Will Search Engine Optimization Help You Sell More?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 19 of July , 2008 at 8:34 pm

One frequent statement I see is that ’search engine optimization will help to increase sales’. Is this really true?

In theory the answer is yes. Undertake a strong search engine optimization program that will see your pages at or near the top of the search results pages and you are going to increase your visitor numbers - that has never been in doubt.

However, increased visitors have no bearing on sales. I could send a million visitors to sight and yet sales would not increase by one. Of course, chances are you may get lucky and score a few sales. Search engine optimization can only increase sales if it has the right direction from day one.

If you sell blue widgets, it is will be a waste of time optimizing for ‘bluish widgets’. Sure, you can get to number one for that term, but who is going to actually search for it? On the other hand, you may see that 1000 people search for widgets. You undertake a strong search engine optimization campaign on that term. Because the competition is so strong, you don’t even make it to page two let alone page one - still no increase in sales.

For campaigns to increase sales it must be done in such a way that it attracts the ‘right’ visitors - not just any visitor. This involves keyword research that is meaningful and related to your products.

Where a good SEM campaign can be effective is in finding keywords that are being used in searches but have little in the way of competition. Blue widgets may be have a lot of competition, however a term such as ‘blue widgets for Drupal’ may be used more often than some people imagine so the competition may be low. Optimize for that phrase and you have snared a specialized market.

SEO will not increase sales alone.. As the name suggests, you are optimizing your pages for the search engines. What you need to consider is what information (keywords) you are optimizing.

Category: SEO

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