The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
Testing out a new paid marketing channel is relatively easy. You can assign someone in-house, allocate some test budget, and pretty quickly quantify the return on your investment.
Testing out SEO can be quite a bit trickier:
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Results often take time (more than six months)
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If results do materialize, they’re often hard to quantify or attribute to any one project
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It’s more than just a financial investment — you'll usually need product resources as well
There are exceptions but most companies can’t say: "let's spend $10K on SEO over the next few months and see if there's potential there". You have to take a leap of faith, and weighing that leap of faith against very quantifiable, much more immediate projects isn't always easy.
I've seen this issue firsthand, first as a consultant at Distilled, then working in-house on SEO at Etsy, SeatGeek, and now Course Hero. So, here's my attempt at a framework for investing in SEO:
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Should you invest in SEO in the first place?
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How much should you invest in SEO?
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How should you structure your SEO investment?
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How should you measure your SEO investment?
This post will not cover what SEO work is actually worthwhile, or how to determine your SEO strategy, or how to hire the right SEO, or what tools to use, etc. Those are all aspects of investing in SEO that very much depend on your unique context. That said, hopefully this framework will help you navigate those questions.
Should you invest in SEO in the first place?
The most relevant question here is, how big is the addressable search market? A company like Slack