You hear all these cool buzz words now-a-days. SEO, Social Media, User Experience, blah blah blah.
People also think I have this massive beef with each of them. The most vocal being Professional SEO’s (search engine optimization experts).
I might have a beef with the ignorance of some of the “experts” who practice these things but that’s a whole other topic.
You can have the best SEO’d site you want, Game digg every day, have the most unbelievable user interface ever, but if that does not lead to the conversion of your goals what do you have? A waste of resources.
I get emails every day from people who rank in the search engines for their keywords but are not getting any leads from it. When I send them a list of like 20 things to do to improve their conversion they tell me “but could this affect my keyword ranking?”.
Annoying…
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January 17, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Hey all,
Wanted to drop in and thank J. for this post. As a result of my reply above, I have received a ton of traffic and … you guessed it … some conversion!
You guys are the best!
September 30, 2009 at 2:28 am
It’s really disapointing to see the disconnect between so many SEOs and conversions. I can’t tell you the number of SEOs that I’ve told to judge an SEO campaign by conversions (as opposed to rankings) and they look at me like I’m crazy!
October 4, 2009 at 1:40 am
I assure you I have no disconnect. When working with Clients (which I’m doing less and less of) I pitch it as ROSI (like rosy) Return On Search Investment. Meaning that if I can rank them for 10 medium tail words that pull in 20x-30x my monthly cost the we have a positive ROSI. That goes down significantly when they want reputation management or start nitpicking about what terms they want to rank because short tails often don’t convert as well and have a much higher time investment.
September 28, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Of course, Conversion is the main objective. But, Can we ignore the Search Engine Ranking? Search Engine Ranking with a very good landing page result in conversion. I think Ranking is a method and conversion is the goal. We can’t confuse them. Can we?
September 28, 2009 at 6:56 am
Amen! I spend hours on the phone trying to explain why keyword positioning is about as useful as throwing a rock through a window advertising glass repair.
Most enterprise clients arent as savy as we would like because they are busy performing their expertise in business rather than learning web genre. So, it is left to the pro to quell buzzwords and lipservice from 1999 to these folks.
I have simply begun use a specialized question to cut short any long discussions on the matter. Question: Do you want a bargain, or a result?
No brainer beyond that.
September 25, 2009 at 12:47 pm
I know exactly what you mean! For years when I was new in SEO and just out there slingin links, I`d look at search volume only. But that was then. After years of ranking clients for tough keywords, only to have them turn around and tell me they weren`t getting results, I started realizing it wasn`t about search engine placement, traffic, etc. it was ALL about conversions. So, my main objective now is to find out what products/services they most want to sell, what has the highest profit margin, etc. and focus on that ONLY. Who cares if I can rank you fro the toughest, highest searched keyword in your space, if it doesn`t convert!
September 25, 2009 at 8:54 am
Conversions are what pays the bills, but if you look at other stats you can increase the conversions
September 24, 2009 at 8:50 pm
my opinion is .. not every people in the first page of google search result always make money . tons of them make no money. this is the truth
September 28, 2009 at 8:24 pm
i agree with that. Ive got some sites ranking on the first page that get traffic but conversions are low.
September 24, 2009 at 9:32 am
This is exactly why I created a Social network for Online marketers with the tagline “It’s the Conversions, Stupid!” http://www.conversionr.com
Wether you get the traffic from seo, ppc, social media, email marketing or else, what matters most is how you convert this traffic.
September 23, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Very true, conversion is the most important thing that you should be worried about. Whatever it takes to get your desired results should be taken. What are some of the best methods that you suggest?
September 23, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Conversion can actually vary a lot and purely depends on three things. First, how you reach your visitor (ad, SE or other). Second, what you say to your visitor. Third, how you refer your visitor to the merchant/product you represent.
September 23, 2009 at 6:55 pm
I really suck at sales copy, converting etc. I can get the traffic, I just stink at the rest of it.
September 23, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Conversions and ROI IMO is what you should care about
September 23, 2009 at 1:24 pm
So many people are focused on how many keywords they rank in Google. Seems like bragging rights should be on their bottom line not the serps.
September 23, 2009 at 10:55 am
Really great discussion here. I guess there’s just ot much of the SEO buzz really that some people are more conscious on how their keywords (even though it doesn’t convert) does well on search engines. And more on traffic even if its not organic or the income generating traffic.
September 23, 2009 at 6:59 am
Oh no no no no no, I thought pleasing my visitors were all that I should care about?!
September 23, 2009 at 5:28 am
That’s true. Being among top links in Google does not always mean making money form it
September 25, 2009 at 8:59 am
I find it actually quite hard to make any money from any website.
