The sales process · Lead generation
Nothing happens for months, and then the phone rings with no budget behind it.
Search engine optimisation is the work of earning the unpaid results on Google for the things you sell. You fix what stops the site being read, and you write a page for each search your buyer actually types. It is slow, it builds on itself, and it cannot be promised on a date.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Search engine optimisation is the work of earning the unpaid results on Google for the things you sell. You fix what stops the site being read, and you write a page for each search your buyer actually types. It is slow, it builds on itself, and it cannot be promised on a date.
Ask an owner what their SEO is and you get a list of things done to the website by different people at different times. Tags added during the build. Links bought for a year. A few articles written when somebody had a free afternoon. Nobody can point at one enquiry and say that came from search.
The step itself is not mysterious. Decide what you want to be found for, in the words your buyer uses rather than the ones on your brochure. Check whether a page on your site answers each of those. Fix the pages that load slowly or cannot be read. Write the ones that do not exist. Record where every enquiry came from.
Trigger events, the step before, is about timing your approach. This one has no timing in it at all. You publish, and the payoff turns up in the quarter after you stopped watching. If you need orders this month, the honest answer is search engine ads, the step after this one.
Where this sits
Stage 4 of 10, lead generation. The routes an enquiry can arrive by, and what each one costs in money or in time.
- The stage before
- Prospecting
- The stage after
- Sales enablement
If you want this done for you
More enquiries from Google, for businesses whose buyers search before they call.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“The map is a spreadsheet”
Six columns. The phrase in the buyer's words, what the person wants, the page that answers it, whether that page exists, who writes it, and when it goes up. Twenty rows is plenty to start with. Keep this one in-house, because the order depends on which jobs pay you and which towns you will drive to.
“Rankings are not what you are buying”
No supplier can promise a position or a date, and anybody who does is selling you something else. The ordering is decided by Google and changes without notice. Watch enquiries with a source recorded against them instead. A first place on a phrase nobody types is worth nothing. A page further down that brings calls is worth keeping.
“The cost is hours if it is not money”
Hand it over and you pay a fee. Keep it in-house and you pay in the owner's evenings. Either way, some questions only you can answer. What a job costs you to serve, which service you want more of, how far you will travel. An outsider guessing at those builds pages for work you do not want.
“Who should not start here”
A business that needs orders this month. A business whose buyers never search, because the work arrives through tender lists or a dealer appointment. A site the owner cannot edit, or one about to be rebuilt with no plan for keeping the old addresses alive. In that last case the rebuild comes first.
What we do
What you end up with.
The artefacts this step produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
The search-to-page map
The spreadsheet that says what the site is trying to be found for and which page carries each phrase. No page on the list without a reason for existing.
Result: Nobody writes a page because they felt like writing something that week.
The fix list
The faults that stop a page being read or tolerated. Slow loading on a phone, pages blocked from Google, addresses that changed in the last rebuild. Sorted by what blocks a buyer, not by what a free scanning tool scores.
Result: A page that used to be invisible starts appearing for its own name inside a few weeks.
The pages themselves
One for each service you want more of and each town you genuinely serve, answering the question a buyer has before they ring. Written or checked by somebody who has done the work.
Result: A stranger reads the page and rings knowing what they want.
The source column
One extra column in your enquiry register, recording how each caller found you, filled in by whoever picks up. It takes one question.
Result: Three months on you can tell the difference between search working and search being busy.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 1, prospecting and lead generation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2 · you are here
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How long before we see anything from this?
Can you guarantee us the first page for our main keyword?
Should we do this or run ads instead?
Our developer says the site is already optimised. Is it?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this step further.
Services
The rest of lead generation
Or read the whole sales process in order.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.