You need outcomes that you can use to pitch your clients with tangible business cases and validate that your SEO strategy is efficient and tied to precisely estimated results.

SEOmonitor's Forecast shows you how your rank improvements impact your Visibility, and estimates how much additional non-brand organic traffic would be generated if you achieve a specific SEO goal over a particular timeframe. We calculate the additional traffic in terms of business metrics – conversions and revenue – to help you tie SEO performance to business results.

When you create a forecast scenario, you start by defining an SEO goal where you set the keyword groups you want to target and their target ranks, the forecast timeframe, and the progression speed toward the desired goal.

Through our complex and transparent algorithm, the Forecast helps you visualize the growth in your website's presence (through Visibility and Avg Ranks) and calculates the additional sessions, conversions, and revenue you would receive if the keywords achieved their target ranks.

You can view the estimated results of your SEO forecast (additional sessions, conversions, and revenue) at two levels.

View the forecast results for the entire forecast timeframe in the Non-brand Organic Traffic Forecast section, and the month-by-month estimated Visibility and traffic, plotted on the keywords' search seasonality in the Monthly Forecast section.

If the extended forecast is enabled, you can see the sessions, conversions, and revenue, calculated for the same timeframe extended after the forecast timeframe as well, below the first chart. Here, for instance, the forecast timeframe is from Aug 2023 to July 2024, and the extended forecast below shows the estimates for the next equal timeframe of July 2024 to Jun 2025.

Switch between estimated Visibility, Avg Ranks, Sessions, Conversions, and Revenue from the dropdown of the Monthly Forecast chart.

At the time of setting up the scenario, if you turned ON the Target Rank Range toggle, you would see all the results as ranges, including the overall and monthly Additional and Total Traffic, Conversions, and Revenue, in both Overview and Detailed screens.

On the Detailed tab, view the calculation at a keyword level, including all the keyword attributes and the SEO goal, and keyword-level results (additional sessions, conversions, and revenue) estimated to be generated by each keyword and its variations. You can explore a monthly breakdown of each keyword by opening the additional traffic explainer.

At a keyword level, the forecast results for the specific scenario combined with the Difficulty metric provide a more precise view of the traffic the keyword would bring, on reaching the set target, and how difficult it is to get there. If you'd like to get this insight at a more generic level, you can examine the Opportunity metric in our Rank Tracker that combines both these metrics to give you a generic mini-forecast at a keyword level.

When you start tracking a scenario as a Campaign Objective, in the Detailed Forecast you will see, for each keyword included, the actual rank and the target rank for each month, so you can always track the performance of your keywords as you progress through the timeframe.

The forecasted number of additional sessions estimated to be received, in total, throughout the forecast period if the targeted ranks are reached.

Note: You can preview the estimated additional sessions when defining your SEO goal and adjust your forecast inputs (and iterate over it) until you see a satisfactory estimate.

We get the Monthly Additional Sessions by multiplying the difference in CTRs of the current and the target ranks, with the search volume adjusted with the effect of SERP Features and Year-over-year trends.

The forecasted number of additional conversions estimated to be received, in total, throughout the forecast period if the targeted ranks are reached, corresponding to the additional number of sessions estimated.

To get the additional conversions, we multiply the estimated additional sessions by the corresponding conversion rate (Custom or Best Match) for each keyword included in the calculation.

This output is crucial to understanding how achieving a specific SEO goal could impact the business. You'll be able to deliver a business case and explain to your clients what their results might look like with the SEO campaign you're building.

The forecasted additional revenue to be received, in total, throughout the forecast period, corresponding to the additional conversions.

We multiply the additional conversions by the conversion value from Analytics to get the additional revenue.

The estimated total traffic to be received assuming that rankings wouldn’t change within the forecast timeframe.

Although this inertial traffic may change during the forecast timeframe, we need it to calculate the total traffic (that includes additional traffic), which is key to setting an organic traffic goal and measuring against it.

To calculate the inertial traffic, we're extrapolating the past month’s non-brand organic traffic with the seasonality of the keywords generating it.

The sum of the inertial traffic and the additional traffic generated by the progress towards your SEO goal.

This is the estimated cost of generating the same number of additional sessions through Google Ads alone.

We multiply the additional sessions with the average CPC (at the keyword level, then summed up) to calculate the equivalent Google Ads budget that would be spent in order to generate the same results. This works like an anchor for the value you create through the SEO campaign.

You can use the Forecast estimated results to validate your SEO projects and support your next client proposals. The precise business outcomes help you justify and plan your SEO strategy so both you and your clients can trust it.