[Hot] Is Indecisiveness About SEO Costing You Money?
Last weekend I visited my father at his beach house in Brigantine, New Jersey. My father is retired--he spends his time reading and playing poker--but he still espouses the same philosophy of The Conscious Executive, part Socratic, part esoteric psychology, and part modern day physics, that guided his successful business career. I am not the only person who asks my father for advice, although often I am the person he feels obliged to give advice to.
Over a chicken dinner, I told my father about two recent communications. In both cases, I had been corresponding with a potential partner who, at a critical moment, stopped communicating with me. I thought the lack of response in both cases meant the person did not want to work with me.
"No," my father said. He explained that unresponsiveness is often not a deliberate attempt to end a relationship.
"People just don't know what to do," he said. "They can't make a decision. So they do nothing."
His advice? Write both people. Express my concerns honestly. So I did exactly this.
"I haven't heard from you," I wrote to both. "I wanted to make sure we are still communicating."
Both responded within a day, apologizing for the non-response, and both communications were re-initiated.
To my father's thinking, the inability to make a decision plagues even successful thinkers and business leaders. Unfortunately, of all flaws, indecisiveness might be the most costly for a business.
In the SEO world, our sponsor, Alex Stepman, sees the costs of indecisiveness every day. As Stepman noted in a recent interview, when speaking to small business owners about SEO, the sentiment he most often hears is, "I need SEO, but..."
Read: Ask the Expert: Why do I Need SEO?
There are many ways to say "but," yet the (flawed) logic is the same: But is often an excuse for indecisiveness.
How costly is but? There are many ways to calculate the costs of indecisiveness. Obviously, we'll look at this question from an SEO perspective.
Is Indecisiveness About SEO Costing You Money?
A website owner can easily calculate the cost of this indecisiveness by answering a series of important questions.
1. Do you have a website? If so, skip to question 2. (If not, why?) Do you believe that a website can improve your sales?
If you do not have a website, you might find some of our prior articles helpful. An easy way to think about building a successful, fully-optimized website is to consider the following tasks, and who might perform them:
1. Website Design
2. Website Development
3. Content Creation
4. Conversion
2. If you do have a website, do you expect to profit from the site? (You should, of course).
3. If you do expect to profit from your website, do you know exactly how much traffic the Internet drives to your business? (If not, that information is easily attained in your analytics).
Perhaps you think that the Internet drives a significant amount of traffic to your business. This is good, but have you optimized your reach? Are you customers finding you easily? Can you translate your traffic to actual dollars?
4. If you do have a website, and you do expect to profit from your online interactions, the final simple step here is to perform a Google search for your business.
Are you the top result? Are you the second result? The third? If you're not the top result, what separates the top result from your business? (SEO, likely). If you're not on the first page...well, forget about it.
A Simple Truth: Most Traffic Goes to the Top Results
Here's the simple truth: the top results receives most traffic. According to a 2013 study from Chitika, the first result receives 33% of all traffic; the second result receives about 18%; and the third result receives 11%. That's a significant drop-off. And if you're not on the first page? Well, you're missing out on nearly 92% of all traffic.
So here's the calculation. If you know how much traffic the Internet drives to your business, and you can quantify that number in dollars, you can easily see the difference between, say, the third result and the first. By optimizing your site to be the first result, you could potentially triple your traffic (from 11% to 33%)--and potentially triple your profits.
Again, what is the difference between your business and the top-ranked business in Google? If you feel you offer a similar or better product with similar or better service, you deserve that top spot. You deserve SEO.
Is Indecisiveness Costing You Money? Call Stepman's SEO Today!
If you sell a high-quality product that deserves customers, you also deserve a well-optimized website. Do not let the changing search landscape compromise your sales. Now, more than ever, you need the astute wisdom of a professional search engine optimization professional, like Stepman's SEO. To learn how you can improve your website's performance, call today: 215-900-9398.
Over a chicken dinner, I told my father about two recent communications. In both cases, I had been corresponding with a potential partner who, at a critical moment, stopped communicating with me. I thought the lack of response in both cases meant the person did not want to work with me.
"No," my father said. He explained that unresponsiveness is often not a deliberate attempt to end a relationship.
"People just don't know what to do," he said. "They can't make a decision. So they do nothing."
His advice? Write both people. Express my concerns honestly. So I did exactly this.
"I haven't heard from you," I wrote to both. "I wanted to make sure we are still communicating."
Both responded within a day, apologizing for the non-response, and both communications were re-initiated.
To my father's thinking, the inability to make a decision plagues even successful thinkers and business leaders. Unfortunately, of all flaws, indecisiveness might be the most costly for a business.
In the SEO world, our sponsor, Alex Stepman, sees the costs of indecisiveness every day. As Stepman noted in a recent interview, when speaking to small business owners about SEO, the sentiment he most often hears is, "I need SEO, but..."
Read: Ask the Expert: Why do I Need SEO?
There are many ways to say "but," yet the (flawed) logic is the same: But is often an excuse for indecisiveness.
How costly is but? There are many ways to calculate the costs of indecisiveness. Obviously, we'll look at this question from an SEO perspective.
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| Photo Source: "Five Reasons Indecision Will Ruin Your Life" |
Is Indecisiveness About SEO Costing You Money?
A website owner can easily calculate the cost of this indecisiveness by answering a series of important questions.
1. Do you have a website? If so, skip to question 2. (If not, why?) Do you believe that a website can improve your sales?
If you do not have a website, you might find some of our prior articles helpful. An easy way to think about building a successful, fully-optimized website is to consider the following tasks, and who might perform them:
1. Website Design
2. Website Development
3. Content Creation
4. Conversion
2. If you do have a website, do you expect to profit from the site? (You should, of course).
3. If you do expect to profit from your website, do you know exactly how much traffic the Internet drives to your business? (If not, that information is easily attained in your analytics).
Perhaps you think that the Internet drives a significant amount of traffic to your business. This is good, but have you optimized your reach? Are you customers finding you easily? Can you translate your traffic to actual dollars?
4. If you do have a website, and you do expect to profit from your online interactions, the final simple step here is to perform a Google search for your business.
Are you the top result? Are you the second result? The third? If you're not the top result, what separates the top result from your business? (SEO, likely). If you're not on the first page...well, forget about it.
A Simple Truth: Most Traffic Goes to the Top Results
Here's the simple truth: the top results receives most traffic. According to a 2013 study from Chitika, the first result receives 33% of all traffic; the second result receives about 18%; and the third result receives 11%. That's a significant drop-off. And if you're not on the first page? Well, you're missing out on nearly 92% of all traffic.
So here's the calculation. If you know how much traffic the Internet drives to your business, and you can quantify that number in dollars, you can easily see the difference between, say, the third result and the first. By optimizing your site to be the first result, you could potentially triple your traffic (from 11% to 33%)--and potentially triple your profits.
Again, what is the difference between your business and the top-ranked business in Google? If you feel you offer a similar or better product with similar or better service, you deserve that top spot. You deserve SEO.
Is Indecisiveness Costing You Money? Call Stepman's SEO Today!
If you sell a high-quality product that deserves customers, you also deserve a well-optimized website. Do not let the changing search landscape compromise your sales. Now, more than ever, you need the astute wisdom of a professional search engine optimization professional, like Stepman's SEO. To learn how you can improve your website's performance, call today: 215-900-9398.