How to Use the SEO Forecasting Tool

As a business owner, you want to know how much traffic and revenue your website can generate if you rank higher on Google for important keywords. Our SEO Forecasting Tool is designed to help you estimate these metrics and plan your strategy more effectively. In this post, we’ll walk you through how the tool works and how to use it to get the most accurate results for your business.

Why Use This SEO Forecasting Tool?

This tool allows you to input keyword data, including search volume, keyword difficulty, your website’s current position, and other factors, to estimate your future traffic, conversions, revenue, and profit. You can even set how fast you want to rank higher, and the tool will show you a realistic forecast based on the time frame. The tool considers the following calculations and factors:

• Monthly Search Volume (MSV) for each keyword
• Click-Through Rate (CTR) based on where your site ranks in the search results
• Conversion Rate for turning visitors into customers
• Average Order Value (AOV) to estimate the revenue per conversion
• Profit Margin to estimate your final profit
• Domain Rating (DR) to measure the strength of your website
• Keyword Difficulty (KD) to assess the competitiveness of the keywords
• Current Position in the search results for the keyword
• Target Rank and the speed at which you aim to reach that rank

By taking these factors into account, the tool provides a Goal Chance, indicating whether it’s realistic, ambitious, or too ambitious to hit your target ranking in the time frame you set.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Gather Monthly Search Volume for Your Keywords:
   • To get started, you need to know how many people are searching for your target keywords. We recommend using Google Ads’ Keyword Planner.
   • In Google Ads, go to the Keyword Explorer and select the option for “Get search volume and forecasts.”
   • Don’t forget to edit the location settings to target the United States or the city your business is based in if you are targeting local customers. This will ensure you’re getting accurate search volume levels for your market.
2. Input Your Keywords and Other Data:
   • Enter each keyword, along with its Monthly Search Volume (MSV), Keyword Difficulty (KD), and your website’s Current Position for that keyword. If you’re not sure what your current position is, you can check this using tools like Google Search Console or Ahrefs.
3. Set Your Target Rank and Speed:
   • Select the Target Rank you aim to achieve. For example, if you want to rank in the top 3, choose Rank 3.
   • Next, set the speed at which you aim to hit your target rank. You can choose anywhere between 3 months and 18 months. The tool will adjust its predictions based on how aggressive your goals are.
4. Fine-Tune the Conversion Rate, Average Order Value, and Profit Margin:
   • Input your Organic Conversion Rate, which is the percentage of website visitors who make a purchase or take some action.
   • Enter your Average Order Value (AOV) — how much an average customer spends.
   • Finally, enter your Profit Margin, which will help the tool calculate how much profit you could make from these conversions.
5. Click Calculate Forecast:
   • Once you’ve entered all your data, click Calculate Forecast to generate results.
   • The tool will show you:
     • Projected Traffic: How many visitors you could attract each month based on your ranking.
     • Conversions: The number of sales or leads you could generate.
     • Revenue: The total sales amount based on your conversion rate and AOV.
     • Profit: The total profit you could earn, factoring in your profit margin.
     • Goal Chance: Whether your target is Realistic, Ambitious, or Too Ambitious based on the competitiveness of the keyword, your current position, and the time frame.

Understanding the Calculations

Here’s a breakdown of the calculations that go into the tool:

1. Traffic Calculation: The tool multiplies the Monthly Search Volume (MSV) by the expected Click-Through Rate (CTR) based on the target rank. For example, if you aim for Rank 1, the default CTR is 26.96%. Traffic = MSV * CTR (for the target rank)
2. Conversions: Your traffic is multiplied by the Organic Conversion Rate to estimate how many visitors will convert into customers or leads. Conversions = Traffic * Conversion Rate
3. Revenue: The tool then multiplies the number of conversions by the Average Order Value (AOV) to estimate how much revenue your website can generate. Revenue = Conversions * AOV
4. Profit: Finally, the revenue is multiplied by your Profit Margin to determine how much profit you’ll make from those sales. Profit = Revenue * Profit Margin
5. Goal Chance: This is where the magic happens. The tool factors in:
   • The Domain Rating (DR) of your website (higher DR means your site is stronger).
   • The Keyword Difficulty (KD) (higher KD means the keyword is harder to rank for).
   • The difference between your Current Position and your Target Rank.
   • The Speed at which you aim to achieve that rank (faster speeds make it harder to achieve).
   Using this data, the tool calculates a score to determine whether your target rank is:
   • Realistic: Achievable based on your domain’s strength and keyword difficulty.
   • Ambitious: Challenging but possible with effort.
   • Too Ambitious: Extremely difficult and might require a longer time frame or more resources.

An Example in Action

Let’s say you want to rank for the keyword “best hiking boots”, which has a monthly search volume of 10,000. You’re currently in Position 12, the keyword difficulty is 55, and your domain rating is 45. You aim to reach Position 3 within 6 months. After entering these details, the tool predicts you’ll generate 3,000 visitors per month at Position 3, with 75 conversions, and $7,500 in revenue. Based on the calculations, the tool might label this goal as Ambitious, given the keyword difficulty and your current ranking. It will also show you a time-series graph illustrating gradual growth, as it’s unlikely to hit that target immediately.

Exporting Your Data

Once you’ve generated the forecast, you can download the results as a CSV file to share with your team or use for reporting. This makes it easy to track progress over time or adjust your strategy based on performance.

Final Thoughts

This SEO Forecasting Tool can help you plan realistic, data-driven strategies for increasing website traffic, conversions, and revenue. By adjusting variables like speed, target rank, and conversion rates, you can create projections that align with your business goals. For the most accurate results, remember to use Google Ads’ Keyword Planner to source your Monthly Search Volume (MSV) and adjust the location settings to either the United States or your local market. This ensures you’re working with the most relevant data for your SEO campaign. Ready to start forecasting? Plug in your keywords and see where your SEO efforts can take you!