Imaginary Landscape
RSS FeedSearch Engine Optimization Tips for the CMO.
We often receive requests for search engine optimization services. It's an area in which we specialize, and it would be easy to leverage the recent SEO hype and sell into this desire without questioning its motives. But many of the people convinced they need SEO services, don't. Or more specifically, they don't need them yet.
This week we received an inbound inquiry which is a good and typical illustration of this misplaced prioritization.
What is SEO, really?
"We are interested in an aggressive SEO program and possibly a facelift to our website."
The conversation continued around a central theme - about driving traffic and how they need to drive traffic with keywords and how they need aggressive SEO to drive traffic.
After a few minutes, I asked a question.
"Why?"
It's my favorite question. It stopped the conversation cold. After several seconds struggling for an answer, one came.
"Because the more traffic we have to our site the better the chance of someone calling us or submitting a contact form, so we can move the conversation face-to-face."
And there it is. Driving traffic doesn't really matter at all. What matters is a ‘desired action’, in this case a call-in or form submission.
A Complete SEO Strategy:
Consider a strategic approach to your SEO program with your website.
You can spend lots of money on search engine optimization and even more money purchasing keywords on search engines. But, if you haven't created relevant conversion opportunities on your site and reformatted the site to support those conversion opportunities, that money is largely wasted.
The conversation continued.
"Your phone number does not appear on your homepage and the contact form is the last link in your navigation. How are visitors to know that's what you want them to do?"
Now begins the most important part of any website, the process of preparing it to convert the highest possible number of visitors. Then, and only then, are you ready to reach beyond the confines of the site to draw in additional traffic through optimization, social media, offline and online programs.
As Harvard Business School marketing professor Theodore Levitt once said, "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!"
The world is full of both drill sellers and SEO firms. The trick is to find someone to help you with the hole.
For more in depth information about SEO and the right solution for you visit us at Imaginary Landscape.
Imaginary Landscape, LLC is a Chicago Web Development Company.
Updated 01/17/11 @ 01:16PM CST by brian
