What are the ways to forecast SEO growth?
SEO strategies are a part of digital marketing that plays an important role in enhancing the rank of a website in search engines. Whether it is an online business or an SEO agency, knowing the effectiveness of the strategies will help them make informed decisions. Since SEO takes a long time to get the desired outputs, forecasting SEO growth provides methods to stay ahead in the market. Moreover, they help improve the performance of a website in search engines to ensure high visibility.
7 tips for forecasting SEO growth
- Statistical forecasting
One of the methods to forecast SEO traffic is using the existing data that helps evaluate the past performance of a website. An SEO agency should consider using some techniques to know the ROI of a search engine optimization strategy. Statistical forecasting is the first technique to use that involves evaluating the historical data to predict future trends.
It requires Google Analytics and Search Console that will help collect data for the last 12–24 months. The next step is preparing a tabular summary, which includes columns for each month and rows for a respective year. In the third step, one should calculate the average percentage increase in traffic for the past few years. The final step is forecasting future organic growth after calculating the average traffic increment.
- Keyword forecasting
Keyword forecasting is the second technique that gives ways to predict future traffic based on keyword rankings. However, it needs some tools to identify the keywords a website ranks for that help make informed decisions.
Moreover, it is wise to take both used keywords for ranking and the targeted keywords for improving the rank. Adding the targeted keywords to the list will help experience the desired outcomes. Aside from that, searching volumes of similar keywords using third-party tools provide methods to get the most accurate results.
Finding keywords that align with the content will have the potential to drive traffic to a website.Therefore, incorporating them into a forecast model enables a business to know how they can influence a site’s growth.
- Evaluating competitors
Evaluating competitors is necessary in SEO forecasting because they show methods to learn more from them. An online business should keep an eye on its competitors and analyze their websites, including content strategy. It should even evaluate their backlink profile, social media presence, and more. This, in turn, lets a business understand where a website stands in the landscape. Also, it provides methods to create strategies that can match the competition rates.
- Leveraging tools and machine learning
SEO forecasting is complex, and a business should consider leveraging tools and other things, such as machine learning, effectively. Nowadays, several online tools are available for this purpose that help evaluate the results. They are suitable for recognizing patterns and large volumes of data, which contribute more to predicting future performance. Along with that, they enable businesses to focus more on their goals effectively.
- Evaluating seasonal trends
Seasonal trends will impact a website’s performance, and businesses that sell seasonal items online should evaluate them properly. Moreover, they show methods to empower forecasts after incorporating them into adjustments. A business should also consider evaluating the historical data for similar seasonal effects and factoring them into current forecasts by using tools like Google Trends.
- Implementing a no-change forecast
An online business should consider implementing a no-change forecast that provides ways to extrapolate the current performance into the future without making any changes in SEO strategies. A no-change forecast allows an agency to get a clear idea of how active SEO efforts can affect changes and grow a website’s performance. On the other hand, this forecast will have higher uncertainties.
- Performing TAM analysis
The total addressable market or total available market (TAM) involves the maximum amount of money generated by a business after selling a product in a specific market. It is a useful metric that gives methods to assess the size of a particular market and identify market demands for their products that help prioritize business opportunities. Aside from that, the metric allows a business to determine its strategies and plays a key role in a comprehensive plan.
A business can perform TAM analysis to forecast SEO traffic based on demographics such as age, interests, etc. For instance, a fitness company can evaluate how many individuals use search engines to find out its products. If it is 30%, then the company can apply the same to the TAM to estimate the number of individuals who use organic search to know details. The next step is that a business should decide on market penetration, which involves capturing potential customers in a specific market with its products or services. At the same time, setting goals will help calculate the number of users through SEO efforts.
What are the challenges in SEO forecasting?
Search engine algorithms are complex to understand because they constantly evolve and comprise numerous sub-algorithms. This will allow a business to predict how changes might affect a website’s performance. SEO forecasting relies on multiple data channels, and using various tools is necessary to know the results. However, tools might generate different data, which can lead to confusion and other problems.
Most search engines adapt to changing user behavior, which will impact SEO projection data considerably. Their search volumes can change over time due to changing user behaviors, and some keywords might lose their search volumes because of changing trends. External factors such as regulatory changes, industry trends, and economic conditions might impact SEO trend analysis. Competition is another thing that can influence SEO forecasting when the competitors change their strategies and a business should make some adjustments in the long run.
Conclusion
Evaluating SEO performance enables a business to determine the best strategies that work well for the future market. Even if a business is not comfortable using spreadsheets or predictive analysis, it can consider using some automated tools to forecast the DEO growth with high success rates. Also, it is possible to drive better results in online business with the analysis.
