Search Engine Optimization should also consider conversions!
Many search engine optimization companies will disagree with me on this point because they don’t want to confuse their services (getting a site ranked for certain keyphrases) with the more difficult objective of converting the ensuing traffic into leads. The funny thing is, no matter how clear you make it to an SEO buyer that they are paying only for rankings, they will ultimately (perhaps months later) judge the success of the service not on the rankings but on how much it’s improved their business. If it’s not turning into more leads and of course more business then there is a very high probability that they will cancel their SEO services because in their mind it’s not working for them. This leaves the average SEO fuming mad because for petes sake – they delivered the services that were sold!
Let this be a lesson! Search engine optimization companies should seriously consider focusing more effort on helping clients convert the traffic that is being produced by the search engine optimization process. Some of the things that can be done to improve conversions are:
- ensure the website is professionaly designed and accurately reflects the target audience
- provide clear value propositions and calls to action in key scanning positions
- place an 800 or local number in the header of every page in the site
- place a small contact form (with some kind of incentive) on every page of the site either in the left or right hand column
- consider using a click to call service on the phone numbers
- always answer questions of privacy at every opportunity to convert the traffic – that means on contact forms, next to the submit buttons
- install analytics and setup a Goal to track conversions on the contact forms
- install a phone tracking system like WhoCalled? to track telephone conversions
This is just a partial list for the sake of this discussion. Implementing these items will go a long way to helping your customers websites convert all of the great traffic your search engine optimization efforts are sending to the site. If you make this a focus of your monthly services your customers will be satisfied and will continue wanting to improve their site over the long term.
If you’re buying search engine optimization services from an agency or individual SEO and they are not consulting with you on converting the traffic, you should seriously consider switching to one that does. It’s in your best interest to get the best value you can, and that means capitalizing on the traffic being sent to your site. That’s the whole point of search engine optimization and search engine marketing in general!
