Outsourced SEO + ROI Study
In a study by JupiterResearch, they surveyed search marketers and agencies. When search marketers who outsource their natural search engine optimization to an SEM firm and participated in paid search advertising were asked:
"Please indicate your opinion about the return on investment (ROI) you receive from search engine optimization (SEO) and search ads (excluding paid inclusion)."
The results were as follows:
| SEO produces higher ROI than search ads | 35% |
| We have not measured | 21% |
| We are unable to distinguish between ROI for SEO and for search ads | 14% |
| SEO produces lower ROI than search ads | 11% |
| We are unable to calculate ROI | 10% |
| SEO and search ads produce similar ROI | 9% |
The key findings where 35% of search marketers who outsource their natural search engine optimization (SEO) efforts to a SEM firm, and who also participated in paid search advertising, indicate that the ROI net from their SEO efforts is greater than that which they net from their paid search advertising efforts.
To help support these findings, numerous studies have found that search engine users find natural search results to be more relevant to their search engine queries, and that as a result 60-70% of clicks on the major search properties are made on the natural search results. Savvy search marketers know this, and make the investment in outsourcing the management of their natural SEO to take advantage of this search engine user behavior.