Measuring SEO return on investment (ROI) via toll free call forwarding.

A lot of SEO professionals depend on website analytics, product purchasing surveys and web based forms to track the success of their SEO efforts. I recently took a page out of the direct marketer’s handbook by adding a toll free call forwarding phone number to a client’s website.

The reason we decided to add this tracking method was because we have significantly increased the level of qualified traffic coming to their site via the search engines but very few visitors were filling out their contact form. I asked them recently how many people were calling from the website and they said, “no one was.” With the new traffic levels they are experiencing I felt it was virtually impossible for them not to be receiving any calls. The solution was to add a toll free call forwarding number. Now about 3-5% of their website visitors are calling using this number, so we have a better feel for how the website is working as a lead generator besides just staring at our increases in monthly website traffic. Can we still improve conversions? You bet we can. We have decided to meet once a month to review traffic levels, calls and conversion rates and we are committed to finding more ways to convert these qualified website visitors into customers.

This article was written by Daryl Clark of Internet Search Marketing, Temecula, California. Please track back to reprint.