Practitioner · Lesson 2 of 4
SEO for performance marketers
About 10 minutes · Yogender Kumar, Managing Partner
By the end of this lesson you'll be able to
- Choose which pages to create or improve by search intent
- Estimate how long a page takes to pay back
- Use Search Console data to find quick improvements
Why this matters
Organic visits don't cost anything per click, but the pages behind them do. Treat SEO like a paid channel, with costs, forecasts and a payback date, and it gets much easier to decide what to work on.
The core idea
Search engines reward the page that best answers the search. Three broad things decide whether yours is that page:
- Intent: does the page match what the searcher wants? Someone typing "best running shoes for flat feet" wants a comparison, not your homepage.
- Quality and trust: is it accurate, original, written by someone who knows, and kept up to date?
- Technical health: can search engines find, load and understand it? Fast pages, clear titles and sensible links all help.
For a performance marketer, the useful habit is to cost it like any other channel. A page has a cost to make. It earns visits, which earn orders. So it has a payback period, just like a paid campaign.
Your own data comes from Google Search Console. It shows the searches you appear for, your average position, how often you're seen (impressions) and your click rate (CTR), the share of impressions that get clicked.
Worked example
Tarn Running is an imaginary UK running shop, so the figures are illustrative.
A new page. Tarn plans a guide to running shoes for flat feet. Writing, photos and editing cost £600. If it ranks well, Tarn expects about 800 visits a month. 1.5% of visitors buy, so that's 12 orders a month. Each order leaves £15 after costs.
That's 12 × £15 = £180 a month, so the page pays back in £600 ÷ £180 = about 3.3 months once it ranks. Ranking can take months, so Tarn plans on six months or more from the day it publishes.
An existing page. Search Console shows Tarn's trail shoes page gets 20,000 impressions a month at an average position of 9, with a 1% click rate: 200 visits.
Tarn rewrites the page title to match what people search, adds a comparison table, and links to it from its most popular guides. Three months later the page averages position 4, with a 5% click rate: 1,000 visits a month from the same impressions.
My view: improve pages that already have impressions before writing new ones. The searches are already there. You just need more of the clicks.
Tarn's trail shoes page: visits from the same 20,000 impressions
In practice
- Pick topics by the searcher's intent, and match the page type to it.
- Cost each new page, and estimate visits, orders and payback before you write.
- Check Search Console monthly for pages with many impressions and few clicks.
- Rewrite titles and descriptions to match the searches people actually use.
- Link to your important pages from your most visited ones.
- Keep pages accurate and dated, and update them when facts change.
Common mistakes
- Writing for keywords, not people. A page stuffed with search terms doesn't answer anyone. Answer the question properly.
- Expecting results in weeks. New pages often take months to rank. Count the payback from the day you publish, not from the day the page starts ranking.
- Only writing new pages. Pages already seen in search are often the quickest wins. Improve them first.
Try it yourself
A new guide costs £900 to produce. Once it ranks, you expect 1,200 visits a month, 2% of visitors buy, and each order leaves £12. How many months does it take to pay back once it ranks?
Show answer
Orders: 1,200 × 2% = 24 a month. Profit: 24 × £12 = £288 a month. Payback: £900 ÷ £288 = about 3.1 months once it ranks.
Quick check
Not scored. Pick an answer to see the explanation.
Someone searches "best running shoes for flat feet". What page best matches their intent?
A page has 10,000 impressions a month and a 2% click rate. Better titles lift that to 4%. How many extra visits is that?
Key takeaways
- Search engines reward the page that best answers the search.
- Cost each page and estimate its payback, like a paid campaign.
- Search Console shows the searches you appear for, and your click rate.
- Improve pages that already have impressions before writing new ones.