I have a very good friend who is an excellent search engine optimizer (seo). In fact he is an excellent seo! Why? Because he gets outstanding results in the major search engines, over the long haul, starting from scratch.

The true measure of an seo's or seo firm's capability is not to be measured solely by where their clients rank today, but by a comparing where they ranked when the current seo/seo firm took them on as a client with where they rank today, and how long the journey has taken, and what they have done to get there? But that's another article for another day.

My very diligent seo friend and I have been discussing, at my instigation, the issue of conversion (from traffic, or visitors to customers), particularly of one of his major websites. This site ranks at number 1 in the major search engines, but the client has an alarmingly low conversion ratio. They are in a global growth industry and business is booming. Just as well.

When I started this conversation with my seo friend about June of this year, it was because I looked at this client's website, and was of the opinion that the only reason they were doing as well as they were, was because they were in a global growth industry, and they had an excellent seo as part of their team. They were attracting the traffic, but the website itself was truly 'underwhelming'. It lacked creativity, impact, and the basic DNA of selling. As a result of this, and some other contributing factors, the conversion rate is so low that if the competition ever got its act together my seo friend's number one client could be in real difficulty!

For some months I pointed out to him the deficiencies of his client's website, hoping that he may be able to influence the owners to have a serious review of its design, based upon a desire to improve their conversion ratio.

A couple of weeks ago my seo friend and I spoke again, this time he told me of a meeting he was asked to attend with his client. The topic…..CONVERTING VISITORS TO CUSTOMERS! In my opinion, not a moment too soon.

Obviously an organization should not be focusing on obtaining absolute maximum sales conversion. The cost of so doing could be prohibitive and the effort a distraction. But optimum conversion should always be an objective. By increasing the conversion ratio (without resorting to severe discounting), an organization achieves a number of important strategic objectives, among which are:

Increased market share
Reduced cost of sales
Increased revenues
Increased corporate confidence and capacity

One of the major reasons small enterprises fail to optimize conversion ratios is often because the owner, or owners, are so busy working IN the business, they neglect the need to work ON the business in any meaningful strategic manner. They also have difficulty in accepting that they might need to bring in an outside 'consultant' whom they will have to pay.

Every organization needs to regularly and seriously consider if actual sales results are where they should be, not based upon meeting forecast, but based upon what is objectively possible in their industry.

So, if you are looking at hiring an seo firm because you realize that improved rankings in the major search engines should mean increased opportunities, perhaps you should consider optimizing your conversion ratio first, that way the roi on your seo investment will also be optimized?