Your Company's Other CEO

I was at a Tweetup last week, listening in on a conversation where a person from an internet company was explaining to another person about the supreme importance of 'SEO' - Search Engine Optimization - for companies. The real listener (not me the eavesdropper) was nodding up and down as the internet guy nodded up and down. They were both extremely agreeing with each other on the importance of SEO.

Well....yeah.

And yes, there still are companies that haven't done proper Search Engine Fundamentals, or the fancier term, 'Optimization'. Wikipedia definition: "Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines".

Translation - SEO helps people find your site.

Getting ranked high on search engines and increasing traffic to your site is a good thing.

Then what?

When the search engine fundamentals are addressed, the other, more challenging half of the equation kicks in, what we at Atomic Ideas call  'CEO' - Customer Experience Optimization. CEO is the experience a visitor has when they visit your site or your store, or calls your company.

CEO addresses how it feels to be on your site, from a visitor's perspective, how it feels to be in your store. How the layout is on your site/in your store, the writing tone on your site/clarity of signage in your store, the ease of navigation on your site/through your store.

How easy is it to engage with you at whatever buying step I'm at - whether gathering information, or ready to buy. Amazon is a terrific example of top-notch Customer Experience Optimization.

SEO focuses on dealing with the search engines. CEO focuses on taking care of conversing with your customers. That's what top-notch marketing agencies help clients excel at.

If you have good SEO, you're in the game. But you need great CEO, or you're dead in the water. Without great CEO customers click to your site - click off your site. Walk into your store - u-turn out of your store.

Customer Experience Optimization applies to both your customer's online and offline buying experience, since we search online, but we live offline.

How's your other CEO? The one every customer meets?

Photo: mmetcalfe

Comments

[Feldo]

I agree with Russ. CEO sounds like the right idea. Maybe it will end up being the one thing retailers and site owners can control. As for the Lions maybe taking the organic approach to success has failed them.

[Greg]

Content is king!

[Gene Brady]

Too bad the Detroit Lion's front office doesn't focus on Customer Experience Optimization!

[Russ]

I loved the idea of Customer Experience Optimization the first time I heard you utter it Gene and your post here does a great job of explaining its importance. It's kInd of like watching the Lions today - if you can't execute the fundamentals, you'll lose. And making sure customer experience is outstanding - online and off - is about as fundamental as... Well, tackling... Oh crap, another touchdown for Green Bay. That's it, I'm never watching the Lions again!