Most likely, the fundamental goal of your business, when you get down to the bottom of it, is to make money by selling a product or service. However, there may be nuances to even such a straightforward goal as this. And there are a whole host of other possible goals and subgoals that your business is likely to have.

Perhaps yours is a large company with branding as an important long-term goal. Maybe your company wants to make money with certain products but is willing to take a loss in other areas. Maybe you are starting up with investor backing and do not need to turn a profit for years. Perhaps you are a nonprofit, with a goal to improve the world and inspire others to do the same. Whatever way you’re leaning, your business goals will affect your SEO campaign strategy.

For instance, consider the fictional situation of Jason, a founding partner at Babyfuzzkin, a company selling unique, high-end baby clothes. This business makes its money directly through online sales. It’s a small operation, so there is a limit to how many orders the business can handle. The Babyfuzzkin fantasy would be a steady flow of, say, 100 orders per month. But there is more to the story: Eventually, the partners

would love to get out of the direct fulfillment of orders and instead secure some contracts with big-name brick-and-mortar vendors.

In the case of Elizabeth, a marketing director at ElderPets, we have a different situation. ElderPets is a nonprofit organization that provides meals, walks, and veterinary care assistance to animals belonging to elderly and infirm owners. The company relies on financial contributions and volunteers to fulfill its mission. At ElderPets their fantasy is to decrease the time and effort spent on fundraising activities such as silent auctions and community dog washes and begin attracting more contributions online, which would in turn allow them to help more pets in need. In addition, they are constantly looking for more volunteers.

Though Jason and Elizabeth have different goals in regard to their respective websites, we have an exercise they can both perform to get the most out of their planned SEO. We’ve created a Goals Worksheet to guide clients like Jason and Elizabeth, and you can use it as you consider the questions in this chapter. You can download the Goals Worksheet at our companion website, www.yourseoplan.com. At key points throughout this chapter, we’ll ask you to stop, reflect on your own business, and write down your own vital statistics. Once you’ve worked through the questions, you’ll have a strong vision of the “why” of your SEO campaign—and you’ll be ready to move on to the “what” and “how” in Parts II and III.

Now take a moment and look at “Business Goals” on your Goals Worksheet.

Tables 1.1 and 1.2 show how Jason of Babyfuzzkin and Elizabeth at ElderPets might fill out theirs, respectively.