strategy will affect their bottom line. Experimentation. No client acquisition strategy starts out flawless. The only way to improve is to try different approaches, measure the results, and adjust your tactics in the future. Outbound Strategies Ultimately, every strategy can qualify as an “outbound” or “inbound” attempt to acquire SEO clients. Outbound strategies rely on intentionally reaching out to new prospects, pitching them on your services and persuading them to pull the trigger on a new contract. They come in many forms, but typically include traditional advertising and the use of an in-house team of salespeople. Cold emailing: Identify potential SEO leads and reach out to them through email, highlighting the benefits of SEO and how it can improve their business. LinkedIn outreach: Use LinkedIn to search for businesses that could benefit from your services and reach out to them through direct messages. Networking events: Attend industry events, conferences, and meetups to network with potential local businesses and offer local SEO services. Referral programs: Offer existing clients incentives for referring new clients who could benefit from your SEO expertise. Guest posting: Write guest posts for industry blogs and include a call-to-action that offers a good hook to would-be clients. Cold calling: Reach out to potential SEO customers through phone calls, highlighting the benefits of SEO and how it can improve their business. You can even offer incentives like free SEO audits or competitive keyword research. Content marketing: Create valuable content on your website, such as blog posts and whitepapers, that can help pipeline prospects understand the value of you could provide and how they can benefit. Direct mail: Send targeted mailers to potential SEO clients, highlighting the benefits of SEO and how it can improve their business. Social media: Use social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to reach out to potential prospects and promote your SEO business. Outbound strategies can be effective, but they require strict attention to efficiency. Hiring a team of full-time sales members might seem like a strong way to secure new sales, but it’s only worthwhile if you’re properly incentivizing those team members, measuring your results, and constantly tweaking your approach for improvement. The other problem with outbound strategies is that they tend to have finite value; a targeted ad is only useful so long as it remains paid for, and your list of prospects is only valuable until you’ve exhausted it. Inbound strategies, by contrast, don’t suffer from these drawbacks. Inbound Strategies Inbound strategies consist of tactics designed to naturally increase the visibility and attractiveness of your brand (and website). Again, there are many forms here, but search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing are some of the most common. Inbound marketing has several advantages over its outbound counterpart. Most of the strategies you’ll use here are permanent, or at least long-term, and will yield value indefinitely, increasing their ROI over time. They forgo the need for a robust full-time team of salespeople. And most inbound strategies are infinitely scalable; in other words, they can serve businesses of any size and at any stage of growth. The best benefit of inbound strategies is that nearly all of them complement one another; investing in two strategies simultaneously can improve your results in both areas. Investing in multiple strategies can eventually result in a polished, lead-generating machine—and one that doesn’t require much maintenance. For example, take the cohesion between these inbound marketing strategies: Search engine optimization (SEO). SEO relies on both onsite and offsite changes that increase your site’s rankings in search engines. Search engines like Google measure your site’s authority based on its available content, its technical advantages, and the number and quality of links pointing to it, then use your authority to determine how to rank you for queries relevant to the content on your site. There are hundreds of technical factors, like how your site is coded, that could affect your rankings, but perfecting them can make your

SEO is the ideal way to obtain high search rankings for your website organically. Organic listings in Google are trusted more than advertising and paid listings. That’s why business owners invest a lot in search engine optimization. Many companies provide legitimate SEO services, but there are many pretenders out there. If you see a company offering one of the SEO scams we mention here, better keep looking for other, more reputable search engine optimization services. We Guarantee a #1 Placement Who doesn’t want their site to come up first in Google? But most people don’t want to think that a #1 ranking isn’t possible all day, every day. If you don’t believe a #1 search engine placement is a scam, note that Google has said it cannot guarantee top placement in search results. Companies that make that promise should be avoided, the search giant continued. Remember that competition for your niche’s keywords is intense unless you target phrases that few want. Also, your competitors didn’t hit #1 in a day. They’re probably spending thousands per month on SEO and have done it for years. So, if you see a company offering #1 placement for $300 or something, remember this is a classic SEO scam! We Have