$ -- The "Lost Symbol" in SEO

Does SEO really generate serious money for the average small business? Here's a surprising fact: even its own gurus aren't really sure.

At first glance it seems like a no-brainer. Selling means "keeping the funnel full." So the bigger your "funnel" and the more eyes you attract, the more money you should make, right? And everybody wants to be like Google.

That won't happen. Google has huge resources, and a growing family of great products. We don't. If hundreds (or even thousands) of online followers join our list of strangers, have we really filled our sales funnels, or just installed a heating duct in our marketing plan?

There's a big difference between funnel and duct. With a funnel you qualify your leads and focus your efforts on the best prospects. SEO's heating duct approach mainly brings in plenty of hot air.

SEO experts say you make money by improving your search engine ranking, and therefore traffic. But they admit that even major social media sites can't make real money. One of them wrote in a LinkedIn discussion group:

"Rank does not necessarily lead to traffic and traffic doesn't necessarily lead to conversion. Conversion is the real business goal that we should be delivering in my view."

Another one asked, "Is social media ROI unmeasurable?"

How can he keep taking your hard-earned money if he doesn't know?

Those same experts dismiss branding and engagement as mere distractions, "intangible excuse[s] we use to avoid the fact that we have nothing to measure." Sorry, Charlie; there's actually plenty to measure when you connect with real people. It's just nothing that moves money into the experts' bank accounts.

So you decide. Is your business goal having big numbers that look good on a chart, or smaller numbers that generate real conversion numbers--and lasting relationships. Quantity or quality?

The Marketing Mantra doesn't try to generate huge numbers or first-page rankings. It will, however, generate measurable results for your branding and engagement efforts. It also documents what led your audience from "stranger" to "supporter" status in their own words.

You can pay experts a lot of money for big readership. Or invest a few dollars and build market leadership. Authentically engage with identifiable people who'll keep supporting you because you offer them so much real value.

To learn more, please visit www.yourmarketingmantra.com.