Boost — The Online-Business Management Suite — Tracking ROI
Have you heard of Robert Kiyosaki ? Yes, the author of ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’. He has taught a generation, on how to invest and get returns from their investments. At NowFloats we are committed to simplifying online business for the larger population. Here’s simplifying ROI for even the mom and pop stores, as we try and explain why and what should merchants be tracking to receive the maximum returns from their online set- up using the Boost Search Analytics.
Ask yourself, as a small and medium business owner, how would you calculate ROI?
If you are the traditional businessman you will talk in straight terms — Profit & Loss. In fact most SMB owners would not be familiar with the term ROI.
In India, simple bookkeeping drives a businessman’s means and motives. You could also discuss footfalls, but all the people who stepped into your physical establishment(A retail outlet, professional institution, manufacturing unit ) are not a source of revenue. They are potential buyers, and footfalls could be a measure of your business’s outreach. The physical stores will limit themselves to the metrics above. But what about online stores?
Stay with us as we tell you what defines ROI online and what metrics to track to extract the most out of your BOOST, ONLINE-BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SUITE.
Defining ROI — Online
Investment is a very broad term. It is indeed the money spent or cost incurred. It is also the time and effort (minimal with Boost) you spend managing your online shop — making updates, adding new product images and interacting with online customers.
This investment becomes an asset, if the time or money spent allows you to multiply your revenue. If the money spent is not building you sources of revenue it becomes a liability.
SIMPLIFIED -
What helps you grow revenue is an asset.
What incurs expenditure or cost is a liability.
What is ROI?
Return on Investment
ROI =
Return of Investment / Cost of the Investment
Tracking ROI means that you keep a check on your assets and lower the liabilities.
What Do You Track Online to Measure ROI — Search Queries
Search Queries determine how your website page will rank, how many potential customers you have and how you can manage online content and turn them into an asset. There are several parameters that you can track them on -
1. Impressions
How many people see your website/ website page is an indication of your online store’s/website’s outreach. If there is a certain keyword that is getting you more impressions, it is advisable to use it in relevant context on other pages as well.
Write more content around a keyword that ranks you higher. Organic Traffic will thus increase to your website, ranking you higher on the searches.
How much traffic growth is good for your website ?
10% of traffic growth is a reasonable target month on month. It may increase over time depending on the quality, quantity and regularity of your updates.
2. Average Position of Search Query-
The average position of a query helps you in two ways -
1. It helps you figure out your best performers in long tail keywords.
2. It helps you figure out queries, that are just a few ranks away from top ten queries.
A query that is just a few ranks away from the top ten has a chance at breaking the barrier, and hence improving your page’s ranking. You could create content around that keyword often and update for better results. This query is the ‘dark horse’. It might take you to the top!
3. Clicks
The number of people clicking on a search query tells you the relevance of the updated content to your audience.
The visits determine the footfalls but the clicks will mostly translate to more genuine customers.
If the clicks are low, it’s an indication that your content may not be relevant to the visitors. Improving the quality of your content means figuring out what appeals to your customer base. For example if you are a wholesaler of garments then updating your content with the latest trends and related products will help you get more clicks and buyers.
4. CTR — Click Through Rate
The click through rate for certain queries is higher.
It means that the ratio of the clicks to the impressions is more.
Such queries must definitely be turned to more prominent sections in your website page. You could use them as headings or even as captions under photographs to drive more clicks.
5. Country Wise Traffic Updates
This feature is useful to understand relevant in- flow. With Boost’s localized Auto SEO most of your traffic should be coming in from the country your business is located in, anyway. We have different integrations
WHY SHOULD YOU TRACK ROI ONLINE?
Impressions, clicks, CTR and search query positions are measures to determine the benefits from a long term investment. The return here is the organic growth of your website and website rankings that will ultimately lead to more business and profit.
Think of ‘The Boost Online Business Management App’ as a vehicle that you have bought to deliver your goods to neighborhoods that you couldn’t reach earlier . If you do not use the vehicle to the most, it will be neglected, and would just sit pretty as a liability. If you use your vehicle often, deliver goods, keep it up and running, you would have recovered the cost in no time and it would be an asset. That’s exactly what Boost is! Used well and kept a track of, your returns will keep growing. The integrated GWT — search analytics, makes sure that you are headed the right way.
There is an 80/20 rule that says 20% of your efforts will get you 80% of the results. Make sure that you know which 20% are the ones making all the difference. The Boost Search Analytics helps you do that.
