It doesn’t stop at SEO!

It’s very common to see Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies claim that high search engine rankings equal business profits. Literally, every day, companies are spammed with emails in their mailbox stressing the importance of being ‘#1 in Google’, and the insane amount of money that comes with that position.

However, while it’s hard to deny the tremendous benefit of being ranked high in Google for your specified keywords, it’s not the end-all solution to company sales and profits. The fact is, there are several high-ranking websites out in Google that generate little, to no profits at all for their owners. How many times have you gone to several webpages ranked high in Google, only to end up being sold by a website not listed, or found on the second or third pages of results? It had nothing to do with search rankings!

A badly converting website can be just as dangerous as a badly ranked website. Proper analysis of your visitor behavior is very necessary to ensure a successful SEO campaign, something that 90% of SEO companies out there do not provide. While there are some changes that are done to a website’s structure, design, and content in order to improve rankings, those changes don’t necessarily make the website better for visitors (rather for search engines). In fact, a badly ‘SEO’d’ website can hurt the user experience and drop the conversion rate.

There are several things to think about when attempting to ‘complete’ your SEO campaign:

• First off, ensure that your website is being properly developed. A good web developer can create a website that is easily updated, has a nice appealing theme, and best of all, is coded to where there are no navigation errors and the website loads fast (for those with slower connections).
• Is your website designed to fit the expectations of people finding you through your target keywords? If your website is ranked high for a keyword, but the content isn’t EXACTLY what people expect, this may cause serious issues for visitor time-on-site. By revising your SEO keywords and your business goals, you can begin to align expectations and increase leads.
• Monitor your visitor behavior and test different design elements. By implementing a conversion analysis campaign with your SEO campaign you can use several analytical tools to see what parts of your website effect your visitor’s decision to contact you or purchase a product. By gathering data involving their time on site, top visited pages, top exit pages and performing A/B testing on high traffic areas of your site, you can determine how well your website works for you.

A badly performing website can be a result of no search engine rankings, bad (irrelevant) search rankings, or the website itself. It’s very hard to determine where the weak points are in your sales channel if you don’t test all aspects of your internet marketing campaign. The next time you’re approached by an SEO firm, ask them if they provide all-inclusive analytical and conversion analysis services in addition to ranking you high. You’ll be surprised how many important services are left out.