We spend a crazy amount of time talking about keyword selection, on-page optimization, link building and so on. Sometimes it’s easy to lose the forest through the trees, however. Why are we doing SEO to begin with?

The genesis of this… I stood in front of 80 people in Newark, NJ the other day and talked for 3 and a half hours about search engine optimization. The group was fantastic - what is it about New York/New Jersey folks? They’re always some of the best groups I work with - this was no exception - a great bunch, but I digress. So I’m standing there after the seminar fielding questions for a small group of people and I get a question…

“How much will SEO cost?”

“Well, that depends,” I say. “What is your goal?”

“I want to be ranked really high for xyzabc keyword,” says she.

“Why?”

“So people will come to my Web site.”

“So?”

“Well they don’t find me now because I’m on page 4.”

“Okay… so?”

If they see my site in the search engine, they will be more likely to click in.”

“So?”

When I could sense that the lady was growing tired of my repeating question, I decided to take it easy on her…

“What happens when the person clicks into your site?”

“They see that I have lessons available.” (The lady was a piano teacher.)

“Well what happens when they see your services?”

“They know that I can help them.”

“So?”…”So, they’ll call you, right?”

“Well, yeah - that’s the idea.”

“So your goal is not to show up high in the search engines. Your goal is to get a prospective student to call you!”

The lady kind of looked at me funny, but knew I was right. This was like pulling teeth. Then came the fun part…

“How much is a new student worth to you?” I asked.

“$165.”

“On average?”

“It’s always $165.”

“On average?”

“It’s $165 per month and they all have to pay upfront.”

“Don’t they ever come back?”

“Of course they do.”

“How many times?”

“I’ve had some clients for over a decade. Most for at least a year or two.”

“$165 times 18 months = $2970.00. That is the value of one new student.”

She looked at me like I had just levitated a cow. She clearly had never thought of this before. I could actually see the light come on in her mind. Then I did some quick keyword research…

“Did you know that yesterday there were about 100 searches for “piano teacher in New York” or related terms?”

“No, that’s interesting.”

“You bet it is. If you could get just ONE of those people to sign up for lessons with you, you’d be $2970 richer 18 months from now. 3000+ searches per month for a service that specifically, you provide - that’s a heck of a starting point.”

When you look at pricing for SEO services, you have to look at the big picture. Understand what your average customer value is and understand what getting an incremental customer does to your bottom line. This case illustrates the point perfectly. 10 new students would represent almost $30,000 over the next 18 months for this business owner. Out of thousands of monthly searches for that specific service, this is a very achievable goal and the cost is a small fraction of the potential revenue.

Focus on the goal. Not the means to get there. That’s how to tell how much SEO is really worth.