How high does your website rank on Google or other search engines? Most Internet marketing professionals or search engine optimization services will say that you must be in the top 10 to be successful. While there is some validity to that, I say it’s not what REALLY matters.

What REALLY matters with your online success is not where you rank, but what types of people find your website and how much revenue is actually generated by those visitors!

In other words, SEO is not about rankings. It’s about website traffic that leads to sales.

As an example, think about it from a ‘real world’ sales perspective. Imagine that you own a shop called “Hot Stuff Clothes” that sells beautiful, hand stitched wool sweaters from Ireland, ski jackets, and other heavy winter gear. Your store is located on the busiest street in the city. Thousands of people walk by it and see it every day. Your prices are great. Your window displays are attractive and eye catching. The only problem is that your store is on the busiest street…in Miami… where a cold snap might mean the thermometer dips into the 60s. Who is thinking about buying bulky sweaters while in Miami?

The store name is catchy and descriptive enough. And, occasionally someone might buy a jacket before traveling north or going on a ski trip. However, your great positioning on that busy street yields no positive results on your bottom line. You need traffic that leads to sales. So, you either need to move your store to a colder climate or add different products (like bathing suits & sunglasses) that visitors to your store will want to buy TODAY while they are there.

Your web traffic is very similar. Yes, it’s great to have high search engine rankings and get people to visit your website. However, you must attract the right kind of traffic through effective key word research AND THEN make it easy for your site visitors to buy directly from your website or create a situation where they want to become your client in the very near future.

This is especially true if you are selling B2B. Think about it. Suppose 2,000 people come to your website every day because your website ranks high for the key words “kitchen supplies.” However, you’re actually a commercial kitchen manufacturer’s representative. More than likely, only a handful of those 2,000 visitors are really looking for the products and services that your company offers.

If you have visitors to your website, but nothing for them to do or buy once they are there, you have just wasted the energy and money it took to get that click to your website - whether it was a paid click or organic SEO.

You must convert those visitors to immediate or potential clients by giving them an opportunity to sign up for your newsletter or access a special report about your industry. Then, once they are on your email list, you can use drip marketing to educate them further about your company’s products and services.

Once you are doing this, you are successfully converting your targeted traffic into sales and THAT is when your high search engine rankings will pay off.

Well, as a business owner or business development director, it’s important to take an honest look at what your company is doing to increase sales, revenues and profitability. So, what are your strengths and weaknesses in your business development efforts?

It’s important to understand your strengths and weaknesses so you know where, specifically, you need help. Let’s start with a list of common SalesMarketing101 components:

Data & Data Management - Is your data in a spreadsheet that is rarely looked at or is it continuously updated and managed in a Contact Relationship Management (CRM) tool?

Sales Processes - Do all of your prospects and clients have the same excellent experience with your company or does your team ‘wing it’ through a presentation?

Sales Program - Do you have a defined set of questions to qualify a prospect? Is your entire organization telling the same story about your company or is it a mixed message?

Marketplace Definition - Do you pursue anyone with a pulse or do you have a profile of what your best clients look like and where they are? Could your business grow if your marketplace was better defined?

Sales Personnel - Do you have a profiling method for hiring sales people or do you tend to employ people that end up costing your company a lot of time and money with little results?

Marketing Collateral - When was the last time you updated your marketing materials (including printed brochures, letters and website)? If you can’t remember, it’s time to make some changes here.

Marketing Campaigns - Do you have a system for regularly communicating valuable information with your database? Do you measure your response rates? What have you tried that has worked? What have you tried that didn’t work?

Networking - What results are you getting from the current networking activities you do? Are there other groups that could possibly make you more visible to the types of people who need to know about your business? Wouldn’t that be a better use of your valuable time?

So, if you’re truly honest about yourself and your business, where do you see some of your weaknesses in the list above? How much would it be worth to your business if you could measurably improve in those areas to increase your sales? Perhaps it’s worth a conversation with The Surfside Group to better understand how we can help turn your weaknesses into strengths without playing silly word games!

Our intent here is to offer a place for the exchange of fundamentals-based sales, marketing, technology & Internet growth concepts.

Content will be offered and moderated by Suzanne & Matt Foley of The Surfside Group.

We encourage active participation and networking among subscribers.

That is all.

Matt Foley