Comments on: Should SEO Payments Include Royalties?

By: Rosie

Rosie — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:51:09 +0000

I thank you for your comment.

By: Social Media Optimization » Top Ten Posts in 2006

Social Media Optimization » Top Ten Posts in 2006 — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:19:05 +0000

[...] Should SEO Payments Include Royalties? [...]

By: David Wilson

David Wilson — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 13:32:05 +0000

No you make a good point Michael in that users might click on organic and paid listings differently depending on where they are in the buying cycle. I have not seen any recent data on this but if anyone does let me know.

By: Michael Brito

Michael Brito — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 06:17:22 +0000

Oh, of course. But most (if not all) analytics packages only attribute conversion data to the last click. I was suggesting that perhaps there might be comscore study that can determine the percentage of consumers who click on paid/organic; and more importantly what they clicked on during the entire purhase cycle so that we can assign a weighted values to all conversion data, whether from paid or ogranic blah blah blah…

Maybe I am confusing myself here…

: )

By: David Wilson

David Wilson — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 17:42:13 +0000

Hopefully the analytics package that you are using Michael will allow you to tell the difference between paid and natural traffic. That might be an easier path to take instead of using Comscore data.

By: Michael Brito

Michael Brito — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 15:43:38 +0000

I wonder if there any comScore studies out there that look at this metric. One idea is to assign a weight to paid search and natural search (i.e. 60% to paid and 50% to natural); and apply those percentages to your conversion goals. Thoughts?

By: David Wilson

David Wilson — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 00:56:12 +0000

I agree Michael that a good analytics package is key to measuring any type of SEO campaign. You also raise an interesting question about what click counts. If someone is conducting an informational search they might used a paid listing to visit your site, and the come back and make the purchase based upon an organic click. Does the paid or organic get credit for the sale?

By: Michael Brito

Michael Brito — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 00:43:53 +0000

Great discussion. One question that should be raised is “what if sales decreased”? If the client has a good analytics package, it’s easy to track revenue back to natural search. However, this also opens the door to many more variables like “which click should get credit for the conversion?”, especially if the client is also using paid search.

Michael

By: David Wilson

David Wilson — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:27:01 +0000

I don’t view it as a version of affiliate marketing Sherwood. I see it more as a pay for performance compensation plan?

By: Sherwood

Sherwood — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 15:55:15 +0000

It’s a case of “live by the sword, die by the sword.” I could imagine that a client, if approached by an SEO requesting royalties, would also request the inverse: a small token fee, so that most of your revenue would be the royalty. This isn’t something that would appeal to me, because many clients that don’t follow through on SEO projects.

As outside consultants, we have no control over the quality and timing of implementation. Royalties are a plus when dealing with proactive clients, but introduce more risk when deal with a (far more typical) lax client.

That said, if we were talking about a microsite, or some other self-contained project that fed the client’s site with leads/sales, then I think royalties have potential. But that’s basically a reinvention of affiliate marketing, isn’t it?