The Only Metric That Matters
Statistics are a fact of life for most SEOs. We have metrics for virtually every aspect of web marketing, with some extra statistics thrown in for good measure. That said, it’s amazing how often many marketers allow themselves to get distracted by these statistics. Ultimately, however, there’s only one metric that really matters - ROI.
Whether you’re using PPC, organic SEO, or a combination of both, you need to be sure that you are getting more for your efforts than you’re spending. Costs need to be figured in both dollars spent (of you’re using PPC and CPM advertising) and time taken to create and manage the channel.
From a PPC perspective, what good are cheap clicks if your cost per conversion is greater than your profit?
By the same token, are the terms you are targeting with your SEO campaigns relevant enough, and is there enough volume on those keywords to justify the amount of time you are taking to gain those rankings?