Forecast helps you create a business case out of SEO efforts.
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 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.
How it works
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 towards the desired goal.
Through our complex and transparent algorithm, the Forecast provides a goal chance and the estimated Additional Sessions, Additional Conversions, and Additional Revenue, alongside other valuable metrics.
Note: You can switch between Sessions, Conversions, and Revenue from the drop-down.
What are the forecast results?
You can view Forecast results (additional sessions, conversions, and revenue) at two levels:
Forecast Overview: View the forecast results for the entire forecast timeframe in the Non-brand Organic Traffic Forecast section, and the month-by-month estimated traffic plotted on the estimated search trends, in the Monthly Forecast section.
Detailed Forecast: 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 the keyword itself and by its variations. You can explore a monthly breakdown on each keyword by opening the additional sessions explainer:
Additional Sessions
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.
We get the Monthly Additional Sessions by multiplying the additional traffic by the progress speed and the search seasonality for each month of the timeframe.
Additional Conversions
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 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.
Additional Revenue
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.
Inertial traffic
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 improved 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.
Improved traffic
The sum of the inertial traffic and the additional traffic generated by the progress towards your SEO goal.
Ads equivalent
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.
Conclusion
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.