Dear Business Owner or Entrepreneur,

This could be the most exciting SEO information you have ever read. Let me explain why.

I’m going to show you how to choose the right SEO firm so you avoid the pitfalls many business owners fall into when hiring a search engine optimization service. You see, it’s important you know ahead of time that website traffic alone won’t guarantee you more sales or increased profits.

Search engine optimization is important, but it’s only half the answer to your website traffic problems. The other piece of the puzzle is conversion. In case you’re not familiar with conversion, converting is a term used in sales and marketing that refers to when a lead moves closer down the sales cycle to becoming a buyer.

When someone fills a form on your website to contact you for additional information, they have “converted” to a prospect. Although still not a paying client, they have taken a step closer to becoming one. If they buy your product or come in your store or office for your services, they’ve then “converted” from a prospect to a “buyer.” You may call them customers or refer to them as clients or patients, but in marketing terms they are buyers.

Now, let me ask you this; Do you want traffic or do you want buyers?

The problem you’ll find with most SEO consultants is they understand how the search engines work, but don’t understand direct marketing principles. Yes website traffic is important, but traffic alone without conversion is worthless. It reminds me of going to a dance and coming back home without a single girl’s phone number.

Ken McCarthy coined a phrase that’s been the formula for online success which goes like this; TRAFFIC + CONVERSION = PROFIT. This has become the golden rule in web marketing success and it’s important you know this before you spend your marketing dollars on search engine optimization that’s only focused on traffic alone.

Imagine you own a small Italian restaurant on Main Street which is just a few stores away from another Italian restaurant. You find out there’s going to be a big parade on Saturday where they expect more than 10,000 people. You figure you’ll capitalize on this event to get customers in your restaurant since there’s going to be such a big turnout of people (traffic) passing by. So you kick into gear and call your food supplier and order enough food supplies and wine in preparation for the big day. Then you put together a banner to hang on your store window that reads like this:

Joe’s Italian Restaurant
Delicious Italian Dishes Made with Mamma’s Secret Recipes.
Open 7 days a week.
We deliver.

Saturday comes and you get quite a few diners in your restaurant. By the end of the evening you know it was a good day because you had more patrons in that day than usual. So after it’s all over you check your sales receipts and confirm that in fact you sold more dishes than you normally sell on Saturdays. Just before turning off the lights and calling it a day, you walk over to the window and take down the banner you created for the event.

Two weeks later the food supplier’s sales rep stops by for the usual sales call. As you’re telling him you don’t need to order much of anything because you stocked up for the big parade two weeks ago and you still have plenty of supplies, the rep makes a comment that just about floors you.

He says, “you know Joe, that’s interesting because Mario down the street stocked up for the big parade too, but he’s had to order as usual and says he’s been so busy since the parade he’s hired additional help.”

You’re wondering what Mario must have done differently to get those results. So you ask the rep if he knows what Mario’s secret is. The sales rep mentions the only thing he knows Mario did for the event was to hang up a window sign. As a matter of fact – says the rep — “the sign is still hanging.” Your curiosity is killing you. You want to find out what Mario put on his sign. After all, you put up a sign too. How could a vinyl banner make such a dramatic difference from one business to another?

On your way home that night as you pass Mario’s restaurant, you slow down to read his window sign. It reads like this;

Parade Special: (TODAY ONLY)
Come in NOW and enter your name to receive a Birthday Card every year from Mario’s with a coupon inside for a FREE birthday dinner. Celebrate your birthday with friends and family at Mario’s and your dinner is on us. Hurry and get your name on the list before today’s event is over to secure your FREE birthday dinner. No purchase necessary to register. — Mario’s Italian Restaurant - Great Food, Good People.

One of two thoughts is going through your head as you read the sign. You might be thinking that Mario simply ran a promotion giving away a free birthday dinner and think nothing more of it and drive away. Or, if you know a thing or two about marketing you’d immediately understand why Mario “converted” more traffic than you that day.

During the parade that Saturday, Mario didn’t sell more meals than you did. In fact, you outsold him by a few. However, Mario was thinking long term and instead of trying to make a fast buck by taking advantage of the large crowd (traffic) passing by, Mario wanted to build a following of customers that would keep coming back again and again. So he came up with the free birthday dinner offer and achieved his objective. Now people are coming in for their free birthday dinner, but guess what? When they come in they’re not alone. They’re accompanied by friends and family who come to celebrate with them. Everybody else is paying for their own dinner and the bottles of wine are coming and going as part of the celebration.

Do you think Mario is losing money on the free birthday dinner offer? I think you get the point.

In case you’re still wondering, what Mario did was simple. He figured out a way to “convert” traffic better than any other business owner on the block that day. For Mario the traffic is coming back again and again, but that’s not even the best part. What’s most compelling about his strategy is that he now has the contact information of all 763 people who registered for the free birthday dinner that Saturday. He can now contact each and every one of them via snail mail or e-mail with other offers or promotions. If you’re saying to yourself  that this won’t work in your business because your business is different, you’re missing the point.

Dear friend, traffic on the internet is no different than traffic in the mall. The trick is knowing how to convert it.

There’s a big misconception about search engine optimization. Believe it or not, getting traffic is the easy part. Converting the traffic is a whole different story. Remember the formula; TRAFFIC + CONVERSION = PROFIT. You won’t get the end result if any of the two parts of the equation are missing.

When choosing an SEO firm try not to get caught up in the technical jargon of search engine optimization. Don’t get me wrong… Finding a competent, knowledgeable and most importantly ethical SEO expert is important. But always keep in mind the end result. When you go to the hardware store to buy a drill, what you really want is a ¼” hole. So remember, you’re not really buying search engine optimization. You are investing in the ability to grow your customer list faster than your competition and KEEPING them happy and coming back for more again and again.

The great Peter Drucker, considered the father of modern management said it best. “The whole purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.”

NOTE: I hate spam too. I will never share, show, rent, or sell your e-mail address or information to any unauthorized third party EVER.

About Frank Prieto - Frank is an SEO expert and marketing strategist helping business owners and entrepreneurs grow their business using search engine optimization and pay per click advertising.