The Value of SEO: Finding a Number
Yes, SEO is important. Yes, it is probably worth it for most businesses to have some sort of SEO budget. The question isn’t so much then “is SEO worth it?” as much as the question is “how much is SEO worth?”.
It’s critical that you have a handle on the direct outcomes of your SEO work, or you’ll have no way whatsoever to determine an answer to that question. The best way to achieve this is to keep your initial efforts minimal and segregated so that you can more easily and accurately track and measure the impact of your SEO efforts.
If you simply throw money at SEO without any way to track the outcomes, SEO won’t be worth much of anything at all. Start small, stay focused and know what you need to have happen in order to measure the real worth of an SEO tactic or tool