THE SEO Secret! Here’s the truth: There is no ‘secret sauce’ that one SEO company has that others don’t know about. No one can say they understand every aspect of the Google algorithm, not even Google! That said, there are best practices and techniques that any SEO company worth a darn knows will work over time. If the SEO company doesn’t detail their processes for you, odds are they aren’t doing anything or are using ‘black hat’ methods that can get your domain name blacklisted. Remember that Google holds you accountable for what your SEO does. If they find violations, Google will remove you from their site without warning. The search giant recently said that the business owner is responsible for their contracting companies’ actions, so you need to know how the SEO company is doing their job. Unsolicited Emails Almost all unsolicited emails through your website or personal email should be thrown in the trash. If you didn’t contact the fir, they’re probably part of a massive spam operation. Scrapers and bots find email addresses on the Internet and send out millions of spam emails daily. And check this out: Spam email from SEO companies often shows up in your inbox when your SEO is working, and the site ranks well. So, your current SEO strategy is probably doing the job. We Have Contacts At Google This MIGHT be true sometimes, but it’s misleading. It’s probably not going to help you, anyway. Note that a company may partner with Google for ads, but never for SEO. Google has no financial incentive to provide a business user with an SEO service. But it has a considerable interest in making sure its search algorithm is a secret. A partner in Google advertising has an account representative who works with them to manage their advertising campaigns. It doesn’t mean they have insider info on its search algorithm. You’ll Get a Zillion visitors To Your Site Per Day These ‘targeted visitors’ probably are just fake traffic produced by a bot. Traffic alone is only a phony metric. Conversions won’t change from fake traffic that totally misses search intent. Further, bot traffic affects the site’s Google Analytics data, so you should pass on these offers. Our Link Building Is The Best A link building scammer may offer to create thousands of links to your site. Somehow, all these excellent links will boost your search results. Backlink quality is one of Google’s algorithm’s most vital parts. A quality link to your site means it comes from a respected and trusted website. You can’t pay for quality links. They don’t come easily. If your site has thousands of links from no-name websites, Google will think you’re trying to manipulate their search engine. You don’t want that. Google will detect link schemes and penalize your site if it has an abnormal link profile. The search engine finds link building schemes quickly and will ding your site. They might even take manual action on your site and damage your ranking. Your Site Is Submitted to Hundreds of Search Engines If you get this offer, look at the search engines they mention. You’ll probably notice most are fake or have been history for many years. Remember: 3 search engines on Earth account for almost 100% of search traffic. They are: Google Bing Yahoo The rest don’t matter or don’t exist. Free Trial Some SEO companies give you a free trial for up to a month. This is desperation to pick up new clients. A skilled SEO company never offers services for free. Additionally, 30 days isn’t enough to produce results. Even Google says most SEOs need four months to a year to obtain benefits. If you fire your current company and take a 30-day-free offer, the new SEO could do NOTHING for a month, and they’ll get credit for the results. We’ll Do It Better For Less The SEO company has no idea what your current company is doing, so how can they make this promise? This is pure deception. Second, no matter what the new guys do, you probably won’t see any results for at least 60 days. The SEO process takes months to work. Also, you probably won’t see a traffic reduction after many months, so they’re deceiving you that they can do it for less. The SEO Company Owns and Hosts Your Domain Watch out for this one! Some SEOs will take over your online presence by owning the URL and hosting. But what if you decide to part ways? Now your SEO company controls you. Don’t expect them to give you the best customer service when you drop them as a vendor. Always own your domain yourself and use a hosting company separate from the SEO agency. Summary

While certain SEO fundamentals, like maintaining a regular and high-quality content strategy, still apply to local businesses, entrepreneurs also need to take measures to optimize their online presence for a local community. If you’re looking for simple, local SEO tips, try some or all of these 15 actionable ideas for improving your local SEO and Google business profile: 1. Optimize your site with location-based keywords. First and foremost, use onsite title tags and metadescriptions to maximize your geographical relevance. For example, if your homepage’s title tag currently reads “Unique coffee shop,” change it to read “City, State unique coffee shop” or something similar. Use variations of your location, such as Seattle, Seattle Washington, and Seattle WA to avoid duplication and optimize for multiple potential queries. 