SEO can be easier to measure — so why aren't you doing it?

iProspect's June 2007 Search Marketer Measurement & Performance Study makes interesting reading for any SEO, SEM or Analytics professional. It compares similar research carried out in August 2005 and March 2007 into two key questions:

• "Please indicate your opinion about the return on investment (ROI) you receive from search engine optimization (SEO) and search ads (excluding paid inclusion)."
• "Which of the following natural or paid search marketing metrics are taken into account when your company is evaluating your job performance? (Choose All that Apply)".

Now, depending on which industry sector you're working in, deriving 'clean' ROI figures for search marketing in general can often be darned tedious. It demands scrupulous set-up and loads of eyestrain. But here are some research highlights that caught our (s)trained eye:

• In 2007, 43% of search marketers don't or can't accurately measure ROI from SEO.

Concealed inside this figure is the insight that, in 2007, more marketers were unable to separate SEO ROI from paid-search ROI than in 2005. Meanwhile, fewer marketers report that they do not or cannot measure SEO ROI.

• Back in 2005, nearly one in five search marketers' job performance evaluations was not tied to their firm's search marketing metrics.

This figure has dropped in 2007 to about one in seven.

• In 2007, the use of business metrics as opposed to pure traffic metrics is significantly up as a job performance measure.

Good old site traffic counts do represent an important metric, and in many cases there are solid reasons for this. But it's good to see that ROI (return on investment) and ROAS (return on advertising spend) as a measure are both significantly up.

• Brand impact is up as a job performance metric — but only slightly.

Just how this is measured is a deep question!

The study's authors go on to discuss how cost structures — the pricing models — of SEO and Paid Search contribute to ROI measurability. Their conclusion (which may be counter-intuitive for some): Tracking ROI from SEO is inherently easier than with Paid Search when the latter's cost-per-click, click fraud and management fees are factored in. Moreover, iProspect comments that SEO has the benefit of what they call 'Perpetual ROI' — the fact that any investment in SEO goes on paying long after fees have been paid, while paid clicks stop the moment the you stop paying.

The full iProspect June 2007 Search Marketer Measurement & Performance Study is here.