Read this before your next SEO invoice lands.

Let’s play a game. Imagine you just opened a brand-new store. You’ve hired a marching band, skywriters, and a man in a gorilla suit holding a sign that says,
“VISIT OUR AMAZING SHOP!”
only for customers to walk in and find a disorganised mess, a confusing layout, and staff who talk only about how awesome they are. They walk right back out.

This, dear reader, is what happens when businesses rush into Search Engine Optimisation before their website is ready for visitors.

Repeat After Me: Search Engines Don’t Buy From You.
People Do.

It’s easy to fall for the SEO sales pitch: “We’ll get you to the first page of Google!” they promise. And sure, showing up on that first page sounds sexy. But here’s the ugly truth: getting more eyeballs on a website that doesn’t convert is like inviting thousands of people to a party where the drinks are warm and the toilets don’t work.

Traffic doesn’t equal sales. People make decisions, not Google’s algorithm. And unless your site is built for real humans speaking their language, solving their problems, giving them a reason to trust you, Search Engine Optimisation is just turning up the volume on a song nobody wants to hear.

The SEO Myth: More Visitors = More Sales? Not So Fast.

Many business owners think, “If I just had more visitors, I’d make more sales.” But let’s say your site converts 1 in 100 visitors. To get 40 sales, you now need 4,000 visitors. That’s expensive and unnecessary.

What if instead, you focused on improving your conversion rate to 1 in 10? Now you only need 400 visitors to make 40 sales. Cheaper. Smarter. Saner.

To borrow (and slightly butcher) a finance phrase: Page rankings are vanity. Conversions are sanity.

The Real Nightmare: Good SEO on a Bad Website

Let’s say your SEO company is actually great. They do their job well. Boom, your site is at the top of Google. Now thousands of people are flocking in… only to find a website that’s confusing, self-obsessed, or simply dull. That’s not good marketing; that’s professional-level disappointment.

And when people are disappointed online? They don’t just leave. They bounce. They tell their friends. And they don’t come back.

Your New Checklist (Before You Even Think About SEO)

Does your site speak to real people? Not just in fancy prose but in your customer’s language. Literally.

Does your content answer their questions before they ask them? Not just “why we’re great” but “why you should care.”

Is your site congruent with your real-life business? Don’t show up online like a mega-corp if you’re a cozy boutique. It breaks trust.

Are you converting existing visitors? If not, then most likely, you have a conversion problem not a visitor problem, fix that before adding more fuel to the fire.

Conversion Comes First. Always.

SEO companies don’t know your business better than you. They can help with technical magic, but they can’t make your website connect with your audience. That’s your job.

And the best part? Most of what really improves your website doesn’t cost a penny writing clearer content, simplifying navigation, using the words your customers use. It’s about relevance, not robot worship.

In fact, Google’s algorithms are increasingly obsessed with what’s relevant to the user. So by focusing on people, you’ll naturally make the algorithms happy. Everyone wins. But if you focus on the algorithms first, it’s very likely the people won’t care and you lose.

To Wrap Up: SEO Isn’t Evil

We’re not saying Search Engine Optimisation is bad. We’re saying it’s step seven, not step one. First, get your house in order. Make sure your website is something you’d be proud to send your nan to. Then, when it’s converting well and speaking human then it’s time to shout about it from the search engine rooftops.

Until then, say it with us one last time:

“Search Engines don’t buy from you. People do.”

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