3 Reasons Why SEO Isn’t Working for You

So you’ve been validating your website’s code, filling in descriptions and keywords, optimizing page titles and URL’s, and paying attention to the nuances of keyword density while building a solid backlink portfolio.  Your site is steadily rising in search results for your selected terms and everything is going well except… Your sales haven’t increased as much as they should.  This article may help you figure out how to optimize your site for conversions, which in many respects is the missing element in several SEO campaigns I’ve seen.

1. Have a friend visit

Take someone who doesn’t really frequent your website or know much about it, direct them to your site, and ask them to tell you what you want them to do there.

If they can’t figure it out in 30 seconds, your page doesn’t have a clear call to action.

This call is absolutely critical because it tells your potential customers what to do next to further their relationship with you.  You’d be surprised (maybe you wouldn’t, actually) how many websites there are that don’t include contact forms, email addresses, phone numbers, mailing addresses, or any real way of getting a hold of the owner.  Some only have the standard Facebook and Twitter buttons…but believe me when I say this, if I’m looking for a plumber, I don’t really want to talk about my problems on Twitter.  Even a DM is uncomfortable, and if I’m elderly or paranoid about online security, I might prefer to never use those forms of communication. Period.

2. Browse top rated sites in your market

If you sell a home repair service, the chances of you competing with Sears are pretty high.  And one of the biggest challenges you probably face in this competition is how big Sears is – they have more resources, more name recognition, and so on.  While this can create some headaches for you when attracting new customers, it can be very useful when figuring out how to convert visitors into customers.  Think about it: if Sears has that much name recognition and that much money, they probably get business online.  And they probably can afford to invest some money testing the best way to convert visitors into customers.  They wouldn’t be as successful as they are if they didn’t.

By visiting their landing pages and taking note of everything from style to what types of calls to action are employed, you can take advantage of their hard work.

3. Have a back up

As alluded to in the first point, people prefer different kinds of communication and people are at different stages in their willingness to do business with you.  Some people want to buy right now, others are shopping around.  The bigger the purchase, the more likely it is people will do research before they write you a check.  If you’re selling to people like me, they may want to do in depth research on even the smallest of purchases.

In that case you should have one primary call to action for those who want to start the buying process right away and a secondary call to those who want to wait.