Top Search Engine Placement is not all you need
I read an article today from eMarketer entitled Companies that Spend on Search are Frustrated. Naturally the title got my attention. The funny thing is that business owners are choosing to increase their budgets even during the current struggling economy because they realize that in order to be competitive in their industries they must be found on search engines. Internet Marketing is a bare bones essential if you intend to survive.
The frustration for most business owners using search feel that they aren't getting what they are paying for. In this chart you can see those who ranked the performance of their Search Engine Marketing, most ranked it low on the scale; between 1-2 out of 7. And only 20% ranked Search Engine Marketing as having high performance for their business.
Web Conversion is more important than Guaranteed SEO and Top Search Engine Placement!
When I read the article it stuck me immediately why MOST businesses get minimal results with Internet Marketing. You can have all the traffic in the world coming to your website, but if your website doesn't connect with visitors and persuade them to take action, you may as well blow your money out the window.
This is a perfectly clear example of why it is so enormously important to hire a company that has the expertise and experience to handle all aspects of your Internet Marketing System. It's vital that the right hand knows what the left is doing and vice-versa. Successful Internet Marketing is integrated.
When choosing a web designer, make sure they understand business, sales and how to connect to the emotional triggers of what makes their audience buy from them. This must be integrated into the overall plan for the design. Search Engine Optimization also needs to be taken into account when creating the site and writing the content.
The article goes on to suggest that the use of dynamic landing pages is an effective way to overcome high bounce rates (people exiting the site on the entrance page) and lackluster performance of Search Engine Marketing. I agree with this statement for Pay Per Click advertising on Google AdWords or other less effective PPC programs, however you have to remember that visitors can find any page of your site and land on it if Google places it in their Search Engine Results Page. If Google thinks your site is important for a particular phrase it will rank you for that phrase. For example, search "Smartest Guy in Canada" on Google and see who comes up.
The important thing is that no matter where someone lands on your site, the content, the design, the navigation, the calls to action all must make the visitor comfortable and feel that they have arrived at the right place. Otherwise they are gone and will likely never return. Congratulations you just made it easier for your competitor to make a sale!
Having someone wander around aimlessly though your website is not the goal either. We use our process of Conversion Architecture to funnel visitors down a path toward an ultimate goal or action whereby they 'convert' from a random website visitor into a bone fide sales opportunity for your company.