Peter Ralph
September 23, 2009 at 3:50 am
Why do we have to choose one over the other?
Can’t we do both?
Like have a search engine optimized site that is converting well?
Thanks for the input.
September 23, 2009 at 12:21 am
Agreed, no point being #1 if you’re not making any money
September 23, 2009 at 12:11 am
So many people can’t see the forest for the trees…….it’s all about the $$ that hits the bottom line!
September 22, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Sometimes you just focused too much on traffic or SEO that you forget to track and tweak your page. I think for conversions, PPC is still the best. You have all the data you need to optimize your page.
September 22, 2009 at 4:24 pm
This is so funny. I have been telling the people in my market the same thing. And they give me a the “That isn’t the really elegant presence I have in mind”. Truthfully I don’t care. Metrics, Testing and Conversion are all I care about. If putting a text field with the word name and a submit button below got me client i wanted you better believe my page would look like that. Convert or die.
September 22, 2009 at 1:06 pm
This is really funny. Apparently most SEO experts miss the point. If you’re marking in order to sell a product, conversion is the whole point of what you are doing…
Why would someone who isn’t being successful argue with someone who is having tremendous success.. Pride comes before the fall…. yikes
September 22, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Totally agree!
I also have a question: when I started my blog a year ago, I didn’t know anything about “SEO”, so I used the wordpress default URL (e.g. “/?p=876″). All of my SEO friends are telling me that I need to change it to more descriptive names. But, configuring the re-direct of existing URLs is a pain, and I’ve already had a PR of 4. Instead, I’ve been focusing on content.
Curious to know what’s your take on this? Should I still change the permn link format?
thanks.
October 6, 2009 at 11:28 pm
I use Wordpress for my site, and your solution is very easy without losing rank.
Change (/?p=876″) to custom, and then edit it to /%postname%/
Include the slashes on front and end. To make it auto edit your htaccess file, chmod your htaccess file to 777 prior to the edit. You can edit the chmod via FTP the easiest and fastest.
The end result is your htaccess file will reroute the pages, so its the same location, same SEO, same indexing, just different url address.
Don’t freak out if you see a few pages move in indexing as this is alreading dynamic and has no basis on the permalink change.
Sorry if I spoke below your technical ability, just being thorough for the benefit of all.
September 22, 2009 at 12:08 pm
May be ranking well in Google give them more satisfaction than conversion …
They are addicted to see their websites in top pages of google and I think they should change their habit and should addict to conversion.
September 22, 2009 at 9:23 am
These people follow the herd.
September 22, 2009 at 5:00 am
Hi,
Great website.Cungrats.
Could you send me “20 things to do to improve their conversion ” to my email?
Thanks!
Best regards,
Paulo
September 22, 2009 at 4:01 am
Conversion plays very important part in affiliate marketing where internet marketer should focused.
September 22, 2009 at 2:41 am
If there is 0 traffic, there’s not much room for conversions, but you have a point there. Zero conversion means 0 sales, even with 10M visitors…
10000 unique visitors with 0.1% conversion is a whopping 10 conversions/sales. Doubling your traffic to 20k or increasing conversion rate to 0.2% doubles the conversion. To make 50 sales, you need either 0,5% conversion (and maintain that 10k traffic) or 50k traffic.
Like Jeremy said, people spend loads of time, energy and money trying to get that traffic, while they could be working on increasing conversion. Getting more traffic relies on external sources (somewhat out of your control), while conversion improvement can be done 99.9% “locally” on the site.
September 22, 2009 at 12:07 am
Cash is KING!
Geek lingo is for geeks.
Analyze this, analyze that, yada yada yada, money made is what should be your main metric, all the other is hot air created by geeks to justify their failures but sound cool in doing so.
September 21, 2009 at 11:47 pm
offer to help the client or prospect with information then they are much more likely to help you $
September 21, 2009 at 11:20 pm
It’s wrong to undermine either because SEO & conversion are equally important. You won’t get traffic without SEO & if your traffic can’t be converted into profitable deals, its of no use either. Simply, to have a profitable business, you need both equally.
September 22, 2009 at 9:56 am
There are more ways to get traffic to your site than SEO. Currently doing it.
September 23, 2009 at 12:32 am
Definitely. Have you completely stopped SEO?
If yes, great & wish you all forever success to you.
If no, that’s what I meant. Just not closing all the doors. Keeping all the efforts going.
September 23, 2009 at 7:57 am
Haven’t stopped it, but it is just not the primary driver. My point is just that I don’t think that SEO and Coversion are “equally” important. Good discussion. Take Care.
September 21, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Yeah exactly true Jeremy. Conversion is so much important.
