Does SEO Work? A Look At Some Traffic & Sales Data

Some people know what I'm capable of and have kindly given me some testimonials which help set expectation levels. However, if you're a retailer and you're hiring an SEO company what should you expect from them?

Well the answer is always "it depends!" A bit annoying I know, but websites are like people, they're all different and some work more efficiently than others. Some sites need to trip down a bit whilst others are so lean they can't get any thing done.

SEO's about making your website healthy, productive and easy to run.

I took over a client (not saying who of course!) at the end of September and sent them their second invoice at the start of the month. With invoices I generally like to give some stats so I did here.

The issue that we had was that they were so busy in the second month that they couldn't get most of the recommendations implemented - so I gave a discount (nice guy aren't I?)

But here's some of the stats I sent to show how much progress the SEO/Usability/Shopping Cart Optimisation has made:

• Visits up 48.48%
  
• Page views up 101.05% 
  
• Google traffic up 45.28%
  
• Yahoo up 113.22%, 
  
• AOL up 96.92%
  
• MSN up 54.88%
  
• Sales almost trebled (up 182%)
  
• Conversion rate up 82.62%
  

[Edited sales volume figures] But Google sales were up 257%

[Edited these figures too] Total Search engine sales up 294%

The increase in revenue was [edited] a few grand a week (based on average basket size of £30)

During the two months (66 days actually) there were [edited] 200 - 400 extra orders (over the average before the campaign started). Over the past two months that equated to an extra [edited] many several £k in extra revenue.

Overall their actual return on SEO spend was 575%

As we didn't get as much done as I'd like I'd say that most people employing an SEO consultant should look at a 3 month return on their SEO consultants fees of at least 300% but my target is around 500%.

Don't forget, the affects of good SEO should last at least a year, but excellent SEO should last a lifetime.

I'm a bit manic for time this month. But I'm willing to give a "Top Ten SEO Recommendations" review of any online retailer's website if they wanted a few quick tips.

I've got enough time this month to do the first five that contact me and let me know their site's details.

There are some T&C's however. 

1. Obviously I can't help with the SEO implementation for free;
   
2. Its only open to online retailers (merchants)
   
3. I can only do the first five that submit their details
   
4. I'll do them over the next week (the tips may be quick but I don't rush the analysis)
   
5. I reserve the right not to do any reviews for retailers that are direct or close competitors to any of my clients (its not fair on them)
   
6. There's no cash alternative ;-)
   
7. The closing date for your entries is 12pm 9th December.
   
8. I'll correspond via email.
   

p.s. the Get Visible site is still in Beta, there's some more content to add.