SEO teams need to track Customer Acquisition Costs like paid teams. They think it helps their cause by pretending that SEO costs are magical and mysterious.
Not being as straight as possible about CAC means that it becomes harder for leadership to make apples to apples comparisons versus other channels which also means that budgets become more of a gamble.
It also lends credence to the "SEO is free" voices because SEO teams refuse to develop a CAC.
Organic search isn't "free" - it costs time, strategy, and real resources. Yet most SEO teams are still celebrating traffic instead of tracking real business impact.
4 quick wins to level up your SEO game:
➡️Map content to actual conversion paths
➡️Calculate the true cost of that traffic
➡️ Treat organic search like the performance channel it is
⛳️ Use a spreadsheet like the one I have here to show when your SEO effort will break even. (Comment "interested" and I will share the work-in-progress sheet I make for consulting clients.)
Your rankings mean nothing if they're not driving efficient customer acquisition.
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