A forecast is designed to predict the results against your goal for a certain period of time using historical data.
In digital marketing, a forecast is typically based on data over a period of time and is measured against your goals for that same period.
Your client may ask for an SEO forecast to predict future traffic over a period of time.
For example:
- What can we expect from organic traffic growth over the next quarter?
- How many incremental organic clicks can we expect if we rank #3 for this keyword?
- Based on the last year, how can we expect traffic to change this year?
Organic search (SEO) web traffic forecast
With SEO forecasting, a tool like SE Ranking can help automate the task of website traffic forecasting against SEO goals.
To calculate future traffic, you can use the following metrics:
Keyword search volume
How many searches per month does the keyword receive on average?
How much traffic are you currently receiving from this keyword?
Using tools like Google search console and Google analytics, you can determine both!
Keyword ranking
In SEO forecasting, determine what your current keyword ranking is for your target keyword.
Search engine volume
Which search engine are you completing your SEO forecasting against?
For example, Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
If you’re using Google keyword planner, you can use a rough estimate of relative volume by applying a percentage like 30% (0.3) for Bing to assume Google will send 3x the traffic.
