A discussion of why search engine optimization is not enough and how you can maximize your sales by using it in tandem with a good list-building campaign.

SEO brings customers who have been led to you by mathematics. List-building brings you people who have already expressed interest in subscribing to your informational products or who have already expressed interest in buying your products and services. These are true targeted buyers that you can rely on to revisit your site just because you interest them. You can use SEO to bring these buyers to your site but in the end SEO can’t compete with these humans who don’t care about how you spell things, how many photographs or flash banners you have on your site and if you have a lot of indexed links.

When you build an opt-in list you are building potential sales. SEO can bring you leads but not necessarily sales. SEO is of course an absolutely crucial component of any website, especially one that is just starting out in business. However SEO works best when it is in a relationship with an opt in list.

Opt in lists are a free form of automatic marketing that is viral in nature as very often the people on your mailing list will also send your information to other interested parties who then in turn send news of your products to their friends.

Of course this only works if you have something of value to give on their site. You can do all of the SEO and list building that you want but nobody is going to buy from you unless the emails, e-course or newsletters you are sending out truly have something to offer. The bottom line – SEO is not by nature a viral marketing mechanism but an opt in list is which is why it is important to put some kind of widget on your website that gathers email addresses for you. Having both functioning on your site will maximize your profits.