Of all the services that Unleashed Online Marketing offers, SEO or Search Engine Optimization is by far the most requested. Getting ranked at the top of search engines (read: Google) seems to be the top priority on many business owners minds right now.

I definitely know the appeal: streams of new customers that are actively looking for your products and services. Not having to pay high pay per click costs. Getting quality leads into your business that are interested in researching and/or purchasing at that given moment.

Yes, SEO is great for getting new customers. Yes, SEO can make businesses a lot of money… Yes, SEO is great for branding and business owner ego.

But a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

If your site is poorly designed, those searchers may bounce immediately. If your site doesn’t address the searcher’s interests with engaging, quality content, they may move on down the list ( think about your own behavior when searching…) If your site doesn’t make it EASY for customers to take action and contact you, they may be very interested, but not end up contacting you out of lack of convenience- remember, this is the internet we’re talking about. Attention spans are measured in nanoseconds.

The fact of the matter is: SEO isn’t enough to make a business win new customers from the web.

A business that is doing things right will dominate search engines though SEO and/or PPC PLUS:

  • Have an attractive looking site
  • Have relevant, fresh content that addresses the searcher’s interest (industry lists are very important – big tip)
  • Be functional, usable, fast loading, and easy to navigate
  • Offer a strong, clear call to action
  • Have systems and incentives in place to keep prospects engaged with the business until they make a purchase
  • Have positive ratings on diverse review sites
  • Demonstrate many forms of 3rd party credibility
  • Detail out the process of becoming a customer and what is entailed (setting clear expectations)
  • Make it easy for prospects to contact the business in multiple ways
  • Show leadership in fulfilling the customer’s purchase to their satisfaction
  • Have a system in place to thank customers for doing business, survey their experience, and request reviews/referrals
  • Continually remind the customer of their positive experience with the business and offer ways for themselves and their circle of influence to get to transact with the business again

Wheh! It is a lot. But it needs to be done in order for a business to maximize its revenue potential with each prospective customer.

I call it Sales Lifecycle Optimization. Since the web is always abuzz with the latest acronyms, lets call it SLO. Where SEO gets people to click on your web site through attempting to manipulate search results, SLO takes that customer through a sales funnel that focuses on their ultimate satisfaction. SEO sacrifices appearance to achieve results, SLO takes into account everything the customer sees, hears, and touches from your business and tries to improve the customer’s impression of your business and how it meets their needs. SEO buys lots of eyeballs. SLO buys lifetime customer-evangelists.

Maybe Sales Lifecycle Optimization is just a fancy term for “treating your customer right”- but there are core pieces of software, approaches to web usability, database marketing, phone systems, etc that go into making the process of “treating your customer right” easy and systematic. It means taking a broad view of how to integrate new customer acquisition via search, social media, offline advertising, and other channels into earning more profits from each customer by improving the way your business messages and treats its prospects.

Can you imagine the power of combing SEO for streams of new business and SLO for improving closing ratio and lifetime value?

I would love to hear your feedback about SEO (positive or negative), the concept of SLO, and what you’ve done in your business on both fronts.