SEO as search engine optimization is commonly called, is my main business. My blog provides information, and helps others to succeed. That is the purpose of the blog.
Occasionally, however, my blog leads to SEO clients, and quite often is the reason that many people contact me about matters relating to search engines, rankings, and all things SEO.
Today, I was contacted by a business person showing interest in my SEO services.
I asked him what his goals were for his online business and how he saw the search engines as part of that success.
He said he wanted to be number one in Google for his search term. The keyword was precisely that. One word. It was a very, very, very uber ultra competitve keyword at that. In all honesty, it would take a very long time to even get close to ranking well for that term.
Of course, the word wasn't the problem. As I explained to him, the entire purpose of SEO as I see it, is not to rank number one in Google for any one search term. That search placement might be of benefit to his ego, but of little real value to his online business.
I told him that SEO is only part of my service package. Along with achieving higher search rankings, we also improve the site's content, and increase the number of conversions of that higher visitor traffic to paying customers. It's a holistic approach to SEO and internet marketing.
My approach to SEO and online marketing is built around three main goals.
The first goal is to achieve higher search rankings for a large number of keyword phrases that are relevant to that business. These would be real phrases searched for by real people wanting to purchase real goods and services. Single word terms are not really money keywords.
The second goal is to improve the website itself. We would add more keyword rich content, in the form of informational pages that might attract natural inbound links. The additional pages might also achieve high placement on their own. We work on improving the existing content as well.
The third goal is to improve the site's financial status. The increased visitor traffic numbers are of little value to the online business, if they fail to convert to paying customers. We work on increasing sales and site revenue. A business needs paying customers, and the best way to increase the online cash flow is to sell products and services to the visitors.
We don't necessarily sell the visitor immediately. Some people do buy in one step. The vast majority of people have to get to know and trust a business first, prior to becoming customers and clients. For that relationship marketing aspect, we use e-mail newsletters and blogs, along with other proven relationship building techniques.
Along with the increased income, we also work toward reducing the dependency on pay per click advertising. In some cases, my clients have gone all the way down to zero pay per click spending, while dramatically increasing their visitor traffic through organic search.
Instead of spending PPC dollars to gain visitor traffic, it's arriving for free from the search engines. The previous PPC spending can be transferred to other pay per click campaigns or used elsewhere in the online business.
This decrease in PPC spending combined with increased sales revenue from better traffic conversion, makes a huge impact on the business bottom line. As I joke with my longer term clients, they not only get my services for free as a result of not spending on PPC, they make a nice tidy profit from the increased sales volumes.
Back to my original story.
The guy on the phone didn't like my answers, and he certainly didn't like my ideas about SEO and online marketing. He was somewhat upset when I told him that no one could honestly guarantee a number one spot in the Google organic listings. He believed that you could. Oh well.
He never did hear my fee structure. I'm sure he wouldn't like that one either.
In the end, I wished him and his internet business well, and hoped he found an SEO professional with whom he could work.
His response?
He said he intended to get his number one ranking, and get it soon. He'd then tell the whole world that I couldn't do it.
He hung up before I could respond.
I never did get to mention blogging either.
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