It's a problem I've seen time and time again from business owners that are new to search engine optimization. After a few months of striking out on their own and using popular SEO methods to increase their visibility on Google SERPs, they end up giving up seemingly out of the blue. They've gone through their company site and improved the presence of keywords, updated meta tags, set up their social media listings, and even run a fairly robust PPC campaign. Yet, despite their best efforts, they still aren't seeing the conversions they want.

Regardless of whether the ultimate goal is to improve sales, generate leads, or to get people to simply subscribe to a newsletter, the metrics behind these objectives still don't show any real improvement. If the business has been emphasizing both organic and inorganic marketing efforts for at least a few months it will see that site traffic has improved tremendously - and that's about it. Isn't a well-run SEO campaign supposed to lead to results? What am I doing wrong? These are questions I hear asked all the time.

Turning Potential into Actual Results

The one thing that many people fail to recognize is that SEO, like any other form of marketing, is engineered to get people in front of the business itself. Now, this isn't to say that SEO and PPC aren't crucial to maintaining a profitable online business. In fact, the truth is that many companies need to rely on these essential services in order to stand apart from the competition. So then what's the problem?

In order to get conversion rates, businesses need to emphasis their product strongest at the final step of the sales process. This means having a point of conversion that has as strong and as concise a call-to-action as can possibly be mustered. For example, if a business wants to directly sell site visitors a product or service, then they need to be able to "seal the deal" by convincing the user in the following ways:

• Show the use or value of the point of conversion. Make it appealing in a way that isn't forced but still very much direct.
• Display how you rate against competing services or businesses. Why should the end user give their time or attention to you instead of Brand X?
• Link to similar items or services that the user may be interested in. As an example, imagine you're selling shoes. Wouldn't it make sense to have links on the category page for Adidas go to socks or exercise shorts?

Top-ranked SEO agencies and consultants are able to raise site traffic to their clients' domains, but the final task of improving the conversion rate is an equal responsibility for both the marketer and the business. Be exciting and provide a convincing case for your call-to-action and you'll get those results you've been yearning for.