2. Create location-relevant blog posts. This is a long-term local SEO strategy that will improve your ranking in local search results and win you more local customers as well. Blog about things that are currently happening in your city that might have to do with your business or industry. For example, if you own a coffee shop and the city is making renovations to a park down the street, talk about how it’s going to benefit your community! And of course, use lots of location-specific keywords. 3. Make sure your contact info is consistent, everywhere. Sometimes referred to as “NAP” (standing for name, address, and phone number), your onsite contact info is vitally important for SEO. If Google detects even the slightest formatting inconsistency, such as displaying “Rd” in one area and “Road” in another, it could penalize your local rankings. Ensure its consistency across all your pages, and on your offsite profiles as well. Titles and Descriptions The first things to look at are your titles and meta descriptions. Are they narrowly local to your area? If not, then you need to change them so that they are. Example: If you have a page for Kansas City Events in 2013, you want that to be specifically portrayed. You don’t want a title like “Local Events in 2013.” You want it to say specifically: “Kansas City Events in 2013.” Meta descriptions may not be a ranking factor the way they once were, but more often than not they are what’s seen on the search results page. The terms you use will show up as bold text in the title and as the description on the search results page if they match the words that someone was searching for. 4. Create a specific location page. Google will penalize you if you have too many pages that only exist to boost page rank, but it’s a good idea to have one page that details your physical location. You can include this on a contact page, but it’s better if you title your page in line with your physical location. Include map integration, and multiple ways to contact your business. Optimizing your images is something you should be doing as well. That goes for every website, but it can work wonders for local businesses. Next time you’re at an event or out on a job, take photos. Use them in your blog posts. Before you upload them to your site, make sure that the filename, description, and ALT tags mention your local area. Using Google Maps can be tremendously helpful for your local site. But most businesses don’t realize just how much you can do with them. Do you offer a service of some kind? Let’s say that you specialize in kitchen remodeling, okay? Now that you know you should be taking photos on every job, you should have lots of photos of your work to show. This is where it gets good! (I do have to mention that this does cost a bit of money, but you’ll see why it’s so worth it.) You can use a map of your local area to highlight jobs you’ve done. Each one gets its own placement on the map. Each one will have a thumbnail of the photo for that job and a link to a post or page that goes into more depth about it. So essentially, you’re creating localized pages for each job, which gives you that many more pages of localized content on autopilot. Each map icon of each job also gets indexed as a page in Google! The posts that are created for each icon are done so in GEO-Tagged microdata format, which Google, Bing, and Yahoo! all love. So how’s all this possible? It’s done with a WP plugin. (Sorry, you’re kinda outta luck if you aren’t on WordPress). It’s called WP Map Folio. 5. Set up all your social media profiles (if you haven’t yet). You probably already have a Facebook page, but you need to go the extra mile. Even if you don’t plan on updating every profile regularly, it’s important to claim as many profiles as you can. Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn are the power players in social media, but don’t neglect your other options. Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Snapchat can all help improve your local authority. 6. Ensure your listing with Google Local or Google My Business Google Local Businesses recently combined with Google+, so if you already have a Google+ profile, you’re halfway there. Fill out your profile completely—Google is a stickler for details. Make sure your name, address, and phone number are all consistent, and post your business hours so your potential customers can easily see them when they search for you. 7. Create local listings wherever you can. After Google’s recent so-called “Pigeon update,” the importance of local directories has significantly risen. In fact, some directory pages on Yelp! are actually outranking company pages in branded local searches. Check out every local directory that’s relevant to your business, such as Yelp!, Urbanspoon, and TripAdvisor, and make sure your business has a presence there. It’s also a good idea to make sure your information is up-to-date. There are a number of local SEO tools available to assist in automating much of the setup here. We provide

