I don’t mean to brag (actually, I do!) but we are quite good at getting clients to rank high in the Search Engines.

And more importantly… to produce actual *revenue* from them!

Side note:

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard fly-by-night, so called, “web experts” saying the silliest, most untrue things about Search Engines!

Just keep one thing in mind when anyone talks to you about them: Ignore the hype. Search Engines are only worth pursuing if you can make a good return on investment!

Anyways– one client we’ve done very well for (as in hundreds of thousands of dollars!) is Gary’s Wildlife. They’re the nice guys you call when you have animals - bats, raccoons, moles, mice, etc. - in your home or property. (Don’t worry, they’re completely humane and treat every animal with respect– even snakes!)

So, today we were doing some search engine work for Gary’s animal removal service and came across a phrase they were ranking very well for.

The phrase was: “mole removal”. (I am reminded of that cute, fuzzy, little animal from the movie Caddyshack!)

Now, even though we were getting plenty of visits for the term “mole removal”, none of those visits were becoming paying customers– Not even one!

I thought this was odd, so I dug a little deeper and did a Google search of my own for “mole removal”.

The results came up and here’s what I saw:

“Our product is the most complete answer to safe all-natural mole removal. After your moles fall off, use Ointment or another ….”

…

After a brief moment of confusion, I realized why so many people were coming to the site without making *any* purchases… THEY WERE LOOKING FOR INFORMATION ON HOW TO REMOVE FACIAL MOLES!

(By the way, here’s the point where we laughed out loud - talk about having “blinders” for just your industry!)

Now For The Million Dollar Question: What If We Never Dug Deep Enough To Find That Out?

What if we didn’t go out of our way to monitor Gary’s web site and take time to think about it?

No one would ever have noticed!

As a result:

• He would be wasting money.
  (Paying for web site traffic that will never turn into revenue.)
• We might falsely assume something is wrong with his site.
  (Since so many people are visiting without purchasing.)
• He might decide to sell facial mole removal cream over the Internet.
  (OK so this was just a joke to see if you read this far…. but maybe not a bad idea? hmm…)

The ultimate lesson here is to take responsibility for your website! Look closely at your traffic reports and only make decisions that equate to more money for your business.

-Costas

Warning: It may not seem like it but this post has everything to do with you and your business - I promise! Just follow it through.

We do a bit of volunteer work for a local non-profit.

It’s run by a great group of people with a worthy cause: helping teens to avoid self-destructive behavior and reach their potential.

As part of an anonymous survey, high school students were asked two questions about the past 30 days:

• Have you used alcohol?

44% said ‘yes’.

• What percentage of your classmates do you think have used alcohol?

The answer here was an overwhelming 99%. In other words, every student assumed (falsely) that every other student was using alcohol.

…

(Bear with me here - we’re almost to the point!)

…

Some time passed - enough for the community to make important changes - and students were given the same survey again.

This time the numbers were much better: 33% said ‘yes’ to drinking and 60% assumed that their classmates were. (That’s a 40% decrease from before!)

Researchers looked at the results and attributed improvement to *one* factor. Do you know what it was?

Their perception of each other.

You see, students were more likely to drink when they assumed everyone *else* was doing it!

This Survey Illustrates An Important Truth For Us As Business Owners

Your perception of yourself has a huge impact on whether or not you succeed.

At a time of year when setting goals is especially common - whether it’s losing weight, doubling sales from last quarter, spending more time with family, increasing client retention - the key to seeing them through and succeeding is first believing you will achieve them.

You see, that’s the problem with most goals/resolutions – they may be well intentioned but the person never truly believes they will happen in the first place!

So, at the risk of sounding “hokey”… if you can’t visualize your goal happening, it won’t!

-Costas