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SEO and Internet Marketing brings visitors to your website – but is that enough?

"No SEO is not enough."

No SEO is not enough – websites are for people first and search engines second. People need to find what they are expecting when they arrive at your web pages. So they have to be clear, relevant and focussed on whatever it is you are offering to people.

Good natural search engine optimisation should take this into account – after all it is what the search engines themselves are striving for - to give the best RELEVANT results based on the content of your web pages as seen by human visitors.

Unfortunately it is all too easy to loose sight of the main objective - a website that effectively sells to people and is search engine friendly. Instead too much emphasis can be put on driving traffic to a website which doesn't "do the business" when visitors arrive.

"What good is it to appear on page one of google (natural listings or pay per click adverts) if visitors are just turned away by an ineffective website?"

Well, at least with good natural SEO you are dealing with the content of a website so you are starting in the right place.

With some forms of internet marketing – such as pay-per-click campaigns, black hat search engine optimization (all that con artist stuff intended to fool search engines into thinking a poor website is really a good website), and email marketing - it is even easier to loose sight of the objective and just drive traffic to your website only to turn them away again at the shop window.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the term I often hear with various figures quoted giving you examples of what might happen if you increased your conversion rate from x% to y%. Well I am not going to bother inventing some impressive looking figures as they never fit real life. But the point is – conversion is about the number of "visitors" you turn into "customers".

Clearly there are a lot of factors involved but in terms of internet marketing:

• Step 1 – is bring visitors to your website
• Step 2 – is persuade those visitors to go to the next stage which may be to contact you

So, whatever it is that enticed visitors to your site, your web site needs to support and build upon that message in a clear and appealing way.

It must convince them to go to the next step with you rather than with someone else.

"Your website needs to match the expectations of the visitors rather than disappoint them."

So your web site should:

• Appeal to people
• Match, support and build on your marketing activities
• Point and guide people to the next step – often referred to as “calls to action”
  

To help put that into practice:

Keep website design simple and focussed

Simplicity is important in website design. The more complex the design, the harder it is for visitors to focus on what is important. So make sure that the focal point of your web site is what you want your customers to absorb the most.

What are you selling and why should visitors buy from you

Spell out clearly and simply what you are offering and the benefits to the visitor (not the benefits to you). Back this up with plenty of good, clear informative content that visitors can choose to read if they want more (which also provides additional material to appeal to search engines).

Include Calls to Action

Guide your visitors to taking the next step – ask them to take action.

All your web pages should encourage visitors to take action – perhaps contact you, sign up for a newsletter, download a tip sheet or guide, or buy something.

Take people to where they want to go

Email marketing and pay-per-click advertising will guide people to your website. Make sure that when they get there the landing page focuses on whatever it is you have advertised.

Obvious - yes but often this step is missed out and this is probably the most effective thing you can do to increase conversion rates.