Before answering the question, let us imagine two situations below:

Imagine....
You wanted to start a business. You rent a shop for $500 monthly in a high traffic shopping mall, you spent $30000 to renovate the shop. You were so excited because you spent another $30000 on your marketing campaign and you know you would have at least 500 people would walk in to your shop but... no one wanted to buy from you.

Imagine....
You wanted to start an online business. You get a hosting and a domain which cost you $200 per year, you hired a web developer with $1000 to developer your website. You spent $3000 on your Search Engine Optimization and you know that you would have at least 5000 people visit your website every month but....no one wanted to buy on your website.

Ok, after two imaginations, what is your answer? SEO is to rank high on search engines or SEO is to INCREASE YOUR CAMPANY SALES?? Most people give me the answer is to rank high on search engines, but what is your search engine optimization for if you can only RANK HIGH BUT NO SALES.

Your SEO purpose may not necessary to increase sales, it can be generating leads, increase your newsletter subscribers, etc. But, I am sure no one will pay few hundreds or thousands for Search Engine Marketer only to rank high on search engines. And, this is what most search engine marketers sell to their customers. They sell their customers SEO packages without knowing what the Conversion Rate and Return on Investment are. Without these two rates, you wouldn't know if your SEO success.

And Search Engine Marketers and customers feel so proud of their search engines results since their websites are on first page on search engines. But sooner or later, they find out the money they spend on Search Engine Optimization doesn't generate returns.

So, next time before you invest in any Search Engine Marketers, ask them how they can increase your company sales but not only rank high on search engines.

You can read my previous newsletter on the same issue - Top 10 Ranking On Search Engines? So What?