Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website

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representative, how are you ever going to measure the contribution that your SEO

work made to the campaign?

To track your offline conversions, you’ll need to be creative. Here are a few

ideas for some of the more common scenarios:

Set up a special phone number.

If a large percentage of your sales take place over the

phone, it may be difficult to show that the website, much less your SEO campaign, had

anything to do with them. But there is one way: Set up a unique phone number and

display it on your website—and nowhere else. Then, have your sales team monitor and

track how many calls come in to that line and how many of those calls turn into

conversions.

For a greater level of detail, you can sign up with services (such as ClickPath or Who’s

Calling) that will generate unique 800 numbers and dynamically display them on your

web pages, linking each call to a keyword and ad source.

Run campaigns on things nobody else is promoting.

You can get an inkling of the

effects of your SEO work by promoting a specific event or product that nobody else in

your organization has taken the time to promote. For example, if you put your SEO

efforts into promoting Tuesday Night Half-Price Pickles and there is no other market-

ing for it, you can relish the thought that most of the people who show up found out

about the event as a result of your SEO work.

Include coupons or promotion codes on your website.

How will you know if walk-in

customers used your website to research your products or services? One way is to cre-

ate coupons or promotion codes on your website that these customers can print out

and bring into your store for a discount. Sure, it won’t tell you whether they used a

search engine to find your site, but at least you’ll have something to link your real-

world traffic to your online traffic.

Cultivate communication.

If your site goals fall into the persuasion category, give

your users an opportunity to tell their stories with “Post your success story here” or

“Share your smoking cessation tips” links. An increase in the number of postings can

indicate your SEO success.

Simply ask.

When all else fails, simply ask your offline customers or clients how they

found you. It’s not the most accurate information, but it’s better than nothing. Be sure

that your traditional marketing, sales, and PR team put out the question in print, on

the phone, or in person whenever they have the opportunity.

Now:

Brainstorm with your team on options for tracking your offline conversions and finalize a plan.

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