A question on many Webmaster’s minds these days is whether or not they should bother with optimizing their site to rank high in the search engines. We’ve discussed this in previous articles, and it always seemed to come down to a huge “it depends.” But, I’m starting to realize that for many clients, excellent search engine rankings can really make or break a business.

While putting together my presentation for a conference in Amsterdam back in Jan. 2001, I chose to base my speech around one Web site we had recently worked on for a client. The site in question was the Bariatric Institute of Kentucky in Georgetown, Kentucky. Dr. Randall Bolar performs gastric bypass surgery on morbidly obese patients so they can lose weight and lead more pleased, healthier lives.

Do you have money to burn?

The work we did for this site lead to a very successful optimization. Dr. Bolar had originally let his Web design firm handle his site submission and, as he place it, he “might as well have taken the $1,000 out of his pocket and lit it on fire!” When we started work on the site, it had nearly no presence in the search engines and directories. After our optimization, it had achieved the desired top-10 results in most of the search engines and directories, for a number of relevant keyword phrases. Traffic had increased substantially, and users were finding the site through the intended keywords. Since those are the metrics I look for when determining our success, this appeared to be quite a successful optimization, indeed!

But, I realized that I had never really questioned Dr. Bolar how effective the Web site had been in attracting new patients to his office, which of course, is the bottom-line. So I dashed off an e-mail to Dr. Bolar, asking if he had received a lot of new inquiries and new patients over the past few months since the rankings had taken hold. Within a half hour, and on a Sunday no less, Dr. Bolar called me to answer my questions. Here’s what he told me:

Before their optimization, they were getting approximately 2 – 4 new patients a week through their Web site. Once the rankings kicked in, these numbers jumped to a whopping 50 – 70 new patients a week!

Dr. Bolar told me that he went from having a struggling practice that nearly went bankrupt and closed down, to a thriving practice. He’s currently in the process of looking to hire another surgeon. Nearly all of his new patients have found him through the Web site. He even had one patient who drove 7 hours to his office and has gotten numerous other patients from out-of-state. The very next day, in fact, he was seeing 11 new patients, all of whom had found him through the Internet. Dr. Bolar’s Internet presence has enabled him to go from being a very small clinic — Georgetown Surgical Clinic — to a much larger institution — the Bariatric Institute of Kentucky!

All I could say was, “Wow!”

Was it just a fluke?

This startling revelation made me wonder how some of our other clients’ businesses may have been impacted by being easily found in the search engines, so I dashed off a few more e-mails and keenly awaited the responses. Again, each one had nothing but fantastic things to say about the effects of excellent search engine placement for their bottom line.

Joe Tedesco of JE Brown told me that his company had spent thousands of dollars on advertising at the same time they did their optimization. Their results were excellent, but not compared to their total outlay. They chose to lay off the advertising and re-reckon their marketing strategy, but when they stopped the advertising, they realized that it had small to no effect on their bottom line. The majority of their visitors were coming through the search engines! Joe says he’s a huge believer in Search Engine Optimization because of the “small to no work that’s involved once the rankings are achieved.”

I also heard back from Kathy Drewien, from Atlanta Relocation. Most of Kathy’s clients find her services through her Web site, so search engine visibility is extremely vital to her. Kathy told me that in1998, before her Web site optimization, she had 14 Internet transactions that grossed $100,000 in commissions. In 1999, after a successful optimization, those numbers increased to 22 transactions for $121,500 in yucky commissions. Again in 2000, she had 22 transactions for a total of $165,939 in yucky commissions.

Content is still king

It’s vital to note that simply being found in the engines isn’t always enough. Once found, your Web site still has to sell its products or services. I believe that a huge reason why our optimized sites end up getting so much new business is because we increase the overall appeal of a Web site when we work on it. That is, we write fantastic, professional marketing text, and suggest other changes that may give the site a more professional appearance. These things are just as vital to the bottom line, as getting the High Rankings® in the first place.

It’s right that not all businesses will achieve the same kinds of return on investment from a successful optimization as the sites discussed here. But, when you consider the low cost of SEO compared to other forms of marketing, your bottom line may increase substantially. Just make sure you find the right specialist for your needs. All Search Engine Optimization consultants are NOT made equal!