Well, yes—although we don’t bill ourselves as an SEO shop.

And when we ask clients about their objectives for their website, their answer is usually “Lots of traffic.”

Sure. We help with that, too.

The problem is that most people stop right there. They figure with enough keyword-loaded meta tags and thousands of visitors, success will inevitably follow.

Sorry—it just isn’t that simple. (And, by the way, loading your meta tags with keywords is pretty ineffective and, well, just old-fashioned.)

SEO’s not a silver bullet

There is no silver bullet in internet marketing. Traffic’s only the first step down a much longer road to sales.

SEO is one small part of search engine marketing (SEM), which in turn is only one component of your overall online marketing strategy.

Think of it this way: your prospects go through stages as they decide whether or not to engage with your products or services. Generally, those stages are:

• Awareness

• Interest

• Consideration

• Acquisition

• Retention

• Advocacy

Now, look at those stages, and think about what SEO is designed to do. Sure, high search rankings will definitely increase awareness, and compelling meta descriptions might spark interest in your site. And prospects who see your ranking may click through and consider what you’re offering.

But if all you’re doing is SEO, how are you going to move your prospects through the next three steps of the funnel?

Once they get to your site, how are you going to keep them there? And how are you going to convince them to engage any further beyond a click and a bounce?

SEO just isn’t enough.

SEM isn’t magic, either

Search engine marketing—that is, pay-per-click ads, link-building initiatives and similar strategies—will help take your prospects a little farther along the funnel. If you’re running a lead generating campaign, for example, you’ll be acquiring leads, some of which will lead to sales.

And because SEM campaigns offer infinite opportunities for optimizing your messaging, you’ll increase interest and consideration as well, simply by saying things that people want to hear.

But even SEM, on its own or combined with SEO, isn’t enough.

That’s because too many people put SEO and SEM campaigns into place, then forget about them—thinking, wrongly, that they’ll continue to generate traffic, leads and revenue with no further work.

Nope. That may work for a while, but search engine algorithms change and messages become less compelling over time. Your system just can’t continue to work without constant tinkering.

Strategy (and constant optimization) is key

For your sales funnel to be truly leak-proof, you need a comprehensive strategy in place to attract prospects, turn them into customers, then hold them close, keep them happy and get them talking.

And for that, you need to go beyond SEO or SEM. You need an an overall, continuously optimized online marketing plan that aligns with your business’s objectives—one that grows and changes with the demands of your market.

Yes, it should include SEO and SEM.

But it also has to include things like:

• Clear, concise copy that’s been optimized for the way people read on the web

• Regular content updates

• Community-building initiatives like a blog or discussion group.

And it must include a way to track your online performance—so you can tell where your funnel may be leaking, and improve accordingly. (And, just in case you couldn’t tell from all our previous posts, we like Google Analytics.)

SEO is a start to your online marketing—but it certainly isn’t the end.

Leave it to Google to help with both—and, of course, for free.

The secret, if you haven’t used it yet, is Google Trends.

Like the coolest kid at school, it always knows what’s hot and what’s not.

Identify new niches

Why develop products and services only to find nobody wants them?

Google Trends lets you find emerging markets by tracking searches. So you can create products and services for under-served customers.

And instantly. Just visit the Google Trends homepage and see what’s hot.

For example, right now, "tapeworm" is the number one search on Google:

You probably never thought about creating products to help people fight tapeworms.

But the market, and the profit, might be there.

Validate potential niches

Of course, you should probably validate that there’s long-term interest in tapeworms.

And here’s another astounding use for Google Trends.

Just visit the site, enter keywords and see how interest in them has changed over time.

A search for "tapeworm" reveals that, in fact, there has been steady interest, with occasional spikes like today’s:

Target rising keywords

Once you validate your niche, you can also use Google Trends to determine what keywords to target.

For example, at Commune we offer web writing services.

People looking for "web writing" might also search for "online writing," "writing for the web" and "website writing."

Using Google Trends, we can see how searches for these different keywords have changed over time.

What we learn is that "online writing" has the greatest sustained traffic:

So if you’re growing an online business, or starting a new one, you might want to spend some time analyzing trends. (Did I mention it’s addictively fun?)

And if you’ve already started? Post your examples or tips in the comments below.

And now, they can also learn how to score more sales.

A few weeks ago, DeAngelo, whose real name is Eben Pagan, announced that he would reveal the secrets of his success through a program called Altitude. And while the last thing the world needs is another self-proclaimed internet marketing guru, this isn’t a make-millions-in- your-sleep-through-affiliate-sales-and-AdWords kind of deal.

Rather, it’s the real deal, at least when it comes to fresh thinking with proven results. Because within about five years, Pagan has taken a business he started at home to $20 million in sales and more than 80 employees (but no office), all the while building email lists with more than a million subscribers.

Of course, learning the secrets of this success will cost you. But true to his teachings, Pagan has made some secrets widely available through YouTube and an email list. And at least one of those secrets will be particularly compelling to interactive marketers considering the use of newsletters and similar promotional tactics to build a brand’s value.

Move the free line

Pagan grew up poor. As a kid, he and his friends used to scheme about ways to make a million dollars. Most of these approaches, says Pagan, involved variations on the theme of getting a million people to pay one dollar each for some chuchka or another.

In marketing, we usually don’t stray far from this business model. We encourage people to buy things for more money than they cost to make, so we or our clients can make a profit and buy lots of candy.

When Pagan started his business, he took a different approach. Rather than strive to create something worth one dollar and sell it for two, Pagan worked to create something worth $100 and sell it for $10. In short, he worked hard to get the short end of the stick. So much so that he gives away products on good faith, only asking people to pay if they find the products useful.

And some products come completely free. Like those aforementioned emails, which include lots of dating advice given in Double Your Dating books and DVDs. Furthermore, when competition increases at the cheaper end of a product line, such as eBooks, Pagan considers giving them away free as well.

Pagan calls this approach "moving the free line," and encourages people to think hard about what they can give away. The benefits, he notes, are massive. They are partly explained by the reciprocity reflex which, as Robert Cialdini notes in Influence, compels people to purchase things from those who offer gifts. But Pagan has also found that moving the free line allows him to expand his repertoire of higher-end products, selling increasingly more expensive products to his best customers, who want to differentiate themselves from those receiving free products and gain an edge.

Think outside the cash box

Of course, few of us are selling dating advice. (Even fewer are probably qualified.) And not all the products we market are information-based—it’s easy to give away a dating eBook, far harder to give away a car.

But what about a car-related online product? Like an eBook of road trip itineries? Or a desktop gadget that allows you to track your fluid changes? The possibilities to give away valuable informational products related to brands you market are endless. And because they’re information-based, the cost of producing and distributing them is minimal.

Some of you might think this sounds like the traditional practice of sucking people into an email newsletter subscription and bombarding them with branded, low-value content . I would argue, and Pagan would likely agree, that the difference is in your frame, perspective and execution. The goal with moving the free line is to genuinely provide an increasing amount of value to people for free, while simultaneously offering increasingly expensive products and services higher up the value chain. The more solid your base of free products, the higher your peak of expensive products can reach.

And if you don’t believe it, just watch those guys who formerly couldn’t get dance partners date the Raptors dance squad after finding a Pagan product through one of his free dating newsletters.

This article was first published in One Degree.