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Marketing C-Level wants to know the value of each backlink
Little backstory: the C-Level doesn’t know much about SEO and in general it is a pain to work with them. I am not a big fan of building links just for the sake of it, but after multiple discussions back and forth they „forced“ me and my team to spend 40.000€ a month on it.
The team did well buying some good links and spending the budget, but personally I would have made them focus on the quality of their websites and invest that money for more SEO Managers, as we were always tight on resources.After a couple of months the C-Level wanted to know what value all those links are. They wanted to know specifically how much more bookings each backlink added.
I felt like I was living the meme „tell me you don‘t understand SEO without telling me you don’t understand SEO“.
We went back and forth a lot again cause, respectfully, WTF?! They didn’t let go so I created some BS report giving some estimates. That was not enough though, as they wanted to know the exact amount of bookings per backlink.
Did any of you come across such a request? What would you have done? 😀
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1 Reply
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It’s like demanding a report on which part of the fire created each smoke particle. Also, stop buying links.
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What did you create those estimated values based on? Because when you explain that it’s impossible to provide the data they’re asking for the next question is probably going to be where the figures in your report came from, and you’re going to want to have a good answer for that.
Also damn, where do you work that can throw that much money at backlinks alone each month? I’ve worked at agencies where that’s the entire annual SEO budget. You could do some amazing stuff with a budget like that if you can wrangle them into using it wisely.
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Can’t u just use Analytics to tell them, who came from one of the backlinks and converted afterwards?
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you’re not in control of the project or conversation. your client is telling you how to do your job and there’s no way that ever works.
i think you or your team may need better communication and project management.
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My Answer:
If I was spending that much money, I would definitely want to know if it was worth it.
I would do this:
Calculate the number of backlinks gained through the purchase and which pages were linked to
Calculate the change in the following:
– Visibility beginning 4 weeks after links were gained (number of keywords ranking)
– Gained Impressions
– Gained Clicks
– Increased Form Submissions, etc
– Revenue changes year over year, month vs month
– Measure the stats for each category page, product or informational page, etc. Also document how that page has changed by visibility, impressions, clicks, etc.
Then determine the total $$ spent vs impact on the site in general and specifically the additional revenue. Then and only then can you calculate the value of each link.
Revenue Increase – Revenue spent = Total Value.
Total Value / Number of Links = Value of each link
Different sites render different results – a higher-value site makes a bigger difference.
Separate high-value sites vs low-value sites and the impact of each group. This may show that 80% of the value is from 20% of the links. Pareto Principle
If links are pointed to different pages or sections of the site, it should be obvious which pages also make the biggest difference. Remember you SHOULD ALWAYS include internal linking as a strategy along with backlinks and popular pages. Multiple links from one page can be used to create higher results for your money page, but don’t overdo it, cause it’ll look too obvious that all pages link to your money page.
I worked for a company that bought a few links from Cornell University (before I started there) related to Ornithology (birds) to rank better for binoculars. The ROI was worth it. They ranked well for bird-watching binoculars and ornithology-related keyword phrases.
I hope this helps!
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half joking.. but is an affiliate program an option?
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This is the reason I don’t work under any sort of manager anymore. Idiots.
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I’d keep it simple: after 4-6 weeks measure the increase in total traffic and multiplie it with your general conversion rate. The backlinks will not only give a boost to the linked pages, but also increase your general authority.
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Bumming out some savvy PR firms everywhere who could convert that budget into audience growth AND higher quality links without buying them…
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