SEO - it's only the beginning

source:http://thefreeseoguide.com/

Working in SEO day in day out, can you can be forgiven for sometimes thinking that good rankings can solve every business problems. The issues start when business owner themselves start thinking the same way and have unrealistic expectations of what search marketing can do for them.
In any business strategy, seo should just be one element of a very wide environment including other marketing channels, data analysis, customer management, acquisition and retention strategies.

Business objectives
At the end of the day, the ultimate objective for any commercial business is to generate revenue. So when working on your seo (either in-house or via an agency), always keep in mind what your core business is, as without sales and revenue, there is no business. Of course good rankings are great, but if they don't convert searchers into traffic and customers, then they're financially worth nothing. So always try and integrate seo within your overall business plan so that you can set realistic objectives and measurement methods for this channel.

SEO strategy
Once you've set your SEO objectives, look at your keywords, your rankings, the impact on your traffic and how you can optimise your website based on searchers behaviour. Of course ideally you'd want high rankings, but some of your competitors may generate more revenue than you with lower rankings thanks to a better optimised site. You need to find the right balance for your website, and if your landing pages are well optimised, then the rankings won't matter as much.

The big picture
In today's online world, seo is obviously one of the key elements of any online marketing strategy and it needs to be planned and implemented very carefully, but it is not the be all and end all solution for your business. If you run a company, you need to always keep the big picture in mind. SEO is a tool that can bring great rewards if done correctly, but remember that good rankings won't always bring traffic and conversions, so don't be fooled by agencies promising you high rankings and top positions in search engine results pages.

Search marketing needs to be used in conjunction with a full range of marketing tools like paid search, website/conversion rate optimisation, web analytics and so on to bring the best results for your business and ultimately revenue.

How does SEO work for your business? do you have good rankings and limited revenue? feel free to share your views and get in touch if you'd like to know how to develop a marketing strategy that works for your business