September 21, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Well, its just that people place so much emphasis on SEO and ranking stuffs. My take is that they believe they have made so much effort on getting their sites ranked well and a change of direction is something that they can’t swallow..
Tip is don’t rely on search and some other stuffs so much…
September 21, 2009 at 8:39 pm
I’ve been preaching this to our clients for a while now. The biggest break through we’ve had in conversion percentages recently has been because of web video.
September 21, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Same way here… That’s always part of the business…
September 21, 2009 at 7:57 pm
feelin’ your aggravation Jeremy – I WASTED 45 minutes of my life trying to explain to the legacy marketing guy building facebook ads for one of my clients that impressions and branding aren’t cutting it. If the ads don’t drive click thru’s that don’t then convert into leads then they are not what I am need.
keep speakin’ truth brother
September 21, 2009 at 7:26 pm
could not help but laugh lol
September 21, 2009 at 5:16 pm
If their keyword rankings are what is generating their traffic, then surely you can see what they’re talking about.
Converting even 100% of 1 click is still only 1 sale.
September 21, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I am an SEO professional (expert and SEO should not be used in the same sentence) and I TOTALLY agree with Jeremy on this sentiment.
A #1 ranking is completely WORTHLESS if it does not generate conversions. You are, indeed, wasting valuable resources that could have been used elsewhere to help your business succeed.
September 21, 2009 at 5:09 pm
I prefer to focus on the entire ‘funnel’.
Traffic > Site > Conversion 1 (Download) > Conversion 2 (Sale).
Just go through and improve each step, then loop right back and continue.
Being a math-minded person, I actually use an algorithm to suggest where my efforts would pay off most at the current time (right now: revamping my site!).
September 21, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I think conversion is the most important thing but i will put into context for you;
Market Research & understanding
Traffic
Conversion
equals Making money on the net.
Many designers design a site without first designing the site around the conversion that leads people to take the next action on your site. Content is still king but when a tree falls in the forest does anyone here it.
thanks
brian@nerdec.com
SEO consultant
September 21, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Can’t argue the fact that conversions matter the most. Still like getting the best opportunity for clients to get those conversions with a top ranking…
September 21, 2009 at 3:28 pm
cant wait to read the post with the list!
September 21, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Yeah, I think that people are really concerned about their ranking. I have a PR 0 site that ranks on top of Google all the time. I have NEVER been concerned about how Google sees my site, but mostly concerned about how the folks coming from Google convert on my site.
Can’t wait for the upcoming posts on this topic!
September 21, 2009 at 1:40 pm
What are these 20 things I can do to improve my conversion?
September 21, 2009 at 2:03 pm
a upcoming post will cover it
September 23, 2009 at 4:15 am
Just about to ask the same question before I saw the reply from Shoe.. Worth waiting
September 21, 2009 at 1:38 pm
This is the blocking and tackling of online marketing. (Really, of any marketing.) Rankings are nice for ego, but all the ranking does is provide you a way to get that click and then you gotta work your site for the sale from there.
No sales = no business, so who cares about that ranking then?
Craig
September 21, 2009 at 12:19 pm
it’s all about result at the end of the day… google, twitter or amazon don’t care that much about SEO or anything else .. they care about those results if seo can brings result then they will use it… it should stay a tool not your whole world…..
September 21, 2009 at 12:11 pm
It’s soo true, I had a site that was ranked #1 for my term.
I switchted things around, and i dropped down to position #5
But Iam making DOUBLE the money when i was in #1 spot.
September 21, 2009 at 12:10 pm
At the end of the day, it’s about the benjamins. All the other stuff is just about vanity.
September 21, 2009 at 11:47 am
That’s straight to the point. I feel the same way. If there are no conversions, there is no business. Jeremy, I am taking your 12 weeks course. I received week #4 about PPC. Basically, this is the reason I am taking this course. I want to have your list of 20 things to do to improve the conversions. Love to read your articles.
September 21, 2009 at 11:45 am
Consumers don’t like the truth. People throw around phrases like social media or user experience because it makes them sound more legitimate than they actually are.
September 21, 2009 at 11:24 am
Simple yet EFFECTIVE advice, some times us entrepreneurs need to be reminded of the basics.
Thank you very much for this.
September 21, 2009 at 11:21 am
It’s often to get too caught up on your own little area like SEO and loose sight of the real purpose of what you’re doing: making the sale. I sometimes find clients get excited about using the latest social media gadget but have no idea how it will actually help the bottom line.
September 21, 2009 at 11:15 am
Finally, someone who is willing to speak out. Nothing else matters to your business, if you don’t have conversions and leads you’re dead in the water.
September 21, 2009 at 11:14 am
Looks like someone received an annoying mail today…