Search engine optimization (SEO) is multi-faceted and complex. Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of an SEO campaign is even more daunting, especially when direct results cannot always easily be tied to specific inputs. It’s the old John Wanamaker conundrum: Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half. Fortunately in today’s paid marketing, it’s much easier to target waste and bloat by knowing how your PPC ad spend is working (or not). But not when it comes to organic search traffic. In SEO, correlation is often inappropriately tied to causation, which may not always be the case. In this guide we discuss the specifics of measuring the ROI of your SEO campaigns, particularly your off-page SEO in building links and promoting content. In doing so, we assume your site passes the table stakes metrics required for optimal on-page SEO including quality content, Core Web Vitals, internal linking, proper title/meta/h1, etc. In the next several sections, we’re going to teach you how to measure both the costs and the value of your link building (and link outreach) campaign, and determine which of your links and offsite content are making the biggest impact. From there, you’ll be able to optimize your link building campaign for a higher return on investment, or ROI—and much more impressive long-term results. SEO Link Building Value: More Than Higher Search Engine Rankings Understand that the true value of your link building campaign is about more than just higher search engine rankings. It can’t be tied to any single variable. Instead, your link building outreach campaign must be considered in a variety of different performance areas: Organic rankings (and traffic). Though not the only barometer for value you’ll use, there’s no denying the importance of search engine rankings and the organic traffic they generate. Google and other search engines measure the relative “trustworthiness” of a site in terms of domain authority, or DA, which is calculated with a complex formula that heavily depends on existing links pointing to various sites. Generally, the more links a site has pointing to it, and the higher-authority those links are, the higher its DA will be. Referral traffic. Organic traffic isn’t the only source of traffic generated by links. Depending on the publisher you use, the audience to whom you’re writing, and the positioning of your link, it’s easily possible to generate more visitors in referral traffic than you generate in organic traffic—especially early on in your campaign. User behavior. Traffic is always nice to earn, but the value of that traffic can vary. For example, if you’re running an SEO or PPC campaign on an eCommerce site, your conversion rate will be directly linked to sales, and it’s going to play a massive role in your eventual success. In scenario 1, you’ll get 35,000 visitors a month with a conversion rate of 1 percent, resulting in 350 conversions total. In scenario 2, you’ll get 25,000 visitors a month and a conversion rate of 2 percent, resulting in 500 conversions total. Scenario 2, despite lower traffic, is the favored option. This is important to consider because the nature of your link building campaign can influence user behavior once they’re onsite. Secondary effects. SEO also has a host of secondary effects, most of which are much harder to measure than the primary benefits preceding this list item. For example, if you have a guest author profile on a publication site, you could generate referral traffic from this blurb. If you mention your brand name consistently enough in your links, you’re going to improve your search visibility and reputation—even for people who don’t click your links. Plus, building authority on small- to mid-sized publishers can set you up for even bigger opportunities, resulting in a kind of ladder-climb; in this way, every link you build carries value in supporting the future of your campaign. Some of these impact variables will matter more to you than others. For example, your brand may be especially eager to outrank your top competitors in search engines. However, it’s hard to argue with objective outcomes; if it’s possible to generate more total traffic, as well as traffic more likely to convert, from referrals than organic traffic, it will benefit you to optimize your approach accordingly. The Big Picture of SEO ROI Let’s turn our attention to the main premise of this piece: SEO ROI. The high-level view is that SEO ROI is a function of two variables: costs and profits. If you spend $500 on a campaign and you generate $600 in revenue from it, that’s an ROI of $100, or 20 percent, depending on how you want to measure it. In the realm of link building, costs can be tricky to measure, since you’ll need to factor in both time and money. If you’re working with a link building agency, things get a bit simpler, since you’re only dealing with one cost variable. In the next section, we’ll explain how to accurately project your costs. And as you can see from the previous section, outcomes can also be difficult to measure; there are many benefits of link building, both direct and indirect, and you’ll need to factor all of them into your final SEO ROI equation. In several sections that follow, we’ll explore how to measure the impact of your links, including how much traffic they’re generating, how they’re improving your search engine rankings, and how they’re influencing user behavior on your site. For both costs and value, you’ll need to consider both your overall SEO strategy and each individual link; for example, if your strategy is performing well, but a certain type of link seems to be underperforming compared to the others, you can weed out whatever strategy is producing that link in favor of something more in line with what’s generating your results. Some publishers will outperform others, and some pieces of onsite content will be more rewarding as link destinations than others. Measuring Your Off-site