One of the biggest concerns most small business owners face is choosing the best SEO firm for their marketing campaign. The number of SEO firms offering to get your website to the top of the ranking positions is almost uncountable. The services start at $250 and go to $25,000 a month.
SEO is intangible. Most SEO or internet marketing firms, cannot tell you exactly what they will do for you. Even if they do offer the end reports, it often takes a systems analyst or a code breaker to understand what all the numbers mean. This is because search engines are mathematical, and the data is the answer to complex mathematical calculations.
So how do you choose an SEO company?
Marketing is about Revenue not Ranking Positions
Most of the SEO firms who sell their services for under $1000 promote nothing but ranking positions and/or traffic.
Let’s dismiss traffic first. If the company is promising X number of visits a month then they are buying the traffic. Purchased traffic is very low value as the consumers are either a) paid to surf or b) redirected and often annoyed that they didn’t arrive at the website they wanted in the first place.
Promising ranking positions is different. If they are promising Prime target, high traffic keywords then there are a few things they are doing.
- It’s illegal. They are using scripts and illegal methods. While this can put you at the top, it also increases the chances of your domain name being banned forever. The SEO company will not be penalized or banned – you will. Google may even prevent family members from buying your domain so you can keep in business.
- It’s ineffective. They offer keywords that may have high keywords, but they have very little ‘conversion-to-buyer’ ratio.
- It has no real value. They allow customers to choose ‘ego keywords’ that have no conversion-to-buyer, no click through value, and/or no traffic.
Revenue is linked to the conversion rate of a keyword, not the traffic. There are keywords that have 10,000 visits a month, but that only equal 1 sale a month. There are other keywords which have 100 visits a month, but generate 10 sales a month.
A good SEO firm employs an analyst who can target the keywords that send leads to your website.
Clicks vs. Conversion to Buyer Ratio
One of the most frustrating aspects of marketing is seeing the traffic. Seeing the reports that show the number of people who visit your website, but they don’t translate into sales. This is often because the marketing team knows where the consumers are, but they are not focusing in on your target demographic.
Step #1 is to bring people to your website.
Step #2 is for you to sell to that client.
So it is important that you work with your SEO team in order to help them bring clients who will phone you. Then the ball will be in your court to close the sale.
Contact Webmaster For Hire for more information on how we might help you increase your conversion to buyer ratio on your website.