If you're like many business owners, you probably rely heavily on your organic search rankings to gauge and measure your SEO performance. When you see your website listed on the first page for a relevant keyword, you're happy. If you see your website at or near the top of the first page, you're ecstatic! When you lose an organic ranking, you're upset and when you fall off the first page, you're downright pissed off. Sound about right?

According to a study conducted by Fireclick, an industry leading provider of website analytics services, the average conversion rate for websites (worldwide) is just a hair over 2%. Depressing, isn't it? But, before you set out in search of a bridge to leap off of, consider this: Blue Corona has dozens of clients with website conversion rates that exceed 15%!

Given the potential value of a conversion and with such a large discrepancy between different sites, it's natural to wonder:

If you spend any time listening to the radio, you've probably heard the commercials about how you can get a FREE website when you sign-up for XYZ service for your business. If you've been thinking about building a website for your business, this might seem like a pretty sweet deal. You need XYZ for your office and, as the commercial mentions, "if you don't have a website your business is invisible" - it seems like a win-win offer!

Before you hire an SEO company, pause for a minute and ask yourself, "how will I measure success?" If the answer is something along the lines of, "increased visibility for relevant keywords" or, "more first page rankings," you're setting yourself up to hire the wrong SEO firm and you're going to waste an awful lot of money in the process of finding the right long-term partner.

In the words of Stephen Covey, "begin with the end in mind."

If you want to get more leads and sales from your website, stop treating it like a brochure and start treating it like a sales rep. Brochures are a waste of money. With brochures, your marketing team (or YOU) spends weeks trying to come up with the "look" and "messaging" and more often than not that box of brochures ends up sitting in the corner of office supply closet collecting dust. At best you distribute a few and they receive an occasional glance before being tossed into the circular file. Sales reps, on the other hand, produce results.

Do you want more leads from your website?  Of course you do (we all do)!